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Ray Zillmer

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Ray Zillmer

Ray Zillmer (April 19, 1887 – December 13, 1960) was an American attorney, mountaineer and conservationist. He is best known as the founder of the Ice Age Park and Trail Foundation, Inc. (later renamed the Ice Age Trail Alliance) and originator of the Ice Age Trail. He was also instrumental in the conservation of land in the Kettle Moraine of southeast Wisconsin and had an indirect role in the creation of the National Trails System. He died in Milwaukee on December 13, 1960 of heart complications.[1]

Early life and education

Raymond Theodore Zillmer was born in 1887 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He was the oldest child of Theodore and Kunigunda Zillmer. His younger siblings were Aimee and Helen. His father was a successful businessman and Milwaukee County Board Supervisor including a term as Chairman of the County Board.[2]

Ray Zillmer graduated from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1910, having served for a year as Vice-President of the Commonwealth Club.[3] He attended Harvard Law School in 1910-1911.[4] He earned his PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School in 1914, where he taught political science. Published papers associated with his PhD work included:

Career and family

He practiced law in Milwaukee from 1914 until his death in 1960. His article, "The Lawyer on the Frontier" was published in the American Law Review in 1916.[8] He married Helen R. Hennessey (b. April 19, 1890) on June 9, 1917. She was a 1913 graduate of Wellesley College.[9] They had two children, John and Jean.

He served in the U.S. Army 1918-1919. From 1938-1940, he was president of the City Club of Milwaukee, a civic organization formed to study and promote better social, civic, and economic conditions.[10] He held several leadership positions in the field of law, including:

  • 1943-1945—Chairman of the Fee Bill Committee, Milwaukee Bar Association
  • 1944-1945—President of the Milwaukee Bar Association
  • 1945-1947—Chairman of the Fee Bill Committee of the State Bar Association of Wisconsin

Exploring and mountaineering

During the 1930s-'40s, Zillmer became an accomplished and respected explorer and mountaineer. In July, 1934 Zillmer was part of a team of five mountaineers who completed the first ascent of Anchorite Peak, British Columbia, Canada.[11] He would go on to complete several other first ascents and describe previously uncharted lands. In the summer of 1938, he and Lorin Tiefenthaler retraced the steps of Alexander MacKenzie's 1792-93 expedition between the Fraser and Bella Coola rivers, through part of what is today Tweedsmuir South Provincial Park. He described the adventure in detail in his first of four articles published in the Canadian Alpine Journal.[12]

The American Alpine Journal also published several of his exploration and mountaineering articles, including:

In recognition of his accomplishments, Mount Zillmer,[18] Zillmer Creek[19] and Zillmer Glacier[20] in British Columbia's Cariboo Range were all named in his honor.

Conservation

Ray Zillmer had an important impact on the conservation movement.[21] Without his efforts the Kettle Moraine State Forest would not be as large as it is today[22] and the Ice Age Trail would not exist. His insistence that long, narrow corridors of public land serve greater numbers of outdoor recreationists[23] and proposal for a long-distance hiking trail in Wisconsin made an impression on Wisconsin Governor Gaylord Nelson.[24][25] Armed with this appreciation and later as a U.S. Senator, Nelson introduced legislation to designate the Appalachian Trail America's first national trail and introduced the National Trails System Act of 1968.[26]

From 1941-1949, Zillmer was Chairman of the Kettle Moraine Committee of the Izaak Walton League of Milwaukee.[27] From 1954-1958, he was Chairman of the Kettle Moraine Committee of the Wisconsin Izaak Walton League. In July, 1958 he established the Ice Age National Park Citizens Committee.[28] On December 8, 1958 he founded the Ice Age Park and Trail Foundation, later renamed the Ice Age Trail Alliance.[29] His articles proposing an Ice Age National Park in Wisconsin were published in 1958 by the Milwaukee Public Museum[30] and in 1959 by the Wisconsin Alumnus magazine.[31]

In 1933 the Wisconsin Izaak Walton League named Zillmer "Man of the Year" for his work on the Kettle Moraine State Forest.[32] In 1959 he was presented a plaque by the National Campers and Hikers Association for his efforts to preserve natural areas for public use.[33] A trail system in the Northern Kettle Moraine State Forest is named the Zillmer Trails[34] and a park in St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin is named Ray Zillmer Park,[35] both in his honor. He was inducted into the Wisconsin Conservation Hall of Fame in 1993.[36] Today the highest award of achievement given by the Ice Age Trail Alliance is the Ray Zillmer Award.[37]

Following his death in December, 1960 the Milwaukee Journal opined, "...the people of Milwaukee and of Wisconsin and the conservation movement nationally are deeply indebted to Mr. Zillmer. His vision, his boundless energy and his dogged determination in behalf of worthy causes to which he was devoted became legend . . . No community and no state ever has enough of men like Raymond T. Zillmer. And the loss of even one, inevitable as it may be, is cause for deep regret."

References

  1. ^ American Alpine Club, http://publications.americanalpineclub.org/articles/12196134700/print
  2. ^ Men of Progress. Wisconsin., Ed. by Andrew J. Aikens and Lewis A. Proctor, 1897, pages 105-106
  3. ^ Annual Report of the U.S. Office of Education, vol 1, 1909, page 71, https://books.google.com/books?id=fgsoAAAAYAAJ&lpg=PA71&ots=xi1fYTLeAi&dq=commonwealth%20club%20wisconsin%20ray%20zillmer&pg=PA71#v=onepage&q=commonwealth%20club%20wisconsin%20ray%20zillmer&f=false
  4. ^ Harvard University Directory, https://books.google.com/books?id=Ia4VAAAAIAAJ&lpg=PA1590&ots=KEHjbVS4vi&dq=harvard%20ray%20zillmer&pg=PA1590#v=onepage&q=harvard%20ray%20zillmer&f=false
  5. ^ Science, http://www.jstor.org/stable/1639191?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
  6. ^ https://books.google.com/books?id=0DhqAAAAMAAJ&ots=Y27Qoo05dH&dq=%22Zillmer%20R.T.%22&lr&pg=PP3#v=onepage&q=%22Zillmer%20R.T.%22&f=false
  7. ^ University of Pennsylvania Law Review, http://scholarship.law.upenn.edu/penn_law_review/vol62/iss7/3/
  8. ^ https://books.google.com/books?id=800ZAAAAYAAJ&lpg=PA27&ots=XnEoBo3J_3&dq=Lawyer%20on%20the%20Frontier%22%20was%20published%20in%20the%20American%20Law%20Review&pg=PA27#v=onepage&q=Lawyer%20on%20the%20Frontier%22%20was%20published%20in%20the%20American%20Law%20Review&f=false
  9. ^ History and Genealogy of the Stackpole Family, Everett S. Stackpole, second edition, 1920, page 229.
  10. ^ http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi/f/findaid/findaid-idx?c=wiarchives;view=reslist;subview=standard;didno=uw-whs-mil000as
  11. ^ The Montreal Gazette, July 23, 1934, https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1946&dat=19340723&id=E30tAAAAIBAJ&sjid=h5gFAAAAIBAJ&pg=5822,2324856
  12. ^ http://pedestrianview.blogspot.com/2013/05/ray-zillmer-retraces-ancient-trail.html
  13. ^ http://publications.americanalpineclub.org/articles/12194006900/The-Exploration-of-the-Source-of-the-Thompson-River-in-British-Columbia
  14. ^ http://publications.americanalpineclub.org/articles/12194240600/Exploration-of-the-Northern-Monashee-Range
  15. ^ http://publications.americanalpineclub.org/articles/12194310700/The-Location-of-Mt-Milton-and-the-Restoration-of-the-Names-Mt-Milton-and-Mt-Cheadle
  16. ^ http://publications.americanalpineclub.org/articles/12194426100/The-Exploration-of-the-Cariboo-Range-from-the-East
  17. ^ http://publications.americanalpineclub.org/articles/12194605600/The-Exploration-of-the-Sources-of-the-McLennan-River
  18. ^ http://apps.gov.bc.ca/pub/bcgnws/names/25939.html
  19. ^ http://apps.gov.bc.ca/pub/bcgnws/names/25938.html
  20. ^ http://apps.gov.bc.ca/pub/bcgnws/names/25937.html
  21. ^ Along Wisconsin's Ice Age Trail, 2008, page 8
  22. ^ The Milwaukee Journal, August 21, 1988, https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1499&dat=19880821&id=c28fAAAAIBAJ&sjid=034EAAAAIBAJ&pg=5438,4912330
  23. ^ "Origins of Wisconsin's Ice Age Trail", Sarah Mittlefeldht, Wisconsin magazine of history: Volume 90, number 3, spring 2007, page 7, http://content.wisconsinhistory.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/wmh/id/43567/show/43515/rec/13
  24. ^ These American Lands, Dyan Zaslowsky and T.H. Watkins, 1994, pages 258-259.
  25. ^ The Milwaukee Journal, August 21, 1988, https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1499&dat=19880821&id=c28fAAAAIBAJ&sjid=034EAAAAIBAJ&pg=5438,4912330
  26. ^ http://www.nwf.org/Who-We-Are/History-and-Heritage/Conservation-Hall-of-Fame/Nelson.aspx
  27. ^ http://pedestrianview.blogspot.com/2013/02/shenandoah-and-kettle-moraine-diverge.html
  28. ^ http://iceagenationalpark.blogspot.com/
  29. ^ http://www.iceagetrail.org/iata/history/
  30. ^ "The Wisconsin Glacier National Forest Park", Lore, Milwaukee Public Museum, vol 8, edition 2, 1958
  31. ^ "Wisconsin’s Proposed Ice Age National Park", Wisconsin Alumnus, March, 1959
  32. ^ American Alpine Club, http://publications.americanalpineclub.org/articles/12196134700/print
  33. ^ Wisconsin Academy Review, Fall 1959, http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/WI/WI-idx?type=div&did=WI.v6i4.i0009&isize=text
  34. ^ http://dnr.wi.gov/topic/parks/name/kmn/PDFs/kmnzillmertr.pdf
  35. ^ http://www.cityofstcroixfalls.com/visitors/city-parks-and-trails/
  36. ^ http://www.wchf.org/inductees/zillmer.html
  37. ^ http://www.iceagetrail.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Policy-Awards.pdf
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