The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources accepted a $100,000 check Thursday from Coca-Cola for improvements at Bear Head Lake State Park near Ely.
The park won, by a landslide, a national popularity contest sponsored by Coke in which people voted for "America's favorite park" on the Internet.
Jen Westlund, manager of the park, said the gift will be used to fund construction of a trail center where hikers, paddlers, snowshoers and families can gather before heading outdoors to explore the park on the 674-acre lake by the same name.
The park has only about 100,000 visitors each year, but received more than 1.6 million votes in the contest, beating the runner-up, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, by more than a half-million votes.
The huge victory is credited to the more than 111,000 Facebook fans of Lily and Hope, the Ely-area research bears. Friends of the bears conducted a campaign for the Ely area park to win the money. The two bears, which are part of the research efforts of Lynn Rogers, spend some of their time in the park.
ADVERTISEMENT
The America Is Your Park campaign, which ran July 29-Aug. 31, invited Americans to vote online for their favorite state or national park. The campaign's goal was to encourage families to be active outdoors this summer and to visit LivePositively.com to help their favorite park win money to build, enhance or restore recreation areas in the parks.
The presentation took place at the DNR Headquarters in St. Paul.
"This is an incredible honor," Westlund said in accepting the money. "We're very grateful to everyone, both in Minnesota and nationwide, who voted for Bear Head Lake State Park."
