Here is a little background on National Park Service facilities (also known as the National Park System). The best known are the National Parks, which are established by Act of Congress. There are 58 national parks. Yellowstone was the first one, established in 1873. National Monuments are more numerous and usually (but not always) smaller, and they are established by Presidential Executive Order. For instance, Grand Canyon was declared a national monument by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1906, and it only became a national park in 1919 by Act of Congress. Similarly, Death Valley was declared a national monument by President Hoover in 1933, and a national park by Act of Congress in 1994. Death Valley shows the difference in the two designations. President Hoover's monument designation did not stop mining in Death Valley because Congress passed a bill reopening it to mining four months later (FDR had become president). Congress passed legislation in 1976 to stop mining, but as a national park Death Valley is now permanently closed to mining. There was some grandfathering, and the last borax mine did not close until 2005.
While national parks and national monuments are the most significant components of the National Park System, there are over 20 different types of units. With the exception of national monuments, all are now established by acts of Congress. Gulf Islands National Seashore is an example of a different type of unit that is established by Act of Congress and managed by the National Park Service. Other examples of these components are: Gettysburg National Military Park, Appomattox Court House National Historical Park, Lake Mead National Recreation Area, Ozark National Scenic Rivers, The Appalachian Trail (a National Scenic Trail), and Big Cypress (Florida) National Preserve.
National Historical Parks, such a Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller, are designed to protect significant cultural resources. In the case of Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller, it was established "to tell the story of conservation history and the evolving nature of land stewardship in America." George Perkins Marsh, the first owner of the property, was an early pioneer in the wilderness movement, and he published Man and Nature in 1864. Marsh’s analysis "helped influence legislators to pass laws protecting forested lands as watersheds and wildlife threatened with extinction." (from an NPS study). Marsh lived in the area near Woodstock, Vermont, and was distressed by the clear-cutting of timber in the area. He began planting native timber varieties in the Mt. Tom area that he owned in the 1880s. The property was purchased by Frederick Billings, who expanded timber plantings and established carriage roads through the property. He also established a progressive, awarded-winning dairy farm on the property. The property devolved to his granddaughter, Mary French Rockefeller, who was married to Laurence S. Rockefeller, a grandson of the patriarch of the Rockefeller family. Her family gifted the property to the federal government in 1992.
There are about 600 acres of timberland and dairy farm in the park, including 20 miles of carriage roads and a large pond. The map I got at the visitors center identified the timber tracts by type of tree and year planted. I wanted to study, but the rain precluded that, and the map disintegrated in my hands. I saw a lot of trees, and because of the park, they will be around for a long time.
As I was hiking, I came across the following trail:
Now, it wasn't a "road", and I wasn't Robert Frost, but I couldn't pass it by. So I hiked it. About the only difference it made was it added about 20 minutes to my hike and I saw some more trees.
Cousin Joyce told me my writing sounded like my Dad. I took it as a complement. With this post, I say it appears she's right.
Mileage: 174. Cumulative mileage: 3,509
