[On March 3rd, 1849, Congress created a new federal government agency, the Department of the Interior. One of the department’s most significant focal points has become the National Park System, so this week I’ll celebrate Interior’s 175th birthday by AmericanStudying a handful of our great Parks, leading up to a post on National Historical Parks!]
On two
interesting comparisons for one of our newest National Parks.
Just a few
years ago, as a small part of a very large Congressional bill (the National
Defense Authorization Act of 2015), the longstanding Blackstone River Valley
National Heritage Corridor was upgraded, becoming
(after a decade of efforts and activism) the Blackstone River Valley National
Historical Park. As that second linked article suggests, the change is far more
than semantic—gaining National Park status brings with it a great deal of
development and support, linking the area to the National Park Service and
turning it into much more of a organized and coherent entity than had been
possible in the prior incarnation. The self-proclaimed (American) “Birthplace
of the Industrial Revolution,” an area running along the potent Blackstone
River from Worcester all the way to Providence, Rhode Island (making it one of
the few National Parks to span multiple states), will now be presented
and interpreted in all its historical and social significance for
generations to come.
This new
park’s multi-state span is one of a few things that differentiate it from most
of its fellow National Parks, but I would still highlight a couple of
comparisons that can shed light on what and how this park might achieve its
goals most effectively. Salem,
Massachusetts is home to a wonderful park, the Salem Maritime National Historic Site.
Featuring a dozen buildings, multiple wharfs, a
reconstructed tall ship, and a number of other elements, the Salem
Maritime park does an excellent job interpreting multiple centuries and stages
of work, community, and life in the city and region. The Derby Wharf
section alone includes all those centuries and stages in its different
buildings and placards. Compared, for example, to battlefield national parks
such as Gettysburg or Yorktown, which
focus on a few days’ worth of historical events and issues, the Blackstone
River Valley Park will have to cover more than a century of industrial and
social history and culture, and the Salem Maritime National Historic Site
provides an excellent model for doing so successfully.
On the
other hand, Salem Maritime occupies an area of a few square miles; the
Blackstone River Valley Park will cover (as has the Heritage Corridor) a
distance of some forty-five miles, to say nothing of how far it extends on both
sides of the river. For a comparison with that element, I would turn to one of
the national parks around which I grew up: Virginia’s Shenandoah National Park. The Skyline
Drive, a winding, scenic road atop the Blue Ridge Mountains, travels
more than 100 miles, and yet is all part of the same unified national park
identity and interpretation, with its many distinct stops and areas comprising
their own unique identities yet tied together consistently and coherently.
While Shenandoah and Skyline focus much more on natural rather than historical
or cultural subjects, this large yet linked and coherent park community offers
a rich and successful model for how a park as spacious and far-reaching as
Blackstone River Valley can move through its many different places and
communities yet maintain that overarching sense identity and history. I’ll be
interested to see how Blackstone River Valley takes its next steps!
Next Park
tomorrow,
Ben
PS. What
do you think? Other National Parks you’d highlight?
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