The park is situated on the Bemis Moraine, which marks the southern extent of a glacial lobe during the Wisconsin glaciation 10,000 years ago.

Restoration ecology projects, including controlled burning and water retention strategies, are ongoing to maintain and improve these habitats.

This park is home to white-tailed deer, red and gray foxes, raccoons, muskrats, opossums, squirrels, and several species of bats.

Artifacts, many of them collected by a local amateur archaeologist named Owen Johnson in the mid-1940s, reveal that humans have been living around the area's lakes for 9,000 years.

In 1947 a bill backed by Myre easily passed through the Minnesota Legislature which authorized the Department of Conservation to acquire the 117-acre (47 ha) island.

Again strong local support was the driving force in adding this land to the park, overcoming legal and financial constraints over a two-year advocacy.