Author: bigdiff

All Abraham Lincoln Sites

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Abraham Lincoln is remembered in the name of four national park sites and one national heritage area, and he is an integral part of at least four more sites, not to mention numerous other national and state sites, landmarks, parks and much more.

Abraham Lincoln National Heritage Area is in Illinois, and it includes hundreds of waysides, visitors centers, historic sites, debate sites, Lincoln’s impressive tomb in Springfield, tour routes, museums and more. The Lincoln Home and the nearby Presidential Library & Museum are key partners with the non-profit that preserves his legacy and cooperates with towns and others who celebrate Lincoln and promote Lincoln tourism.

The NPS recognizes the following four sites as integral to understanding his legacy, but many of the Civil War sites and more are part of the full story, particularly Gettysburg and Appomattox. There’s even a Lincoln story (photo above) in the defense of Washington DC.

If you’re looking for trip ideas, consider a road trip in an electric vehicle focusing on Lincoln!

Ford’s Theatre

“By God, that will be the last speech that he will ever make!” John Wilkes Booth A Shakespearean actor, infuriated…

Lincoln Memorial

Carl Sandburg reported that Lincoln felt that the important monument was not the marble one but the “more enduring one…

MotorCities National Heritage Area

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Behind “Elizabeth” above is the secret room where Henry Ford designed and built the first Model T in his factory on Piquette Avenue on the then outskirts of Detroit. His buddy Harvey Firestone got the first ride, and then Ford road-tested the vehicle by driving through Wisconsin to the Upper Peninsula on a hunting trip. (Along with the influential naturalist John Burroughs and the inventor Thomas Edison, the four were close friends and camping buddies). Then, introduced in 1908, the Ford Model T took over the US car market.

Roughly half the price of a horse-drawn carriage (including horses, shoes and fodder), priced lower than competing cars, and offering useful attachments like truck beds, skis or tractor wheels, folks loved the rugged, practical vehicles. Ford had already built models B, C, F, K, R, N and S in this factory, but a lighter weight steel allowed him to build the vehicle he knew would be popular in rural America (Ford grew up on a 200 acre farm), the Model T, with 6 models ranging from $825 to $1100: the Roadster, Tourabout, 5-Passenger Touring Car(above), Town Car, Coupe (popular with doctors) and Landaulet (taxi). The original Model A that had been built down the road in 1903 was redesigned and reintroduced in 1927 to replace the Model T as another commercial success. Of over 100 car makers in Michigan when Ford started, his is the only original firm remaining.

By making the popular standard car, Ford determined the direction of the industry. His wife insisted the steering wheel be placed on the roadside, so that when he drove she didn’t dirty her dress while stepping to the curb. Instead of alternatives like steam-punk coal-burning vehicles or electric vehicles—several of Ford’s earliest vehicles were electric—, gasoline was readily available across the country for small machines and farm equipment. Before realizing that black paint was cheaper and dried quicker, red and green models were also sold, often with raw white rubber tires, as above. After making various improvements to the assembly process here, Ford designed his next factory with steel-reinforced concrete floors to bring parts down to the world’s first synchronized assembly line. While this fascinating heritage area includes many different car museums, the Piquette Factory tour must be considered the highlight, with two dozen early model cars built here on display over 100 years later.

The Great Lakes & Midwest Biospheres

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This year I completed loops around all the Great Lakes, crossing the Canadian border in Minnesota, upper & lower Michigan, and western & northern New York, visiting biospheres in both countries. In Canada, UNESCO Biospheres are tourist destinations, where you can hike and see and learn about wildlife, in addition to and separately from their wonderful national and provincial parks. In the US, while some national parks are also internationally recognized biospheres, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO, is hardly mentioned.

Obtawaing Biosphere is a university project, not well known despite its international scientific research cooperation. Isle Royale National Park attracts many midwestern volunteers for its prey-predator study (see tagged moose above), but even if you ask a ranger, you’re unlikely to learn much about the site being a UNESCO Biosphere. And it took some research for me to learn that Sleeping Bear Dunes is also part of the larger global biosphere network.

Many Americans view our parks as recreation areas for workers to take vacations and spend money as tourists. That nature thrives there is taken for granted. What’s important for most is that you can exercise by climbing a dune, hiking across an island, renting a kayak or biking on a trail. If science is considered at all, it should be presented to the kids in an entertaining, limited format, where kids can learn about ‘weird’ or ‘cool’ animals.

Canada has all of that too, but they also cooperate in international scientific efforts to protect nature. Adults are encouraged to increase their scientific understanding of species too. Their Great Lake biospheres have online visiting information, campgrounds, cooperative agreements with First Nations, birding resources, museums, and both areas that are closed to the public and where the public is welcome. UNESCO is on the signs and in the exhibits.

Sadly, a few Americans believe stupid conspiracies about UNESCO, and some leaders disparaged the science group over an unrelated Israel/ Palestine dispute. As President, Trump removed 17 US Biospheres from the UN program, including Konza Prairie in Kansas. Kansas may not be demographically diverse, but its Tallgrass Prairie is ecologically important to species diversity on earth. The research at Konza used to receive international funding and cooperate with UN scientific efforts, including climate and wildfire research.

There is no logic behind stopping us from receiving funding from the UN for many of our critically important research biospheres, when we need international cooperation to fix the climate crisis. Humans impact nature, and if we’re not careful, we will irrevocably destroy much of our natural environment. Americans should learn about and celebrate our UNESCO biospheres. Please support scientific research and the environment.

Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore

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The small lake on the right is Glen Lake, and Lake Michigan is at the top left. If you zoom in to the right, you might see tiny people climbing the middle dune from the parking lot. I got up to this vast view on the pleasant Cottonwood Trail (less than 2 miles round trip) from the Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive, which also takes you to the breathtaking Lake Michigan Overlook and the splendid Sleeping Bear Overlook. Many folks seem to want to do things the hard way, but I definitely recommend hiking from the scenic drive. The impressive Sleeping Bear Dune itself is over 1000 feet high, and folks frequently need rescuing ($3,000) after climbing down to the lake and not being able to climb back up. A few extreme winter folk ski down the steep dune to the lake. Not sure how they get back up. Please stay on the trails, as past humans caused much erosion damage to the fragile ecosystem here. This is a beautiful park with wildlife, deep Native American roots, and it is part of a new UNESCO Biosphere across northern lower Michigan.

Obtawaing Biosphere

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The University of Michigan Biological Station—better known as ‘bug camp’—on Douglas Lake (above) began over 100 years ago, and now, under its new Anishinaabemowin name, it is recognized as the heart of a huge UNESCO biosphere protecting species in northern Michigan. While UMBS is not a tourist destination at all, I saw groups of enthusiastic students and researchers preparing scientific experiments and data collection, various boats and a large protected forest. They are doing important research on the Climate Crisis and preparing a new generation of experts with hands on experience. We need to stop climate change denial, pay attention to the science and stop carbon pollution, before it’s too late.

Bronzeville—Black Metropolis National Heritage Area

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The South Side of Chicago has long been a historic district, and now it will be recognized as its own National Heritage Area. This is the neighborhood of activist Ida B. Wells, the church for Emmett Till’s funeral, of poet Gwendolyn Brooks, boxer Jack Johnson, musicians Louis Armstrong and Nat King Cole, and where a young community organizer named Barack Obama worked before law school. 1/2 a million African Americans moved to Chicago during the early 20th century. Above is the Monument to the Great Migration at MLK & 25th, welcoming people to join the community, and every so often you will find a bronze plaque recognizing accomplished residents on the walk to 35th, where there’s another statue, honoring the African American soldiers who chased the Germans at the end of WWI.

The neighborhood continues south, with many beautiful brownstone buildings and a few blues venues. Unfortunately, many historic buildings—like the Checkerboard Lounge where Muddy Waters used to play—were lost to poor government planning, an expressway that cut the neighborhood off, and expansion of the University of Chicago. Establishing a specific heritage area helps recognize the unique cultural value of a neighborhood, encouraging more visitors by promoting it. Now, I expect Black Metropolis will continue experiencing its renaissance, and I look forward to trying the food at Bronzeville Soul (closed Mondays) the next time I pass through town.

Affiliated Sites in Midwest

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I recently completed EV visits to all five NPS affiliated sites in the Midwest, which were interesting and educational. Wisconsin is a good place to learn about drumlin hills, kettle lakes and moraine at the various park interpretive centers in the Ice Age National Scientific Reserve. The story of Father Marquette’s voyages and the Chicago Portage stretches through several states. Toledo Ohio keeps history at the Fallen Timbers Battlefield and Fort Miamis (see the fort’s footprint above) on the banks of the Maumee River. And Nebraska protects Chimney Rock on the pioneer trails.

Much more coming soon, including three national parks, biospheres, and heritage areas as I wrap up the Midwest region. And I reveal my secret project. Stay tuned!

Grand Portage National Monument

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[Update: Blackwell National Historic Site in Texas is now officially a national park unit.]

The photo is from the moose exhibit upstairs at the visitor center. I failed to photograph a bald eagle flying right in front of the reconstructed fort, which includes a great hall, kitchen, warehouse, lookout and wooden palisade. The monument is surrounded by Anishinaabe (Ojibwe/Chippewa) land, and the tribe co-manages the unit, a first for the NPS. I stayed at the casino to catch an early ferry from Grand Portage, and I had a delicious ‘lunker’ (big fish) for dinner. From the dock, you can see Isle Royale in the distance, and there are various demonstrations of the fur trading life during the summer season.

Traders wanted access to the western rivers and lakes, and the easiest way to get there was to carry their canoes on the ~10 mile Grand Portage Trail around some impassable waterfalls (including Minnesota’s largest) on the Pigeon River at the border with Canada. At a site called Fort Charlotte, the voyageurs entered the Pigeon River—now the US-Canada border—and continued with shorter portages upstream on the Athabasca, English & Saskatchewan Rivers. They would pass through what’s now Voyageurs National Park, Rainy Lake, Lake of the Woods, and deep up into the Canadian Rockies to the Athabasca, Great Slave, and Winnipeg Lakes. The trail carried beaver and other pelts, typically trapped by natives, in 90 pound packs from inland Canada down to Montreal (skipping the polar bears around Hudson Bay), bound for global markets in Europe, Russia and China. Vast fortunes were made wiping out the abundance of our wildlife.

Arkansas in Photos

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Celebrating visiting all park sites in Arkansas by EV and updating the Natural State on my map! Arkansas has both beautiful natural and many important historic sites. Below see Arkansas Post, Buffalo River, Bill Clinton Birthplace, Fort Smith, Hot Springs National Park, Little Rock Central High, and Pea Ridge. Two national historic trails also pass through the state: Butterfield & Trail of Tears. And the two easternmost American Concentration Camps are in Arkansas: Jerome & Rohwer.