Sleeping Bear facility manager Lee Jameson retires after 41 years with National Park

From staff reports

Lee Jameson, facility manager at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, retired on Aug. 3 after 41 years with the National Park Service (NPS)—nearly 24 of them at the National Lakeshore. Jameson, a graduate of the University of Michigan School of Natural Resources Forestry, worked one summer for the Washington State Department of Fisheries before landing a seasonal laborer position with Sleeping Bear Dunes in 1978 restoring the lighthouse complex.  

Lee worked four seasons for the National Lakeshore before becoming an exhibit specialist for the Midwest Region of the NPS in 1981. As exhibit specialist, Lee traveled to parks throughout the region performing preservation work on historic structures (or as Lee says, as a glorified carpenter). In 1985, Lee moved to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan as the buildings and utilities supervisor at Isle Royale National Park. In 1989, he was promoted to facility manager of Isle Royale. After 10 years of seasonal moves back and forth across Lake Superior, in 1994 Lee became the facility manager for Cuyahoga Valley National Recreation Area (now Cuyahoga Valley National Park), between Cleveland and Akron in northern Ohio. Finally, Lee’s career brought him full circle as he returned to Sleeping Bear Dunes in 1999 as facility manager, where he has been ever since.

Lee’s accomplishments in historic preservation and facilities management are many, and significant. Today, there is widespread recognition of the significance of the park’s vernacular historic landscapes and structures and an active preservation program. In addition, Lee played a lead NPS role in the construction of two much-beloved multi-use trails; the Ohio and Erie Canal Towpath Trail at Cuyahoga Valley and the Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail at Sleeping Bear Dunes. When asked about accomplishments, however, Lee notes that “What I have found most gratifying are seeing people who worked for me go on to mark their own significant accomplishments for the National Park Service. The NPS is a great gig; enjoyable and meaningful, and I have enjoyed helping good people move up to do great things.”

Lee recalls with particular fondness the closely knit park community that island work brought on Isle Royale, and at a smaller scale on South Manitou Island. South Manitou is particularly meaningful to Lee as he first visited as part of an undergraduate class at U of M, returned to it the following summer with his then-girlfriend Barbara Nelson, landed his first NPS job there, and proposed to Barbara on South Manitou as well. 

Barbara Nelson-Jameson said yes to Lee, and with his retirement, and hers last March from the Rivers, Trails, and Conservation Assistance program of the NPS, the happy couple are now plotting a long list of travel destinations, both foreign and domestic. Lee says, “I joined the Park Service because I loved to play outside, and now I will be able to do that whenever I want.” Lee and Barbara plan to keep their home in Suttons Bay as a home base for travel and visits from friends.

Mountz, Collins retire from Sleeping Bear Dunes

Two Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore employees with 77 years of collective service to the National Park Service (NPS) retired in late April.

Sleeping Bear’s longest tenured employee, Tom Mountz, retired on April 28. Mountz began his career with NPS in 1975 and remained at the same park for his entire career. A native of Flushing, Mich., Mountz was brought to the Sleeping Bear area by his parents on various occasions during his youth. Those fond childhood memories led to his desire and passion to serve at Sleeping Bear Dunes over his lifetime.

Mountz’s first assignment as a seasonal maintenance worker began on South Manitou Island just a month after graduating from Northern Michigan University in Marquette. There, he created friendships that continued through the years. Two of those friendships included George Grosvenor, owner of the Manitou Island ferry service, and Lou Raynor, a Michigan State University professor who was the first island resident he met on the new job. That was a memorable year, living with minimal facilities; baths were in Lake Michigan and water was drawn from a hand pump.

For the first half of his career, he continued as a seasonal maintenance worker in Empire. Work included everything imaginable for a recently established, growing park.  Besides building, updating, and refurbishing facilities, he also met the daily operational needs of the park, including clearing trees, grading dirt roads, and moving sand.

Although the carpentry work led to Mountz’s position as a woodcrafter, during the second part of his career, he supervised the maintenance work force of the Platte River District in the southern half of the National Lakeshore.

Mountz has been a steady, calming, and guiding force at Sleeping Bear Dunes and the Platte River District from the infancy of the National Lakeshore through its growth with annual visitation in excess of 1.7 million. He is a friend of all ages, quick with a kind word, appreciative of everyone’s worth and contributions, a steward of the planet, and companion to all that reside here. In addition, for 24 years, he has spent three hours each week throughout the holiday season ringing a bell for the Salvation Army in Traverse City. “It just lets you know people really are generous,” he said. “I don’t know. I just like doing it.” 

Tom Mountz truly represents what is sorely needed in a frenetic world and embodies the benefit to all gained from a visit to the NPS and some time spent outdoors.

Paul Collins, engineering equipment operator at Sleeping Bear Dunes, retired on April 27 after 40 years with the federal government and 34 years with the National Park Service.

Paul is well known in the park for his abundance of witticisms and dry humor, as well as his low-key presence and steady work ethic. Paul started at Sleeping Bear Dunes in 1975 as a temporary WG-1 Laborer and stated, “I was doing whatever needed to be done; roughly the same job I have now,” and noted that “the hardest part of the job was working on a small crew with three Toms!”

Paul continued to work seasonally at Sleeping Bear Dunes as a WG-5 Maintenance Worker until 1982, when he accepted a permanent WG-5 position with the Department of Defense at McMullen Target Site in Texas. That experience was the origin of his most quotable quote, “Direct miss!”

In 1987, Paul returned to the NPS and Sleeping Bear Dunes as an engineering equipment operator; the position he held until his retirement.

Paul plans to reside in the Traverse City area where he grew up and remain active with his local church. He and his wife of 30 years, Dede, have a list of home projects to keep them occupied well into retirement.

Paul’s contributions to resource preservation and visitor safety and enjoyment over his long career at Sleeping Bear Dunes have been substantial. It is unassuming workers like him who form the backbone of park maintenance staffs across the country. Collins will be greatly missed at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.

Words by Merrith Baughman, chief of interpretation and visitor services at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.