Departments

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National Parks

  • SOURCE: The Atlantic
    12/21/2022

    National Parks Not Immune from National Tantrums

    by Tiya Miles

    Yellowstone National Park's 150th anniversary saw visitors and staff dealing with the same kinds of frayed civility and random abuse plaguing the rest of the nation. For better or worse, our parks are us. 

  • SOURCE: BBC
    10/24/2022

    The Hidden History of Black Coal Towns

    The New River Gorge is one of the newest National Parks. Beyond natural beauty, the region allows visitors to learn the history of African American coal miners and their communities in West Virginia. 

  • 12/12/2021

    The Value of a "Greater Chaco" National Park

    by Richard Moe

    President Biden's decision to create a buffer zone around the Chaco Culture National Park protects not just a natural landscape but a potentially priceless trove of yet-to-be discovered artifacts and sites sacred to Native people today. 

  • 9/26/2021

    The Roots of the Politicization of the National Parks Service

    by Nick DeLuca

    The National Park Service has never been totally independent of politics. But a 1996 law requiring Senate approval of the NPS Director, combined with the Trump administration's use of acting directors, has created uncertainty. Approving Biden's nominee Chuck Sams is a key step to putting the National Parks on solid footing. 

  • SOURCE: New York Times
    9/20/2021

    Park Rangers Bring Black History to Life in the Great Outdoors

    As Americans consider the racist views of John Muir and the legacy of exclusion from national parks spaces, the Times highlights the work of African American workers in the national parks service and the Black history they help preserve "for the benefit and enjoyment of people." 

  • SOURCE: The Atlantic
    4/12/2021

    Don’t Cancel John Muir (But Don't Excuse Him Either)

    Reckoning with John Muir's legacy of racial prejudice isn't just about imposing moral purity, it's about rethinking the conservation movement to include the broad coalition of humanity needed to protect natural resources. 

  • SOURCE: National Parks Traveler
    2/25/2021

    Op-Ed | Confederate Memorials Serve A Role In National Parks

    by Harry Butowski

    "The removal of existing statues in our Civil War parks will not change our history, but make it more difficult to confront and examine our history. National parks are the great American classroom where American history is taught."

  • SOURCE: National Parks Traveler
    2/22/2021

    The Future Of Confederate Monuments

    by Kim O'Connell

    “The Park Service needs to ask, ‘Who’s coming to your site and who’s not coming to your site?’” says Denise Meringolo, a professor of public history at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. “Those monuments are a barrier to significant portions of the audience, for whom they are not simply inaccurate or annoying. They are traumatizing.”

  • SOURCE: Gettysburg Connection
    5/15/2020

    Thavolia Glymph Appointed to Gettysburg Foundation Board

    Duke University Professor Thavolia Glymph joins the board of the foundation, which partners with the National Parks Service to preserve and promote historical sites near Gettysburg related to the Civil War battlefield and to the military career of Dwight D. Eisenhower.

  • SOURCE: National Parks Conservation Association
    5/1/2020

    "An Honest Reckoning"

    Hundreds of people were once enslaved at the opulent  Hampton estate, but for decades after the site became part of the National Park System, their stories remained hidden.  That is changing.