Devil’s Lake State Park in Wisconsin Expanded

The Conservation Fund is excited to announce that we’ve permanently protected a key piece of at-risk land inside Wisconsin’s most visited state park — before development could close it off forever.

Some places are more than parks. They’re where you learned to paddle a canoe, where you pushed yourself up your first real climb, where you brought your kids to show them the world is bigger and more beautiful than a screen. Devil’s Lake State Park is that place for millions of people — and an important piece of land within the park was almost lost.

One of the largest privately held parcels inside Devil’s Lake State Park’s boundary was sitting at risk of development. A future of fences, structures, and closed gates was possible, on land that generations of Wisconsinites had come to think of as simply part of the park. Now, those 100 acres are protected forever.

A Park Built for Adventure

Over 2.5 million people visit Devil’s Lake State Park every year, making it Wisconsin’s most visited state park by a wide margin. It’s easy to understand why. Five-hundred-foot quartzite bluffs rise above a glacially carved lake known as “Tee Wakącąk” — or “sacred lake” — by the Ho-Chunk Nation. Climbers test their skills on world-class rock faces. Paddlers glide across clear water in the shadow of ancient geology. Cyclists, swimmers, and campers fill the trails and shoreline across every season.

Photo credit: Jay Brittain

This expansion means park visitors will have even more of that landscape to explore — land that, not long ago, could have been closed off to them permanently.

“The beauty of Devil’s Lake State Park can’t be overstated, and it’s where memories are made for many people in Wisconsin and beyond,” said Clint Miller, The Conservation Fund’s vice president of the Central Midwest region. “By protecting this land, we’re excited to give park visitors the chance to do even more of what they love.”

Expanding the Ice Age National Scenic Trail

Devil’s Lake State Park is also home to portions of the Ice Age National Scenic Trail, a 1,200-mile footpath that traces the terminal edge of a glacier that blanketed this region 15,000 years ago. More than 2 million hikers walk some stretch of it every year — making it one of the most traveled long-distance trails in the country. This newly protected land lays the groundwork for a potential future segment of that historic route, connecting hikers more deeply to the park’s extraordinary story of ice, time, and terrain.

Photo credit: Jay Brittain

Permanently Protected. Permanently Yours.

The Conservation Fund purchased this land in 2025, then worked with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources to ensure it would become part of Devil’s Lake State Park permanently. That’s how conservation works at its best: acting with urgency when land is at risk, building the right partnerships, and securing irreplaceable places before development closes the option forever.