Muir Park

State Natural Area (No. 96)

Location: Within John Muir Memorial Park, Marquette County. T14N-R9E, Sections 14, 23. 150 acres.

Access: From the intersection of State Highway 22 and County Highway F south of Montello, go south on F 7.6 miles to the park entrance. A trail and boardwalk lead around the lake.

Description: Muir Park contains a variety of upland and wetland communities surrounding 30-acre Ennis Lake, a spring-fed kettle lake occupying a marshy pocket in ground moraine. The seepage lake has a marl bottom and a maximum depth of 30 feet. The surrounding vegetation is diverse and includes a rich fen that lies along an outlet stream, sedge meadow, and open bog, northern wet forest dominated by tamarack, southern dry forest, oak opening, and wet-mesic prairie. The calcareous fen and prairie contain a diversity of unusual and rare species including grass-of-parnassus, Kalm's lobelia, bottle gentian, and nodding lady's-tresses orchid. Rare plants include small fringed gentian (Gentianopsis procera), low nut-sedge (Scleria verticillata), prairie fameflower (Talinum rugosperum) and false asphodel (Tofieldia glutinosa). Big blue-stem, Indian grass, blazing-star, and prairie phlox are present in the low prairie, which grades into a spongy sedge meadow and tall shrub community. Tamarack, poison sumac, and bog birch, with numerous pitcher plants beneath, can be found in the bog near the lake's southeast corner. The area was settled in 1849 by the Ennis and Muir families and was the boyhood home of John Muir, founder of the Sierra Club, who admired the natural beauty of the area. Muir Park is owned by Marquette County and was designated a State Natural Area in 1972.