Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site
Hyde Park, New York
Not as well known as the nearby Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site at Hyde Park, but equally interesting, is the charming country home of his wife, Eleanor, Val-Kill Cottage, which began as a small fieldstone house in 1925 and ultimately became a complex of several buildings adjacent to Val-Kill Pond.
Away from the politics ever present in the “big” house, the cottage immediately provided a weekend, holiday and summer retreat for Mrs. Roosevelt and a permanent residence for her two closest friends. With another friend, the women operated the experimental Val-Kill Industries there, which employed local men and women to create replicas of Early American furniture, pewter ware and weavings, until the operation folded in 1936 due to the Depression.
After Franklin’s death, Eleanor planned a quiet retirement at Val-Kill until called upon by President Harry Truman in 1946 to serve as a delegate to the United Nations General Assembly while her reputation continued to develop as the elder stateswoman of the Democratic Party and an outspoken champion of human rights. She received some of the most important world leaders of the period there until her death in 1962.
Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore
Munising, Michigan
Along more than 40 miles of Lake Superior shoreline near Munising is Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, a series of towering, multicolored sandstone cliffs and one of four striking national lakeshores on the Great Lakes. Although this is an exceptional hiking park that offers opportunities to experience dense forests, wilderness lakes and several beautiful waterfalls for those willing and able to go exploring on foot, only one of the famed rock formations, Miner’s Castle, can be reached by road.
Most groups will opt for the excellent half-day, narrated sightseeing cruise operated by the park concessionaire that passes by cliffs of some 50 to 200 feet over the water, which contains a large number of fantastic formations. These have been sculpted by ancient glaciers and their meltwater, as well as centuries of lake erosion driven by a constant onslaught of ice and waves. Colors were added by mineral stains, which decorate the face of the cliffs and give the Pictured Rocks their name.
Also, on the rather remote — but accessible by paved roads — north end of the lakeshore west of Grand Marais are Twelvemile Beach, the 1874 Au Sable Lighthouse, a log slide overlook and the impressive Grand Sable Dunes.
Kenai Fjords National Park
Seward, Alaska
Planning a trip to the 49th state? Departing daily in season from the picturesque community of Seward on the Kenai Peninsula, 126 miles south of Anchorage, are extraordinary, ranger-narrated full- and half-day sightseeing cruises to the splendid 670,000-acre Kenai Fjords National Park. Situated along the shores of the Gulf of Alaska, the Kenai Fjords are home to almost 40 glaciers that flow from the massive Harding Icefield, a relic of the last ice age so extensive that it covers a mountain range under several thousand feet of ice.
Travelers love the panoramic views of towering, jagged blue ice formations and watch the “calving” process wherein huge chunks of the ice collapse into the water, creating countless small icebergs through which their boats approach the faces of tidewater glaciers. Maritime animals, such as orcas, humpback and gray whales, sea otters, porpoises, sea lions, harbor seals and horned puffins, live in the area and are often seen on the cruises.
Although a cruise is undoubtedly the best group option, a nature center and short hiking trails to the park’s impressive Exit Glacier can be accessed by motorcoach without charge about 13 miles from Seward.
Get Your Group Involved in the Centennial
Special centennial events are being planned nationwide to attract all Americans to their parklands and historical sites. However, these and other initiatives are not just about a one-year birthday celebration, but about the development of a greater public emphasis on and commitment to conservation, preservation and stewardship of our national wonders and heritage for the next century and beyond. There is a place for you and your travelers in helping to ensure the success of these efforts.
• FIND YOUR PARK: To get the word out that it has many more fabulous places to discover than just Yellowstone, Yosemite and the Grand Canyon, the National Park Service (NPS) has developed a massive public engagement campaign called Find Your Park, which includes a Web tool readily available online at www.nps.gov. Simply access the site to see what special activities and programs individual NPS units in your area are developing to observe the centennial.
• CENTENNIAL CHALLENGE PROGRAM: Congress has allocated $10 million in matching funds for a Centennial Challenge Program for public-private partnerships promoting the NPS milestone.
• IMAGINE YOUR PARKS: The National Endowment for the Arts is working with the NPS on an Imagine Your Parks funding collaboration to encourage greater public engagement with and appreciation of art in relation to the work and mission of our national park system.
• FILM: Brand USA and MacGillivray Freeman Films are producing a film for giant-screen theaters to celebrate the country’s national parks and other federally managed lands in time for the centennial year.
• TOURISM CARES: Travel-industry foundation Tourism Cares has launched a Centennial Tour Operator Program designed to engage commercial operators in giving back and encouraging their guests to support the parks.
