November 10, 1978

… was a great day for the National Park Service and, of course, us. On that date President Jimmy Carter signed Public Law 95-625, the National Parks and Recreation Act of 1978. The bill authorized $1.2 billion for more than 100 parks, rivers and historic sites and trails.

Among the National Park Service units that associate this date with their authorization, enhancement or re-designation are:

  • Alibates Flint Quarries National Monument, Texas
  • Antietam National Battlefield, Maryland
  • Badlands National Park, South Dakota
  • Continental Divide National Scenic Trail, Canada-Mexico
  • Delaware National Scenic River, Pennsylvania-New Jersey-New York
  • Ebey’s Landing National Historical Reserve, Washington
  • Edgar Allen Poe National Historic Site, Pennsylvania
  • Friendship Hill National Historic Site, Pennsylvania
  • Iditarod National Historic Trail, Alaska
  • Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve, Louisiana
  • Kaloko-Honokohau National Historical Park, Hawaii
  • Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail, Missouri to Oregon
  • Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site, Virginia
  • Middle Delaware National Scenic River, Pennsylvania-New Jersey
  • Missouri National Recreation River, Nebraska-South Dakota
  • Mormon Pioneer National Historic Trail, Illinois to Utah
  • New River Gorge National River, West Virginia
  • Oregon National Historic Trail, Missouri to Oregon
  • Palo Alto Battlefield National Historic Site, Texas
  • New Jersey Pinelands National Preserve, New Jersey
  • Pu’uhonua O Honaunau National Historical Park, Hawaii
  • Rio Grande Wild and Scenic River, Texas
  • Saint Paul’s Church National Historic Site, New York
  • San Antonio Missions National Historical Park, Texas
  • Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, California
  • Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North Dakota
  • Thomas Stone National Historic Site, Maryland
  • Upper Delaware Scenic and Recreation River, New York-Pennsylvania
  • Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor, Massachusetts-Rhode Island

Edgar Allan Poe National Historic Site (Pennsylvania)

… was authorized on this date in 1978.

The literary works of Edgar Allan Poe continue to thrill readers today. Here he established his reputation as a literary critic, perfected his gothic tales, invented the modern detective story, and wrote poetry. Today his home offers visitors an opportunity to reflect on the author’s life and legacy.

Edgar Allan Poe National Historic Site

Alibates Flint Quarries National Monument (Texas)

… was renamed on this date in 1978. It had been Alibates Flint Quarries and Texas Panhandle Pueblo Culture National Monument since 1965.

Imagine yourself standing where an ancient civilization once lived, surrounded by colorful flint, that was used to make weapons and tools. Alibates flint is a multi-colored stone with the ability to hold a sharp edge. This agatized dolomite was highly prized and traded throughout much of North America by pre-historic American Indians.

For thousands of years, people came to the red bluffs above the Canadian River for flint that was vital to their existence. Prehistoric people needed raw materials for tools and weapons, and Alibates flint was some of the finest. Many of the quarry pits are located on the hilltops overlooking the Canadian River. These pits vary from five to twenty-five feet across, and were originally about four to seven feet deep.  Over the centuries the quarry pits have filled with blowing dust and vegetation, creating the landscape that we see today.

Alibates Flint Quarries National Monument

Theodore Roosevelt National Park (North Dakota)

… was designated a national park on this date in 1978. It had been designated a national memorial park in 1947.

Theodore Roosevelt was the nation’s 26th President and is considered by many to have been our country’s “Conservationist President.” Here in the North Dakota badlands, where many of his personal concerns first gave rise to his later environmental efforts, Roosevelt is remembered with a national park that bears his name and honors the memory of this great conservationist.

Theodore Roosevelt’s rugged, outdoor experience here in the North Dakota badlands shaped his attitudes and philosophy regarding the conservation of our nation’s natural resources.

Many watchable wildlife species inhabit Theodore Roosevelt National Park including bison, elk, prairie dogs, white-tail and mule deer, sharp-tailed grouse, golden eagles, feral horses, and pronghorns.

Theodore Roosevelt said the badlands were “so fantastically broken in form and so bizarre in color as to seem hardly properly to belong to this earth.” Discover the “grim fairyland” of Theodore Roosevelt National Park’s geologic formations.

Theodore Roosevelt National Park

Kaloko-Honokohau National Historical Park (Hawaii)

… was established on this date in 1978.

Kaloko-Honokohau NHS

Established in 1978 for the preservation, protection and interpretation of traditional native Hawaiian activities and culture, Kaloko-Honokohau NHP is an 1160 acre park full of incredible cultural and historical significance. It is the site of an ancient Hawaiian settlement which encompasses portions of four different ahupua’a, or traditional sea to mountain land divisions. Resources include fishponds, kahua (house site platforms), ki’i pohaku (petroglyphs), holua (stone slide), and heiau (religious site).

Kaloko-Honokohau National Historical Park

Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve (Louisiana)

… was authorized on this date in 1978.

Jean Lafitte NHP&P

Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve was established to preserve significant examples of the rich natural and cultural resources of Louisiana’s Mississippi Delta region. The park seeks to illustrate the influence of environment and history on the development of a unique regional culture.

The park consists of six physically separate sites and a park headquarters located in southeastern Louisiana. The sites in Lafayette, Thibodaux, and Eunice interpret the Acadian culture of the area. The Barataria Preserve (in Marrero) interprets the natural and cultural history of the uplands, swamps, and marshlands of the region. Six miles southeast of New Orleans is the Chalmette Battlefield and National Cemetery, site of the 1815 Battle of New Orleans and the final resting place for soldiers from the Civil War, Spanish-American War, World Wars I and II, and Vietnam. At 419 Decatur Street in the historic French Quarter is the park’s visitor center for New Orleans. This center interprets the history of New Orleans and the diverse cultures of Louisiana’s Mississippi Delta region. The Park Headquarters is located in New Orleans.

Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve

Jean Lafitte: History and Mystery

Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site (Virginia)

… was authorized on this date in 1978.

Maggie L. Walker NHS

Richmond, VA. is home to many famous Americans including one of the nation’s great entrepreneurial spirits, Maggie Lena Walker. Come visit her home in the Jackson Ward community. Through exhibits and guided tours you will experience the life of this great African American woman, who was born during slavery and achieved success despite segregation and the limited opportunities offered to her race.

Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site

Badlands National Park (South Dakota)

… was upgraded from national monument to national park on this date in 1978.

Badlands National Park

People are drawn to the rugged beauty of the Badlands. These geologic deposits contain one of the world’s richest fossil beds. Ancient mammals such as the rhino, horse, and saber-toothed cat once roamed here. The park’s 244,000 acres protect an expanse of mixed-grass prairie where bison, bighorn sheep, deer, pronghorn, prairie dogs, and black-footed ferrets live today.

Badlands National Park

San Antonio Missions National Historic Park (Texas)

… was established on this date in 1978.

San Antonio Missions

Four Spanish frontier missions, part of a colonization system that stretched across the Spanish Southwest in the 17th, 18th, 19th centuries, are preserved here. They include Missions San Jose, San Juan, Espada, and Concepcion. The park, containing many cultural sites along with some natural areas, was established in 1978. The park covers about 819 acres.

San Antonio Missions National Historic Park

Parks Chief Blocked Plan for Grand Canyon Bottle Ban

“Weary of plastic litter, Grand Canyon National Park officials were in the final stages of imposing a ban on the sale of disposable water bottles in the Grand Canyon late last year when the nation’s parks chief abruptly blocked the plan after conversations with Coca-Cola, a major donor to the National Park Foundation.”

Parks Chief Blocked Plan for Grand Canyon Bottle Ban

Plastic bottles are 30% of the park’s trash.

Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site (Colorado)

. . . was authorized 11 years ago today.

On November 29, 1864, Colonel John M. Chivington led approximately 700 U.S. volunteer soldiers to a village of about 500 Cheyenne and Arapaho people camped along the banks of Big Sandy Creek in southeastern Colorado. Although the Cheyenne and Arapaho people believed they were under the protection of the U.S. Army, Chivington’s troops attacked and killed about 150 people, mainly women, children, and the elderly.

National Park Service

Dry Tortugas National Park (Florida)

… was renamed and redisignated on this date in 1992. It had been Fort Jefferson National Monument since 1935.

Almost 70 miles (112.9 km) west of Key West lies a cluster of seven islands, composed of coral reefs and sand, called the Dry Tortugas. Along with the surrounding shoals and waters, they make up Dry Tortugas National Park. The area is known for its famous bird and marine life, its legends of pirates and sunken gold, and its military past.

Dry Tortugas National Park

Carlsbad Caverns (New Mexico)

Eighty-eight years ago today President Calvin Coolidge signed a proclamation creating Carlsbad Cave National Monument and its “extraordinary proportions and… unusual beauty and variety of natural decoration…” It became a national park in 1930.

As you pass through the Chihuahuan Desert and Guadalupe Mountains of southeastern New Mexico and west Texas—filled with prickly pear, chollas, sotols and agaves—you might never guess there are more than 300 known caves beneath the surface. The park contains 113 of these caves, formed when sulfuric acid dissolved the surrounding limestone, creating some of the largest caves in North America.

Carlsbad Caverns National Park (U.S. National Park Service)

Effigy Mounds National Monument (Iowa)

. . . was proclaimed on October 25th, 1949. It is one of two National Park Service sites in Iowa (the other being Herbert Hoover National Historic Site).

An “Effigy Mound” American Indian culture developed over 1,000 years ago placing thousands of earthen mounds across the landscape of what (today) includes parts of Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Illinois.

Over 200 mounds are preserved intact within the Monument; 31 are effigies in the shape of bears and birds – commemorating the passing of loved ones and the sacred beliefs of these ancient peoples.

The mounds preserved here are considered ceremonial and sacred sites by many Americans, especially the Monument’s 12 affiliated American Indian tribes. A visit offers opportunities to contemplate the meanings of the mounds, the peoples who built them and the relationships to their modern descendants. The 2,526 acre Monument includes 206 American Indian mounds situated in a natural setting, and located within the one of the most picturesque sections within Silos & Smokestacks National Heritage Area and along the “Great River Road” of the Mississippi River – a National Scenic Byway.

National Park Service

Fossil Butte National Monument (Wyoming)

… was authorized on this date in 1972.

Fossil Butte

This 50-million year old lake bed is one of the richest fossil localities in the world. Recorded in limestone are dynamic and complete paleoecosystems that spanned two million years. Preservation is so complete that it allows for detailed study of climate change and its effects on biological communities.

Visitors discover that this resource displays the interrelationships of plants, insects, fishes, reptiles and mammals, like few other known fossil sites. The relevance and challenge of study and preservation of this ancient ecosystem are equal to those of a modern ecosystem.

The surface topography of Fossil Butte is now covered by a high cold desert. Sagebrush is the dominant vegetation at the lower elevations, while limber pine and aspen occur on the slopes. Pronghorn, Mule deer and a variety of birds are commonly seen. Moose, elk and beaver are sometimes observed.

Source: National Park Service

Chaco Culture National Historical Park (New Mexico)

In 2003 with my brother John and his dear friend Fran, I made my one and, alas, only visit to Chaco Culture National Historical Park. I need to return.

This post was published in a different form eight years ago today.


According to the National Park Service, “Chaco Canyon was a major center of ancestral Puebloan culture between AD 850 and 1250. It was a hub of ceremony, trade, and administration for the prehistoric Four Corners area – unlike anything before or since.”

“Chaco is remarkable,” the Park Service continues, “for its monumental public and ceremonial buildings, and its distinctive architecture. To construct the buildings, along with the associated Chacoan roads, ramps, dams, and mounds, required a great deal of well organized and skillful planning, designing, resource gathering, and construction. The Chacoan people combined pre-planned architectural designs, astronomical alignments, geometry, landscaping, and engineering to create an ancient urban center of spectacular public architecture – one that still amazes and inspires us a thousand years later.”

NewMexiKen visited Chaco Culture National Historical Park for the first time Sunday and Monday. More than anything Chaco resembles — in concept, not appearance — an assemblage of European monastaries. Relatively few people lived there, yet the dozens of “Great Houses” were extensive with hundreds of rooms, scores of kivas and large plazas.

Fort Scott National Historic Site (Kansas)

… was authorized on this date in 1978. It is one of four national historic sites in Kansas; there is also a national preserve in Kansas.

Fort Scott

Promises made and broken! A town attacked at dawn! Thousands made homeless by war! Soldiers fighting settlers! Each of these stories is a link in the chain of events that encircled Fort Scott from 1842-73. All of the site’s structures, its parade ground, and its tallgrass prairie bear witness to this era when the country was forged from a young republic into a united transcontinental nation.

Fort Scott National Historic Site

Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts

… was authorized 45 years ago today (1966).

Wolf Trap Farm Park

Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts began as a gift to the American people from Catherine Filene Shouse. Encroaching roads and suburbs inspired Mrs. Shouse to preserve this former farm as a park. In 1966 Congress accepted Mrs. Shouse’s gift and authorized Wolf Trap Farm Park (its original name) as the first national park for the performing arts. Through a fruitful partnership between the National Park Service and the Wolf Trap Foundation, Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts offers a wealth of natural and cultural resources to the community and to the nation.

National Park Service

NewMexiKen and family once upon a time lived in one of the encroaching suburbs just down the street from Wolf Trap Farm Park.

A Beary Good Plan

Yesterday, I noticed this item from NewMexiKen from 2009. I sent it to Jill and Byron who camped in Yosemite and Kings Canyon in August.


If You’re Going to Yosemite National Park

… don’t take food, don’t take children, and don’t drive a minivan.

Our observations indicate that bears entering minivans typically did so by popping open a rear side window and it seems that this was easier for minivans compared to other vehicle classes. We note that bears are strong and well equipped (long claws) to open a variety of structurally sound materials (e.g., logs and ant mounds), and we commonly saw car doors bent open, windows on all sides of the vehicle broken, and seats ripped out, all of which appeared effortless for bears.

National Parks Traveler has the details on a USDA report.


These photos were taken by Jill at Kings Canyon. Click for larger versions or a gallery of all three.

Aidan and Mack watch the bear (in the far background).
Reidie wanted to know if he could sleep in the bear-proof box in the campsite.
During the night the car alarm went off. In the morning this was on the side of the rental-SUV. Fortunately, not a minivan.

In light of all this, last night I heard back from Byron.

Our plan would be to drive Jill’s minvan out there in a few years and leave a bunch of food in it… then take another car to a different campground.

Bluebook value= nice down payment on a new minivan without the hassle of selling it. Plus it isn’t an auto accident, but rather force of nature, so deductible =$100

Saguaro National Park (Arizona)

… was upgraded from national monument on October 4th in 1994, but I’ve thought it was the 14th so here it is again on the wrong date.

It had first been proclaimed a national monument March 1, 1933. Currently 91,439.71 acres, 70,905 classified as wilderness.

Saguaro National Park

This unique desert is home to the most recognizable cactus in the world, the majestic saguaro. Visitors of all ages are fascinated and enchanted by these desert giants, especially their many interesting and complex interrelationships with other desert life. Saguaro cacti provide their sweet fruits to hungry desert animals. They also provide homes to a variety of birds, such as the Harris’ hawk, Gila woodpecker and the tiny elf owl. Yet, the saguaro requires other desert plants for its very survival. During the first few years of a very long life, a young saguaro needs the shade and protection of a nurse plant such as the palo verde tree. With an average life span of 150 years, a mature saguaro may grow to a height of 50 feet and weigh over 10 tons.

National Park Service

Yosemite National Park (California)

. . . was established 121 years ago today (1890).

Yosemite Falls, 2005 (NewMexiKen photo, click for larger version)

Not just a great Valley…

but a shrine to human foresight, strength of granite, power of glaciers, the persistence of life, and the tranquility of the High Sierra.

Yosemite National Park, one of the first wilderness parks in the United States, is best known for its waterfalls, but within its nearly 1,200 square miles, you can find deep valleys, grand meadows, ancient giant sequoias, a vast wilderness area, and much more.

Yosemite National Park

Katmai National Park & Preserve

… was proclaimed a national monument on this date in 1918. It became a national park and preserve in 1980.

Katmai National Park

Katmai National Monument was created in 1918 to preserve the famed Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes, a spectacular forty square mile, 100 to 700 foot deep ash flow deposited by Novarupta Volcano. A National Park & Preserve since 1980, today Katmai is still famous for volcanoes, but also for brown bears, pristine waterways with abundant fish, remote wilderness, and a rugged coastline.

Katmai National Park & Preserve

America’s First National Monument (Wyoming)

President Theodore Roosevelt proclaimed Devils Tower a national monument 105 years ago today. It was the first landmark set aside under the Antiquities Act.

Devil's Tower

The nearly vertical monolith known as Devils Tower rises 1,267 feet above the meandering Belle Fourche River. Once hidden below the earth’s surface, erosion has stripped away the softer rock layers revealing Devils Tower.

Known by several northern plains tribes as Bears Lodge, it is a sacred site of worship for many American Indians. The rolling hills of this 1,347 acre park are covered with pine forests, deciduous woodlands, and prairie grasslands. Deer, prairie dogs, and other wildlife are abundant.

Source: National Park Service

NewMexiKen, who has circumnavigated Devils Tower, thinks it should be renamed Bears Lodge.

Roosevelt added several more monuments after Devils Tower, including El Morro, Montezuma Castle, Petrified Forest, and Chaco Canyon within the first year of the Act.

Sec. 2. That the President of the United States is hereby authorized, in his discretion, to declare by public proclamation historic landmarks, historic and prehistoric structures, and other objects of historic or scientific interest that are situated upon the lands owned or controlled by the Government of the United States to be national monuments, and may reserve as a part thereof parcels of land, the limits of which in all cases shall be confined to the smallest area compatible with proper care and management of the objects to be protected: Provided, That when such objects are situated upon a tract covered by a bona fied unperfected claim or held in private ownership, the tract, or so much thereof as may be necessary for the proper care and management of the object, may be relinquished to the Government, and the Secretary of the Interior is hereby authorized to accept the relinquishment of such tracts in behalf of the Government of the United States.