Affiliate

NPTC listed affiliated sites

Father Marquette National Memorial

/ bigdiff / 1 Comment

At 36, Jacques Marquette was already a famous explorer and missionary. He spoke at least half a dozen Native American dialects and languages, had helped found Sault (‘Soo’) Ste. Marie, and he helped others settle and avoid conflicts. But then he embarked on a trip through Green Bay, down the Mississippi, to the Arkansas and back up the Illinois, greatly enhancing settlers’ understanding of central North America. The return route, suggested by native guides, proved the pivotal Chicago Portage. Beyond his importance to French Catholics and their descendants, he introduced Christianity to many Native American tribes, and his explorations and settlements helped determine the future of trade and growth in the Great Lakes, on both sides of the border.

Missionaries also brought deadly diseases into the lives of many people with no natural immunity, and their practices of baptizing babies, distributing bread at Communion, and gathering closely together weekly for songs and prayers were lethal for many native communities. But Marquette traveled among the tribes a few years before Leeuwenhoek discovered bacteria. Marquette himself died after contracting dysentery at 37, and his memorial is on the north side of the above Mackinac Bridge—which connects upper and lower Michigan—in the touristy town of St. Ignace which Marquette founded. There’s honestly not much to see in this affiliated park site (since the small museum burned down years ago) except for a few plaques and a short trail, but nearby there’s a nice view of the Mackinac Bridge (above) over the straights that Marquette explored and traveled through often.

Chicago Portage National Historic Park

/ bigdiff / 3 Comments

Way back in 1673, French explorers Louis Jolliet and Father Jacques Marquette were preparing to travel east to return to Canada after exploring the Mississippi River. Though the statue wrongly implies that Marquette pointed out the route, their Native American guides showed them a shortcut, by traveling up the Illinois River and portaging (carrying) their canoes between some muddy lakes to Lake Michigan. Marquette realized that if there were a canal, weeks-long journeys would reduce to days. 175 years later, the government finally built the canal, and suddenly, Chicago became one of the largest and most important transportation hubs and cities in the US.

The site itself is in a small woods between the Des Plaines and Chicago Rivers, and as part of Chicago’s river greenways, it’s managed by Cook County in affiliation with the NPS. The canal itself is 100 miles long with a bike trail, and there is a 1 mile canal boat tour in LaSalle at the Illinois River end. A non-profit association runs summer boat tour as well as the larger Illinois and Michigan Canal National Heritage Area, which includes Chicago Portage, the Pullman National Historical Park and promotes tourism to neighboring communities and parks. The canal is a key part of the Great Loop, a boat trip around the eastern part of the country, from the Great Lakes down the Mississippi, around Florida, up the eastern seaboard to New York, and back to the Great Lakes.

Wing Luke Museum

/ bigdiff / 2 Comments

“Holy Breakthrough Hollywood Star!”

—Robin

In 1967 above, Kato and the Green Hornet appeared on TV with Batman and Robin, and they even faced off ready to fight. That was 55 years before Asian Americans finally won Oscars for Everything… All At Once. While the park service affiliated Wing Luke Museum is named for a popular local man who became the Civil Rights AG for Washington state and City Council member for Seattle, at a time when Asian Americans were segregated from white society, the museum celebrates the experiences of all Asian American immigrants and the next generations. So, Bruce Lee, the son of a Cantonese opera performer, who became a superhero, movie star, martial artist and philosopher admired around the world for generations, and who changed the world through determination, is very much at the heart of the story here.

Bruce went to school in Seattle, worked as a busboy, began teaching and opened his first martial arts school here. He also met his wife and is buried here. His favorite restaurant, Tai Tong is down the street from the museum, so feel free to sit in his booth and order his favorite oyster beef dish. But the museum is about more than Bruce Lee or even Seattle’s Chinatown, as it includes specific, community and art exhibits on many different Asian cultures in Seattle and the US. The staff will also recommend Vietnamese, Cambodian, Japanese and other restaurants in the diverse neighborhood. Be sure to take the excellent guided tour of the shop, hotel, mahjong and family association rooms while you’re at the museum.

While I was visiting, there was a special exhibit on the Japanese Internment, which included video testimony of US citizens of Japanese descent who were incarcerated, robbed, lied to and dehumanized by the US government, while their brothers and sons served in Europe in the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, the most decorated unit of its size and service in US history. One man made the point that although his family opposed reparations, hearing the testimony and sharing his own family history was a necessary catharsis for all of them and for the nation. Another woman, a clinical social worker, explained that her own behavior and those she observed among her friends and family were most similar to battered children, who desperately wanted to love their country, no matter how much damage was done to them, because the US was the only country they knew. Well worth learning from this important history.

Roosevelt Campobello International Park

/ bigdiff / 1 Comment

The park is in Canada, but the bridge to the Campobello Island is from Maine. I use my passport card for trips like this, where I just drive across the border for a few hours. I also crossed the border into Juárez in January, so this is my third country by EV. The park is an affiliated park, jointly run by both the US and Canada. Obviously, the staff are very nice, polite and helpful.

The Roosevelts used to vacation here in summer, and one of their children was born here. FDR came down with polio here in his 30s, although he likely contracted it before arriving. The house tour is fascinating with various toys and artifacts of their summers, and there’s a large nature preserve which has exceptional views at Liberty Point. However, my favorite part is the Tea with Eleanor.

At 11 and 3 (Atlantic time is 1 hour ahead of Maine), the staff give visitors free tea and cookies in one of the cottages while they present the life and achievements of Eleanor Roosevelt. They describe her trip to Tuskegee, her wartime work with the Red Cross, her friendship with Mary McLeod Bethune, her concert at the Lincoln Memorial for Marion Anderson, and here work on the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to name a few. One of my favorite park experiences.

Great Egg Harbor River

/ bigdiff / 4 Comments

This park needs some explanation. Behind over-developed Ocean and Atlantic Cities in New Jersey, there’s a large underdeveloped lowland pitch pine forest with rivers, creeks, swamps and bogs. The ground is sandy, so colonial farmers wrote off the whole area as the “pine barrens”. There were a few failed attempts at industry, including mills, glassworks and munitions, but the lack of elevation meant little hydro power. In the 1920’s Atlantic City boomed, but the swamps were mostly for bootleg gin and mosquitoes.

In the 1970’s developers and environmentalists faced off to decide the fate of the remaining forest. By then, cranberry and blueberry farmers had begun commercial farming, roads crisscrossed the area, and there was a diverse mix of increasing rural and residential growth. Development is the primary cause of unnatural fire suppression, which changes the ecosystem over time. The pine land was becoming valuable and the forest at risk.

Environmentalists argued that the unique pine forest was home to several rare species—including Pygmy pine, a tree frog, an orchid and many birds—, and, by adapting to historic wildfires, the hot-burning pitch pine trees became dominant by regrowing faster than hardwoods. They also pointed out that underneath the entire sandy swamp was a huge pristine freshwater underground aquifer that supplied places like Atlantic City. Develop the forest, and you create big problems in the future. The battle is still ongoing, but much of the forest is now protected. UNESCO has recognized the Pinelands as an International Biosphere Reserve.

The park service only protects the main river—just the water—, and much of the land alongside the river is maintained piecemeal by different county’s parks. The largest undeveloped pine forest area is managed by the state, and there are four state forests in the Pinelands, along with many wildlife reserves and other parks. The Pinelands National Reserve is affiliated with but not run by the National Park Service. Since I’m visiting official national park units, my challenge was finding the river amid the forest.

I stayed at one of the county campgrounds near Mays Landing, Lake Lenape West in Atlantic County, where it’s easy to put a kayak in the water and paddle around. Lake Lenape itself is like a neighborhood recreation area, with a ridiculous little lighthouse, but if you paddle up to the top, there are nesting bald eagles where the river enters. There is at least one campground upstream, Winding River, that rents equipment, but be advised that there are likely obstructions from low hanging trees potentially blocking progress near that section of the river. Estell Manor Park downstream has a nature center with extremely knowledgeable park partners who patiently explained all this to me and directed me to the side channel in the river above, where there’s an artesian well and the overgrown ruins of an old business. It’s a fascinating area in an underrated state that just requires a bit of extra effort to figure out and explore.

Colonial National Historical Park

/ bigdiff / 11 Comments

This Virginia park spans the history of Colonial America, from the first settlement and seat of English government to Yorktown which marked the end of British military control. While in theory the park can be visited in a day, take two. The pretty town of Yorktown is nice with a little beach. Jamestown has several areas to see, and the park road connecting them runs through Colonial Williamsburg, which alone is worth time. This is my favorite colonial era park.

Yorktown has a very good visitor center, film and two auto tours. Even I was able to follow what happened, and long story short, the victory was as much or more French than American. Alexander Hamilton led the successful joint French & American assault on the last two key British defensive positions, one of which is eroding into the bay. The Rhode Island Light Infantry Regiment—largely African American—were critical in the assault, which employed bayonets on unloaded muskets to ensure both silence and an aggressive attack. Washington maneuvered his armies & Lafayette executed the siege in their most successful and determinative battle of the war with the assistance of the French fleet blocking the large mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. There are also remnants of the Confederate defense of Richmond on the same battlefield, although that is not the main focus of the park.

Jamestown needs explanation. Simply, there are three parts: 1) the park service Loop Road which is a swampy wooded drive or bike ride through the eastern end of the island, 2) the state’s very well funded living history settlement, and 3) the oldest Jamestowne part that has been run by a private group which predates the park service and is now an affiliated National Historic Site. All three are amazing. I saw a bald eagle, baby turtles, deer and more. At the settlement you can climb aboard recreations of all three ships, visit a Native American village, a reconstruction of the fort and an impressive museum, and there are many helpful staff throughout, some clothed in period garb, making the history extremely accessible. But don’t miss the third part, Olde Jamestowne.

This is the original remote outpost of the Elizabethan era that excited imaginations at the time, including Shakespeare whose Tempest is based on a shipwreck here. The most exciting work today is happening above in the oldest section of the park: an active archaeological dig with many world class discoveries. The fort there is built on the original fort site, and one of the archaeologists who began the dig in the 1990s gave a guided tour. There’s also a museum showcasing their discoveries.

Pocahontas married her husband John Rolfe in the church to her right, her husband witnessed the arrival of the first Africans at Fort Comfort (now Monroe), and the most recent excavation of a well is happening over her left shoulder. One of the gruesome discoveries was evidence of cannibalism among the settlers, but other discoveries speak to the diversity of the colony and its early peace with the natives, thanks mainly to the young woman above.

Lower East Side Tenement Museum National Historic Site

/ bigdiff / 5 Comments

While I took the 1902 tour focusing on Jewish immigrants and the beef riots, the film in the museum was about two Joseph Moores, one black and one Irish, and explored the unequal outcomes dictated by law and society. I highly recommend both, as seldom does history provide so valuable a perspective on current issues such as the importance of activism in resisting inequality and injustice and as the long term impact of systemic racism.

The Levine family lived and worked in a three-room sweatshop tenement producing garments like those above (the one on the right is original), and their butcher’s family lived and worked in the basement. In the spring of 1902, the new scion of the Armour meatpacking firm of Chicago decided to hike the price of Kosher beef by 50%. He was trying to build an estate for his wife which would include a bowling alley, 20 marble fireplaces, fish ponds, a large herd of deer, and a greenhouse for growing oranges. (He inspired Upton Sinclair’s novel The Jungle). The Beef Trust had a monopoly on Kosher beef in New York City (at the time the largest Jewish city in the world), so they simply dictated the new price to all the butchers. The firm was renowned for low pay, strike-breaking, and hardball tactics to get whatever they wanted.

But they underestimated the Jewish housewives of the Lower East Side tenements. The women organized, boycotted, threw bricks through butcher shop windows, burned meat on their floors and even climbed down from the synagogue balconies to throw raw ground beef in the butchers’ faces. In a month, the price rise was reduced by 2/3rds, and a whole generation of suffragettes, union leaders and political activists was born. (In my first job, I worked with old women who had numbers tattooed on their arms, and they were not to be underestimated).

One of the historic Orchard St buildings is undergoing renovations, but all the tours, including the walking tours of the neighborhood are insightful. I recommend Katz’s deli or Russ & Daughters for a bite before or after your tour.

Thomas Cole National Historic Site

/ bigdiff / 3 Comments

Like the Oklahoma City Memorial and the Touro Synagogue, this is an affiliated site that’s run separately from the park service, so there’s a $15 fee for the house tour. I’m a fan of Cole’s The Course of Empire set of paintings, which depict the same landscape from Nature to height of civilization and to forgotten ruins. The reproduction in his old studio above is from another series called The Voyage of Life.

Cole immigrated from England in 1818 at 17 and settled in the Catskill area of the Hudson River Valley to become a painter in 1825. Witnessing both the natural beauty and its destruction due to rapidly growing industry, Cole created romantic and allegorical landscapes to convey both his love of nature and his sadness at its devastation. He was extremely influential, and there’s a whole Art Trail devoted to the landscape artists who followed his style.

“Nature has spread for us a rich and delightful banquet.

Shall we turn from it?

We are still in Eden;

the wall that shuts us our of the garden

is our own ignorance and folly.”

Thomas Cole

Touro Synagogue National Historic Site

/ bigdiff / 2 Comments

The oldest synagogue building in America, Touro is an enduring symbol of our freedom of religion. Fearful of the Inquisition, many Jews migrated to new world colonies not under Spanish or Portuguese control. The Torah pictured was a gift from a congregation in Amsterdam and is over 500 years old. Rhode Island was founded as a religious sanctuary by Roger Williams, with help from John Clarke and Anne Hutchinson, who was banished from the Puritan Massachusetts Bay Colony for having the audacity to argue that women could discuss and help interpret scripture. The synagogue occupies a prominent location in Newport, along with other faith centers, away from the political center to help show the separation of church and state. And, since it is still being used by the local congregation as a place of worship, the park receives no federal funding.

Several Presidents have visited, but the first was George Washington, who wrote a thank you letter expressing his view that beyond mere tolerance, religion is a natural American right shared equally, including full liberty of conscience for all, guaranteeing protection against fear. Today’s Christian Nationalists should be ashamed of their profoundly un-American views.

“All possess alike liberty of conscience…

for, happily, the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance…

every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree, and there shall be none to make him afraid.”

George Washington’s Letter to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, Rhode Island

Oklahoma City National Memorial

/ bigdiff / 5 Comments

Each of the chairs is etched with a name of one of the 168 victims of the bombing here on 19 April, 1995. The smaller chairs are for each of the 19 children killed.

The memorial is designed to achieve closure for this traumatic event, for the families, survivors and responders. The reflecting pool spans the 1 minute interval at 9:02 am ‘between innocence and healing’. There’s a statue of Jesus weeping with his back turned away. There’s a grand old elm that survived. And there’s graffiti, sprayed by a CSI bomb specialist working in the rubble, promising to seek Justice for the victims and for God.

For me, the decision not to delve into the cause of the bombing makes closure impossible. Neither the victims nor God could be satisfied that 27 years later our country is still under assault by violent anti-government white supremacists. The $15 museum (closed Sunday mornings) describes the investigation and trial (2nd floor), but the main film is on “personal responsibility” (GW Bush’s campaign theme).

The truth is that McVeigh (executed) and Nichols (life) were anti-semitic, white supremacists who believed that attacking the government and killing civilians is justified. They were heinous criminals, not patriots. Yet their hateful, militant and deadly beliefs have continued to grow into a powerful political movement that still threatens our democracy.

The memorial offers a powerful opportunity to teach people about overcoming bigotry, about non-violence and about true patriotism. The focus should be on the strengths of our democracy, including “liberty and justice for all” and our right to “peaceably assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances”. Instead, each memory is placed in a glass case, platitudes abound, Christianity is affirmed, extremism ignored, and our nation is left unable to come to terms with the issues that caused the bombing.