The Neolithic settlement of Botesberget tells the story of this restless land better than any geology textbook. When people first lived there around 6000 BCE, it was an isolated island in the middle of open water, prime fishing territory. Today, that same site sits on forested upland, 35 meters above sea level. The entire topography has inverted. During the Stone Age and Bronze Age, the archipelago's outermost islets clustered around what are now the main islands of Nagu, Korpo, and Houtskar. The present outer archipelago was still submerged, waiting its turn to breach the surface. As the ground rose, inhabitants followed the water outward, generation by generation, leaving behind a trail of archaeological sites that map the slow emergence of a coastline. Iron Age settlements and prehistoric fort islets have been found in what is now the park's cooperative area, though no Stone Age sites have been discovered this far out. Give it time.

The early inhabitants of these islands lived in abundance. The Baltic Sea of 4,000 years ago was saltier than today, its waters teeming with Atlantic cod that have long since retreated to cooler, more saline waters. Grey seals hauled out on the skerries in numbers that would stagger modern conservationists. Seabirds nested in dense colonies, offering eggs, meat, and precious down feathers. The warmer climate of that era permitted small-scale agriculture and cattle herding on the larger islands. Rich natural resources drew people to this post-glacial archipelago throughout the Neolithic, Bronze, and Iron Ages. They came for the fish and stayed to farm the thin soil, establishing a cultural landscape of traditional agriculture that the national park now protects alongside its natural heritage.

The white-tailed eagle serves as the symbol of Archipelago National Park, and for good reason. These massive raptors, with wingspans reaching eight feet, were nearly wiped out across Scandinavia by DDT poisoning in the mid-20th century. Their recovery in the archipelago represents one of Finland's great conservation victories. The park's bird life reads like a Nordic field guide: Arctic terns, black guillemots, razorbills, and Caspian terns patrol the skies. Eurasian eagle-owls hunt the outer islands. Common murres and little terns, now rare, still nest on the more remote skerries. The removal of invasive American mink from the park in the 1990s produced dramatic results: 14 of 22 monitored bird species increased in numbers, with tufted ducks, velvet scoters, and Arctic terns showing particularly strong recovery. The mink removal program expanded to the Vano archipelago in 2006, where nesting success improved rapidly.

Unlike many national parks that seek to preserve wilderness untouched by human hands, Archipelago National Park explicitly protects cultural landscape alongside natural features. The considerable areas devoted to traditional agriculture, the old fishing villages, the inhabited islands with their shuttle ship connections, all form essential parts of the park's identity. The larger islands remain privately owned by their inhabitants, people whose families have worked these waters for generations. The cooperative area extends the park's protection while allowing traditional livelihoods to continue. This is a working landscape, one where picking berries and mushrooms is permitted under Finland's freedom to roam laws, where visitors can explore underwater trails for divers near Stora Hasto in Korpo or snorkel through shallower waters, where nature blends seamlessly with human presence.

Transportation in Archipelago National Park runs primarily by boat. Shuttle ships connect all inhabited islands within the cooperative area, with harbors at Prostvik and Parnas in Nagu and Kasnas in Kimitoon accessible by road. The Blue Mussel visitor center in Kasnas and the Archipelago Centre in Korpostrom offer orientation to this complex seascape. Visitors can move freely by boat through most of the park, though some protected areas are off-limits during nesting season. The islands with many nesting birds should only be visited in autumn and winter, when the terns and guillemots have departed. Camping is restricted to designated sites, and campfires require specific permission during fire warnings. The park earned PAN Parks certification in 2007 for its commitment to wilderness quality and sustainable tourism. But no certification captures what it feels like to navigate these waters, watching islands materialize from morning fog, knowing the very land beneath you is still being born.