Category: Places & Travel

… was consolidated from existing areas and renamed on March 17, 1976. It is one of just two National Park Service units in Oklahoma.

Chickasaw National Recreation Area is in southcentral Oklahoma, between Dallas, Texas and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Chickasaw National Recreation Area was originally authorized in 1902 as Sulphur Springs Reservation and was renamed and redesignated as Platt National Park in 1906. In 1976, Platt National Park, Arbuckle National Recreation Area, and additional lands were combined to establish Chickasaw National Recreation Area.

From prehistoric times to the present, access to the combination of cool water, mineral springs, cool breezes, shade, and wildlife has created at Chickasaw National Recreation Area an experience that sets it apart from the surrounding environment.

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Tradition touches the present at Chickasaw National Recreation Area. You park your car and pursue the same diversions people enjoyed at the turn of the Twentieth Century— after parking their buggy or getting off the train. You no longer see women in full dresses and sunhats sidesaddle on mules, but you can still follow pleasant trails, enjoy a picnic or just people-watch. Surely that’s what attracted some of the folks who crowded the old train station and put up at Sulphur’s former grand and popular hotels and bath-houses.

Chickasaw National Recreation Area

… was proclaimed such by President Herbert Hoover 80 years ago today (1932). It became America’s 58th national park on September 24, 2004, Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve.

The tallest in North America, these dunes developed as southwesterly winds blew ancient alluvial sediments from the San Luis Valley toward the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. The preserve, containing the entire surface watershed and primary topographic features interacting with the Great Sand Dunes, ranges in elevation from 8,000 to over 13,000 feet and includes life zones from desert to alpine tundra.

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Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve:

• contains the tallest dunes in North America and one of the most fragile and complex dune systems in the world
• protects a globally significant, water- and wind-driven system, which includes creeks that demonstrate surge flow, a rare hydrologic phenomenon
• provides tremendous scenic settings that, for many, provoke strong emotional responses. These settings (including massive dunes surrounded by alpine peaks, a desert valley, creeks flowing on the surface of the sand, pristine mountains, and rural range land) offer spacious relief from urban America, exceptional solitude and quiet, and a remarkably unspoiled day and night sky
• hosts a great diversity of plants and animals, including insect species found nowhere else on earth. The system, which spans high desert to alpine life zones, supports rare biological communities that are mostly intact and functional
• contains some of the oldest (9,000+ years before present) known archeological sites in America. The dunes have been identified as having special importance by people of various cultures, and the area is recognized for the culturally diverse nature of human use
• provides special opportunities for recreation, exploration, and education in the highly resilient dune mass and adjoining creek environments.

Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve

National Parks Traveler tells us that Great Sand Dunes is one of the quietest places in the U.S. I can attest it also one of the darkest, with an incredible star-filled sky on clear, moonless nights. NewMexiKen photo, 2010. Click image for larger version.

… was authorized on this date in 1931.

Reflecting one of the longest continuously inhabited landscapes of North America, the cultural resources of Canyon de Chelly include distinctive architecture, artifacts, and rock imagery while exhibiting remarkable preservation integrity that provides outstanding opportunities for study and contemplation. Canyon de Chelly also sustains a living community of Navajo people, who are connected to a landscape of great historical and spiritual significance. Canyon de Chelly is unique among National Park service units, as it is comprised entirely of Navajo Tribal Trust Land that remains home to the canyon community. NPS works in partnership with the Navajo Nation to manage park resources and sustain the living Navajo community.

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Millions of years of land uplifts and stream cutting created the colorful sheer cliff walls of Canyon de Chelly. Natural water sources and rich soil provided a variety of resources, including plants and animals that have sustained families for thousands of years. The Ancient Puebloans found the canyons an ideal place to plant crops and raise families. The first settlers built pit houses that were then replaced with more sophisticated homes as more families migrated to the area. More homes were built in alcoves to take advantage of the sunlight and natural protection. People thrived until the mid-1300’s when the Puebloans left the canyons to seek better farmlands. 

Canyon de Chelly National Monument

… was established on this date in 1915 when President Woodrow Wilson signed the Rocky Mountain National Park Act.

This living showcase of the grandeur of the Rocky Mountains, with elevations ranging from 8,000 feet in the wet, grassy valleys to 14,259 feet at the weather-ravaged top of Longs Peak, provides visitors with opportunities for countless breathtaking experiences and adventures.

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While massive glaciers shaped the meadows and peaks, Rocky was an inhospitable land. It was not until some 11,000 years ago that humans began venturing into these valleys and mountains. Spearheads broken in the fury of a mammoth’s charge and scrapers discarded along a nomad’s trail tell us little about the area’s early native peoples. Even though it was never their year-round home, the Ute tribe favored the areas green valleys, tundra meadows, and crystal lakes. The Utes dominated the area until the late 1700s.

With the 1803 Louisiana Purchase, the U.S. government acquired the land now known as Rocky Mountain National Park. Spanish explorers and French fur trappers skirted the area during their wilderness forays. Even Major Stephen H. Long, the explorer for whom the peak is named, avoided these rugged barricades in his famous 1820 expedition. In 1843, Rufus Sage wrote the first account of Rocky’s wonders, called Scenes in the Rocky Mountains. The Pikes Peak gold rush of 1859 drew hopeful miners and speculators. Their settlements at places like Lulu City, in what is now the northwest part of the park, were ephemeral. The rousing boom times yielded to an industrious homesteading period starting in the 1860s. Harsh winters proved inhospitable to grazing, but the abundant bears, deer, wolves, and elk howled through the trees and the mountains continued to draw Easterners impressed by the sublime landscape. Mountain water proved more precious than gold. The Grand Ditch in the Never Summer Range intercepted the stream source of the Colorado River and diverted it for cattle and crops in towns such as Greeley and Fort Collins.

With the ranchers and hunters and miners and homesteaders came tourists. By 1900, the growing national conservation and preservation movement, led by Theodore Roosevelt, Gifford Pinchot, and John Muir, advocated an appreciation for nature. The Estes Park Protective and Improvement Association fostered local conservation efforts. “Those who pull flowers up by the roots will be condemned by all worthy people,” they warned. In 1909, Enos Mills, a naturalist, nature guide, and lodge owner, championed the creation of the nation’s tenth national park. He hoped that: “In years to come when I am asleep beneath the pines, thousands of families will find rest and hope in this park.” Unleashing his diverse talents and inexhaustible energy, he spent several years lecturing across the nation, writing thousands of letters and articles, and lobbying Congress to create a new national park. Most civic leaders supported the idea, as did the Denver Chamber of Commerce and the Colorado Mountain Club. In general, mining, logging, and agricultural interests opposed it.

Rocky Mountain National Park

Photos by NewMexiKen, June 2007

… was proclaimed on this date in 1922. It was made part of Great Basin National Park in 1986.

Lehman Caves attracts tens of thousands of visitors to eastern Nevada yearly, a trend that began not long after their discovery in the late 1880s. For over 60 years, Lehman Caves National Monument protected these underground wonders, with their unique geology and ecology. And today, they remain protected as part of Great Basin National Park.

The human history of Lehman Caves is both interesting and insightful. The discovery of such a natural wonder only 130 years ago is thrilling, while the abuse the cave endured during its early years causes many people to cringe. Learning about the early years of Lehman Caves provides context for the cave today. History remains the great teacher.

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All visitors to Lehman Cave will be screened through a simple question and answer process. Visitors who have not been in any cave or mine in the past year, or who are not wearing any clothing, shoes, or other items that were in another cave or mine can go straight to their tour. If visitors do have on clothing, shoes, cameras or other items that were in another cave or mine, they will be required to either change or clean items before being allowed on the tour.

Great Basin National Park

… was proclaimed on this date in 1923.

Around 1100 A.D. ancient peoples embarked on an ambitious building project along the Animas River in northwestern New Mexico. Work gangs excavated, filled, and leveled more than two and a half acres of land. Masons laid out sandstone blocks in intricate patterns to form massive stone walls. Wood-workers cut and carried heavy log beams from mountain forests tens of miles away. In less than three decades they built a monumental “great house” three-stories high, longer than a football field, with perhaps 500-rooms including a ceremonial “great kiva” over 41-feet in diameter.

A short trail winds through this massive site offering a surprisingly intimate experience. Along the way visitors discover roofs built 880 years ago, original plaster walls, a reed mat left by the inhabitants, intriguing “T” shaped doorways, provocative north-facing corner doors, and more. The trail culminates with the reconstructed great kiva, a building that inherently inspires contemplation, wonder, and an ancient sense of sacredness.

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Ancestral Puebloans related to those from the Chaco region farther south built an extensive community at this site beginning in the late 1000s A.D. Over the course of two centuries, the people built several multi-story structures called “great houses,” small residential pueblos, tri-wall kivas, great kivas, road segments, middens, and earthworks. The West Ruin, the remains of the largest structure that they built and which has since been partially excavated, had at least 450 interconnected rooms built around an open plaza. Several rooms contain the original wood used to build the roof. After living in the area about 200 years, the people left at about 1300 A.D.

Aztec Ruins National Monument

Photo taken by Jill, March 30, 2010.

… was established by President Lyndon Johnson on this date in 1969. It became part of Grand Canyon National Park in 1975.

In the 1960s Marble Canyon was the site for a proposed dam as part of the Central Arizona Project. Another even higher proposed dam, Bridge Canyon, would have been constructed at the other end of the canyon. Arizona’s congressional delegation, Republican and Democratic, pushed hard for the project and condemned the Sierra Club for its objections. For example, this 1966 speech from the usually admirable Morris K. Udall attacking David Brower and the Sierra Club and defending the dams. The Sierra Club even charged Udall with using the IRS to hinder the conservation group. Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall also supported both dams, as of course did Senators Hayden and Goldwater.

Fortunately the environmentalists, the California delegation and the Navajo Nation were sufficiently opposed that congressional approval became impossible and the Marble Canyon and Bridge Canyon dams were withdrawn from the legislation in 1967. And Interior Secretary Udall may have been converted; it was he who put Marble Canyon on President’ Johnson’s plate in the last hours of the Administration.

… was renamed on this date in 1929. It has been Lafayette National Park since 1919 and Sieur de Monts National Monument from 1916 to 1919. Lafayette/Acadia was the first national park east of the Mississippi River.

Located on the rugged coast of Maine, Acadia National Park encompasses over 47,000 acres of granite-domed mountains, woodlands, lakes and ponds, and ocean shoreline. Such diverse habitats create striking scenery and make the park a haven for wildlife and plants.

Entwined with the natural diversity of Acadia is the story of people. Evidence suggests native people first lived here at least 5,000 years ago. Subsequent centuries brought explorers from far lands, settlers of European descent, and, arising directly from the beauty of the landscape, tourism and preservation.

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Acadia National Park is a land of contrast and diversity. Comprised of a cluster of islands on the Maine coast, Acadia is positioned within the broad transition zone between eastern deciduous and northern coniferous forests, and hosts several species and plant communities at the edge of their geographic range. Steep slopes rise above the rocky shore, including Cadillac Mountain, which at 1,530 feet is the highest point on the U.S. Atlantic coast. While surrounded by the ocean, the entire fabric of Acadia is interwoven with a wide variety of freshwater, estuarine, forest, and intertidal resources, many of which contain plant and animal species of international, national and state significance.

Acadia National Park

… was established by President Herbert Hoover on this date in 1933.

Rising from the heart of the Tularosa Basin is one of the world’s great natural wonders – the glistening white sands of New Mexico. Here, dunes have engulfed 275 square miles of desert creating the world’s largest gypsum dunefield.

White Sands National Monument preserves this dunefield, along with the plants and animals that have adapted to this constantly changing environment.

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The largest gypsum dune field in the world is located at White Sands National Monument in south-central New Mexico. This region of glistening white dunes is in the northern end of the Chihuahuan Desert within an “internally drained valley” called the Tularosa Basin. The monument ranges in elevation from 3890′ to 4116′ above sea level. There are approximately 275 total square miles of dune fields here, with 115 square miles (about 40%) located within White Sands National Monument. The remainder is on military land that is not open to the public. This dune field is very dynamic, with the most active dunes moving to the northeast at a rate of up to 30 feet per year, while the more stable areas of sand move very little. The pure gypsum (hydrous calcium sulfate) that forms these unusual dunes originates in the western portion of the monument from an ephemeral lake or playa with a very high mineral content. As the water evaporates (theoretically as much as 80″ per year!), the minerals are left behind to form gypsum deposits that eventually are wind-transported to form these white sand dunes. Many species of plants and animals have developed very specialized means of surviving in this area of cold winters, hot summers, with very little surface water and highly mineralized ground water.

White Sands National Monument

… was renamed from Virgin Islands National Historic Site on this date in 1961.

Christiansted National Historic Site is located on the island of St Croix in the Virgin Islands. This park has 5 preserved historic structures and interprets the Danish economy and way of life in existence there from 1733 to 1917. We invite you to explore this unique part of America’s heritage!

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Christiansted National Historic Site, on the island of St Croix in the Virgin Islands, was established in 1952 through the initiative of concerned local citizens. The park’s mandate is twofold – to preserve the historic structure and grounds within its boundaries, and to interpret the Danish economy and way of life here between 1733 and 1917. The park consists of seven acres centered on the Christiansted waterfront/wharf area. On the grounds are five historic structures: Fort Christiansvaern (1738), the Danish West India & Guinea Company Warehouse (1749), the Steeple Building (1753), Danish Custom House (1844), and the Scale House (1856). The National Park Service uses these resources to interpret the drama and diversity of the human experience at Christiansted during Danish sovereignty – colonial administration, the military and naval establishment, international trade (including the slave trade), religious diversity, architecture, trades, and crime and punishment.

… was established on this date in 1908.

Rising out of the chaparral-covered Gabilan Mountains, east of central California’s Salinas Valley, are the spectacular remains of an ancient volcano. Massive monoliths, spires, sheer-walled canyons and talus passages define millions of years of erosion, faulting and tectonic plate movement. Within the monument’s boundaries lie 24,000 acres of diverse wildlands. The monument is renowned for the beauty and variety of its spring wildflowers. A rich diversity of wildlife can be observed throughout the year.

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The rolling chaparral and dramatic rock faces of Pinnacles National Monument inspire loyalty in visitors, from picnickers to rock-climbers, and from stargazers to cave explorers. Pinnacles is visually stunning, as anyone who has seen the smooth orb of the moon glide from behind the crags of the High Peaks can attest, or who has watched the flashing black and white wings of acorn woodpeckers as they tuck acorns into the thick bark of gray pines. This striking beauty is attributable, in part, to the Monument’s geologic formations, showcase chaparral habitat, finely intergraded ecosystems, and protected native plant and animal diversity. Another special Pinnacles quality is its proximity to millions of people. . . .

Established in 1908 to preserve the incongruent and beautiful rock formations for which Pinnacles is named, the Monument originally protected only 2,060 acres. It now encompasses about 26,000 acres in the southern portion of the Gabilan Mountains, one of a series of parallel northwest-trending ridges and valleys that make up the Central Coast Range.

Pinnacles National Monument

… was designated a National Historic Site on this date in 1944.

The Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site contains “Springwood”, the lifelong home of America’s only 4-term President. Also on the site is the Presidential Library and Museum, operated by the National Archives. Visitors may enjoy a guided tour of FDR’s home, take a self-guided tour of the Museum and stroll the grounds, gardens, and trails of this 300-acre site. . . .

Also available, FDR’s Top Cottage retreat the place he built in 1938 to, “escape the mob” at Springwood. He also brought close friends and political allies here to discuss the state of the world or to simply relax. Designed by FDR to emulate the Dutch colonial architecture found throughout the Hudson River Valley, the structure was planned with accessibility in mind to accommodate his wheelchair and give him greater independence. . . .

The only National Historic Site dedicated to a First Lady, Val-Kill welcomes you as Mrs. Roosevelt welcomed her many guests. Visitors may tour Mrs. Roosevelt’s Val-Kill Cottage and enjoy the lovely gardens and grounds on the site. . . .

Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site

“PARKLAND, Wa. — The next time somebody mindlessly bashes a ‘federal bureaucrat,’ as if the term itself were a parasitic disease, remember the bright young woman we said goodbye to here a few days ago: Margaret Anderson, a park ranger in a flag-draped casket.”

Timothy Egan tells the story.

“In 2010, the United States Mint began to issue 56 quarter-dollar coins featuring designs depicting national parks and other national sites as part of the United States Mint America the Beautiful Quarters Program.”

United States Mint

How many of the ten released so far do you have? The last will be issued in 2021.

… was proclaimed by President Theodore Roosevelt on this date in 1908. It became a national park in 1919.

These progressive gestures influenced the status of Grand Canyon during the 1890s and 1900s but did not immediately cause federal agencies to participate in its preservation nor in tourist management. Indiana senator Benjamin Harrison introduced legislation in 1882, 1883, and 1886 to set aside the canyon as a “public park,” but the bills died in committee. On 20 February 1893 President Harrison set aside Grand Canyon Forest Reserve, but the 1897 law that allowed grazing, mining, and lumbering within reserves, though it led to permit requirements for such pursuits, did not challenge rimside entrepreneurs. President Theodore Roosevelt visited the canyon in 1903, expressing his wish that it remain pristine for future generations, then enhanced its protective status by declaring portions to be a federal game preserve on 28 November 1906.

The first real measure of protection from uncontrolled development, however, did not arrive until 11 January 1908, when Roosevelt proclaimed the 1,279-square-mile Grand Canyon National Monument.This status prohibited future private claims of any type, although the canyon’s pioneers scurried to properly file their claims with Coconino and Mohave Counties prior to that date.

Polishing the Jewel: An Administrative History of Grand Canyon National Park

There was a second Grand Canyon National Monument proclaimed in 1932. It was consolidated into the national park in 1975.

NewMexiKen photo, 2010. Be sure to click the image and see the larger version. Photo taken at Yavapai Point.

… was proclaimed by President Clinton under the Antiquities Act on this date 12 years ago.

The Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument is jointly managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the National Park Service (NPS). Covering more than one million acres of remote and unspoiled public lands, this monument offers a wealth of scientific opportunities. The monument is home to countless biological, historical and archeological treasures. Deep canyons, mountains and lonely buttes testify to the power of geological forces and provide colorful vistas.

Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument

… was proclaimed by President Clinton under the Antiquities Act on this date 12 years ago.

Waves explode onto offshore rocks, spraying whitewater into the air. Sea lions bark as they “haul out” of the surf onto the rocks, and a whirlwind of birds fly above. These amazing rocks and small islands are part of the California Coastal National Monument, a spectacular interplay of land and sea.

Located off the 1,100 miles of California coastline, the California Coastal National Monument comprises more than 20,000 small islands, rocks, exposed reefs, and pinnacles between Mexico and Oregon. The scenic qualities and critical habitat of this public resource are protected as part of the National Landscape Conservation System, administered by the Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Department of the Interior.

California Coastal National Monument

… was proclaimed by President Clinton under the Antiquities Act on this date 12 years ago. It is managed by the Bureau of Land Management.

Adjacent to rapidly expanding communities, the 70,900-acre Agua Fria National Monument is approximately 40 miles north of central Phoenix. The area is located on a high mesa semi-desert grassland, cut by the canyon of the Agua Fria River and other ribbons of valuable riparian forest, contributing to an outstanding biological resource. The diversity of vegetative communities, topographic features, and a dormant volcano decorates the landscape with a big rocky, basaltic plateau. The Agua Fria river canyon cuts through this plateau exposing precambrian rock along the canyon walls. Elevations range from 2,150 feet above sea level along the Agua Fria Canyon to about 4,600 feet in the northern hills. This expansive mosaic of semi-desert area, cut by ribbons of valuable riparian forest, offers one of the most significant systems of prehistoric sites in the American Southwest. In addition to the rich record of human history, the monument contains outstanding biological resources.

The area is the home to coyotes, bobcats, antelope, mule deer, javelina, a variety of small mammals and songbirds. Eagles and other raptors may also be seen. Native fish such as the longfin dace, the Gila mountain sucker, the Gila chub, and the speckled dace, exist in the Agua Fria River and its tributaries.

Agua Fria National Monument

… was proclaimed such by President Theodore Roosevelt 104 years ago today.

On January 9, 1908, President Theodore Roosevelt signed legislation establishing Muir Woods National Monument. William and Elizabeth Kent had donated the woods to save the trees, and asked that it be named after John Muir. Upon learning of its dedication, Mr. Muir declared, “This is the best tree-lovers monument that could possibly be found in all the forests of the world.”

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Muir Woods National Monument was established to protect an old-growth coast redwood forest from destruction. The park’s award-winning trails are recognized for their accessibility, providing visitors with an easy walk on paved trails or boardwalks through the Woods. Other trails to the ridge tops offer a more strenuous experience for avid hikers. In the light gaps beneath the redwood trees are red alders, California big leaf maples, tanoaks, and Douglas fir. The forest floor is covered in redwood sorrel, ferns, fungi, duff and debris. Several bridges cross Redwood Creek which flows through the park year-round. Wildlife residents include the endangered coho salmon fingerlings, Pacific wren, woodpeckers, owls, deer, chipmunks, skunks, river otters and squirrels to name a few.

Source: Muir Woods National Monument

NewMexiKen photos, April 2005.

… was established 109 years ago today. It is the 7th oldest national park.

One of the world’s longest and most complex caves and 28,295 acres of mixed-grass prairie, ponderosa pine forest, and associated wildlife are the main features of the park. The cave is well known for its outstanding display of boxwork, an unusual cave formation composed of thin calcite fins resembling honeycombs. The park’s mixed-grass prairie is one of the few remaining and is home to native wildlife such as bison, elk, pronghorn, mule deer, coyotes, and prairie dogs.

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American Indian stories dating back centuries speak of a “hole that breathes cool air” in the Black Hills. Cowboys came across a breathing hole in 1881 and the exploration of Wind Cave began. In 1903 Wind Cave became the first cave anywhere in the world to be designated a national park. Cave explorers are still finding new rooms and passages in Wind Cave, the fifth longest cave in the world.

Source: Wind Cave National Park