Parkography

A Century of Progress

Surely if you listen to this podcast you've heard the news — America now boasts 61 National Parks. Buried within a massive spending bill protecting public lands signed by the President on February 15, 2019, was a provision that simply stated: Public Law 89-761 is amended by striking National Lakeshore each place it appears and replacing it with National Park. Today's episode—the new Indiana Dunes National Park.
Like Joshua Tree, and Wind Cave, and Petrified Forest, Indiana Dunes National Park is much more than the singular characteristic it's named after. It features more than 1,100 native plants ranking it fourth in plant diversity among all National Park Service sites. It's full of mysterious wetlands, bright prairies, wandering rivers and tranquil forests. You can play on the massive sand dunes, but you can also harvest maple sugar from the park's historic farm.One of the most unique features of Indiana Dunes National Park has little to do with nature at all. It's a set of 5 houses with an interesting past.

Four Voices, Four Missions

The Alamo is certainly San Antonio’s most famous landmark, perhaps even the most famous building in Texas, because of its pivotal role in the 1836 Texas Revolution. But the Alamo was built over a century prior as Mission San Antonio de Valero, by Spanish settlers on the banks of the San Antonio River. Beginning in 1690, Spanish friars established missions in what is now East Texas as a buffer against the threat of French incursion into Spanish territory from Louisiana. The Alamo is a Texas state historic site, but nearby, four sister missions, all still working Catholic churches, are protected by the National Park Service as the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park.
This episode follows four people connected to the Missions: a stonemason, a historian, a descendant, and a former church administrator. Their stories comprise Michael Nye's "Four Voices" exhibit on display at Mission Concepción.

A Great Obelisk

In 1833, a small organization formed with the purpose to fund and build a monument "unparalleled in the world," in honor of once commander-in-chief of the Continental Army and the first President of the United States. Its completion, and its history, not unlike the Statue of Liberty, was fraught with funding issues, construction delays, and outside forces seemingly teamed against it. Today on America's National Parks, the Washington Monument, part of the National Mall and Memorial Parks in Washington, D.C.

Fighting on Arrival, Fighting for Survival

During the Indian conflicts on the western plains after the Civil War, Native Americans gave Black regiments of the U.S. Army the name Buffalo Soldiers, after their short, curly hair, which to them, looked like a bison. The soldiers took a liking to the name, and it stuck.
The Buffalo Soldiers contributed to the U.S. in many ways over the course of nearly 90 years, but one of their most important was as the first caretakers of our national parks. Between 1891 and 1913, the Army was tasked with the protection of Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks. Buffalo soldiers fought wildfires and poachers, ended illegal grazing of livestock on federal lands, and constructing roads, trails and other infrastructure. In 1903, Captain Charles Young led a company of Buffalo Soldiers in Sequoia and what is now Sequoia and King's Canyon National Parks, becoming the first African American park superintendent.

The Chestnut Blight

At the turn of the 20th century, the eastern half of the American landscape looked very different than it does today. It was blanketed in 4 billion towering American Chestnut trees. Over the course of 50 years, they all vanished. Today on America’s National Parks, a tree disease that altered America and a chance at rebirth on the site of one of our nation’s greatest tragedies.

The Great Smoky Homestead

Ridge upon ridge of forest straddles the border between North Carolina and Tennessee, where ancient mountains, covered in pine, glow in purple, pink and blue hues, as a smoky mist rises from their thick cloak of trees. World-renowned for its diversity of plant and animal life, this is also a place to explore what remains of Southern Appalachian mountain culture. This is America's most visited national park — the Great Smoky Mountains.
On today’s episode, the story of 6 sisters who lived off this great land, all on their own.

Rangers Make the Difference II

As we release this episode, the longest government shutdown in American history is still underway, and 800,000 government workers are on furlough, including rangers and other protectors of our wildlife and national treasures. Those that remain on the job, mainly law enforcement rangers, are working without paychecks, and are facing protecting federal lands that remain open to visitors with very little support.
We thought this was an appropriate time to again highlight those rangers and other federal employees in the interior department.

A White House Burns

One of the very symbols of our nation is a residence for our highest elected official, designed by Irish-born architect James Hoban in the neoclassical style, using sandstone painted white. When Thomas Jefferson moved into the house in 1801, he and architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe added low colonnades on each wing that concealed stables and storage. Not long after, the house for our Nation's president would almost be obliterated.
Today on America's National Parks, The White House, part of the National Park Service's Presidents Park, in Washington DC.