Gold Rock Point, the headland just north of the lighthouse, was not originally part of the state park. In 1997 it was purchased from its private owners by the Parks & Trails Council of Minnesota, an organization founded by Clarence Magney, among others, to buy and hold worthy properties until state legislation can authorize their public acquisition. The next year Nadine Blacklock, a nature photographer and president of the Parks and Trails Council, was killed in a car accident just outside the north end of the park. The Council and the Blacklock Nature Sanctuary, an art and conservation non-profit organization she and her family had founded, jointly purchased of land around the accident site. were transferred to the state park while the remainder, with an existing one-bedroom cabin, is managed by the Blacklock Nature Sanctuary as an artists' retreat. The additions were developed with access features for "Madeira" wreck divers and the Gitchi-Gami State Trail, a paved bicycling route in development along the North Shore.