Happy Birthday, National Park Service!
The weather is warming up, school is coming to a close, and we are making plans for the summer! What a great time to visit one of the National Park Service’s 411 sites, including 59 national parks. The National Park Service, under the Department of the Interior, manages memorials, seashores, historic sites and battlefields. They even manage the White House and four former prisons!
When I was a kid, I remember loading up in the back of our station wagon for vacation. No seat belts, y’all! We would go for a week or two and visit places like the Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Great Sand Dunes or Estes Park in Colorado. We also visited Scott’s Bluff in Nebraska, as well as Mount Rushmore and the Badlands in South Dakota. The drives always seemed arduous, but they were made worth it by the thrill of whatever scene we came upon. I don’t think we were ever disappointed.
To celebrate this wonderful anniversary, I have been checking out a few books from the library collection. “The Wonder of it All: 100 Stories from the National Park Service” is a collection of stories from various parks employees and rangers about their experiences. I had no idea that the Gateway Arch in St. Louis was managed by the National Park Service. I also didn’t know that it had anything to do with the Scotts of the Dred Scott case.
If you would like to see the parks as they were in beautiful black and white photos, check out “Landscapes for the People: George Alexander Grant, First Chief Photographer of the National Park Service” by Ren and Helen Davis. The images are striking! But if you would like to see the parks more as they are now and in full color, you can check out “The National Parks, An American Legacy: Celebrating 100 Years of the National Park Service” by Ian Shive.
The National Park Service has a wonderful website that allows you to find a site wherever you are or wherever you’re going. We are hoping to visit New England this summer and take in the Cape Cod National Shoreline (I hate to admit that my kids have never seen a beach) and Ellis Island. It’s a part of the country that we have never been to, so we are so very excited!
Whatever your summer plans may be, there is probably a national park or monument to add excitement to your adventures. And even if you are only going to travel by armchair, the library probably has a book to help you get there. Happy trails to you, and remember — this land is your land, so celebrate it!
