It has been quite an adventure to explore how the National Park Service works to share and preserve history and nature with visitors.  As I toured through Cedar Creek and Belle Grove National Historical Park, the Blue Ridge Parkway, Shenandoah National Historical Park, and Harper’s Ferry National Historical Park, I learned about numerous initiatives that seek to fulfill the NPS mission.  Each site had a little bit of different focus whether it be history or nature… but all strove to communicate effectively with visitors and protect their particular area for future generations.

Ways to Preserve:

• Develop partnerships with other organizations
• Get visitors involved and teach them to respect their surroundings
• Put environmental laws and programs in place to protect nature
• Research and restore historical buildings

Ways to Share:

• Provide education programs for visitors
• Establish museums so visitors will gain a better understanding for park history
• Perform reenactments to draw visitors into time period
• Create visual diagrams to clarify ideas
• Provide educational materials like pamphlets and maps

In simple terms, balancing is the key to the National Parks’ success!  It all comes back to the National Park Service’s mission to:

The NPS symbol

“… promote and regulate the use of the… national parks… which purpose is to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wild life therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations”  (National Park Service Organic Act, 16 U.S.C.1.).

Although the goals presented in the mission statement seem to compete with one another, the NPS has taken great efforts to balance them.  The NPS Symbol visually shows the balancing act that parks perform.  The bison and sequoia tree represent animals and plants, the mountains and lake stand for human recreational enjoyment, and the encompassing arrowhead represents historical focus and preservation.  To learn more about my project, visit my blog at http://exploringshenandoah.wordpress.com/.

During the final weeks of my project, I visited Harper’s Ferry National Historical Park in West Virginia.  Located at the junction of the B and O Railroad and Winchester Potomac Railroad as well as the Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers, this town was an extremely important industrial area in the 1800s.  Today it is a quaint area to visit with lots of history packed in.

Kids participate in the Harper's Ferry history program

My family and I went on a ranger tour of the Bolivar Heights Battlefield where we learned about the 1862 Civil War battle that took place there.  Confederate troops surrounded the Union town and eventually took it over, gaining important access to the Shenandoah Valley.  After the tour, we rode a bus into the historic town to visit museums and see sites like the firehouse where John Brown was captured during his famous raid.  One of the great sharing programs I noticed going on was a kids’ history and science exploration camp.  According to one ranger, 250 kids were participating in the program that particular day and 25,000 kids participated total last year.  Topics varied from reenacting battles, to researching water quality of rivers, to playing games from the 1800s.  It seemed to be a great way to inspire passion for history and nature in kids from an early age.  We could hear cheers of “Hip Hip Hooray” ringing throughout the town as groups of kids reenacted a battle scene.

Jefferson Rock

My favorite part of visiting Harper’s Ferry was hiking up to Jefferson Rock, named after Thomas Jefferson (our famous W&M alum!) who wrote high praise of the view it offered of the Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers below.  Visitors cannot actually climb up onto the rock itself since it is unstable, but we were still able to witness the expansive view and gain a real sense of Jefferson’s words:

“The passage of the Patowmac through the Blue Ridge is perhaps one of the most stupendous scenes in Nature.  You stand on a very high point of land.  On your right comes up the Shenandoah, having ranged along the foot of the mountain a hundred miles to seek a vent.  On your left approaches the Patowmac in quest of passage also.  In the moment of their junction they rush together against the mountain, rend it asunder, and pass off to the sea… This scene is worth a voyage across the Atlantic” (Jefferson).

And so it is.  Harper’s Ferry National Historical Park is truly a wonderful place for the whole family to visit.  It offers a wide range of historical and nature tours, kids activities, and great views of the surrounding area.  I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a fun and educational adventure.

Since my last post, I have gone on some exciting adventures in the Blue Ridge Mountains.  My family and I drove along the Blue Ridge Parkway, observing the beautiful views and exploring some of the unique places along the way.  The Parkway extends for 469 miles through Virginia and North Carolina, connecting Shenandoah National Park with the Great Smokey Mountains National Park (Firth). It was created as a scenic drive for people to observe natural surroundings from the comfort of an automobile and travel easily between the two parks.  Since the roadway is so long and narrow, it incorporates the surrounding valleys and mountains into its viewshed.  Essentially the horizon line is the boundary. The use of scenic easements, or land that is technically owned by other individuals, has proved to be a way to safeguard the expansive view (Abbott).  Park officials have with local landowners and organizations to preserve the scenery and prevent human developments like factories and crowded urban centers from scarring the valley.

Stone Steps to help with hiking

We decided to try hiking one of the Peaks of Otter called Sharp Top Mountain. It was a 1.5 mile hike marked as “strenuous” in the Park booklet, but we were up for the challenge and I figured it would be a good way to get my workout in for the day.  Hiking gave me an opportunity to observe how the National Park Service worked to share and preserve history and nature of an environmental-focused area.  The National Park Service had taken steps to preserve the trail and help hikers.  For example, rangers had put in place railings on the really steep switchbacks to prevent people from toppling over.  They also concreted some loose rocks together to create steps so climbing would be a little easier at the top.  Once we reached the summit of the mountain, it was totally worth the intense exercise.  Rising 3875 feet above sea level, Sharp Top Mountain provides a wonderful 360 degree view of the Valley as well as Abbott Lake located at the Peaks of Otter Lodge.  The NPS has built several outcropping overlooks and positioned signs to mark elevations or describe points of interest.  It was absolutely beautiful to be up so high and see the Valley below.

75th Anniversary Logo

In addition to exploring the Blue Ridge Parkway, I have taken several trips to Shenandoah National Park and driven the entire 105 miles of the Skyline Drive!  This year marks the 75^th anniversary of the Park so there are a lot of education and outreach programs going on this summer.  My family and I explored the museum at Big Meadows, which provided a lot of historical information about the park’s foundation.  Some of the topics I have been studying include the displacement of mountain families to make room for the park, the construction of the Skyline Drive, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camps at Big Meadows and Skyland, and the dedication of the park by Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1936.

Visitors observing a deer by the parking lot

I  took the chance during my visits to observe the wildlife and natural surroundings.  One memorable sight was a baby black bear ambling up a bank on the side of the Skyline Drive.  There were also a lot of deer grazing serenely in the fields of Big Meadows who did not seem afraid of people at all.  One deer did not raise its head when a motorcycle went rumbling by or when a father and son walked within five feet of it.  The Shenandoah park rangers want people to appreciate nature and realize this is best achieved through real-life encounters.  However, they also strive to give the animals some privacy and a chance to live in the wild without people disrupting their daily activities.  This continues to be a challenge now and into the future, but the NPS rangers have come up with creative ways to try to share wildlife information with visitors.  For example, the NPS has a “Birds of Prey” program where visitors can see rescued raptors from the Wildlife Center of Virginia up close and learn about their importance in the natural environment.  In the final weeks of my project I am going to go on a few more visits to parks and synthesize the information I’ve learned.

To learn more about my project and the parks’ history, check out my blog!  http://exploringshenandoah.wordpress.com/

Works Cited

Firth, Ian.  Historical Significance of the Blue Ridge Parkway. University of Georgia, 2008. <http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/sero/appalachian/sec2.htm>.

Abbott, Carlton.  The Parkway: Purpose- Idea- Creation. 75th Anniversary Symposium in Roanoke, VA.  15 October, 2010.  Powerpoint Presentation.  <http://blueridgeparkway75.org/files/Parkway_Purpose_Idea_Creation-Abbott.pdf>.