[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 12]
[Senate]
[Page 17257]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         TRIBUTE TO JIM CORLESS

  Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, as Members of the Senate, we work every day 
with public servants who fill an amazing variety of roles, and when one 
of those servants fills his or her role with exceptional skill and 
dedication, they deserve our praise. One such public servant, Jim 
Corless, the superintendent of Keweenaw National Historical Park in 
Michigan, is preparing to retire after nearly 30 years of Federal 
service, the last 3 of which have come in helping build one of the most 
unique national parks in the Nation.
  Jim Corless came to Michigan's Copper Country from Klondike Gold Rush 
National Historical Park in Skagway, AK, making him that rare person 
who moved south to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. This was good 
fortune for those of us who care about preserving the history of 
Michigan's copper mining era because Jim's career had prepared him 
well. As a trained historian, Jim had already helped bring alive the 
drama of our Nation's founding, the frontier grit of the earliest Texas 
settlers, the history of Ozark waterways in Arkansas, and the growth of 
textile manufacturing in Massachusetts in parks from coast to coast.
  Preserving the legacy of Michigan's copper mining industry has long 
been a priority for many of us Michiganians. The Keweenaw Peninsula 
contained perhaps the world's richest and purest deposits of copper, 
and from native peoples 7,000 years ago to miners in the 19th and 20th 
centuries, those deposits have had profound effects on human society 
across our Nation and on the peninsula.
  The park established in 1992 to preserve that history is like no 
other in the Nation. Unlike the vast majority of National Park Service 
facilities, in which the government owns and controls the land and 
associated assets of the park, Keweenaw National Historical Park is an 
unusual public-private cooperative venture. Private citizens, nonprofit 
groups, and local governments own nearly all the park's historic 
assets, and they are managed cooperatively, with the Park Service 
providing coordination, advice and funding.
  That calls for a superintendent who is part historian, part manager, 
and part diplomat. Jim has skillfully served all three roles. He has 
worked closely with officials at the Environmental Protection Agency to 
simultaneously preserve the industrial legacy of the copper mines while 
remediating the environmental impact of that legacy. And he has taken a 
leading, but always cooperative, role in bringing together the various 
community interests who have a stake in the park and its growth. Just 
one example of this work is his work to help create the Quincy Smelter 
Steering Committee to help preserve one of the park's most important 
historic resources.
  Jim describes Keweenaw National Historical Park as a ``parknership,'' 
and that illustrates the thoughtful way in which he has approached his 
job over the last 3 years. All of us who care about Michigan's vital 
mining past are grateful for his exceptional service, and we all wish 
him and his wife Mary Jane the very best as they embark on the next 
chapter of their lives.

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