Beyond the Scenery

Park News

Get ready to celebrate America’s 250^th birthday in the national parks!

         In November, 1775 the British still held Boston in a siege. As George Washington and other Continental Army commanders pondered how the break the hold. For one thing, they needed more weaponry. Colonel Henry Knox had a brilliant suggestion: what about the cannons and other artillery left behind by the British when the patriot fighters took over New York’s Fort Ticonderoga earlier in the year?

         That same month, Washington dispatched Knox to retrieve what was left in the fort. Joining them were the heroes of that take-over, Benedict Arnold and the Green Mountain Boys, led by Ethan Allen.

         The problem, as you can imagine, lugging 59 cannon and mortars back to Boston. But in 56 days, Knox and the others did, moving the artillery 300 miles, using heavy sleds and teams of oxen, and arriving in Boston in January 1776.

         Stay tuned for my March post, in which I relate the rest of the story…

         Also that January, the pamphlet Common Sense was published, at first anonymously, but its author was soon identified as Thomas Paine. He was born in England, yet became a staunch supporter of American independence.

         In his 47-page leaflet, which sold an astonishing 500,000 copies, Paine emphasized not just resistance, but breaking off from Great Britain and forming a new nation. As an author of a book about Paine put it, “He encouraged [the colonists] to realize they weren’t British, they were Americans.”

         Common Sense also put more pressure on the Continental Congress to take the final step of formally declaring independence.

Great places to go in the Park Service in Winter

• Yellowstone National Park, which straddles Wyoming and Montana, has about 10,000 geothermal features, including around half the world’s geysers. features in the world, and in the icy cold, the hot steam arising from them is a spectacular sight.
• New Jersey’s Paterson Great Falls National Historical Park creates a dazzling display of shimmering ice and frosty mist when temps plummet.
   
• Full moon hikes are popular in Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah, held every month in the year, but through March, you can do so wearing snowshoes; rent them at a venue just outside the park (the snowpack depth must be greater than 16”, though).
  
• And now for a warm one: Death Valley National Park’s brutal heat abates in the winter, with the thermostat usually hovering around 60-70 degrees, although overnights can dip into the freezing zone. The season’s cool, crisp air means it’s a great time to observe the night skies. Another plus at this California spot during January-February is less visitors.

Free Days!

         More days in 2026 in which to enter those National Park Service sites that charge admission:

• • Presidents Day, February 16
  • Memorial Day, May 25
  • Flag Day, June 14
  • Independence Day weekend, July 3-5
  • The 110^th birthday of the Park Service, August 25
  • Constitution Day, September 17, the anniversary of its signing in 1787
• • Theodore Roosevelt’s birthday, October 27; as president, he greatly expanded the number of recreational lands in the U.S.
  • Veterans Day, November 11

What I’m working on in 2026

         One thing is a book on praising God, a non-fiction book. A project that I’ve been doing, on and off for a looong time, is an historical fiction book inspired by my great-grandfather’s flight from Germany. It’s a story very dear to my heart, and I’m determined to pitch it to my editor this year. Below are the opening paragraphs. Do you think this is something you'd read? Let me know!

Rudi stood on the rain-washed deck, wincing as his hands gripped the worn wooden edge, still damp from the squall that had moved in earlier. Though hardened from farming, his palms ached after only two days at sea. Shoveling a seemingly limitless supply of coal into the voracious fire deep in the Europa’s belly for hours on end was like nothing he’d ever experienced before.

There was no more land, just water as far as he could see, disturbed only by the boat making its way through the now-smooth surface, leaving little white, foamy waves in its wake. He watched idly as birds, their wings spread wide, swooped and dived in search of fish.

His old world was gone. He wouldn’t see another speck of solid earth again for another fifteen days, maybe longer if more bad weather followed them across the Atlantic Ocean.

His eyes shifted to the horizon, the sun slowly dropping into the ocean, and impatiently brushed away the wisp of hair persistently blowing in his eyes. At least the ship wasn’t pitching up and down as much as before, and his stomach had settled down—for now. Gaining his sea legs was another story. His fellow fireman, especially the sour-breathed Franz, and other seasoned seamen enjoyed poking fun at his unsteady footing while he worked. They laughed even more at his drunken-like gait as he lurched from one handhold to the next along the narrow corridors as the ship navigated the rolling sea.

A cool breeze rippled over his bare arms and sweat-soaked body, carrying a light ocean spray, a welcome relief to his heat-scorched cheeks. Despite the balmy, pleasant evening, though, he couldn’t stop the shiver that ran through him. The terror of the previous week was too fresh in his mind.

In this precious, secluded spot on the boat, in the fading light of a July twilight in 1870, Rudi deliberately shut out the distant shouts of the crew, the three enormous, snapping canvas sails high above him, and the massive paddlewheels’ deep groanings. He shook his head slightly, hardly believing that instead of helping his father in the fields, he was hundreds of kilometers away, on his way to a place he’d never dreamed of, not knowing what would happen when he got there. He’d never sought adventure, never craved anything but what he had. Yet now he found himself on the run.

Happy New Year!

         When Solomon considered life’s seemingly endless sameness in Ecclesiastes chapter 1, he lamented, “There is nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9).  But his summary is this: “I know that there is no good but for one to rejoice, and to do good in this life. And also that everyone should eat and drink, and enjoy the good of all one’s labor, it is the gift of God…Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear [Reverence] God and keep His commandments: for this is our duty” (Ecclesiastes 3:12-13, 12:13; see also 3:22, 5:18-20, 9:7-10).

We find comfort in the dependable rhythms of life, yet we also crave the new and different as well. And God understands that. Revelation 21:5 says, “He who sits on the throne said, ‘Behold, I make all things new.’” A new start doesn’t come just on January 1—God makes every moment new.

And Jesus showed us a “new and living way” to a close relationship with Him (Hebrews 10:20). Because of Him, we can walk in “newness of life” (Romans 6:4) any time of the year. And that is my prayer for you, that if you haven’t already, you would ask the Lord for the new spirit He longs to give you (Ezekiel 11:19).

PARK NEWS

         November is Native American Heritage Month, chosen because it’s the traditional harvest season. I’ll be doing my Native American Sites in Our National Parks program several times in November. Let me introduce you to a couple of park sites relating stories of our country’s original inhabitants.

         Remember studying the French and Indian War (also called The Seven Years War) in American history class? Not much, right? Most of us have probably forgotten this conflict between France and Great Britain, which set the stage for the American Revolution.

         The two countries both claimed large tracts of land in North America, and each wanted supremacy in the continent. Most colonists sided with the British, and encouraged the natives to ally with them. Here is a young George Washington trying to persuade them to join their cause.

         The British did gain the support of the Catawba and Cherokee, as well as the Iroquois/Six Nations Confederacy (now called the Haudenosaunee Confederacy) of upstate New York and Canada, composed of the Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, Mohawk, and Tuscarora. These six tribes helped built Fort Stanwix, now a national monument in the Park Service, constructed on traditional Oneida land.

  The British also recruited Indians from the Ohio Valley to fight for them there. This is American colonel George Rogers Clark persuading them to switch their allegiance from the French to the British. That story is told at Indiana’s George Rogers Clark National Historical Park.

Fort Necessity National Battlefield in Pennsylvania, where the first clash of the French and Indian War occurred, is the only park site dedicated to that war.

Great Britain was the victor when the 1763 Treaty of Paris ended the war. King George III declared a swath of land west of the Mississippi River, won from France, an Indian reserve. The British also signed a treaty with the Six Nations formally establishing their boundaries. However, white colonists eagerly settled in both these places, setting the stage for future conflict.

Great Britain’s win came at a high price. And who would pay off that tremendous war debt? Why, the American colonies, of course, through a series of taxes. Those levies on the colonists—you know, taxation without representation in Parliament—stoked the flames of rebellion.

         During the American Revolution, an estimated fifty-five hundred African and Native American men served on the colonial side. Many more allied themselves with the British, Blacks lured with promises of emancipation, Indians with guarantees of keeping their land.

Captain Louis Joseph Cook, the English name of a Six Nations member, was the highest-ranking soldier of Black and American Indian descent to be commissioned by the Continental Congress. He’d teamed up with the colonists in the French and Indian War, and even went on to serve America in the War of 1812, where he died in battle. Cook was buried with full military honors, and you’ll learn more about him at Valley Forge National Historical Park.

How the federal government shutdown is affecting the parks

         Not only is the National Park Service losing tons of money, especially from entrance fees, but people are engaging in dangerous stunts in the parks because they think they can get away with it since less rangers are on site. BASE jumping, the sport of jumping from fixed objects like buildings, antennas, spans and earth (like cliffs), is illegal throughout the Park Service, and a trio of BASE jumpers were caught and convicted in Yosemite National Park recently.

November’s Subpar Parks review

         “Not really what I thought” is the assessment of Craters of the Moon National Monument. I don’t know exactly what the reviewer meant, but this park has lava tube caves, formed by scalding rivers of molten rock underground, hollowed out to allow them to be explored. Other features include spatter and cinder cones (the former are mini-volcanoes, the latter is made up of lava fragments thrown out when a volcano erupts), and a trail through hardened and ropy pahoehoe (pah-HOEE-hoee) lava (the other type of lava is a’a—pronounced ah-ah—which is thick and chunky)

NEW BOOKS

Yay, grandparenting!

My husband and I became grandparents this year, and we love it! That’s why I’m excited about a new book coming out by Lori Wildenberg, a member of the Advanced Writers and Speakers Association like me. Grandparents Make Grand Partners: How to Have an Eternal Impact on Your Grandchild's Life can be pre-ordered now, but its official launch date is November 11.

Annie (but not the ones you might be thinking of)

From fellow Pelican Book Group author Jody Day comes a historical western, Annie True and Brave. It’s due out November 7, but you can pre-order this one, too.
 

STILL THE BEST-SELLING BOOK IN THE WORLD

         In 1940, a group of business and professional men founded the National Bible Association as war raged in Europe. Their purpose was to encourage Americans to look to Scripture for hope, encouragement, strength and guidance, especially during the tumultuous time.

         The Association launched a National Bible Week campaign to celebrate the reading and studying of Scripture the following year, from December 8-14, with a kickoff reading of the Bible on December 7, 1941 to be aired on the NBC radio network. That plan was interrupted by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Yet the Bible reading continued throughout the day, as our nation faced another world war. Coincidence? I don’t think so.

Today, National Bible Week coincides with Thanksgiving week, the Sunday before to the Sunday after (November 23-30 this year). The way to observe it is, of course, to pick up a Bible and read it, as well as share a favorite verse or two. Here’s one of mine, which I reference every time I sign one of my books: “You will make known to me the path of life: in Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand there are pleasures forever” (Psalm 16:11).