Graham Jaehnig/Daily Mining Gazette Wendy Davis at her last meeting of the Keweenaw National Historical Park Advisory Commission in Calumet in January.

CALUMET — On Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026, Keweenaw National Historical Park Superintendent Wyndeth (Wendy) Davis gave her last park update to the Keweenaw National Historical Park Advisory Commission. Davis, who has been the KNHP superintendent for the past 10 years, announced her retirement effective sometime between the end of February and the middle of March. She is the first female to fill that role since the park was established in 1992.

Davis said she began her career with the National Park Service (NPS) in 1989 as an archaeologist in the Alaska region.

“I’ve been with the NPS since the 1900s,” she said with a laugh.

In the winters she was in the regional office in Anchorage, and during the summers she visited any and all of the 15 national parks in Alaska, wherever an archaeologist was needed. While in Alaska, Davis shifted from archaeology to to education. “Really, I found what I was doing was explaining how archaeologists get from a little handful of artifacts to a big story,” she said, “and that’s something archaeologists don’t really interpret well. So, suddenly I was an interpreter in education.”

The shift led to Davis becoming involved in distance learning and the development of the NPS website.

“It was cool to be in the beginning of it,” she said. “It’s hard to imagine a world without websites now.”

The website and the distance-learning work permitted Davis to transfer to the NPS office in Washington to work with parks all over the country on their education programs and the distance learning. She then became the education coordinator for the NPS, working with parks and rangers all over the country to assist them in developing education programs.

“Laura Bush, during her term as first lady, really wanted to help with the Junior Ranger Program. So, I got to lead a team of rangers from parks all over the place to really create a national identity for the Junior Ranger program and to give it that logo with the hat and the green. ‘Explore, learn, protect’came out of that team.”

Davis said that was one of the best things she could have been involved in.

“For that work, and with other projects,” she said, “I was given the Sequoia Award.”

The Sequoia Award recognizes individuals who have made an extraordinary commitment to the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) and its work in the areas of philanthropy, volunteer service, programmatic or policy impact.

Davis said the award was not only for her work with the Junior Ranger program, but everything that led up to it.

“I left that position to be the interpretive planning lead at the Design Center for the Park Service at Harpers Ferry (VA).

Davis, the National Park Service announced in July, 2016, was the associate manager Interpretive Planning at the NPS Harpers Ferry Design Center, West Virginia when she was selected to lead

The Keweenaw National Historical Park commemorates the heritage of copper mining on the Keweenaw Peninsula. Working with numerous cooperating sites from Ontonagon to Copper Harbor, the park tells the stories of mines, machinery and the people connected to this country’s first and richest mineral rush.

When the KNHP was established, the park’s enabling legislation mandated that the park would work with a wide variety of agencies, organizations and individuals to protect and interpret the natural and cultural resources relating to the copper mining story on the Keweenaw Peninsula.

Yesterday was Davis’ last planned day as superintendent. The end of her tenure will be celebrated with a community open house on Mar. 27 at the KNHP Visitor Center. Davis said she has no plans on leaving the area when she retires. In fact, for the past seven years, she has been studying to become a pastor while serving at the Christ Episcopal Church in Calumet. She will be ordained sometime this year.