America’s National Park Service (NPS) will observe its 100th birthday August 25, 2016, exactly a century after President Woodrow Wilson signed the act that created it as a new federal agency within the Department of the Interior.
Yellowstone became the world’s first national park in 1872, and a collection of some 40 national parks and monuments were assembled by 1916. Unfortunately, it became evident that funding and staffing of these National Landmarks were woefully inadequate, that administrative duties were being neglected under three different governmental agencies and that sites were being exploited by private entrepreneurs.
So in 2016, we will celebrate 100 years of the dedicated service that has now managed America’s incredible wealth of scenic, historic, geologic, cultural and recreational resources continuously under 17 presidential administrations; become a model for similar efforts worldwide; and grown to encompass some 411 sites in every U.S. state and territory and the District of Columbia.
Most anniversary promotions have reminded us of the magnificent sites that Americans already recognize: Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Glacier, the Great Smoky Mountains, and the monuments and memorials of Washington. As splendid as these are, they are significantly overcrowded every summer, and they promise to deliver less than enjoyable visitor experiences if more travelers add to the congestion by heading there in 2016.
However, that leaves hundreds of other great sites, including many virtually unknown ones, that may not have the name appeal of a Zion or a Denali but are still nothing short of awesome and worth exploring. As a result, we’re suggesting that group coordinators consider planning trips to lesser-known park sites that are equally sure to thrill their travelers while avoiding big crowds and traffic jams. To whet your appetites, the following six diverse NPS units, all of them a bit off the beaten track, are just a sampling of the unexpected wonders that await your groups there.
Big Thicket National Preserve
Southeast Texas
Spread out through the countryside of east Texas north of Beaumont are 15 separate units covering more than 100,000 acres that make up Big Thicket National Preserve. Called the “biological crossroads of North America,” the preserve features an amazing diversity of plant and animal species that thrive in what remains in the confluence of Eastern pine, cypress and hardwood forests; Southeastern blackwater swamps; Southwestern deserts; and Central plains.
Visitors can explore this extraordinary landscape on easy nature and hiking trails, enjoy a picnic lunch or barbecue, and participate in birding, canoeing, fishing and ranger-led activities. Among the flora and fauna to be found are 85 tree species, more than 60 different shrubs, 26 ferns, 20 varieties of orchid and nearly 1,000 other flowering plants; some 185 bird and 50 reptile species; and mammals like coyotes, bobcats, raccoons and opossums.
Particularly fascinating are the oyster mushrooms that grow in rows on numerous tree trunks along the outstanding Kirby Nature Trail. Other interesting hikes in the area are the Sundew and Pitcher Plant Trails, the latter offering a unique opportunity to explore a bog of the renowned insect-eating plant species.
Booker T. Washington National Monument
Moneta, Virginia
Amid the rolling hills of Virginia southeast of Roanoke is the boyhood home of renowned African-American educator and statesman Booker T. Washington. Founder of the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama and later in life an increasingly outspoken critic of racism, Washington was born in 1856 on what was the tobacco farm of James Burroughs. Washington later described in his autobiography, “Up From Slavery,” his youth there until he was freed in 1865. These “early years … were not very different from those of thousands of other slaves. I was occupied most of the time in cleaning the yards, carrying water to the men in the fields, or going to the mill.”
Today, the monument complex encompasses 239 acres, including a visitor center with exhibits and audiovisual programs, most of Burroughs’ original 207 acres, and reconstructed farm buildings, including a horse barn, a corn crib, a chicken and duck lot, a smokehouse, a slave cabin, a privy, a blacksmith shed and a tobacco barn.
Should your group be visiting nearby Appomattox Courthouse National Historical Park, a second stop there will enhance a memorable day of experiencing American history.
Chaco Culture National Historical Park
New Mexico
Among the more remote treasures administered by the NPS, Chaco Culture National Historical Park preserves the center of a remarkable ancestral Puebloan culture that thrived in the area from the mid-800s to the early 1200s, when inhabitants apparently began to migrate to new population centers, eventually encountering Spanish explorers and padres.
Many Indian peoples in the region today proudly view themselves as direct descendants of the Chacoans who built this great ceremonial, administrative and economic center of the Southwest 1,000 years ago. The site itself contains the ruins of at least 10 fabulous “great houses” constructed of sandstone masonry and mud-base mortar. The largest are complex, sprawling multistory structures with hundreds of rooms, open plazas and numerous ceremonial kivas.
The valley containing this monumental architecture is surrounded by towering cliffs and striking desert wilderness, making a visit there today even more awe-inspiring. The roads leading to Chaco from Nageezi, as well as within the park itself, are all paved, except for a 13-mile stretch of good gravel road that is easily traveled by modern motorcoach, except when a rare desert thunderstorm fills an arroyo en route.
