“Park Sticker Law in Effect; Enforcement Is Explained” from the May 1, 1962 Door County Advocate
Park Sticker Law in Effect; Enforcement Is Explained
No Sticker Required to Drive Through
Campers and picnickers who plan to go to state parks this season had better come equipped with more than their tent and picnic basket—they’ll need a park sticker. The new park sticker went into effect on Apr. 1 and is now being enforced in both of Door county’s state parks.
The stickers are for sale at the offices in both Peninsula and Potawatomi state parks. The Peninsula office, located at the Fish Creek entrance to the park, is open daily including Saturday and Sunday. Peninsula golf clubhouse will also sell the stickers beginning Saturday, May 5. The stickers can also be purchased at Potawatomi from the park office or from the ranger patrolling the park—including Saturdays and Sundays. Persons wishing to get their annual stickers before going to the park may send a remittance (with their name and address) for $2 to either Peninsula or Potawatomi and the annual sticker will be mailed to them promptly. Only the annual $2 sticker can be purchased ahead of time. The 50 cents daily tag is available only at the park.
The new park sticker law was enacted by the last legislature and requires each vehicle to have a park sticker affixed to it. The annual sticker which permits that vehicle unlimited entry to any state park or forest for the whole year is $2. The daily tag permitting the vehicle free use of a park for the one day is 50 cents. The stickers are not required on trailers (such as camp trailers), but they are required on all autos, trucks, motorcycles or scooters. The sticker applies to the vehicle and not the occupants. Any number of persons can enter in a vehicle having a sticker properly affixed to it. This applies to those persons actually inside the vehicle and not hanging on the outside.
The $2 annual sticker has a contact adhesive on the face and must be affixed to the inside of the vehicle windshield, in the lower corner of the left or driver’s side. The 50 cents daily tag also has a contact adhesive on the back and must be affixed to the hub of the steering column, steering wheel or handlebars of all vehicles. Stickers must be affixed to be valid. This means you cannot carry the sticker in the glove compartment or in your wallet. It is likewise illegal to fasten the sticker on the car with scotch tape or any means other than the contact adhesive on the park sticker. It cannot be transferred from one car to another. If you have two cars and intend to drive both cars in the park, you’ll need a sticker on each.
The sticker law became effective on Apr. 1 and stickers will be required each year from Apr. 1 through Oct. 31. Stickers are not required during the winter months from November through March. Thus, no stickers will be necessary for using the winter sports facilities at Potawatomi.
The stickers and tags are not transferable. They are issued for a vehicle and not a person and must be attached as directed to be valid. If a vehicle is sold or wrecked, the sticker cannot be transferred to another vehicle but goes along with the vehicle. Overnight campers who purchase the 50 cents daily tag will be required to have the tag on their vehicle for the date of entry. But if they leave the property before 9 a.m. on the following day, they will not be required to purchase another sticker. In other words, overnight campers do not need to purchase a daily tag for the day they enter and another for the day they leave if they leave before 9 a.m. The enforcement of the park sticker law will not start before 9 a.m., so other persons who enter the park and leave again before 9 a.m. will not be required to have stickers on their vehicles. This would include people stopping for breakfast, nature study groups or fishermen who are lucky enough to get their fish and leave the park by 9 a.m. These early morning visitors should remember that the park is closed until 6 a.m. So the only really free time is from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m.
The park sticker law will be rigidly enforced, but this will not include gate keepers or sticker salesmen at each park entrance. The obligation to purchase the sticker is on the visitor and he must arrange to get the sticker ahead of time or as he enters the park. The park sticker is much like a hunting or fishing license in that it is the duty of the person to get the license. If he fails to do that he suffers the penalty which is the issuance of a summons. The unhappy victim will then need to appear in court and pay the fine as prescribed by law.
The park stickers will not be required on vehicles that are merely being driven through the park. Thus, persons can drive around without the sticker but they may not stop and use any of the park’s facilities without becoming liable for having the sticker. This allows visitors to go to the Blossomburg cemetery without a sticker providing they do not stop and use park facilities on the way. Visitors who plan to play golf will need to have stickers on their cars.
Commercial trucks making a bona fide delivery within the park or municipal vehicles (such as county police cars or highway trucks) on official business may get free temporary permits at the park office when entering the park.
Courtesy of the Door County Library Newspaper Archive
[Today, under NR 45.12(1)(c) there are five Wisconsin state parks which have been entirely exempted from the vehicle sticker law. If Whitefish Dunes State Park was added as a sixth exempt park, that ought to reduce traffic on Schauer Road, reducing the need to destroy about one acre of woodland for a new, rerouted Schauer Road. The eventual amount of lost woodland might end up being more than one acre, since https://cdn.townweb.com/townofsevastopolwi.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/SchauerRoad-Presentation-DW-comments.pdf#page=8 states that that if a new road is built, “County can enhance parking on the North end of Cave Point County Park”. The current route of Schauer Road outside the border of the county park inconveniences the construction of additional parking lots in future years, but the new route for Schauer Road would open up an additional side of the county park to future parking lot construction.
The Cave Point County Park lots will be redundant to the ones at Whitefish Dunes State Park, but will be preferred because they will not require a park sticker or daily fee. The current fees are listed in a table, https://dnr.wisconsin.gov/topic/parks/admission. According to https://www.usinflationcalculator.com, $2.00 in 1962 is worth the same as $20.89 in 2024, and 50¢ is worth the same as $5.22 in 2024, so for most people, the cost has risen faster than the rate of inflation.
Most people would end up paying more to park in the Whitefish Dunes State Park lot than they would pay for an equivalent amount of time in a parking meter. Don’t most people choose unmetered parking when given the choice?
Recently there has been negative publicity over the possibility of placing solar panels on state forest land in Michigan, because doing so requires the removal of the trees: https://www.mlive.com/environment/2025/01/michigan-dnr-pushed-gaylord-solar-site-even-after-energy-company-backed-out.html
If the current situation regarding Schauer Road were sufficiently publicized, Wisconsin’s DNR could experience similar pressures, and decide to act in a way which reduces the need for deforestation.]
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