Stigma of nibbling pests deters tourists
By Scott Bellile
A name change is on the horizon for Mosquito Hill Nature Center.
To some potential tourists, the name Mosquito Hill conjures up disgusting images of the winged bloodsuckers whose buzzing and biting are the lowlight of their summers.
Outagamie County Parks Director Loren Dieck said when he asks people if they have ever visited Mosquito Hill, the typical response is, “Why would I want to go to some place named Mosquito Hill?”
Dieck and other Outagamie County officials have decided the name deters too many people and a rebrand is overdue. They hired a consulting firm and formed a subcommittee to explore naming options. A frontrunner has emerged: Wolf Peak Nature Park.
The Outagamie County Board must approve it first. That could happen as early as September, Dieck said.
Most area nature centers’ names are derived from either geographic features or historical information like the founder’s name, Dieck said.
Wolf Peak serves both purposes in a sense. The name references the Wolf River that flows by the nature center. It also revives the name some locals called the hill well before Mosquito Hill Nature Center formed in 1974.
Local residents are likely used to the name Mosquito Hill and aware the center is not a mosquito haven, so Dieck offered another comparison: If you were traveling somewhere unfamiliar and came across a Wood Tick Hill, would you have reservations about hiking there? (For the record, Utah has a Woodtick Hill, but it is a summit and apparently not a destination marketed to tourists.)
County asks for donors’ take
Although the Outagamie County Board has complete say over changing the name, county officials asked Friends of Mosquito Hill for feedback.
FOMH is a group comprised of 208 donors throughout the U.S. who support the nature center’s mission through fundraising and volunteerism. Anyone can join for a minimum donation of $15 or $20 per year, depending on his or her age. All members get voting rights at FOMH’s annual meeting.
County staff and the FOMH Board of Directors all agree the current name is ineffective. However, nearly half of the Friends members who attended the annual meeting at Mosquito Hill Nature Center on July 18 disagreed.
Attendees approved a resolution calling on the Outagamie County Board to change the nature center’s name by a vote of 20-14.
A majority of FOMH members, 19, backed a second resolution to rename the center Wolf Peak Nature Park.
Five voters preferred the alternative name the board of directors presented: Wolf River Nature Park.
FOMH Board President Dave Wuebben said Wolf River Nature Park was offered as an option because a couple members on the subcommittee tasked with finding new names thought the public might perceive “peak” as an inaccurate term. The word often is associated with mountains.
Opponents of Wolf River Nature Park said enough local places already use Wolf River in their names.
The other 10 members used their vote to say that whichever name is chosen should be altered to “nature center.” Attendees commented the word “park” could mislead visitors into expecting playgrounds, swimming pools and picnic areas.
The ‘mosquito’ problem
A county park called Mosquito Hill is too difficult to market to tourists, county employees and the FOMH leadership told attendees at the annual meeting.
“I’ve spent in my 26 years of volunteering out here a lot of time out at different events, manning a booth for education and getting people out here, and I wish I had a hundred dollars for every time somebody said, ‘Mosquito Hill? Why would I want to go somewhere called Mosquito Hill?’” said Becky McClone, a member of the FOMH Board of Directors.
McClone said she responds to these people by clearing up the confusion and explaining the nature center’s mission.
Wuebben said that works well if McClone is talking to them face-to-face, but that does not happen when a prospective tourist researches the center online. In all likelihood, he or she will decide not to visit, Wuebben said.
“If we’re preventing people from even thinking about coming here, we’re doing a disservice to the residents of this county,” FOMH Board Member Jared Ashland said.
FOMH Board Member Jennifer Goggins cannot convince people she knows to visit.
“I’ve been on the board for like eight years and I have yet to get my friends to come out here,” Goggins said. “I rave about it, I try to drag them, and they’re just so turned off by mosquitoes. It’s ridiculous.”
The Outagamie County Parks System’s 2019 budget is expected to be the toughest yet because employees’ health insurance costs could rise by 15 percent, Dieck said.
“Given our budget concerns, my fear is if we don’t try something [to boost visits to Mosquito Hill], if we don’t do anything, we could be in for a long road ahead,” Dieck said. “Parks and recreation is one of the first things I guarantee will be cut out of the budget if that time comes. If I’m forced to make tough budget cuts, I’m not saying Mosquito Hill is on forefront, but we might have to start laying off staff [county-wide]. We might have to cut programs here and there.”
Dieck said the solution is generating more revenue. That means marketing Mosquito Hill to increase tourism. (Mosquito Hill Nature Center charges for educational programs but not admission.)
“We have a strike against us right off the bat with trying to market this place,” Dieck said. “We have to work twice as hard when we have a negative name. It’s a fact.”
Attracting younger adults to volunteer or serve on boards is vital for the center’s sustainability as the active members age, Goggins said. The image of mosquitoes, lately associated with Zika virus, does not help with that, she said.
Membership pushes back
FOMH members who spoke at the meeting seemed to agree the nature center needs more traffic, but many said the answer is not to change a name that is rooted in tradition.
“We taught hundreds of children. They came to Mosquito Hill,” said volunteer naturalist Betty Winter of Appleton. “If we take this name away from them, we kind of take away a part of their heritage. … You may not like the name mosquito, but it is unique.”
Deb Mentzel of New London said the nature center is not a for-profit venture, so the uniqueness and passion that come with Mosquito Hill should stay. She suggested advertising Mosquito Hill more because renaming the center would require reeducating the public on who they are.
Outagamie County Development and Land Services Director Kara Homan said now is the best time to rename the nature center because the county has the money to replace the worn-down welcome sign on Rogers Road.
Goggins said putting up a new Mosquito Hill sign only to buy a new one when another name is chosen would not be ideal, especially during the center’s ongoing capital campaign to renovate the interpretive building.
To Bruce King of Fox Crossing, his issue was not with changing the name, but the fact that the two proposed names, Wolf Peak and Wolf River, emphasize the hill and the water. He said neither markets the whole park.
Some FOMH members said they felt rushed into a decision. One suggested asking schoolchildren to come up with a new name.
Wuebben responded Mosquito Hill Nature Center followed the consultant’s advice of not soliciting names from the public because the process could get drawn out.
Ann Drzewiecki of New London said FOMH members were clinging to the current name for emotional reasons when they should care about marketing for the future.
“I’ve only known it as Mosquito Hill. If you change the name I’m still going to come here,” Drzewiecki said. “And I really believe that if the goal is to get people here, then go with the name change. Once you get them here and they fall in love with the place, it doesn’t make any difference what the name is.”
Mosquito Hill’s namesake
According to an article written by Mosquito Hill Nature Center’s late co-founder Jane Williams, legend says the hill was named by loggers on the Wolf River in 1860.
Williams wrote thousands of mosquito eggs had just hatched by the river and were bothering four loggers who were exchanging after-dinner stories about the “mighty big” mosquitoes that used to inhabit the Oconto River.
Logger Louis Riggs commented that all the mosquitoes on Earth must be on the Wolf River at that moment. He bet Jean Reynolds a five-franc piece that they could not find any mosquitoes on top of what was then known as Wolf Peak. Reynolds accepted the bet.
The four men hiked up the hill. Nobody saw a single mosquito on that breezy night. The four men decided to rename the hill Mosquito Hill ironically.