Beyond the Scenery

Park News

The federal government shutdown

         Not all the 433 National Park Service sites are closed, but several former park superintendents wish they were. In a letter sent to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, they noted that during past shutdowns, when some parks stayed open despite limited staff, there were more incidents of vandalism, trash piled up, and visitor safety was compromised. With the newest personnel reductions (25% of the National Park Service’s permanent employees, according to the National Parks Conservation Association, it’s sure to happen again.

The changing of the leaves

        If you crave seeing the fall foliage in our parks, Travel + Leisure and Forbes have some ideas for you. Check first to make sure the sites are open, and what the hours are.

It's not even Halloween but the Christmas stuff is already out

I started seeing it mid-September!

The Park Service has to work that far in advance for the annual National Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony. This is held on the Ellipse, part of the Park Service’s White House and President’s Park. As of today, information about the lottery for tickets to this the event hasn’t been posted yet, but keep checking the site if you’re interested in attending.

One hundred years for Mount Rushmore National Memorial

         A century ago, on October 1, 1925, the area in South Dakota’s Black Hills where four presidential faces would be carved was dedicated as a national monument. The actual sculpting, conceived and begun by Gutzon Borglum, didn’t begin until two years later. Read more about its construction here.

By the way, do you know why Borglum chose those specific Commanders-in Chief, and what each stands for? Washington, the most prominent figure, embodies America’s founding, Jefferson, its growth (think Louisiana Purchase), Lincoln the country’s preservation, and Theodore Roosevelt its development.

Mount Rushmore continues to be a sore subject with the Lakota Sioux. The 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie returned the Black Hills, known by the Native Americans as Paha Sapa, to the Sioux. In exchange for giving up thousands of acres of land, they were “allowed” to relocate their reservation there, a sacred space for them. That pact was never rescinded so it remains valid, but obviously was never enforced. The reason? Gold was found in them there hills. FYI: Wyoming’s Fort Laramie is a national historic site in the Park Service.

Some of you may remember the 1970 American Indian Movement protest at Mount Rushmore about this issue. AIM leaders Dennis Banks (pictured) and Russell Means led the demonstration.

The lead-up to America’s 250^th birthday in our national parks

         In July 1775, the Continental Congress adopted what’s called the Olive Branch Petition (note John Hancock’s large signature, just as is on the Declaration of Independence). The paper aired the American patriots’ grievances, and entreated King George III to resolve the crisis between Great Britain and the colonies.

         The King didn’t even bother to read the petition. But what he did do was issue a proclamation the following month, declaring the revolt in American was the work of those “misled by dangerous and ill-designing men”…who forget “the allegiance which they owe to the power that has protected and sustained them…by open and avowed rebellion.”

         During this month 250 years ago, in an address at the opening of Parliament, King George offered his own magnanimous olive branch: “When the unhappy and deluded multitude [in America] become sensible of their error, I shall be ready to receive the misled with tenderness and mercy.”

         The song “You’ll Be Back” from the musical Hamilton is based on this speech, sung by the character of King George.

         Following the battles of Lexington and Concord in April 1775, British soldiers occupied by Boston in a standoff between them and the patriot troops. This eleven-month period became known as the Siege of Boston.

         Since July 1775, after being appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army, George Washington was stationed in Cambridge, Massachusetts in what's now the Park Service’s Longfellow House-Washington’s Headquarters National Historic Site (yes, poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow later lived there). In October that same year, by his own authority and at his own expense, Washington organized a small fleet to fend off British ships trying to resupply their dug-in soldiers. On the schooners, he hoisted this pine tree flag.

         This banner is also known as the Appeal to Heaven flag. The phrase, which has seen a resurgence in recent years, comes from English political philosopher John Locke’s writings of 1689: “Where the body of the people, or any single man, is deprived of their right, or is under the exercise of a power without right, and have no appeal on earth, then they have a liberty to appeal to heaven.”

Minute Man National Historical Park and Boston National Historical Park in Massachusetts are where to find more information about these events. In September, my husband and I walked the Freedom Trail (5 miles round trip!).

October’s Sub-par calendar park review

         “It rained on me in the friggin’ desert!” is the incredulous review of Big Bend National Park in Texas. In its defense, the park does have indoor places to go to—its four Visitor Centers and the Fossil Discovery Exhibit,

          When the sun’s out (fall through spring bring cooler temps), there are plenty of outdoor activities. And because the park is so remote, it’s one of the best places in the lower 48 states for stargazing.

Life’s Sun and Rain

         I love the verse in Matthew 5:45 that says God brings both sun and rain on the evil and good alike. This is His “common grace,” as the phrase goes, but really, there’s nothing common about it. God’s undeserved favor, kindness, and goodness extend not only to those who follow Him, but also to people who don’t, either openly or indifferently.

         That alone should move all of us to thankfulness.  

PARK NEWS

America’s 250^th anniversary in the National Park Service

          On the march toward celebrating the sesquicentennial of the signing of Declaration of Independence is the anniversary of the Battle of Bunker Hill, which took place on June 17, 1775.

While this clash between the British and American forces is named for the highest knoll in the hilly terrain of Charlestown, just north of Boston, the combat actually happened on a mound closer to the Charles River, Breed’s Hill.

         In the wake of levies imposed by Great Britain on the American colonies—“taxation without representation”—local militias began stashing guns, ammunition, and other essentials in towns surrounding Boston. Some of these soldiers were known as “minutemen,” ready for battle “at a minute’s notice.”

         When Massachusetts’ royal governor, General Thomas Gage, caught word of this, he sent troops to investigate, leading to the Battle of Lexington and Concord, which I mentioned in my April post.

         This stirred other colonies to action, with New England men—whites, enslaved and free Blacks, and Natives—to gather in Massachusetts, where they expected more encounters with British troops stationed in Boston. They encircled the city, and when they learned the British planned to break through to take the strategic Dorchester Heights to the north and Charlestown Heights to the south, the colonist troops used the cover of darkness to construct an earthen fort atop Breed’s Hill on the night of June 16.

         As dawn broke the next morning, British General William Howe led an assault on the fort, while the British Navy fired off cannon. But the ships couldn’t get close enough to do much good, and the colonists, who knew the boggy terrain much better than their enemies, dug in. Reinforcements arrived to back them up. Howe’s soldiers advanced, and came under heavy fire.

         Howe withdrew, regrouped, and breached the fort, resulting in close combat. The colonists, tired and low on ammunition, retreated. The British chased them as far as Bunker Hill, but neither side mounted any further attack.

         In the two-hour battle, the first major encounter between the two forces, the British had 1,054 causalities, the colonists only an estimated 450. The town of Charlestown was destroyed, but the conflict served to unite the thirteen colonies as never before. Another outcome was the appointment by the Continental Congress, established by American colony governments to organize resistance to British rule, of General George Washington to form and command a Continental Army. I’ll talk about that next month.  

Visit Minute Man and Boston National Historical Parks to learn more about this key battle of the American Revolution. At the former site is a statue of a minuteman, to honor those killed at Lexington and Concord; the latter is where you’ll find the Bunker Hill Memorial, which opened on June 17, 1843.

Flag Day

          Why is Flag Day June 14? This also is tied to the American Revolution. It’s the anniversary of the date in 1777 the Continental Congress officially adopted the Stars and Stripes as our national flag.

         The Park Service’s Star-Spangled Banner National Historic Trail, winding through Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virigina, is a 560-mile land and water route telling the story of the War of 1812 in the Chesapeake Bay region.

         The flag had a huge role in that war. Along the trail is Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine where, after that war’s Battle of Baltimore, Francis Scott Key penned a poem called “Defence [sic] of Fort McHenry” (you know, writing “that our flag was still there”). That verse in turn was set to music and retitled “The Star-Spangled Banner.” And we have Ella Virginia Houck Holloway to thank for making that the song we sing with a hand over our hearts. She hounded her congressman for thirteen years to sponsor a bill to make the “Star-Spangled Banner” our national anthem, finally succeeding in 1931.

And who sewed that flag Key saw? Mary Pickersgill, at her Baltimore flag shop.

This month’s Subpar Parks Review

“Goes on forever” is the take on the Blue Ridge Parkway. 

          Yes, the 469-mile-long road connecting Shenandoah and Great Smoky Mountains National Parks is part of the Park Service. In fact, according to 2024 statistics,  it was the second-most visited spot among the 433 Park Service units, with 16.7 million visitors, just behind #1, Golden Gate National Recreation Area in California (17.1 million).

          Also known as “America’s favorite drive” and a “museum of the American countryside,” the roadway was constructed during the Great Depression by private contractors, with help from New Deal programs such as the Works Progress Administration, the Emergency Relief Administration, and the Civilian Conservation Corps. Three hundred miles of hiking trails run off the Blue Ridge Parkway, with traces of early European as well as pre-historic settlements.

My article about flags

         My oldest brother, the Latin and Greek scholar, would know this, but I had no idea the study of flags is vexillology, and there’s a North American Vexillogical Association. I had fun writing this 2022 piece for Fodor’s Travel. I also had fun coming up with its alliterative subtitle (“A curious chronicle of peculiar pennants”), and a line in the third paragraph (“These vexillologists voiced vehement views over various vexilla”).

The article's opening photo is from a national park site, which I'm sure you recognize as Mount Rushmore National Memorial in South Dakota. And yes, the flag-flying entrance is pretty cool.

God’s flag

Vexillology comes from the Latin word vexillum, which was a banner, or standard, carried by some Roman soldiers. This signal conveys the idea of a rallying point, a place where troops gather under a leader to prepare for combat. The book of Exodus tells the story of Moses raising his hands as Joshua and his forces battled the Amalekites; as long as he kept his arms up, they prevailed. The Lord then instructed Moses to write down this incident so the Israelites would remember how God fought for them, and also build an altar. Moses called it Jehovah Nissi, which in Hebrew means “The Lord is My Banner” (Exodus 17:12-16).

In the Song of Solomon, the author gushes over his romance with a Shulamite woman. The book also illustrates God’s love for His people, most poignantly in chapter 2, verse 4: “his banner over me is love.” Solomon’s protective love exemplifies Jehovah Nissi’s love for us, especially in Jesus’s sacrifice to save us from our sins.

Rally ‘round that flag, and find rest (Isaiah 11:10).