Monuments

Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument

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I had forgotten that it was a children’s march on Palm Sunday that was assaulted by dogs and water cannon. Under city ordinance, it was illegal for children of different races to play together. In my view, the longer a system of injustice is allowed to stand, the more deeply engrained it becomes. The Civil Rights Institute does a powerful job of setting the scene, where African Americans worked in the steel mills and mines and lived in the city behind a color line. People like Bull Connor and the mayor grew up believing that segregation was normal, right and beneficial. They didn’t play with African American children as kids, and as adults they attacked them, peacefully assembled, wearing Sunday clothes, in a park, outside the 16th St Baptist Church, singing songs. The children had learned from Dr King not to fear jail when doing no wrong, but the assault against them was brutal, and televised.

At the time, America was shocked and voiced outrage. This week children were slaughtered in yet another episode of gun violence. I wonder if we’re sufficiently outraged to change the system as those kids in Birmingham did.

“A man dies when he doesn’t stand up for injustice.”

Rev Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. in Selma

Camp Nelson National Monument

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While obviously fortified, the camp is best remembered as a refugee and training site for escaped and liberated slaves to join the Union. A heartless commander here burned shelters before winter to try to dissuade refugees from staying, leading to over 100 deaths from exposure, national outrage and new legislation to build more permanent refugee shelters at many Union bases, including food, clothing & education. There’s a community nearby that persists since that time. Many of the US Colored Troops that served, especially in the second half of the war, were trained here.

Mill Springs Battlefield National Monument

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The photo is from the eponymous national cemetery next door to the visitor center.

Lincoln said ”I hope to have God on my side, but I must have Kentucky.” Kentucky was neutral early, perhaps since they enjoyed betting on horses, especially when they could tell who was going to win. In 1861, it wasn’t clear, at least until this battle.

The confederate troops had entered Kentucky from the East through the Cumberland Gap and soon fortified near the river. Unfortunately, Zollicoffer split his troops on both banks and a rising river made redeployment difficult. Worse, when fighting started, he approached some troops to stop “friendly fire”, not realizing that they were the enemy. With their general dead, the confederates became disorganized and lost. This led to a string of Union victories leading south.

Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home National Monument

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Their home is currently closed to the public. It’s in a residential neighborhood, and the park service is figuring out how to reopen it. The normal setting underscores the shocking assassination of civil rights leader Medgar Evers in June of 1963. They had prepared for a drive by attack (note the door is on the side), but not for a waiting sniper. Two all white juries failed to convict his assassin who sat on the local ”White Citizens Council”, but in 1994 a conviction was won. Myrlie continues to fight for civil rights, and Medgar, a Normandy veteran, is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

Waco Mammoth National Monument

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While not quite as large as the mammoth site in South Dakota, this is the largest fossil nursery of mammoths in North America. Unearthed by creek erosion, the first bone brought to nearby Baylor University confirmed the mammoth find. There’s now an active dig site enclosed inside a lab building. The rangers answer questions outside, due to Covid. The city of Waco extracts a small management fee, despite this also being a NPS unit.

The ranger explained that there’s some confusion over the term used to describe the mammoths, “Columbian”. First, it’s not Colombian, meaning from the South American country of Colombia. Second, it’s not “pre-Columbian” which is used by anthropologists to describe Native American civilizations in the Americas before the arrival of Columbus. It’s Columbian, meaning found in the Americans, either before or after Columbus visited. It’s not known exactly when the last mammoth was extinguished by humans, but we do know that humans will drive a massive wave of species to extinction with our carbon pollution, unless we confront the crisis now.

Poverty Point National Monument

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Over three thousand years ago, Native Americans built something massive here with over five million man-hours of labor. I took the photo from the top of the largest bird-shaped mound built over 700 feet wide and 70 feet high. There are additional mounds in a north-south line as well as a series of three parallel ridges, forming an octagonal plaza 3/4 of a mile wide. Tools found here show that materials came from all over the greater Mississippi watershed. Artifacts show refined stonework, fired clay crafts, beads, and detailed figurines. Topography and excavation show signs of a quarry, dock, swales and a causeway, demonstrating sophisticated engineering techniques and planning for the Late Archaic. The north-south lines suggest calendar knowledge, perhaps for agriculture.

This park is another UNESCO World Heritage Site and is managed by Louisiana which charges a small fee, despite also being a NPS unit. I doubt many Americans are familiar with this site, which dates back to the Shang Dynasty in China, the first Dynasty of Babylon, the expansion of Egypt and the Ancient Greeks. Certainly it belittles the lie that the Native Americans never built anything.

George Washington Carver National Monument

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I love this statue. Carver was born at the end of the Civil War and was kidnapped and orphaned by the Klan. His mother’s owners retrieved him and raised him here, where he studied the plants near the creek as a child. He was educated mainly in Kansas, despite racial barriers, and eventually became the first African American to graduate from his school. His manner was mild, but he demonstrated great determination in the face of poverty, adversity and prejudice.

Recognized for his extensive scientific knowledge of botany and for being a groundbreaking African American scientist, he was hired to teach at Booker T. Washington’s Tuskegee University. His goal was to help the least in society, so he worked on modernizing agricultural techniques used by African American farmers, even bringing a cart from the university out to the fields to teach, a technique copied by the US Department of Agriculture. He published many books and pamphlets, developed patented techniques and is best remembered for developing the lowly peanut into a highly profitable series of products. He testified to Congress about the peanut and scientific agricultural techniques and was widely recognized for his many accomplishments.

I know Carver is an inspirational figure admired for overcoming obstacles, but I can’t help but wonder how many others were denied even the limited opportunities he had. Slavery existed here for 244 years, with 10 million sent across the Atlantic and maybe another 10 million born into slavery here. None of them were properly educated. None had the freedom to pursue their dreams. And all died without being able to fully contribute their talents and ideas to improve the world. How many young, inquisitive minds were destroyed by slavery? How much human enlightenment was snuffed out to pick cotton? Carver was one of the first born after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed, and he spent his life making the world a better place for all of us. But I can’t help but mourn the incalculable loss of all the other people during those 244 years and after who could have contributed as well or even more.

Capulin Volcano National Monument

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I don’t always plan my schedule well enough. I made it to this park about 30 minutes before closing, but just after they closed the volcano road to the top, which is why I took this photo from near the visitor center. Sometimes parks will let you drive out before sunset on your own after the visitor center closes, but apparently the volcano road is narrow and restricted to hikers for the last couple hours of daylight. I should have checked the hours more carefully, and I should have planned an extra day or two on this leg of my trip. I actually had to postpone two planned stops until next time in order to get back on track. I think volcanoes remind me of devastation more than renewal, so I tend to de-prioritize them when planning. Oh well, sometimes we need to admit our mistakes, so we can do better in the future, if we still have time. There’s a broader lesson in that.

Fort Union National Monument

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Not much remains of the largest Union fort in the west. But there’s plenty of history here. This was a critical supply base to keep the Confederacy from expanding into the southwest. Some of the Navajo who were driven from their homes during the Long Walk were imprisoned here. Here was the largest and most advanced hospital in the west. Soldiers and cavalry guarded both branches of the Santa Fe trail from here, once trading and migration routes for Natives, then for settlers whose wagon ruts can still be seen in the earth, then for the mail, and finally for the railroad, which still bears the name in the logo BNSF.

On the drive out to the site, a pronghorn stood in the road and stared at me, perhaps not frightened by my relatively quiet and zero emission electric car. Although I didn’t get a photo, I got a careful look at it and confirmed its identity with the park volunteer. Turns out they’re not antelope but related to giraffe. Again, everything I learned about the west, where “the antelope play” was wrong. There aren’t any antelope in North America. The pronghorn are the last survivors of human hunting among similar species in North America, due to their speed. Humans are increasingly lethal to all other species, and by changing our climate so quickly, we will make most species on earth extinct within a few decades. I wonder what our ancestors who traveled this trail would say if they could see how quickly we are devastating the planet.

Bandelier National Monument

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While it is easy to see the impressive semi-circular pueblo ruins on the valley floor and peek in the various rooms along the canyon wall, Alcove House was open to those willing to hike a bit further and climb the series of steep ladders 140 feet up. I imagine it would have been much more difficult carrying supplies, children or elderly relatives up the ladders when the Native Americans were living here. There’s a creek running down the canyon from the large volcano which makes a pleasant place to consider the climb or to cool down on the hike back.