Former Michigan Legislator Given
Lake Superior Magazine’s
Achievement Award

Duluth, Minnesota - October 9, 2006

Most visitors to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore along Lake Superior’s Michigan shore don’t know the name Raymond Clevenger. But the former Upper Peninsula congressman played a key role in getting Pictured Rocks approved as the country’s first national lakeshore.

This year as the park celebrates its 40th anniversary, Lake Superior Magazine honors Ray for his work in setting aside this unique landscape and shoreline.

Raymond Clevenger has been announced as the the 2006 recipient of the annual Lake Superior Magazine Achievement Award in the just released October/November 2006 issue. “The benefits reaped by hundreds of thousands who visit Pictured Rocks certainly earn Raymond Clevenger this award,” says the magazine editor, Konnie LeMay.

The Achievement Award, established in 1994, recognizes an organization or an individual who has improved the well-being of Lake Superior and its residents.

The 80-year-old Ray Clevenger, who lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan, remains modest about his efforts in Congress 40 years ago. He’ll tell you that he didn’t get the ball rolling to create the park. The late U.S. Senator Philip Hart of Michigan introduced the first bill to set aside the Pictured Rocks area in 1961. Ray got involved later but is still credited with playing an instrumental role in bringing the contentious legislation to a speedier resolution.

“He was the key player in the House of Representatives,” says Jim Northup, superintendent at Pictured Rocks.

Konnie LeMay will present the Achievement Award to Ray on October 14 at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore during events celebrating the park’s Fortieth Anniversary Celebration. The day’s activity starts at 10 a.m. at Miners Castle (or at Mather Auditorium, 411 Elm Avenue, Munising, in case of bad weather).

In Lake Superior Magazine’s October/November issue is a profile of and of the establishment of Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. Besides most newsstands, including Barnes and Noble, the magazine can be ordered through Lake Superior Magazine.

Ray, who first visited the Pictured Rocks area in 1953, says he saw the lakeshore idea as a way to preserve the land for future generations and also as a way to boost the local economy. His support of the idea helped him get elected to the House of Representatives in 1964 and, he believes, was ironically a factor in his losing a re-election bid two years later.

Today, the park has truly become an engine for tourism with 450,000 annual visitors who generate about $19 million a year in economic benefit to the local economy, according to Northup. The lakeshore supports 461 local jobs.

Lake Superior Magazine, a full-color consumer publication, is printed six times a year in Duluth, Minnesota. The magazine is available by subscription, at newsstands and from the publisher's office at 310 E. Superior St., Suite 125, Duluth, MN 55802. For more information, call 888-BIG LAKE (888-244-5253) or www.lakesuperior.com.