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| Dawn on the Kaibab Trail at the Grand Canyon. |
This summer the
National Park Service of the United States celebrated its 100th
birthday. A century ago, on August 25, 1916, President Woodrow Wilson signed
the act that created a federal bureau within the Department of the Interior to
oversee the country’s already-existing 35 national parks and monuments, as well
as any additional going forward. One hundred years later, that number has grown
to 413. This includes national parks and monuments, as well as properties with
a variety of other “national” classifications, such as battlefields, historic
sites, rivers and seashores. To mark the centennial, this year on August 25th,
President Obama designated 87,500 acres in Maine as the Katahdin Woods and
Waters National Monument.
Four-hundred-thirteen
isn’t a huge number. It’s entirely possible that a person could visit every single
one of our national park properties in a lifetime. (Ambitious, but still possible.)
While I doubt I’ll make it to all 413 (or more, as there’s a good chance the
number will continue to rise) it’s fun to contemplate which parks I might like
to see next, and why.
Why do we have
national parks? They preserve wild and natural places, not only for posterity,
but also as a source of national pride. The first national park in the United
States – possibly the first one on the planet as well – was Yellowstone,
designated in 1872 by President Ulysses S. Grant. While Grant was the first
president to create a federally-owned park, Theodore Roosevelt is generally
known as the “conservation president.” Roosevelt doubled the number of national
parks while he was in office. Perhaps more importantly, he oversaw the passing
of The Antiquities Act, which gave the president unilateral power to designate
national monuments as well. Creating a national park requires an act of
Congress, so the passage of The Antiquities Act opened the door to
significantly greater conservation efforts nationwide.
Our national parks
are truly a treasure, and I encourage you to check some of them out! Here’s a
series of questions to get you thinking along those lines . . . along with my
own answers.
1. Have you ever visited a US National Park? Do
you have a favorite? I’ve
been fortunate to visit a lot of them. My favorite might be Acadia, in Bar
Harbor Maine, where I climbed Cadillac Mountain and rode trail bikes with my
son last summer. Or maybe it’s Yellowstone, in Wyoming, because the park itself
is so varied – mountains, lakes, waterfalls, geysers, mineral pools, bison
roaming everywhere! Or possibly Canyonlands in Utah, even though – thanks to a
5-day whitewater rafting trip in 1993 – it’s also the setting of one of my
recurring nightmares.
2. What was the first national park you
visited? Mine was either the
Cape Cod National Seashore or the White House, both before age ten, but the one
that made the biggest impression on me, and got me paying attention to the
National Parks System at an early age, was The Grand Canyon, which I traveled
to with my family when I was twelve. (And again with a friend on a
cross-country road trip at age twenty. . . And on another cross-country trip at
29. . . And again at 44.) Each visit revealed different aspects of the park,
the canyon, the Colorado River . . . as well as varying insights into our
national character.
3. Can you name the 19 National Parks,
National Historic Sites, National Seashores, and other NPS properties in Massachusetts?
Off the top of my head, I
cannot! But here’s a list. National Historic Parks: Adams, Boston, Lowell,
Minute Man, and New Bedford Whaling. National Historic Sites: Boston African
American, John F. Kennedy, Longfellow House/Washington’s Headquarters,
Frederick Law Olmsted, Salem Maritime, Saugus Iron Works, and Springfield
Armory. National Scenic Trail: Appalachian Trail. National Heritage Corridor:
Blackstone River Valley, Quinebaug and Shetucket Rivers Valley. National
Recreation Area: Boston Harbor Islands. National Seashore: Cape Cod. National
Heritage Area: Essex. Wild and Scenic River: Westfield River. This list alone
could keep an eager traveler busy for quite some time!
It is worth noting
that in 1977 our very own North and South Rivers were designated a National
Natural Landmark by the Department of the Interior, “possessing national
significance in illustrating the natural character of the United States.” The National
Park Service oversees the National Natural Landmark (NNL) program. While an NNL
designation doesn’t confer park status on the river and its watershed, the
recognition still significant. There are eleven NNLs in Massachusetts, and
close to 600 nationwide.
4. Which national park would you like to
visit next? With a ten-year-old,
I’m in “revisiting” mode – going back to places I’ve already seen, in order to offer
my son some different perspectives on the landscape and on our country in
general. We toured 11 national parks, monuments, and historic sites in Arizona
this summer, along with a handful of Navajo tribal parks. Southern Utah is next
on the family list – Arches, Bryce, Zion, Capitol Reef, etc. – but the historic
sites and memorials of Washington DC rate pretty highly as well.
5. What are the Top Five national parks
you’re hoping to see in your lifetime? There are a bunch of parks and monuments in Alaska and Hawaii . . .
sigh! Maybe someday! Glacier National Park in Montana; Voyageurs in Minnesota;
Joshua Tree and Death Valley in California. And if I ever get to the point
where giant reptiles don’t make me squeamish, an airboat tour of the Everglades
in Florida would definitely appeal.
by Kezia Bacon
August 2016
Kezia Bacon's articles
appear courtesy of the North and South Rivers Watershed Association, a local
non-profit organization devoted to the preservation, restoration, maintenance
and conservation of the North and South Rivers and their watershed. For
membership information and a copy of their latest newsletter, contact NSRWA at
(781) 659-8168 or visit www.nsrwa.org. To browse 20 years of Nature (Human and
Otherwise) columns, visit http://keziabaconbernstein.blogspot.com
