NPS

Glen Canyon National Recreation Area

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Like most people who travel through the crossroads of Page, I paid $10, walked 3/4 of a mile and took a picture of Horseshoe Bend. It’s an easy photo, especially around 2:30 pm, with the sun shining down over your left shoulder onto the deep oxbow canyon below. On a clear day the blue sky reflects in the river, and the height of the overlook makes a photo idiot-proof, easily framing the river bend from cliff to cliff and from horizon to bottom’s edge. Even I, a mediocre photographer at best, got the shot I dreamed about. But instead, I decided to show you the uglier view above.

“a curious ensemble of wonderful features
—carved walls, royal arches, glens, alcove gulches, mounds and monuments.
From which of these features shall we select a name?
We decide to call it Glen Canyon.”

John Wesley Powell, explorer

When John Wesley Powell first explored this canyon in 1869, he and his crew were amazed by the varied beauty of the place. Above all the impressive geologic features, they decided the best part of the canyon were the narrow green glens, teeming with specialized flowers, birds and animals. Less than 100 years later in 1963, the beautiful glens of Glen Canyon were drowned, and in a cruel irony, the temporary bathtub was named “Lake Powell” after the explorer & geologist who most loved the living glens.

In retrospect, Glen Canyon Dam should never have been built. Lake Powell, above the dam at right, is a sad collection of marooned boats with ramps and docks that don’t reach the water, so most of the fossil-fuel burning jet skis, power boats, fishing boats and houseboats can’t keep polluting here anymore. The “lake” is more of a stagnant segment of river with bleached canyon walls and a bathtub ring. Due to low water, neither the ferry at Hall’s Crossing nor the tour boats to Rainbow Bridge run anymore. When the water drops another 30 feet—later this year?—the massive hydroelectric towers above the dam to the left won’t have any electricity to deliver.

Engineers no doubt consider the dam to be a victim of its own success, drawing too many people to Arizona with cheap electricity and “plentiful” water. Economists likely consider the dam a fiasco, since all the expensive infrastructure is practically useless now, long before returning on the investment. Common sense says that dam or not, you can’t have your river and drink it too. Environmentalists, who opposed the dam from the beginning, say “we told you so”. Climate scientists say, “it’s going to get worse”.

After all the park is desert—mostly remote canyons in Utah—, and the river isn’t big enough for people to waste. I drive past a lot of busy car washes and gas stations with patches of grass, while the shiny vehicles burn carbon and diminish the mountain snowpack. On my way southeast, I drove through Gilbert, Chandler & Ocotillo neighborhoods near Phoenix. While riff-raff like me aren’t allowed past the walls, gates and guards, satellite maps show private golf courses, lakes, and homes on private islands, all in the desert. It’s tragic to see glimpses of all that water wasted, while our national recreation areas run dry.

Zion National Park

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Having visited now in winter as well as in summer, clearly this is a drop dead gorgeous park. A California Condor circled overhead waiting to see if the views would really kill me. Perhaps that’s why so many of the natural geologic features are given heavenly names, like the Great White Throne, Angel’s Landing and the Temple of Sinawava (the Paiute Coyote God). With fresh snow on the Riverside Walk above, I felt like a kid gawking up at waterfalls until my neck hurt, and I spotted other adults who childishly made snow angels and slid down slopes. Best of all, I had sections of the park to myself, a far cry from summer crowds. This is my favorite ‘snow day’ park.

If you haven’t yet visited, go in any season and hike. Explore as many corners as you can from driving the tunnel, to walking in from the pedestrian bridge, to the Kolob Canyons, the Narrows and any of the wilderness. It’s indescribable. If you can, stay at the Zion Lodge in the park, with a good restaurant, comfortable cabins and EV charging. Despite folks complaining about EVs in cold, I was happy to have dual motors and remote defrost. My vehicle went from snow drift to clear windows, heated seat and steering wheel, while I packed up in my cabin. I wanted to avoid the mandatory shuttle, as it is not yet fully electric (soon!), and seeing Zion in winter is like visiting a different less crowded park. In summer, it’s easier to get to the higher viewpoints and see more wildlife, but winter has a desolate stark beauty even in the middle of the canyon. Next time I should try spring or fall.

Reconstruction Era National Historical Park

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Reconstruction began in November of 1861, when US Navy & Army forces destroyed two forts and took Port Royal, because when all the white planters fled in the Confederate retreat, 10,000 slaves took over their sea island plantations. Union policy at the time was to declare the former slaves “contraband” or illegal property seized by the military. But the pressure was on President Lincoln to resolve their status permanently. First, he quietly authorized the Union’s first black regiment—the 1st South Carolina Volunteer Infantry which by November of 1862 mustered 1000 men and engaged in battle—, and then he finalized his executive order to free the slaves.

“all persons held as slaves within any State…
in rebellion against the United States,
shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free”

Emancipation Proclamation of President Abraham Lincoln

Among the great mossy oaks here at Camp Saxton on the 1st day of January in 1863, our nation’s first black regiment gathered here with their friends and families to all become the first people freed by Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. Then the 1st SC Volunteers received their regimental colors as proud soldiers of the Union Army, under the command of one of John Brown’s conspirators in the raid on Harpers Ferry. Harriet Tubman was also here as a volunteer spy and liberator, and in June she guided three gunboats and the 2nd SC Volunteers up the Combahee River 25 miles north in a dangerous raid that freed 700 slaves. Other African American regiments from Kansas, Massachusetts and other states in both the north and south soon followed, and by the end of the war, 200,000 African Americans enlisted to make up 10% of the Union Army.

As soon as Port Royal was liberated, Philadelphian abolitionists Laura Towne, Ellen Murray and Charlotte Forten, who was African American, arrived and began the most important part of reconstruction: teaching. While not the first African American school, in 1862 they founded the Penn School to teach people who had been denied formal education for generations. The Gullah Geechee people had created their own language and had kept many cultural traditions alive, including the delicious Lowcountry boil or Frogmore stew, and, when given the opportunity for formal education, they began learning basic, practical skills to live independently, everything from shoemaking and auto repair to cooking and nursing. At the Penn Center, I met a Gullah Geechee woman who still speaks the language and who was treated as a child by one of the first physicians to graduate from the Penn School.

The Gullah Geechee sea islands remained in Union hands throughout the war and became central to the Union “anaconda” naval blockade. The hero Robert Smalls (see Fort Sumter), after helping convince Lincoln to enlist African Americans, purchased the home of his previous owner here, using his congressionally awarded bounty for the Planter, and represented this district in Congress for five terms. The beautiful, historic neighborhoods of Beaufort were retained by the descendants of freed slaves by strict preservation laws, resulting in a sharp contrast with nearby predominantly white golfing communities like Hilton Head. In a historic echo, 100 years after the Union used Beaufort as a base to fight the Confederacy, the Reverend Dr Martin Luther King, Jr and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference chose the Penn Center as a base for their Civil Rights campaigns, including planning the March on Washington and the Poor People’s Campaign. Dr King wrote his I Have A Dream speech here in Gantt cabin on the Penn Center campus.

Plan your visit thoughtfully. To the west, Camp Saxton is hidden at the water’s edge between a navy base, the ruins of Fort Frederick and a residential neighborhood. In town, the visitor center in the historic zone’s old firehouse has very knowledgeable rangers who skillfully and kindly disabused me of my misconceptions. To the east, the Penn Center has exhibits (for a donation) on the school, the Gullah Geechee community and the important Civil Rights work done here. There are two dozen historic building on campus including a dock and a Rosenwald school. Many, such as the Brick Baptist Church, aren’t presently open to the public, but Darrah Hall is open with park staff, information and exhibits. A wonderful volunteer discussed whether the Reconstruction Era ever really ended. Plan more time for the Penn Center partner exhibits, less time for the downtown Beaufort visitor center and enough time at Camp Saxton to stand under the Emancipation Oaks (and take a better photo than I did).

Fort Pulaski National Monument

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This Civil War era fort still shows the pockmarked scars from Union artillery. A later famous Lt Robert E Lee helped design the tidal sluice gates and canal for the moat which circumscribes the fort, and he had assured the commander that the walls would hold. And it did hold for 112 days against a Union siege in April of 1862. But despite the impressive moat, drawbridges, masonry, and reinforced internal structures, the invention of rifled artillery made the fort obsolete, as this test of the experimental weapons demonstrated. The wall on the left end had to be rebuilt after the spinning explosive shells opened huge gaps. After 30 hours bombardment, the fort surrendered and the port of Savannah was blocked by the Union’s anaconda. Otherwise, the fort is in good condition, with good views from the tops of the walls, and walking around the inside makes for an interesting visit.

Fort Sumter and Fort Moultrie National Historical Park

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Charleston is a magnificent old port city, well worth an extensive visit. Beyond the colorful stately homes, historic churches and carriage rides, there’s the fateful battle that ignited the Civil War and much more. When I visited Fort Sumter by park ferry (before renouncing carbon travel), my kids and I stared in awe at the ships and harbor. In May of 1862, Robert Smalls, an enslaved ship’s pilot, secretly commandeered a confederate steamship, the Planter, brought his family and friends aboard under cover of darkness and maneuvered the ship out of Charleston, past forts and ships to deliver it to the Union. Fort Wagner of Glory fame (see Boston & New Bedford) was one of those confederate forts at the mouth of the harbor, before the sea took it.

Why the bench? Beloved author Toni Morrison once explained that she wrote that book in part due to the lack of suitable monuments to capture the enormity of slavery, despite centuries of oppression and discrimination. From the impact on Africa, the millions killed in the transatlantic passage, the millions bred in captivity, the millions worked until death, the millions separated, raped and tortured, to the millions kept in ignorance and darkness for centuries, there has been no full accounting, no complete understanding and precious little effort to try. Since the interview, benches have been place in a few places around the world, including the back corner here, at Fort Moultrie near the dock.

“There is no place you or I can go, to think about or not think about,
to summon the presences of, or recollect the absences of slaves . . .
There is no suitable memorial, or plaque, or wreath, or wall, or park, or skyscraper lobby.
There’s no 300-foot tower, there’s no small bench by the road.
There is not even a tree scored, an initial that I can visit or you can visit
in Charleston or Savannah or New York or Providence or better still on the banks of the Mississippi.” 

Toni Morison, from an interview in 1989

This vast crime against humanity, slavery, was the cause of the Civil War, not the attack on Fort Sumter. And the bench, while far too small a gesture, is a good place to start thinking about it. Another step would be to fund grants and awards to the descendants of enslaved people for producing literature and other great works, to help make up a little of the deficit caused by centuries of enforced silence, forbidden literacy and lives erased.

Charles Pinckney National Historic Site

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Charles was a son of privilege. His father educated him in the law at the family firm, made him an officer in his town militia unit, and cooperated with the British during the Revolution to save the family plantation for his heirs. Charles, having participated in the failed attempt to keep Charleston out of British hands, was considered a patriot and became a young and successful politician. He participated in the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, made numerous significant contributions and signed the document, and he remained in public service as an elected representative for decades.

Today, he is best remembered for being an outspoken advocate of slavery, for insisting that the southern states would not ratify a Constitution that prohibited slavery or the slave trade, and for suggesting the 3/5ths compromise, which counted slaves as 3/5ths of a person to boost southern white representation in Congress, while counting not at all in terms of black citizenship or representation. At the end of his career, Charles voted against the Missouri Compromise, correctly predicting that it would overturn the original truce on slavery between the northern and southern states and lead to bloody civil war.

For many years, this site was financially sponsored mainly by Senator Strom Thurmond, who served 48 years in the US Senate as its most notorious modern segregationist. According to the ranger, the exhibits were a hagiography of Pinckney’s contributions to our Constitution and whitewashed his devotion to the institution of slavery. Today, the exhibits are new and improved in comparison with the hagiography still in place at Andrew Johnson’s site. But there’s still much work to be done.

According to a volunteer at Darrah Hall in a Reconstruction Era site, white visitors sometimes tell the African Americans who work there that “you people need to get over slavery”. And yet, to this day, white political pressure denies teaching the truth of racism and slavery to our children, censors books from libraries and creates lies to hide painful truth, as they have since the Civil War. On this ZCT adventure, I have seen the Confederate battle flag flown from Utah to Pennsylvania, while the presumptive Presidential nominee from Florida signed legislation preventing teachers from criticizing racism. So clearly, it is white people who “need to get over slavery”.

Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve

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Let’s catch up on where we were in Florida, at this fascinating, multilayered site that preserves not just nature but also native, colonial and freed slave cultures. As I learned here at Fort Caroline, which hosts the visitor center for the preserve, the Timucuan people either were killed, converted or escaped to join other tribes, after contact with the Spanish. But this was once their land (and water). And at the small exhibit in the Ribault Club, a partner site & wedding venue, I learned that thousands of years ago the Native Americans built shell mounds and large, complex rings of shell structures throughout these coastal islands, some of which remain here. So the preserve does help protect Native American archaeological sites, in addition to protecting critical breeding grounds and nurseries for fish, flyways for migrating birds, habitat for endangered wildlife and the plants which literally hold the land together. I saw many different birds on my hike in the Teddy Roosevelt area (above), including wood storks.

These islands (pictured) are the southern end of these low-lying coastal delta islands that run to Moores Creek in North Carolina. The whole area is now known as the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor, where some African traditions and culture survived, and a unique Creole was created, called Gullah in an echo of slave roots in Angola. That culture developed separately from the mainland, since some of the first Africans brought here were free, some slaves purchased their freedom (or their children’s) from the French, Spanish & British who allowed that, and some escaped. Unlike the larger plantations in the southeast, the coastal rice, cotton & indigo sea island plantations were run more loosely, with free time allowed after tasks were completed and many families kept intact.

The complexity of slavery in Florida is revealed in Anna’s story. She was born as Anta Ndaiye, a Senegalese royal, but was captured and sold into slavery at age 13. She was purchased in Havana in 1806 by a planter and trader who promptly impregnated her and brought her to Florida. Five years and three children later, the planter granted freedom to her and her biracial children. Florida was Spanish at the time, and she received her rights under their law. Her nominal husband owned other properties (and had other wives), so he left the management of the plantations near here to Anna. When US rebels tried to seize their property, she burned the plantation and was rewarded with new property by the Spanish. Anna ran the Kingsley plantation here for 25 years, overseeing 100 slaves. Her fourth child was born free. After Florida became a US territory, new laws were passed making interracial marriage illegal and jeopardizing the rights of Anna and her children. So her husband moved the family to Haiti, which had been free since the end of their revolution in 1804. After her husband died, Anna returned to the US to claim her inheritance, which was contested by her husband’s sister, who argued that Anna couldn’t own property in Florida. Anna argued that she was Spanish, since she had been recognized by the Spanish government as free (and a hero) and noted that the US government had promised to protect the rights of all Spanish citizens under the Florida treaty signed by John Q. Adams in 1819. Anna won. She fled to New York for the duration of the Civil War returning to Florida afterwards.

“To deny people their human rights is to challenge their very humanity.”

Nelson Mandela

Cabrillo National Monument

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On the left coast, last week I visited another park dedicated to a Spanish explorer. In 1542, the same year DeSoto died and Coronado gave up searching for gold, Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo sailed into San Diego Bay, before also dying on his expedition to explore America. The myth of the seven cities of gold was a powerful draw for the Spanish. Cabrillo was a slaver, who killed Aztecs by crossbow for Cortes and was rewarded with land, mines and enslaved Guatemalan natives. Wanting more, he headed north in ships built by slave labor in order to claim more land and enslave more natives. Cabrillo got as far as the Channel Islands, before dying by accident, and his crew made it as far as Oregon upwind before returning.

The monument is at the end of Point Loma, past Fort Rosencrans National Cemetery, overlooking the Naval Air Station on Coronado Island. Several different 25 minute films play on the half hour, and there’s an interesting old lighthouse to explore. Hiking paths on both bay side and ocean side offer especially beautiful views, and there’s parking near the tide pools and the sea cove connected by a lovely short trail. From the cliffs, I saw large sea lions, numerous pelicans, cormorants and seagulls. It’s a beautiful Navy city with famously great weather, and the Old Town, the Gaslamp District and the Hotel Coronado are among the interesting sights. Hopefully this post fits thematically, even though it is a bit out of trip order and way off geographically.

Fort Frederica National Monument

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Upon arrival, I remembered visiting by small boat as a teen many years ago. All along the southeast coast, displaced Native Americans and escaped slaves endeavored to remain free in these low-lying delta barrier islands. Although threatened, the evocative old oaks, the Spanish Moss and the shell-filled archaeological ruins are still hauntingly beautiful.

In the 1730’s the British built a pair of forts, both named after Frederick, Prince of Wales, to develop and defend their colonies against the Spanish. Fort Frederick’s ruins are 125 miles north, next the Reconstruction Era Camp Saxton in South Carolina. Fort Frederica here in Georgia, defined the southern boundary of their colonies, north of Spanish Florida.

The British commander Oglethorpe was considered enlightened (for the time) and enthusiastic. Rather than slavery, he proposed work be done by indentured servants mostly from debtors prisons in England, making Georgia a type of penal colony where workers could gain their freedom over time. The Methodist founder John Wesley and his brother Charles first attempted a church under one of the large, mossy oaks here, and the settlement had various tradespeople, including a Native American interpreter, a blacksmith and a doctor/barkeep.

In a remarkable historical echo of the French colonial experience at Fort Catherine, Oglethorpe also tried to seize St. Augustine in Florida, besieging the Castillo de San Marco and being stopped at Matanzas. Again, the Spanish counterattacked, but faring better than the French, Oglethorpe successfully defended this fort and cleverly routed the Spanish in Bloody Marsh, despite being outnumbered. After the Spanish retreated and conceded Georgia, the British cut their military presence here and the remote island village faded away in a decade or two.

Now, while driving through these remote islands, I can’t help but be amazed by the fancy houses. Not because they’re decadently ostentatious, but because they’re so close to sea level. It is astonishing to think that many of America’s most successful retirees choose to develop luxurious estates within the zone that is most certainly going to be erased by the climate crisis. The collapse of Thwaites ‘Doomsday’ Glacier is accelerating, and rising seas will take all the land here. They may have inherited much wealth, but they won’t be leaving these houses to future generations. Apparently, you don’t need much intelligence to be rich.

Fort Caroline National Memorial

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The French settled on the Atlantic coast of Florida in 1564, a year before the Spanish established the Castillo de San Marco in St Augustine. The French built a fort, but their settlement had fewer soldiers and more crafts people, as they intended to trade with the natives, rather than conquer them. Their relations with the Timucuan people were peaceful and friendly.

But the French intended to stamp out the Spanish newcomers, and the fort sent its troops by sea to take St Augustine. That didn’t end well: see Matanzas. Even worse for the French, the Spanish had the same idea and attacked Fort Catherine while its troops were away. The Spanish sacked the fort, killing 140 civilians and taking over the settlement. Only a few French survivors were spared to serve the Spanish.

The natives didn’t intervene when the Spanish attacked, but when another French force arrived for revenge three years later, the natives sided with the French. In the fighting, Fort Catherine burned down. The current fort is a replica created from old plans, drawings and descriptions, but roughly 1/3 the original’s size. The French lost their foothold in Florida to the Spanish.

In settling colonial claims at the Treaty of Paris in 1763, the Spanish traded Florida to the British for the return of Cuba and the Philippines. With American independence, Florida reverted to Spain, before eventually becoming a US territory in 1821, a state in 1845, then seceding in 1861, and then re-joining the Union in 1868. Florida was part of Spain longer than it has been part of the USA.

My eyes used to glaze over in history class, especially with all the dates, places and people long ago. But now, when I think about how the French differed from the Spanish and British, I realize how those battles centuries ago determined who lived & died, who survived and who thrived. I wonder what could our history have been, if only our ancestors had cooperated peacefully, instead of fighting.

For example, the Timucuan natives were wiped out within 150 years or so, some because the Spanish took revenge on them, some by disease, some who joined neighboring tribes and some who were converted and perhaps assimilated. My DNA is 5% Neanderthal, and I’m glad some of the natives survived somehow and assimilated, rather than disappearing without any trace.