Ranger Nathan's Adventures

Washington Monument Earthquake Assessment Report

2012-01-03T22:15:00.000-05:00

Over Christmas, the National Mall quietly released the Washington Monument Earthquake Assessment (opens .pdf file). It's not exactly a page-turner; it's a scientific report. But if you read it, you will find some neat pictures of missing hunks of rock. As I walk by every day, I look up at the building and notice the blemishes even with the naked eye. It's not quite what you see in the post-apocalyptic game Fallout 3, a Washington Monument that looks like Swiss cheese.

For the "too long; didn't read" crowd, here are some highlights with my emphasis in bold:

Six marble panels that form the exterior surfaces of the pyramidion developed earthquake-related cracks that extend through the full thickness of the panel. These through thickness cracks also extend over the full height of the panel and vary from approximately 1/4 inch to 1 inch in thickness. Three additional panels developed cracks that do not appear to have migrated through the full thickness of the panel.

The portions of the marble rib units that serve as bearing surfaces for the support of the exterior marble panels experienced cracking. Cracking of the rib bearing surfaces occurred on some of the ribs on each of the four sides of the pyramidion.

A large spall was generated directly below the cruciform shaped keystone of the pyramidion in the ‘H’ rib course of the pyramidion.

The southwest cornerstone unit at the ‘G’ course experienced a permanent lateral offset to the south of approximately 1 inch, and to the west of 1/2 inch, relative to the stone unit of the rib in the course below.

Mortar on the interior and exterior face of the masonry is missing at numerous vertical joints from the 450-foot level to the 500-foot level of the monument. Daylight is visible at a number of the vertical joints where mortar is missing.

Spalling of the exterior stone was observed over the entire height of the shaft of the monument with spalls being larger and more clustered above the 450-foot level. Some spalls at this level were the full thickness of the masonry block.
Lateral movement and offsets on the exterior were observed above the 450-foot level, and were pronounced at the southwest corner of the monument.

Recommendations for repairs include replacing spalls and supporting them with stainless steel braces. The recently-passed Omnibus bill includes an allocation of $7.5 million to repair the Washington Monument, to be "matched on a 1:1 basis by a private citizen."

The Washington Monument remains closed to the public until the building can be repaired. There is no timeline.

Here are some pictures I took with my phone. Not what you're used to if you read this blog, but I can't exactly lug my camera around while I'm at work. I'm too busy working.

"It's leaning!" No, it's not. It's just crooked camera work. That is, however, the President going to a meeting.

I took this photo from near 14th and Independence Ave. SW one morning. There are buckets dangling at the top of the monument because they were doing inspection/repair work that week.

And here's a picture of the monument at sunset after a day of rain. There was a nice rainbow I couldn't get into the shot. When it rains, water gushes through cracks in the monument, though they've tried to seal all the cracks to help the old girl get through the winter.

Prince William Forest Park

2011-11-09T21:46:00.000-05:00

We took advantage of pleasant weather and peak fall foliage today to check out Prince William Forest Park south of Washington, DC. The park was a nice place to walk in the woods, though you never quite escape the hum of I-95, and you can occasionally hear the "pupupupupup" of gunfire coming from the US Marine Corps Reservation at Quantico, which borders the park (see map in .pdf). More of a concern for me was the horde of screaming schoolchildren enjoying their lunch in the picnic area.

We went on a short hike on the Laurel Loop Trail.

Quantico Creek

I took this picture of Alison over my shoulder while we were hiking. She was quiet and seemed to be enjoying the hike, but I was surprised by the look of wonderment captured in the photo.

They say the park is a Piedmont Forest. I didn't know that was a special eco-tone. The stone that looks like this among trees like these is a dead giveaway you're in Appalachian country.

Prince William Forest Park has history similar to other eastern parks. Farms. Mines. CCC. But this park has a unique history in that the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) used it for a time.

We finished up with a lap around the scenic drive.

The park would be a great place for bicycling, hiking, or camping.

The Bookworm

2011-10-20T09:19:00.003-04:00

My Dad recently expressed some amazement at the number of books I have read lately. He is right that I have stepped up my book-reading efforts in the last couple years since I was hired at Fort Larned. Working in two new parks necessitated building a library of knowledge to help me do my job, which put a strain on my library shelf itself. Since the advent of the Kindle I've been able to continue devouring books without having to find a place for them. As for the rest of the books, I have started selling some of them off on Amazon just because I have no place to keep them. Some have commented to me, joking they don't know how to judge someone unless they can see what kind of books are on their shelf. Since downsizing and getting rid of old stuff in Kansas, I have tried to avail myself of the need to keep trophies.

So what have I been reading this year? Maybe some of these will sound interesting to you.

Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow

Colonel Roosevelt by Edmund Morris

The Best and the Brightest by David Halberstam

Washington: A Life by Ron Chernow

American Sphinx by Joseph Ellis

FDR by Jean Edward Smith

Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin

The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War by David Halberstam

Washington Burning: How a Frenchman's Vision for Our Nation's Capital Suvived Congress, the Founding Fathers, and the Invading British Army by Les Standiford

The Killing of Crazy Horse by Thomas Powers

Martin Luther King, Jr. by Adam Fairclough

The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr edited by Clayborne Carson

Negro President: Jefferson and the Slave Power by Garry Wills

Last Call : The Rise and Fall of Prohibition by Daniel Okrent

Lee by Douglas Southall Freeman

The Buffalo Soldiers: A Narrative of the Black Cavalry in the West by William Leckie

In Search of the Racial Frontier by Quintard Taylor

Ratification by Pauline Maier

I'm currently reading Destiny of the Republic by Candice Millard.

"But wait!" you say, "You haven't read any books on World War II! Don't you work at the World War II Memorial?" Yes, but I took two semesters' worth of WW2 history in college. Never fear, I bought a copy of Hitler by Ian Kershaw at the Holocaust Museum. It's still in the shrink wrap for now.

The only books I would not recommend would be Buffalo Soldiers, Negro President, and Washington Burning. Buffalo Soldiers focused way too much on military movements and completely ignored the social and cultural implications of the Buffalo Soldiers to the modern day. Negro President started off strong, polemic though it is, but petered out halfway through. Washington Burning wasn't particularly well-organized or captivating, and rather glossed over the War of 1812.

The best books in the bunch, for me, were Alexander Hamilton, Colonel Roosevelt, FDR, Washington, and Destiny of the Republic.

The best book I read in 2010, not included on this list, was The Last Stand by Nathaniel Philbrick.

I Was a Drum Major

2011-10-09T22:58:00.000-04:00

There has been a lot of editorializing about the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial's inclusion of a paraphrased quote on the side of the Stone of Hope, "I was a drum major for justice, peace, and righteousness."

Source: usembassy.gov

The controversy started with Maya Angelou, who said the paraphrase made King sound like an "arrogant twit." This weekend, another editorial came out, this time from a major proponent of changing the FDR Memorial saying that they "fixed" FDR and they can "fix" MLK too.

I disagree. Here's why.

1. It's art. You don't have to like it. It is an artist's, or more particularly, a whole design team's vision for how to represent an idea. Just because you don't like it doesn't make it wrong. You don't hear people crying out to "fix" the Mona Lisa because the background is crooked and uneven, do you?

Holy crap, the background is crooked! Fix it!

The people are too distorted! Fix it! Fix it!

She's too naked! Fix it! Fix it! Fix it!

That's more appropriate.

2. Martin Luther King specified that this was how he wanted to be remembered. In his "Drum Major Instinct" speech on February 4, 1968, just two months before he was killed, King closed the speech with a list of many things that he wanted to be remembered for after he was gone. If you click the video below, I've got it programmed to start right at the quote in question.

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And here is a transcript of the Drum Major Instinct speech. It doesn't take an English major to pick up on a situation where a hypothetical isn't really a hypothetical.

Without knowing the mind of the designers, I think they felt that enough time had elapsed and history had borne out King's "hypothetical" to be the truth. Yes, he was a drum major for justice. Yes, he was a drum major for justice. Yes, he was a drum major for righteousness. The memorial captures exactly what Dr. King said he wanted to be remembered for succinctly, directly, economically.

3. How would you even go about changing it? In case you hadn't noticed, the quote is carved in stone. The rest of the stone around it is all carved, textured to a fine detail. You would wreck the whole thing if you started blasting away at it with a chisel.

4. This isn't the first time a figure has been paraphrased on the National Mall. Just look at the mess that is the Jefferson Memorial. You don't hear people screaming about that one, and Jefferson is in many ways an architect of American society. Pretty important. You'd think that of all men, a man of letters would want to be quoted warmly and accurately.

The Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial is hugely popular. It is the one people ask about no matter where you are in the park. The reaction from the public is overwhelmingly positive.

The rain date for the dedication is October 16. No word yet whether they intend to address this issue at the ceremony. The architect on the project has said since the opening of the memorial that the quote will not be changed.

Washington Monument Earthquake Damage

2011-10-02T21:54:00.001-04:00

I've kept quiet on this blog regarding the Washington Monument and its earthquake damage, but now there is plenty in the news media so I'm not breaking any news here.

The NPS has released several videos and photos related to the earthquake and the inspection, and they're really the best resource for firsthand information. One of the common misconceptions is that the ranger you see in the video is abandoning ship before the visitors. In actuality, she leads everyone to the emergency exit, then comes back up to make sure everyone is out. It took a minute to get the man in the hat to get started down the emergency stairs because he was understandably looking for his child that was already out. I want to reaffirm that the ranger in the video was the last person out of the building. Personally, I find the video hard to watch. I don't find it amusing to see people in a state of emergency like that. Nikki was on the Today Show among other news networks as the crews prepared to do an inspection of the monument's exterior.

NPS Photo by WJE

NPS Photo

In the past week, a team of engineers has been working to assess the condition of the monument's exterior. It makes for a dramatic photo, and the news media was really swarming the first day of the operation. At the end of the first day, I asked Dave Megerle back in our office, "How is the most-photographed man in America today?" The Washington Post got an interview with one of the female engineers. The Washington Post put together some nice photos in this photo album. Ranger Ed is holding up the chunk of stone that was recovered from the interior of the monument in the first picture of the album. This is a picture of me with the same chunk.

I commonly get asked when the monument will get fixed. The answer is that we don't know, and we won't know until we know exactly what the problems are. Luckily, every stone in the monument was cataloged during the 1999-2000 restoration of the Washington Monument, so each stone is known, numbered, and in a database already.

It will be interesting to see how things develop.

Opening of Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial

2011-08-24T13:04:00.000-04:00

I had the privilege of working the first two days of the newly-opened Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial on the National Mall. I've been looking forward to the opening of the memorial for many months now, and waited anxiously for construction to be completed. I got to go on a couple tours of the construction site earlier this year as the crews were laying the stones in the walkway, while Nick Benson was engraving the quotes on the walls, and while they were still planting the trees. It was nice to finally get to see the finished product.

See photos of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial on the Washington Post website. My favorite is #7, the guy with the saxophone. The caption says he "was unable to play at the risk of being asked to leave by the U.S. Park Service." I found that funny because he was in my zone while he was doing that. I admit I was concerned when he brought the sax out to get a photo of himself posing there, but when he wasn't playing, I didn't need to approach him. If I had really been doing my job to the letter, I would have asked him to fold up his tripod, which actually was in violation of regulations! For more news coverage, visit http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/specialreports/MLKmemorial

The memorial is a unique experience on the National Mall. No other memorial brings you through the valley of a mountain into a plaza with a 28.5-foot tall statue. It's an open park-like space, yet it still feels like it is embracing you as you stand there with the arcing wall of inscriptions behind the statue. Some have said it looks like he's scowling, and some photographs make it seem so, but when you stand next to the statue, you can see that it is a look of resolute, self-assurance, an unyielding posture of a man who wants change and is tired of waiting.

Monday was the first day the public was allowed into the memorial. We had fences and chains set up to direct the flow of people through the memorial, preparing for the crowd to reach a point where we would need to restrict access to prevent overcrowding. It never came to that either of the first two days, so we just kept the gate open. There was a steady flow of people throughout the day.

I was mentally prepared for protests or some sort of uproar, but people mostly behaved themselves. The question I got most was "What kind of stone is it made out of," followed by "Where is the stone from." The stone is shrimp pink granite, and it was quarried in China. I always tell people the same story Dr. Jackson told me, that the stone was what they wanted and they found out later it was from China. The same goes for the sculptor, Lei Yixin, who was selected because he was the best in the world as judged by his own peers. He is also from China.

Although people will complain in print about this or that, the reaction on the site from the public was overwhelmingly positive. People stood in awe of the sculpture, they took time to read the inscriptions on the wall, and many stayed for hours, just soaking up the place and the moment.

At first, I was most concerned with making sure people behaved appropriately. We only had very minor incidents with people distributing literature in unauthorized places, and we had one guy with a megaphone preaching from the median on Independence Ave. The chains we had set up kept most people moving through the memorial as intended. So with people largely behaving themselves, I just enjoyed watching the show and mugging for photos with anyone who wanted one. Some people asked for my "autograph" on the newspapers when they found out I had written for it. The newspapers were disappearing as fast as we could put them out; people were grabbing whole stacks of them for souvenirs.

Tuesday, I went into work early to help open up the memorial. I remembered to put on sunscreen after getting cooked on Monday. I took my hour lunch break at 1:00. After eating, I struggled to stay awake in the trailer, and set my phone's alarm to go off at 1:50. I managed not to fall asleep and started heading back to my duty post when the reminder alarm buzzed on my hip. While I was walking back through the partially-unfinished walkway in the construction area of the memorial, I felt for a moment that I had stepped on a loose slab of rock, or like I had stepped onto a moving walkway or escalator. It was either that or my inner ear was doing something weird, which it has been known to do. Only when I got to the next ranger to relieve him did he ask me, "Did you feel the earthquake?" Well, no, I really hadn't, but now that you mentioned it, I did feel a little dizzy a second ago.

A 5.8-magnitude earthquake struck southwest of Washington, D.C. at 1:51 pm on 8/23/11, which was why I felt like I had stepped on a loose rock or onto a moving walkway. Thankfully, no one was seriously hurt. We were all immediately most concerned about the Washington Monument, a building that is clearly the most unsafe place to be during an earthquake. I've told visitors as much who have asked about earthquakes while we were in the top of the Washington Monument. There was rapid-fire radio traffic as rangers checked on each other and evacuated any place with a roof on it. Everyone was OK. Other than an increase in lights and sirens on the street, business as usual continued at the King Memorial, where our site leader said over the radio we were "happy as clams." U.S. Park Police were in full-on incident command mode in short order. The earthquake was the third-largest in recorded history in this part of the country.

At home, although Grandma and Alison evacuated the building along with our neighbors, nothing was damaged. Some of our wall hangings went askew, and a couple boxes fell off the shelf in the closet, but otherwise nothing was affected.

I can't blame the earthquake for all the mess in the photo, but the pile of stuff on the floor was on the shelf before 1:51 pm.

Oh no, my wall hangings are askew!

Earthquakes are nothing to laugh about.

The Pride and Power of Non-Violence

2011-08-03T07:25:00.002-04:00

The Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial opens later this month on the National Mall. This is a very exciting time to be working in this environment. I've had a couple of chances to walk through the construction site and watch the development of the memorial from the ground up (take a virtual tour of the MLK Memorial), to meet the designer and the engineer responsible for the project, and to create a special section of our August 2011 park newspaper for the memorial. I also wrote the following article for the newspaper. It's impossible to say everything that needs to be said in 1,200 words, but I have tried my best.

In early May, 1963, Birmingham, Alabama firefighters turned high pressure fire hoses on blacks; police used dogs, tear gas, and clubs used to harass civilians; and thousands – including children – were arrested, filling the jails to capacity. The images and film from the event shocked the nation. Why did such a scandalous event occur? This episode of violence was not by chance. Instead, it was a highly successful non-violent protest: a group of peaceful citizens invoking their right to freedom of speech while seeking to bring an end to segregationist laws. Arguably, their protest succeeded precisely because of the violent response it elicited. This was the genius of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s brand of “creative protest” that sought to bring an end to centuries of inequality.

After the Civil War, the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution of the United States of America granted freedom, citizenship, and equal voting rights to African-Americans, millions of whom were slaves at the outset of the war. However, after the Plessy V. Ferguson ruling in 1896, which established the “separate but equal” doctrine, discrimination against blacks and systematic disenfranchisement of black voters persisted in the South. Blacks and whites may have had equal opportunities to use public restrooms or eat in restaurants in the eyes of the law, but the quality, comfort, convenience, and dignity of the separate facilities were clearly unequal.

In Kansas, once the bulwark of abolitionism and liberalism, state law allowed for segregated schools in the larger cities. In 1951, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) spearheaded an effort to desegregate schools through the courts. In 1954, the Supreme Court ruled on Brown V. Board of Education, determining that separate facilities are inherently unequal. This ruling opened the door for desegregation efforts throughout the country, and other communities saw similar court battles.

Although Martin Luther King, Jr. saw victories such as Brown V. Board of Education as positive steps, he believed this method of attacking injustice through the courts was too specific and too gradual. By energizing millions of blacks and their supporters around the country, Martin Luther King aimed to do more than win a few court cases on specific issues; he aimed to awaken the American conscience. “The arc of the moral universe is long,” King said, “but it bends toward justice.” King would bend the arc with a revolutionary form of protest.

King’s interest in non-violent protest as a means for social change sprang from a variety of influences. Undoubtedly, King’s primary influence was his Baptist upbringing and his study of the life of Jesus Christ, who said, “All they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.” King found inspiration in Henry David Thoreau’s “On Civil Disobedience,” an essay in which Thoreau explained his non-payment of taxes and resulting jail sentence to protest a war he did not support. Mohandas Gandhi proved a powerful influence because of his organization of wide-scale boycotts and non-violent resistance to achieve equality and end British colonial rule in India. King visited India in 1959 seeking a greater understanding of Gandhi, who “was able to mobilize and galvanize more people in his lifetime than any other person in the history of the world,” King noted. Through theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, King realized that non-violent resistance could only succeed “if the groups against whom the resistance was taking place had some degree of moral conscience.” If all Americans could see the injustice inherent in Jim Crow laws, King believed morality would compel the nation to side with the activists.

The strategy of non-violence allowed the demonstrators to retain a clear position as victims of amoral oppression and violence. Television, photographs, and print media would allow the world to witness the drama of oppression in the South. To achieve this end required an unarmed army willing to potentially absorb violence without resorting to violence themselves. The people who joined King had tremendous courage. Men, women, and children joined in the protests knowing that they could and would be jailed, injured, or even killed. The people’s courage to put themselves in harm’s way in that historic moment was fueled by generations of blacks “seared in the flames of withering injustice,” and bolstered by faith in Dr. King’s method of non-violence.

As a leader of the movement, King knew he was exposing himself and his family to violent backlash. King was routinely harassed and repeatedly arrested. On January 30, 1956, King’s home was bombed. King was stabbed in 1958, saved only by open-chest surgery. J. Edgar Hoover’s F.B.I. tapped King’s phones. King was murdered by a rogue individual in 1968. “To believe in nonviolence does not mean that violence will not be inflicted upon you,” King said. King accepted these risks; his Christian faith that love can conquer hate impelled him throughout the movement.

The Civil Rights Movement took place in many cities over a period of many years, and manifested itself in various forms. In Montgomery, AL, the law required blacks to sit at the rear of the bus where the engine made the cabin the hottest, to give up their seats for white passengers, and to stand instead of using seats specifically reserved for white passengers. After years of this indignity, Ms. Rosa Parks’s refusal to give up her seat to a white man on December 1, 1955 sparked interest in staging a wide-scale protest. With others, King organized a boycott of the city buses that, after months of persistence, resulted in a court ruling that desegregated the buses. In cities across the South, activists staged lunch counter sit-ins to protest segregated dining facilities, arriving en masse and sitting at lunch counters reserved for whites, refusing to leave until police hauled them away. The high water mark in the Civil Rights Movement was the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in August, 1963, a rally of over a quarter million marchers to which King delivered the unforgettable “I Have A Dream” speech. Months after the 1963 march in Washington, a march for voting rights from Selma to Montgomery, AL sparked intense, violent backlash in which three marchers were murdered, dozens beaten, and hundreds jailed. Through these demonstrations and media coverage, the injustice of segregation became apparent to all of America.

Because of the Civil Rights Movement’s pressure over the years, lawmakers slowly dismantled Jim Crow laws and elevated blacks to full, legal equality. Victories came in the form of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights act of 1965, both federal laws signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson. Non-violent resistance spearheaded by Martin Luther King, Jr. had worked to secure equal rights for African-Americans.

For young people today, Martin Luther King’s world of segregation, racism, and social upheaval may seem to be ancient history, but there are millions walking among us today who were profoundly affected by King’s leadership during their own lifetime. There are those among us today who, to paraphrase King, struggled together, prayed together, went to jail together, so that all Americans could be free. The opening of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial is a recognition of his importance for the Civil Rights Movement and his philosophy of non-violence. But in a way, the King Memorial is also a memorial to all who participated in the Civil Rights Movement. The memorial is a place to reflect on the nation’s long trajectory toward freedom, and the hardship of generations of Americans to realize the ideals of freedom, justice, and equality.

How to Visit the Washington Monument

2011-07-20T23:07:00.002-04:00

Every day, thousands of people look up at the bright white Washington Monument towering over Washington, D.C. The building is an awe-inspiring sight, and the tallest all-stone building in the world. So imagine how thrilled people are to discover that people can actually go inside that impressive structure. With their children dragging their feet up the hill, parents trudge up the slope to the base of the monument, drawn by the building's siren song and heartened by the sight of a line of people slowly being fed into the massive obelisk, beaming with excitement. Then, as they approach, they see the sign on the door: All Tickets Have Been Distributed For Today.

Tickets? Yes, tickets. The Washington Monument has an elevator that has an average lap time of about 5 minutes, carrying around 20 people every trip. Add more than that and people start to panic - I've tried! The tickets exist because it's more respectful to the visitors who can report back for their ticket time and actually do something fun for the rest of the day instead of standing in a line for the Washington Monument, burning up the hours of their expensive D.C. vacation while they literally burn up in the sunshine. Someone smart figured it out because the number of tickets for each half hour block take exactly that much time to send through the building. For the fixed costs involved, specifically elevator volume, the system works as well as it can.

Of course, visitors don't know the logistics behind the ticket system, nor do they care at the point the sweat is beading on their brow in the 100 degree summer heat after trudging up the hill. For me, it hurts to tell someone they can't do something, but you have to grow some callouses or else you'll be miserable if you have my job. The same depressing scene plays out a hundred times an hour, and there is nothing I or anyone else can do about it.

Stage 1: Denial

The visitor will approach the nearest ranger, point at the sign and ask, "So, does that mean that all tickets have been distributed for today?"
"Yes."

Stage 2: Guilt

Realizing they have failed to plan ahead for this moment, a look of pain comes over the visitor's face. "I didn't realize I needed tickets."
"Sorry."

Stage 3: Bargaining

So far, no one has tried to outright bribe me, but this phase can play out a number of ways:
1. "We came all the way from Florida, and this is our last day."
2. "We came all the way from California, and this is our last day."
3. "My mother is from India, and this is our last day."
4. "My wife is in a wheelchair, and this is our last day."

This is the stage where the pretty girls will try to flirt with you, various credentials get whipped out, all sorts of pouty expressions are unveiled, and, yes, people shamelessly exploit disabilities.
The only recourse for the ranger is to stick to the plan, "Sorry, you need tickets to get into the building." I am always reminded of my high school swimming coach, who often said, "Failure to plan on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part." Of course I can't say that to them, or else they will get angry.

Stage 4. Anger

Too late! Now they're angry.
"Augh! I didn't know you needed tickets! Can't we just go in? This is ridiculous!"
At this point, I just have to weather the storm and wait for them to calm down to the point where I can give them options. Thankfully, it doesn't always come to this. If you talk to a Midwesterner, they are much more accepting of hardship. People in the East find this fact amusing.

Stage 5. Acceptance

"Alright, kids, let's go."
I don't know what happens after this stage. By this point in the conversation, I'm already onto the next person back at Stage 1.

It doesn't have to end this way. How do you avoid all this headache? No problem. You don't have to know somebody or a secret code to get into the building. All you need is tickets.

How to Visit the Washington Monument

Option #1: Reserved tickets. If time is on your side and you aren't visiting in the next two months, reserve your tickets online at http://www.recreation.gov/. For a small fee, you can reserve your tickets ahead of schedule. It is totally worth the small fee they collect per ticket.

Option #2: First-come, First-Served Tickets. Most of the tickets are given out for the same day. Currently, the ticket window opens at 8:30 AM Eastern Time. The line forms well before that, especially on weekends, but most of the time the line isn't too long before 8:00 AM. You can only get tickets for the same day, not tomorrow or any other day, in this method. The tickets are free, and one person can pick up a maximum of 6 tickets. Tickets run out within 45 minutes in the winter, when the Monument is open from 9 to 5. Otherwise, the tickets run out within the first two hours when the Monument is open in the evening. Get there early, bring coffee and a box of donuts, a crossword, and enjoy the sunrise.

Option #3: Alternatives. The Old Post Office Tower has a nice view of downtown D.C. True, it's only half the height of the Washington Monument, but you can still see the whole downtown area and the building has an interesting history. On a humid day when the pollution is bad, you can see just as much from either building. You don't need a ticket and there is rarely a line to go up to the top of the bell tower.

I'll see you on the hill!

Assateague Island National Seashore

2011-07-14T22:35:00.001-04:00

Living a bachelor lifestyle this week while the rest of the family is away allowed me some flexibility in my weekend travel plans. I decided to take advantage of the no baby situation and drive as far as I dared in a day to visit a park. The night before I was settled on going out to the mountains to cool off, but cooler weather arrived and at the last minute I chose Assateague Island National Seashore. Sure, it was farther, but I figured there was an off chance I might see a black skimmer or an American oystercatcher, two unique American birds.

The Atlantic Ocean and hordes of people with nothing better to do on a Thursday afternoon.

After fighting my way out of DC traffic, my GPS sent me through Delaware, which was unnecessary, but I guess it thought there was going to be traffic to slow me down. The weird thing was there wasn't a sign that proclaimed "You are now entering Delaware! The ____ State!" (I'm sure they're known for something other than being the "first" state.)

I stopped by the visitor center to find out about any birding hotspots. Armed with a nonspecific answer and a map, I did my best to find a parking space, which was impossible in a couple of the lots at the time I arrived in the early afternoon.

I started with the Forest Trail, which went through - you guessed it - a forest on the way to an overlook of the a marsh. From the overlook, I saw green herons, sandpipers, and yellowlegs. I paid for it in blood courtesy of onslaught of salt marsh mosquitoes, whose bite, for some reason, transcends the traditional itchiness and goes straight into a full-on burning sensation that had me growling and clenching my teeth and fists by the time I got to the car. This is coming from a guy who used to sit out on the unscreened porch all evening in Montana and catch mosquitoes on the wing.

A green heron hunts for fish in the marsh. Here, fishy fishy fishy.

"Seriously, you will probably die on this trail." The threat of poison ivy is a joke to me now that I work in a park with its own SWAT team and high-tech surveillance equipment.

After I gave up on the mosquito habitat, I went over to the main beach to hang out for a while. I saw a huge, apparently dead, horseshoe crab that was probably two feet long from nose to tail. I didn't stay too long because I didn't want to get sunburned, but mostly because sitting on a beach by yourself is boring.

My bird book says the ring-billed gull shouldn't be here in the summer. I assume people and garbage have something to do with it.

The laughing gull is, I think, a handsome gull, if very common along the seaside. It gets its name from the sound it makes.

I talked to one of the rangers there about alternate birding spots, and he sent me on the Marsh Trail. "Yeah, that doesn't sound buggy," I thought. Luckily, the mosquitoes weren't a factor there; the too-loud kids and a grouchy woman I presume was their aunt trying their hand at "fishing" drove me insane enough. I did manage to spot two little blue herons there, which was a first for me.

An overlook on the Marsh Trail.

Tiny fish in a pool. I also saw some pipefish, relatives of seahorses, swimming around.

Similar to Theodore Roosevelt National Park, one of the big wildlife attractions is the feral horse population. The horses look very different from those at TR; they are smaller, rounder, and look almost like they are groomed. I would say they do not have the charisma that the horses of Theodore Roosevelt National Park have.

Obligatory horse photo.

After I'd had enough, I asked my GPS about restaurants, and it delivered me to a barbecue joint near Ocean City. Southern barbecue hinges on vinegar-rich sauces, very different from the savory sauces you might expect back in Kansas at my favorite restaurant. I got a pulled pork sandwich and some sweet tea and headed home.

Unfortunately, I visited the park on a busy day and so my experience was somewhat dampened that. To truly get to know and enjoy Assateague Island National Seashore, I am convinced a person has to go hiking into the interior of the park and backpack into some of the backcountry campgrounds. Then you could get away from the people. Next time.

Independence Day on the National Mall

2011-07-06T15:00:00.001-04:00

A couple months ago, I was literally cornered in an office and asked to be the Public Information Officer for the 4th of July on the National Mall. Of course I agreed, but I thought it sounded like a little too important of a job. The Independence Day event is attended by thousands and thousands of people, is a logistical challenge, and takes months of planning built on years of experience.

Although I wasn't too involved with the planning, I got to watch and learn as the rest of the team planned every detail of the event at regular meetings. Where to get fences, where they'd be installed, and who would do the installation? Who was going to play on stage? How to manage security? There is so much to do.

Thankfully, I felt much more comfortable in my media role than as a planner. As part of my job for the 4th, I wrote a public service announcement. I joined up with a videographer from the regional office - within walking distance of our office - and recorded the audio and video at George Mason Memorial between aircraft landing at Reagan Airport. I felt pretty good about the recording, but it turned out that the lens fogged over because of the humidity and the footage was unusable. The audio was re-recorded in the studio so I didn't make the final cut. That's show business. The video team did all the work putting the film together and I thought it looked really nice when it was all said and done. Watch the public service announcement.

I had a hand in editing the press release and I attended the press conference at the Netherlands Carillon prior to the event, which mostly dealt with logistics and visitor safety. I also produced some informational materials for the ranger staff to use the day of the event. I also had a hand in developing recycling messaging that will continue to appear throughout the park and in a couple of Metro stops.

Other than that, my work was pretty much done by the time the event came around. On the 4th, I had my own golf cart (with my name on it!), which I used to tool down the closed streets to get to the places I needed to be. It was fun going the wrong way down usually busy streets. I never made it to the parade; I was stymied by the fences at every turn.

A couple of days before the 4th, my coworkers asked me to participate in the "Vignettes" part of the stage production, sandwiched between the Air Force Band and Jo Dee Messina. All I had to do was read some announcements, a role that might have been brought about by joking around with my baseball announcer cadence: It's a high fly ball to left center field, he's back, way back, at the warning track and he MAKES the grab! So although public speaking is part of the job, and I've given programs to over 100 people at a time before, this was something else.

Peeking out from backstage, a view of a tiny sliver of the crowd.

A view from the production RV / "Green (and Gray) Room"

I helped put out some fires in the afternoon, such as writing some last minute lines for the announcer, scratching them out on a piece of yellow, lined paper in my best handwriting. Otherwise, there was a lot of waiting around as we waited to get our mic levels adjusted on stage and then for the Air Force Band to play its set. When it was our turn to go on, I wasn't particularly nervous, but I also tried hard not to look up at the crowd. The whole program went well, to everyone's relief. The crowd responded well, clapping and cheering. The only glitch was that my podium mic didn't come on when I first went out, so the stage manager had to bring out a replacement.

The vignettes team - Don, Jasmin, Jeff, Chris, and Nicole - portrayed moments of self-doubt and crisis in the nation's history and the positive outcomes of those crises.

I stuck around after our vignette to assist any way I could, since I didn't have to be anywhere and I seemed to be useful in the stage area. Jo Dee Messina played her set. While the audience was enjoying that, rangers in the production RV were counting down to the fireworks using an electronic timing system that syncs up the music and the fireworks launch. It was fun to be in the RV as the coordinators counted down the seconds for the other production personnel from the launch site all the way to the Capitol grounds (there were two separate concerts going on), and so I was in a unique position to listen to the actual countdown and watch the first shots go up. The live music wound down just as the first shots launched.

Rangers Don and Jeff count down the seconds in the final minute of the countdown.

With the fireworks underway, there was a mini-celebration and round of congratulations inside the production RV. Then we all ran out to enjoy the show. It was the most impressive display of fireworks I have ever seen.

Of course, a couple of pictures doesn't do it justice. I found plenty of videos on Youtube, but the best I found of the finale so far was this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2IKDSJkPps. I asked the Pyro Boss what he meant by "A finale that will knock your socks off," which is what he said at the press conference. I told him I was sworn to secrecy, but I wondered what exactly that meant. He told me it was 45 projectiles every second for the last 30 seconds. During the show, the concussion from the blasts actually made my clothes move.

Think I can breathe a sigh of relief? Not yet. We've got the opening of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial next month.

Here's a rundown of the Independence Day event in the Washington Post.

Memorial Day 2011

2011-06-01T17:30:00.000-04:00

Last year, I had a great time at my first major living history event playing baseball and shooting the cannon on Memorial Day. Now at the National Mall, with all our war memorials, the idyllic summer day of barbecue and baseball was replaced with a little more hustle, bustle, pomp, and circumstance.

My day started off like usual, an early train ride into the city with some reading and crossword puzzles, arriving in time to enjoy the cool basement of Survey Lodge before starting the day. Typically, we have our morning briefing before heading out, but with urgency, I was sent with several other rangers a couple minutes early to the World War II Memorial to help run the ceremony just getting ready to begin there.

We cleared the memorial plaza in time to have all the guests seated including actors Gary Sinise and Joe Mantegna and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen. A volunteer arrived just in time with a bottle of water to refresh me, as the heat was starting to rise. After remarks from several of the guests, the event proceeded to the laying of wreaths for each of the branches of service. I had to turn away at least one WWII vet from the area from which I was ordered to exclude the public. I got cussed at a bit, but also got an apology.

After the ceremony, I took a spot down on the plaza just to be on hand for any other emergencies and to look official. I was also hoping the lady who was doing the wreath coordinating - who had borrowed my special Fort Larned pen before the event - would reappear and return my pen. To my relief, she did, and she even picked me out of the crowd to get it back to me.

I had little time to gather my bag and get a chug of water before heading off to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, my assigned duty station for the day. I checked on the various tents in Constitution Gardens, whose permits I had already verified back on Saturday, then took a short break to eat. No time to rest, though, for we had to again clear the area of people, this time so the US Park Police could bring in bomb-sniffing dogs to search the area prior to the ceremony.

At the last minute, we found that we needed an Honor Guard to escort some of the wreaths during the ceremony. Luckily, I had been tipped off to shine my boots ahead of time (for the record, they were already shined!) and had thought something of the sort might occur. Four of us got instructions for where and how to stand, and when we would move. I volunteered to go first, and got to carry the National Park Service wreath into the center of the memorial at the appointed time.

We waited in the shade of a tree while the first few speakers presented. By now the heat was a withering 95 with high humidity. Tolerable, but enough to make a ranger have sweat dripping down his face even while resting in the shade. I was starting to worry about all the people in the seats with the sun beating on them.

At the prescribed time, we moved the wreaths into position ceremoniously, camera shutters clicking all around. One of the guests of honor next to me took my elbow, feeling faint. She soldiered on and we all got through the ceremony without any mishaps.

For everything that went on, I was actually most excited at the sight of a black-crowned night heron flying over WW2 in the morning. I was so excited about that, that by the end of the day, I forgot I had gotten to meet Adm. Mullen way back at the beginning of the day. I figured the heat was getting to me.

All weekend, interesting items were left at the wall. I picked up a few leather biker jackets, among other things. One vet told me a story of a buddy listed on the wall who had grown up with him in a Boys Ranch. He summarized his frustration, "To come through all that, and then get killed over there, damn it." He also had good stories of his own from the war. All part of why I enjoy working there.

On my way out at the end of the day, I rewarded myself with an Italian ice cup from the concession stand. Frozen lemonade never tasted so good.

Grand Canyon / NPS Fundamentals II

2011-05-08T22:38:00.000-04:00

For more than 50 years, the Horace M. Albright Training Center, located near the rim of the Grand Canyon, has been an important park ranger training facility. Rangers used to go there for three months of training in all the kind of skills they would need in the field. In the last couple of decades, that has changed to be more applicable to all National Park Service employees. The latest version is called NPS Fundamentals, a broad-based introduction to all aspects of the NPS.

So I got to travel by air to Phoenix, then by charter bus to the Grand Canyon. It wasn't hard to find the group waiting for the bus when everybody's wearing boots from the VF Solutions catalog. We stopped for groceries in Williams, AZ, then checked into our lodging at the Albright Training Center.

Albright Training Center

The class was made up of 50 people from all around the country, including Hawaii and American Samoa, as well as a cross-section of ages, experience levels, and professions. The instructors were enjoyable and energetic. I won't bore the lay reader with details of all the classes, but they covered the full sweep of NPS operations. One of my favorite sections, incidentally, was the Laws & Policies session, which was very informative to me.

The entire time, I was jet lagged, stuck on Eastern time, so I was waking up at 4 AM, which left me four hours to burn before class started. Walking to the rim and looking for birds easily ate up that time for me.

South Rim

Western bluebird

Peregrine falcon diving

There was very low air quality the first day or two.

Of course, the most important thing, other than learning and networking, was how to spend the weekend. Despite heavy interest in backpacking, I was able to get onto the long overnight backpacking trip to the Bright Angel Campground down by the Colorado River, about a 17.5 mile trek all together. We set off in the early morning to take advantage of the cooler temperatures even though it was a leisurely downhill for the day.


Still in the upper part of the canyon, it's most of a vertical mile down to the river

The rock layers and vegetation changed dramatically as we descended into the canyon.

A welcome sight near the end of the day's work was the bridge crossing the Colorado River. I fell behind the rest of the group while watching violet green swallows here.

A rock overhang in the Bright Angel Campground

This yellow warbler sang in the mesquite tree over my head all afternoon. I was interested to notice the mesquite tree's leaves close at night, I assume to conserve water.

The roaring creek next to our campsite provided white noise, making the campground very peaceful for the number of users.

The joy of backpacking is seeing the landscape in ways you just can't during day hikes.

Some of us planned to eat a communal meal of bean and rice burritos for supper, and much of my afternoon was spent obsessing over the dry black beans that had to be soaked before they could be cooked. I took advantage of the desert sun and put the beans in a Ziplock bag and set that on my reflective emergency tarp, which heated the whole bit up nicely. The beans were steeping along just fine until one of the doggone rock squirrels - or "bastard squirrels" - nibbled a hole in my bag, spilling black bean juice everywhere. I turned my hands blue resetting my whole system in a new bag, fretting about the additional time that would be added by having to reheat a new bag of water in the sun. It all worked out in the end, except I had an excessive amount of now-soaked extra beans I had to hoof back up the hill.

Obsessing over the beans, I sat here for hours.

No one thought to bring a tent, so we all curled up in our sleeping bags under the stars. I was under the mesquite tree trying not to think of ringtails, mountain lions, scorpions, tarantulas, or the fox we actually saw that evening. I only really woke up twice: once because I was sweating in my sleeping bag, and once because the dry air had once again made my nose clog up. I stared at the Big Dipper trying to calculate the actual time, which I estimate was about 2 or 3 AM. I got my best sleep after that.

In the morning, we set out early for the long climb out of the Canyon. Having mastered the "pol-e pol-e" pace on Kilimanjaro a few years ago, I set out at about the same pace at half the altitude.

Halfway out of the Grand Canyon, looking up the Bright Angel Trail at the last four miles. It was a long, calf-devastating climb to the top.

Pausing to rest my legs momentarily, I looked back into the canyon. The Bright Angel Campground is where the two inner canyons meet in the center of the photo.


An observant NPS hiker with us spotted these pictograms. We had two archaeologists in the group that got fairly excited about all this.

My legs hurt for five days after we finished, necessitating actually holding onto rails with both hands to get up and down steps, but it was worth it. There's just no way to fully appreciate the Grand Canyon unless you walk it.

I was able to cross off half a dozen life list birds including Lucy's warbler, black-chinned sparrow, black-throated sparrow, black-chinned hummingbird, canyon wren, and summer tanager. I also saw several blue-gray gnatcatchers, black-headed grosbeaks, white-throated swifts, violet-green swallows, and some kind of tern flying way overhead. I never did find any California condors.

We emerged, exhausted but in good spirits and health at the top of the canyon, between 8 and 9 hours after setting out.

Let's do that again!

I realize that helicopters and airplanes are a way for people to see the canyon who are unable to hike down. I'm sure that's amazing and everything, but until you have sweat in your eyes and dirt in your teeth, I don't think you can fully appreciate the environment and the glorious details you'll find when you take time to look closer. So I rejoice in my temporarily crippled legs, for the Canyon is a real place and I have been there!

In class, we later visited Sunset Crater National Monument and Wupatki National Monument.

A flower in the lava field at Sunset Crater

Wupatki

The trip was a valuable learning experience but I also had a lot of fun. It also stirred memories of the family vacation we took to the same area when I was 16, a trip that was amazing to me at the time and still very relevant to me today. I also enjoyed meeting some new people and hearing about all the things we have in common across our respective parks. There was a great exchange of information outside the classroom that could be the most valuable thing about the class in the long run.

Cherries, Chaos, and Celebrities

2011-04-13T10:54:00.003-04:00

9-year-old boy: "Is this the entrance to the FDR Memorial?"
Ranger Nathan: "Yes, it is!"
9-year-old boy: "Yessssss!"

Each day of the National Cherry Blossom Festival, I felt like one of the troops in the beginning of Saving Private Ryan. I imagine Tom Hanks telling me "I'll see you on the beach," as I exit through the turnstyle and head up the steps to the Mall. Nearly every day, I didn't know what I was going to find myself in the middle of when I got to ground level. One day, it was the 10-mile run blocking the road I needed to cross to get to the office and probably tens of thousands of people crowding the area. Other times, it was just a swarm of people there to see the cherry blossoms. One Sunday, I set a personal best for visitor contacts, handing out 2,000 maps in a single shift, which worked out to a visitor contact at least every 12.6 seconds.

With a government shutdown looming, I was working at the Washington Monument the last day Congress had to pass a budget. We were filmed while packing up at the end of the day, and so I was on ABC's national news for two seconds (:58 - 1:00).

After the budget passed, I happened to become a symbol of government workers' resurrection, carrying the banner for the park in the Cherry Blossom Parade. My coworker was photographed in the New York Times. I'm sure we were all on TV, too. A burning 2011 Dodge SUV stole the show, though, holding up the parade for 15 minutes. I didn't know about it until later that night.

We had fun getting ready for the parade as we were surrounded by organized chaos. Marching bands, balloons, drum groups, rock bands, and clowns surrounded us. Paddles the Beaver got loaded into the back of one of the cherry maintenance trucks, riding the truck bed lift up, the sight of which struck me as outrageously funny. We practiced and debated the merits of various waves, and Ranger Gwinn (see photo link above) suggested the point, wink, thumbs up move, which I used to great delight on a very enthusiastic elderly lady during the parade. Admiring the chaos surrounding us, and fearing the approach of an assortment of clowns, the following conversation took place:

Me: "When you took a job at the National Mall, isn't this what you signed up for?"
Ranger Gwinn: "Yeah, here we are in the shadow of our majestic nation's capital, surrounded by hobo clowns."

We all had a great time in the parade.

Later that day, I was working at VVM when I started getting questions about why there was a long line to get into the Lincoln Memorial. There shouldn't be a line; it's just a free for all up the steps. But the steps were empty. That's because President Obama went into the memorial, I suppose because Lincoln in part represents the idea of reconciliation, and gave a few remarks. I watched him go up and down the steps from VVM, but didn't join the crush of screaming people. You would have thought the Beatles were in town.

So all of that got me through the first two days of my week.

I worked two days at FDR, which provided a nice break and a return to more nature in the middle of my week. I was able to find Caspian terns, hermit thrushes, brown creepers, white-throated sparrows, and an Eastern towhee in the woods and on the Tidal Basin. I also got to practice my FDR program some more. The cherry trees by then were done blooming, but the crab apples were in full force. The week before, I walked through FDR on a rainy, cold, and windy day, and the petals were falling off the trees like snow. As a bonus, no one was around, so I had a nice, quiet, peaceful, beautiful place all to myself for a moment.

On Tuesday, a ceremony to unveil a new plaque at the World War II Memorial was held for Sen. Bob Dole of Kansas. I was assigned to work the event, which, for me mostly meant looking official and making sure the color guard had room to maneuver at the beginning of the ceremony. While we were ramping, up I met NPS Deputy Director Peggy O'Dell, who came over to greet me, and came back to tell me I looked "sharp," which was nice. Good thing I remembered to polish my boots the night before. The Deputy Director is the 2nd highest position in the NPS.

Former Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne also paused to greet me on his way in, saying "It's good to be back with you [park rangers]." After the ceremony, he also also patted me on the shoulder and thanked the park.

There were plenty of people at the ceremony that I recognized, and plenty more that I probably should have been able to recognize if I watched C-Span: Vice President Joe Biden, Ken Salazar, Daniel Inouye, Pat Roberts, Donna Shalala, Elizabeth Dole, Tom Brokaw, and of course, Bob Dole. I also noticed Sen. Jerry Moran, from Hays, KS, who was elected to the Senate for the first time while we lived in Kansas last year.

Here's some video provided by the Topeka Capital-Journal.

During his speech, Secretary Salazar was looking me in the eye when he thanked the NPS and park rangers. I felt like I had no part in any of this! VP Biden also routinely made eye contact with me, in large part because of where I was standing.

After the ceremony, Dole stuck around for quite a while greeting attendees. After most of that thinned out, I was able to shake his hand. I told him I had had the privilege of working at Fort Larned back in Kansas and I appreciated his support of the park. He said, "Thank you."

The Steepest Learning Curve

2011-03-30T11:21:00.000-04:00

This is my fifth national park, and certainly the most complex. Not only does the ranger need to know about pretty much the full sweep of American history to explain why the seven (going on eight) memorials are significant, but there is the history of the memorial itself, the logistical things of where to be when and what to do, and information on the rest of the city. It's stressful, and I hate having to tell someone I don't know the answer.

I learned quickly to identify the location of the first aid bag at every duty station. My first day in uniform, I was assigned to the Lincoln Memorial, and it was less than an hour before a kid splatted on the chamber floor. Marble > Lip. I've since carried my latex gloves and breathing barrier in my pocket at all times.

One of the tricks is learning where and how to stand. Changing your location, orientation, and even posture can radically affect the type of interaction you get with visitors. For example, I quickly found that standing near one column in the Lincoln Memorial means more folks will ask me to take their picture, which I enjoy. But when I'm ready to talk about the murals or the Lincoln quotes on the walls, all I need to do is take five steps to the east and those will become the primary questions. Take five more steps to the east, and I'll be answering questions about the reflecting pool and the nearest metro. So moving around the monument throughout the day spices things up.

Each monument generates some interesting patterns in visitor behavior. Lincoln, for most, is a photo op. Washington is a treat. FDR is a surprise. Vietnam is emotional. Korea is confusing in that it is not Vietnam.

Of course the big news is the National Cherry Blossom Festival, billed as the largest event in the National Park Service because of the volume of visitors that come during the two week festival. The trees look nice with the flowers on them, but cold weather has subdued the level of visitation through the first week. It's nice that the event gets people outdoors, but I guess the thing I like about nature is the variety. I've been able to see a wide variety of birds, for example, including herring and black-backed gulls, osprey, bald eagles, pine warblers, tufted titmice, pied-billed grebes, and red-bellied woodpeckers. I see the same red-tailed hawk every morning by the US Department of Agriculture building; it caught a squirrel on Sunday.

Now that I'm an expert commuter, and have virtually memorized the bus schedule, it's not so stressful. I have been able to finish reading Washington: A Life which was pretty good. I'm now reading The Coldest Winter. I have a big pile of books lined up, but thankfully have a Kindle so I can always have all of them with me. The commute home makes my evening shorter than I'd like, but that's the way it is.

There is no shortage of things to do, and I'm happily busy all day. I really enjoy it.

Reformatting

2011-03-06T22:10:00.000-05:00

"I'm Tank. I'll be your operator."
The Matrix

I felt like a Mercury astronaut or a comic book character the first couple days at the new office. Everyone seemed genuinely glad to meet us and excited that we would be starting work soon. There are seven of us coming on as "new" rangers, so the treatment is a little bit different than when you are the only one. I haven't had such an experience since I was an SCA at Glacier when I was still in college. I was interested to learn each of us studied History. Everyone has worked in other parks across the country before coming here.

As you might expect, points reiterated during training often reflected the fact that the park is very high profile, and the fact that that is a double-edged sword. I will say now that this appealed to me from the beginning. From my "office," I can see the White House, the Supreme Court, and the Capitol. The presidential motorcade even went by during one of our training modules.

Despite feeling somewhat like an astronaut, with the responsibility and level of scrutiny, I still feel more like an ant under a magnifying glass. There is just so much to know and so little time. There are 7 monuments: Jefferson, FDR, Lincoln, Korea, Vietnam, World War 2, and Washington. Each has its own story about the monument itself as well as the history that the monument recalls. Then there's learning the little things like how to navigate the behind-the-scenes stuff, sometimes literally. Soon there will be an eighth monument, MLK. The monuments sweep virtually the whole of our nation's history, so the task of understanding them, as well as the history, is monumental.

In the first week, we did a lot of administrative work and got introduced to all the monuments with rangers who were just fascinating in their depth of knowledge. I enjoyed walking down the steps at the Washington Monument, which since the 1970s has not been open to the public. It's pretty fun to find the states you are interested in represented by their commemorative stones. After walking down all 500 feet, we immediately got back on the elevator and went straight back to the top to do some more work. I'm told a peregrine falcon sometimes eats its prey on the windowsill at the top.

The National Mall and Memorial Parks also takes care of a number of other monuments in downtown D.C., some of which are fairly new and might not be familiar to you. The D.C. War Memorial was built by the city and only recently became part of the national park; it is getting a facelift along with the Reflecting Pool's major rehabilitation. The Japanese American Memorial to Patriotism During World War II is another lesser-known monument tucked in a corner northwest of the Capitol, but it features a passionate and beautiful sculpture of cranes enclosed in barbed wire.

One lesser-known monument we saw was actually pretty far from the Mall: the African American Civil War Memorial. This monument features a statue of African-American servicemen, but interestingly also includes on stonework surrounding the statue a listing of every African-American regiment that served in the Civil War and the names of each man in those units. It's really amazing to see all the individual names. If you go, Ben's Chili Bowl is two short blocks away, where you can get a famous chili dog from the proudly black-owned store. It's a really fun experience and the food is also great. The sign on the wall says "The only people who eat for free here are BILL COSBY and THE OBAMA FAMILY and that's it!"

For all the excitement, I have to say the most stressful thing was figuring out how to use public transportation. Realizing that I didn't want to hike a mile to the metro twice a day, I had to figure out how to use the bus. It's been staggeringly easy, except for the little hiccup where I got on the wrong bus and took the long way around. (I found a Chipotle and a World Market as a result). My commute takes about an hour to an hour and fifteen minutes including walking and waiting time, but it's virtually stress-free. It sure beats driving. I can get a seat on the metro both ways, and I can get my reading in. It's time I would have wanted to spend doing that anyway, and it's good decompression time. I wouldn't get that driving.

On Friday, as we were walking along the Tidal Basin, a couple of us spotted a bald eagle flying over the National Mall. Just another day in the life of a park ranger.

Theodore Roosevelt Island National Memorial

2011-03-01T21:53:00.000-05:00

At the end of his 2010 book, Colonel Roosevelt, Edmund Morris closed with mention of Theodore Roosevelt Island thus:

The emplacement of Theodore Roosevelt Bridge across the Potomac River in Washington gives many commuters the impression that it, and not the forested island beneath, is the twenty-sixth President's official memorial. Somewhere among those trees, however, he stands eighteen feet tall, one bronze fist upraised, eternally lecturing the doves and mockingbirds."

Morris was trying to convey two ideas with what he said. One was that people still loved Theodore Roosevelt long after he was president. He's still the 4th most popular president behind Washington, Lincoln, and FDR. The second was that TR spent his post-presidential years basically shouting in the wind - no one was interested in his ideas anymore - a major theme of Morris's third book on Roosevelt.

Theodore Roosevelt Island was once an estate owned by John Mason, the son of George Mason. Like Theodore Roosevelt National Park, the island was converted into a natural memorial to Theodore Roosevelt, who took swims in the Potomac and led his cabinet on his famous point-to-point hikes while he was president.

It's easy to get lost trying to get to Theodore Roosevelt Island, just as it's easy to get lost going to the nearby Marine Veterans Memorial. The layout of the roads prohibits most maneuvers in the interest of keeping traffic flowing in an otherwise congested area, but you really have to pay attention to the lane changes to stay on the GW Parkway to make it work. Left! Right! Recalculating! Somehow I got it on the first try. Maybe I'm lucky. Maybe I'm learning. The penalty for missing the turn is some kind of tragically huge double U-turn operation.

Once you're there, Theodore Roosevelt Island is a pleasant, wooded setting in the middle of the Potomac River. I found a fair number of people walking the trails on the island and jogging or cycling on the Mount Vernon Trail which passes by the island.

Arranged in an arc behind the Roosevelt statue are four panels with TR quotes on four themes: Youth, Manhood, State, and Nature. There is a rather large, circular plaza with benches to sit and contemplate the natural setting and Theodore Roosevelt, who looms large over the area. That is, for the sixty seconds between commercial jet treetop buzzings of the island, following the Potomac approach to Reagan.

I walked most of the trails on the island in a failed attempt to find an open bathroom. To my disappointment, it opens April 1. Along the way, I saw a number of common eastern birds like hairy woodpeckers, Carolina chickadees, robins, and tufted titmice.

The island has some enjoyable nature trails and is a good place to see a number of birds. I assume it will be a nice place for woodland flowers in the spring, too. It's a nice retreat from the urban setting of downtown D.C., and you might just find a slice of solitude amid there beneath the towers in Rosslyn.

You can find out more about Theodore Roosevelt Island at http://www.nps.gov/this/index.htm.

Harry S Truman National Historic Site

2011-02-26T19:15:00.000-05:00

In the middle of our move, Amber and I took an hour to drop into Harry S Truman NHS, but we were stuck with the only time available - Sunday morning. Services were limited, and I inadvertently pulled the "I'm a ranger, what can you do for me," card to squeeze onto the tour that was just forming up a few blocks away.

We got to take a guided tour of Truman's house on Delaware Street, the only way you can see the inside of the house. As we entered the house and looked around, I got the feeling of an intense kind of intimacy with the family. There are no barriers, no ropes, just a refurbished carpet runway to adhere to, and it truly feels like one is being welcomed into their home. The kitchen is quaint and harks back to a time gone by, and the rest of the first floor of the house is elegant and refined without being pompous. The upstairs is not currently open to visitors.

There are some details that are monuments to Truman's frugality: ripped linoleum nailed back down, a super-long pull chain to turn on the light at the top of the stairs. Then there are hints of the man's greatness: gifts from royalty and huge portraits of the family. And there are reminders of his interests, a baby grand piano and mammoth bookshelves.

My favorite detail was Truman's hat and coat hanging from a hook in the alcove where he took the phone call telling him the Korean War was beginning. I went back for a second look.

Harry S Truman NHS is an interesting site and worth a look if you're in the Kansas City area. Find out more on www.nps.gov/hstr.

The Big Move

2011-02-26T19:02:00.000-05:00

While working for the National Park Service over the past few years, I've become very efficient at moving. However, the stakes were high as we attempted a multi-park transfer to get me from my detail at Theodore Roosevelt back to Fort Larned and then over to the National Mall in Washington, D.C. It was a logistical challenge involving multiple parties, multiple U-Haul vehicles, eight days, and 2,000 miles of travel.

The mission was completed successfully.

We packed up in North Dakota and had the benefit of reasonably warm weather - above freezing - for packing the cars. There was a big sheet of ice at our bottom step, so I had to be very cautious. Accidents at this point would really throw off the whole tight itinerary we were on. After finishing cleanup in the morning, I towed the U-Haul trailer down the road some distance behind Amber and Alison, who got a head start to make up for time lost during feedings and diaper changes. We made it all the way to North Platte, NE that first day, which was very far to go with a baby but necessary since options are very limited in western Nebraska.

After arriving in Larned the next day, I got checked out of Fort Larned NHS, returning materials to the park, cleaning out my locker, and visiting with everyone there. We opened up the storage unit and I began to fret over how everything was going to fit in our rental truck. Amber had (in retrospect, wisely) rented a 20 foot U-Haul truck, a new size in their fleet, on the premise that if it didn't fit into the truck, it wasn't going to fit into our apartment.

The next day was dedicated to packing the things from the storage unit and the trailer into the truck. I was at my wit's end by the time Amber's parents showed up to help, having flown in for just that purpose. With help from a couple folks from Fort Larned who came over to help at the end of the work day, we got nearly everything loaded onto the truck, sorted out for the auction house, the giveaway pile, or the dump, leaving us with a minimum of mopping up to do.

The next day, we got out of town in the late morning and made it to Independence, MO. The next day, Effingham, IL, then a full day of driving in non-stop rain to St. Clairsville, OH, where it started snowing as the sun went down. The snow wasn't a big factor as we cruised across the snow-covered mountains in Pennsylvania to Harrisburg, PA, where we dropped some exercise equipment and lawn & garden equipment for her sister in her new house.

Finally, we drove to Alexandria and got checked into our apartment and, rather remarkably, got the truck unloaded just as it was getting dark in the evening. It was rather exhausting moving everything up two stories in a building with no elevator. There was a tense moment when we tried to get the big couch through the door and into the living room, a maneuver that left us with millimeters to spare.

We're still working on finding a place for everything, but it looks like we will do just fine. Paring down the amount of stuff we have made all the difference. Last summer, I offloaded half of my books and half of my DVD collection. We got rid of games and other things. We just gave them away.

One thing we've learned is that we are tired of having things. We are all guilty of saving things that have nostalgic value, and these things tend to accumulate. Then they start to weigh a person down. The struggle is to recognize that the thing is not the same as the memory and to let the thing go. Getting rid of old things is not a rejection of the past. The acquisition of new things is not a portent of the future.

So far, we have enjoyed being in the big city. Our apartment is remarkably quiet and the residents friendly. We like all the options for dining, entertainment, and shopping that are so easily accessible if you can brave the traffic. I'm learning what it will take to get into the city to work in the morning, centered on the metro, but maybe expanding to include a short bus ride to fast forward my morning commute.

This is going to be interesting.

The DC Apartment Hunting Trip

2011-01-27T19:03:00.000-05:00

"This is a big f***ing deal."
-Joe Biden

A major hurdle to clear in our move to DC was finding an affordable place to live that would facilitate metro commuting into downtown, and that would have some of the extras we'd need to make life comfortable. Amber did a tremendous amount of research and organization to get us there and to see plenty of apartments, and the credit is all hers.

On Sunday, we loaded up and jetted off to DC. I found myself sitting right behind Senator John Hoeven (R-ND) on the flight out of Bismarck. He flew coach, but was in the exit row. I tried to peek between the seats to see what he was reading but couldn't get more information than "Page 4 of 5." I debated whether I should try to converse with him about how oil development was rapidly ruining western North Dakota (which he facilitated as governor), but decided it was in my interest as a low-level government employee to not attract attention to myself.

We watched most of the Packers NFC championship game at our gate while waiting for our flight out of Minneapolis, but had to board the plane just before the end of the game. The pilot announced the score to us before we departed. On hearing of the Green Bay win, Amber let out a too-loud "Yessssss!" which made the guy in front of her, sitting alongside his wife and teenage daughter, slowly turn his head and glare in mock disgust. I laughed and said, "That guy is going to recline his seat so hard." Everyone got a laugh.

We got to Reagan and easily got on the shuttle to the car rental place, which showed up about three seconds after we got there. We paid a few extra bucks for a GPS in the car, which was a great decision. The attendant upgraded us to a bigger car for free just because it was closer in the garage and it was apparently "cold" outside. The GPS was remarkably easy to use and helped phenomenally in an area where the roads are like a plate of spaghetti, though operator error caused bouts of "re-cal-ka-lit-ting" which made things interesting later on.

We got up at 5:15 AM to get started on our day of wall-to-wall apartment hunting. We had hourly appointments at a variety of locations around Alexandria most of the day, with a little break around lunch for additional exploration. We looked at some on the high and low end of what we wanted to spend, in different neighborhoods and situations. It's amazing how much was the same about the places we looked, and yet how much was different. Some include utilities and cost more, some don't and cost less on the surface. Some have laundry in-unit, some have it down the hall. We were exhausted by the end of the day, but had a good idea what our front-runners were. Incredibly, we made all of our appointments on time, even with unfamiliar roads and a baby in tow. Good planning and a GPS made it possible.

That evening, we visited my brother and ate at La Sandia. I really liked the steak fajitas I got, which were just incredible. Exhausted, and knowing we had another day ahead of us, we retired to the hotel and set the alarm a little later in the morning.

The second day of apartment hunting, which was really a half-day adventure to scope out some comparable apartments in Maryland, involved a drive from Arlington to Rockville during rush hour. The GPS had me going this way and that, and I was able to negotiate the traffic just fine until the instructions she gave me were made impossible by the dreaded orange cones. No problem, she'll just re-cal-ka-lit and we'll be OK.

Thus I found myself driving over the Arlington Memorial Bridge during rush hour, then zooming past the Kennedy Center, flawlessly maneuvering the epic roundabout at DuPont Circle, then grinding it out up Connecticut Avenue to get where we were headed. I was having "fun;" others in the car were less enthusiastic.

We toured three more apartments, ate lunch at an Indian restaurant, then made our decision to go with the very first apartment we saw. In all, we had seen 11 apartments. We went back to Alexandria. Done deal.

Since we now had free time on our hands, we went down to the National Mall to scope out my new office, Survey Lodge. I found my future supervisor, who introduced me around and showed me the whole building. Survey Lodge once was the boiler room that generated the steam to lift the elevator up the monument. After seeing that, she asked if we wanted to go to the top of the Washington Monument with her. We happily agreed.

The Washington Monument's park service alphacode is WAMO, taking the first two letters of each of the two words in its name. They pronounce it "Wham-O" as a sort of joke, referring to how busy it is. The building, which was once the tallest free-standing structure in the world and still the tallest free-standing stone structure, is visited by some 800,000 elevator riders a year. The trip up takes 70 seconds, and down, 2.5 minutes - a real challenge for the interp ranger to come up with something meaningful to say in such a short amount of time. It was described to me as the "bread and butter" duty station for rangers, since it comes up frequently in the rotation.

That evening we ate at Bus Boys & Poets, where I had some organic beer from the UK and grass-fed beef meatloaf. A portion of the restaurant was closed off for those who came to watch the State of the Union address.

Our plans for an early departure out of Reagan fizzled as our flight was canceled because of mechanical issues. Getting up at 5 AM again had been for nothing. People trying to get to New York were completely stranded before long (so it didn't matter that Christiane Amanpour was being paged because she was late). We got rerouted through Cincinnati, to Minneapolis, to Bismarck. An extra hop with a baby on your lap, trying to keep her feedings and naps on schedule is not easy.

We made it back, enjoying the warm spell in North Dakota's drying off the roads for the first time in months.

Big Changes for 2011

2010-12-31T22:32:00.000-05:00

Fort Larned NHS handed me a wonderful opportunity by hiring me for a permanent, subject-to-furlough job. This was a huge stepping stone for which I will always be indebted to them. In the federal employment game, and especially in the NPS, getting permanent status has huge implications for future employment prospects because the hiring rules are different. Fort Larned built up some great experience and expanded my knowledge of western history considerably. In return, I think I gave them more than their money's worth by completely updating their website, creating new publications , and getting the park featured on NPS Getaways that will be useful years into the future.

A better opportunity has come along, with a promotion and the promise of year-round employment. It's too good to pass up for those reasons alone, but the location is tremendous to boot. For the first time, my land of opportunity is in the east rather than the west.

I accepted a permanent job at the National Mall. Of course, this has us all excited, nervous, and grappling with the logistics of moving (if you're keeping track, we're in ND, our stuff is in KS, and DC is far away).

We visited the National Mall in 2009 as part of our great tour of the eastern U.S. and again in February, 2010. I definitely had a national park experience then of the highest order, the type where a place that has only existed in the mind's eye as an abstract concept is suddenly revealed as manifest and real.

This site is a History major's dream, spanning the entire history of the United States. The places I will be helping take care of is a list of the greatest people and greatest trials our nation has faced in its history:

Washington Monument
Lincoln Memorial
Thomas Jefferson Memorial
Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial
World War II Memorial
Korean War Memorial
Vietnam War Memorial

Plus, there are some other areas you might be less familiar with:

Constitution Gardens
George Mason Memorial
John Ericsson Memorial
Old Post Office Tower
Pennsylvania Avenue National Historic Site

Here I am at the Lincoln Memorial in 2009. No big deal, just the greatest president our nation has ever had.

The Korean War Memorial. Also known as "The Forgotten War." Speaking of which, anybody know a good book I can read about the war?

Washington Monument rising above the Tidal Basin. The Old Post Office peeks above the trees to the left. Paging Dr. Freud.

The FDR memorial utilizes a lot of flowing water and tells the story of his four terms in office as you walk through the monument. It's a nice, quiet spot.

The Jefferson Memorial. Although I disagree with his politics (I'm a Hamilton man), Jefferson is quintessentially American.

I'm now taking book recommendations for FDR, Jefferson, Korea, and Vietnam. I will read them on my Kindle, the most bomb-diggity device ever created for people who read a crap-ton of books they need to reference but do not want to haul across the country.

Hopefully this new adventure provides some material for writing. There is certainly no shortage of things to see and do in D.C. I'm also excited for the possibility of weekend getaways to the mountains.

Now who wants to help me load up, drive, and unload a moving truck?

Learn more about the National Mall and Memorial Parks.

The Elk Upside

2010-12-10T20:00:00.005-05:00

I know I've polemicized a bit when it comes to the Theodore Roosevelt National Park elk management thing from the start. Maybe I'm a crabby, sore loser.

I have to say as I've watched the plan in action for a few weeks now, I'm starting to see some of the greater wisdom and the positive outcomes I had not conceived of before.

To date, the program has been a raging success, and the elk population has been reduced by 200 with over a month left to go.   At the current rate, the elk reduction will exceed the loftiest goal the park had set of 275. The action has been executed safely for the people and pack animals involved, it has surpassed management goals so far, and has had apparently no noticeable impact on other park users.

The only comment I've gotten from a visitor was in favor of the plan. "I'm so glad the park is handling it this way," he said. From the get-go, I had been concerned that visitors wanting to use the park traditionally, for hiking, snowshoeing, camping, etc., would be adversely impacted, but to date, I have not gotten any complaints. Not one. Not even a whimper. And I had imagined picketers outside the visitor center. But I guess that's the benefit of a park that few adventurers come to visit in the winter season.

So what works about the elk plan?

First, the elk plan provides for several jobs in a national economy that is still struggling. Some of them are job types that have never existed before.  The people that do these jobs are extraordinarily hardworking people. I really admire their ability to go outside in the North Dakota wintertime and do much harder work than I do on an average workday. They set out early in the morning, don't come back until evening, and they're doing it in the freezing cold, the blinding snow, the wind, the sun, through brush, and over hill and dale in the badlands. Theodore Roosevelt would be proud of these guys who work hard, don't complain, and get the job done.

Second, the plan allows for public involvement in an action not normally open to the public. While it is true that only a very small number of the interested people will ever get the chance to participate as volunteers for the program, it does allow the public to retain a sense of ownership in their national park. The volunteers were selected at random, so it's as democratic as it can be. It is not an opportunity that is for sale, or for some privileged class alone.

Third, the influx of jobs and volunteers helps sustain the town of Medora in a time of year that is otherwise very lean. Extra people in the community, and a good chunk of them rotating out every week and being replaced, means more money being spent in hotels, restaurants, and shops. It works in theory, anyway. I don't know if the actual impact is knowable.

Years ago, in the planning process, Senator Byron Dorgan opined that the park involve the public in the elk reduction.  In an indirect way, Dorgan can take credit for creating jobs, bringing in new money into Medora, and completing the management goals of the park. Pretty smooth, eh? I guess you don't become a U.S. Senator by accident.

Here's hoping for continued success.

The Times, They are a-Changin'

2010-12-01T13:21:00.001-05:00

THE TRAIN
One hugely positive change since we left Medora in the spring has been the institution of no-blow crossings in Medora. In a town where several coal trains pass through every hour, the horns blowing at both crossings in town and echoing through the hills were a real nuisance. Now, unless you're really paying attention to the low vibration they create, you'd hardly notice them. This is a very welcome change, and a small victory for preserving the wilderness character of the badlands. Plus, you won't hear them from the Cottonwood Campground when you stay there.

THE OIL
The ability for North Dakota to return a budget surplus during a massive recession can be measured by the alarming pace of oil production in the badlands.

Just a few years ago, we would make the drive to and from Dickinson with few waypoints to mark the way. For instance, we knew which communications tower was 1/3 of the way from Medora and which squirrel nest tree was 2/3 of the way. There were that few landmarks on the open prairie. Now, almost the entire route is dotted with the yellow lights of oil wells, and occasionally, the blinding light of a gas flare. We used to gawk in awe at the number of stars that could be seen from the road, but now, there are as many oil wells as stars in the sky west of Dickinson. Light pollution has infiltrated one more of the ever-shrinking list of dark places in America. Already, 2/3 of the U.S. population cannot see the Milky Way at night where they live. (More information on the night sky in national parks)

Light Pollution. Medora is starred.

Where does it stop? The answer: it doesn't. They are drilling new wells every day. We used to look out across the grassy plains and see, incredibly, nothing, which was always the amazing thing about North Dakota. Now, the potential for that experience is quickly being lost. I try to imagine how Theodore Roosevelt, who came here for the vastness and solitude, would react if he saw it.

Why not slow down production and sustain it as a source of income as long as possible? The price is only going to go up. But no, the greed of today demands that the one-time harvest commences. The "boom" is in full swing. How hard will it bust when the oil is gone? Most of the workers aren't even from the state; they will just go home. Most of them just bitch about how cold it is anyway. When they go, the landscape will be empty again. What will be left?

THE FALLOUT
One consequence of the oil industry has both positive and negative effects on Medora itself. The newly-expanded Rough Rider Hotel, a brand new building built ridiculously close - probably maliciously close - to the national park housing, is open this winter ostensibly to accommodate oil workers. The "Theodore Roosevelt Medora Foundation," an obviously capitalistic, monopolistic corporation masquerading as a 501(c)3 non-profit runs the hotel as well as many other businesses in Medora. The positive thing is that the Rough Rider Hotel's restaurant is open on Fridays and Saturdays, which means there is a fine dining option in easier walking distance than any place any other time in my life. If you go, just be prepared to reach deep into your wallet for the $30 entrees. If you're thinking of staying there, the rooms are expensive but very classy. Obviously, they're trying to shift the demographic toward a wealthier crowd. In so doing, they are slowly succeeding in an effort to reshape Medora from the rough and ragged town it was in 1884 to something like more like Disney Land: nice but phony.

At least you can still go in the park and see something real, original, primitive. That is, if you are in a place where you can't see or hear an oil rig just outside the boundary fence.

Return to the Frozen North

2010-11-26T19:00:00.011-05:00

We didn't expect to be back here at Theodore Roosevelt National Park, but circumstances changed. I got an offer for temporary promotion that I couldn't refuse, and here we are. The temperature was hovering around zero when we got here, a bit of a shock when you're used to 40. It's already been down to -9.

We needed to get out of the house we were in back in Larned anyway, so we were going to have to move it. So our stuff is all in storage, and what a mountain of stuff it is. I don't know how a person gets so much.

After we moved to Kansas, we started a campaign to rid ourselves of some of our useful but unnecessary stuff. Too lazy to have a garage sale, we just made donations to the library, Goodwill, and put up some good stuff on Freecycle.org. That helped. What was left, I started packing meticulously into our storage unit with the help of my dad, who I somehow convinced to come help with this whole operation. I started weeks earlier, stacking plastic tubs and boxes in the back as high as they'd go, then furniture. Before we knew it, we had packed ourselves out the door with no room for anything else.

In my years traveling between the parks, I will say one thing I've learned is that everything you really need can fit into your car and go down the road. If you can't do that with it, you probably don't need it. I pulled a U-Haul trailer 850 miles across the country (and watched my fuel economy in alarm the whole way) just to get all of baby's extra stuff up here. A third person throws the equation off for us, but we are adapting.

Most things have stayed the same here, but some things have changed a lot. Most noticeably, there are a lot more oil wells near Dickinson. Way more. The other is the elk reduction staff working in the park, which has our street bustling with early-morning activity several days a week and our housing crammed full.

Baby Alison has enjoyed North Dakota so far. She's quite wiggly, coos and babbles, and stays warm under many layers of clothes. She also likes looking out the window at the buttes just like everybody else.

Migrating the Wrong Way

2010-11-18T08:00:00.022-05:00

The good news is that I got a lot done for Fort Larned since April. I completely overhauled the website, got our site featured on NPS Getaways, and did some other major back-room projects that would be boring to explain here. I learned a lot about doing army living history, historic weapons demonstrations, and how to march. The bad news is my position is subject to furlough, so even though I might be very valuable in terms of cost-to-benefit ratio to the park, it also makes me feel unattached and justified in seeking better opportunities.

The good news is I get to go back to Theodore Roosevelt National Park for a temporary promotion during my furlough. Everyone at Fort Larned thinks that is absurd on account of North Dakota being way too cold. They are probably right. Even I seem to have gotten used to the warmer weather here. It has made me soft. I had to turn the thermostat up two degrees and it still feels cold! So while the geese are heading south for a milder climate, we are heading face-first into the frosty abode of the north.

We are prepared for this transition, but when baby complains about being cold in this house, I tell her she has no idea what cold is. She doesn't listen and keeps complaining anyway.

Since we're going back north, I thought it might be fun to let you help me pick a new image for the TRNP homepage. Check out the following images and vote on your favorites on the right side of the blog for a limited time only!

#1 Bison

#2 Campground

#3 Deer

#4 Elkhorn

Homestead National Monument

2010-10-31T08:55:00.001-04:00

Homestead National Monument is one of those places throughout the west that could have been anywhere on the windswept plains, but by some historic accident happens to be right where it is. When the 1862 Homestead Act went into effect, the first homestead patent to be filed was on this lovely site for a farm in southern Nebraska. Over the life of the law, 270 million acres were claimed, including huge areas of the west, which it was designed to get settled. A display on the way in shows the proportion of each state that was settled via the Homestead Act.

The brand new visitor center houses a wonderful collection of exhibits detailing every aspect of the homesteading period, often with a personal touch of a real person's story. One exhibit I found interesting was the one about farm equipment, which suggests that farming in the west was only made possible by industrial farm equipment production back east. It's certainly true today.

A goat-powered treadmill could be hooked up to a variety of devices. This one was hooked up to a laundry machine. They could also be hooked up to a butter churn, for example.

There is an eerie familiarity about a lot of stuff in the museum because our own family history has a connection to the story. At least my great-great grandfather homesteaded in South Dakota. I'm sure there were others back there somewhere.

The museum highlights the hardships the settlers faced, such as the harsh winters in North Dakota or the plagues of grasshoppers seen above, but also the pride in succeeding by doing it themselves.

Outside, there is an original homestead cabin from the area and a trail that meanders through a prairie through the original homestead property. There is also an exhibit of a wide variety of types of barbed wire!

There is a great film that pairs the opportunity the Homestead Act brought to Americans with the total disenfranchisement of the American Indians from the same land. Well worth the 20 minutes, and some familiar faces and places in Montana appear in the film.

The one thing that's missing is a full exploration of the environmental consequences of the conversion of the Great Plains to agriculture. Yeah, they mentioned the Dust Bowl, but they didn't mention the impact on native plants and animals now struggling to eke out an existence.

Homestead National Monument is free to visit and well worth it! For more information, visit www.nps.gov/home

Brown V. Board of Education National Historic Site

2010-10-31T08:38:00.001-04:00

I always thought Brown V Board sounded like the most boring place to visit. It is not. In fact, it is a terrific, modern museum that tells the story of the court cases that ended segregation in schools. From there, it expands into the larger Civil Rights movement for which Brown V. Board was a significant landmark. It also deals with the degrees to which the full scope of school desegregation has yet to be fully realized.

More than a museum, the Brown V. Board site is housed in the Monroe School in downtown Topeka, KS, one of four schools once segregated and used only for black children. I get a little choked up when I think about the history of blacks in America, so this museum was very moving for me.

There are impressive multimedia displays throughout the museum. In the above photo, the theater features seven screens that coordinate to show multiple angles of a story being told. It's kind of weird but kind of cool. Our baby was mesmerized by all the action before she went off like an atom bomb and ruined my conversation with the park staff.

Brown V Board is free to visit and totally worth the stop if you're passing through Topeka. For more information, visit www.nps.gov/brvb

Nicodemus National Historic Site

2010-10-22T22:39:00.000-04:00

Nicodemus is a site with a lot of potential. A lot of unrealized potential. But that's the story of Nicodemus, Kansas, too. In many ways, it is a story that had played out in thousands of towns across the West - a story about people who sought the American dream, found a hardscrabble life instead, and forged a community because they had the will to do it, only to see it slowly erode over time. The difference between Nicodemus and every other crumbling small town in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, and North Dakota today is the one thing that makes it unique: it was settled entirely by black people. An enclave of their descendants still lives there on the undulating, grassy prairie, under an enormous blue sky.

In 1877, two white land speculators convinced black Americans in the Reconstruction Era South to start a new life in the West. There, they had the opportunity to achieve the American dream and start life anew, whereas in the Reconstruction South, blacks had been systematically deprived of opportunity, impoverished economically, and denied education. I did a little research, and, in fact, Nicodemus is the name of a Biblical character to whom Jesus peronally explained the idea of spiritual rebirth (John 3:1-21), so extra points for allegorical settlement naming.

However, as these people arrived at Nicodemus in northwestern Kansas, they discovered to their dismay that it was basically as awful as any place on the Great Plains: sun-baked, treeless, windy. Take Willianna Hickman's oft-quoted remark upon her arrival, "When we got sight of Nicodemus, the men shouted, 'there is Nicodemus!' Being very sick, I hailed this news with gladness. I looked with all the eyes I had. 'Where is Nicodemus? I don't see it.' My husband pointed out various smokes coming out of the ground and said, 'That is Nicodemus.' The families lived in dugouts ... The scenery was not at all inviting, and I began to cry."

Nicodemus National Historic Site is a highly unusual National Park. The first thing you'll notice is that the park has no facilities of its own. The visitor center is basically a few cubicles thrown into the middle of the old Township Hall, just sitting out there in the middle of the community room. That has been their temporary space since the park was established. They are thinking about talking about making plans to one day build a visitor center if they can find the land to do it. The park only owns one other historic building in the community, the old African Methodist Episcopal Church, which is not open to the public (see picture taken through the glass below). The other buildings are still in private hands, not open to the public, and all deteriorating rapidly.

Nicodemus embodies the conflict within a living community's desire to protect its heritage and the different ways to go about that. One way is to entrust the preservation of their heritage to the National Park Service, to give up some of their cherished historic buildings all of which are in critical need of stabilization and repair, and to find new ways of connecting their community. And, to my extreme pro-federal point of view, that is to a certain extent inevitable long-term, as all the young people have long since moved out of Nicodemus and it now is a quiet, retirement community 364 days a year. But on the other hand, by giving it all up for preservation, they will no doubt lose the strong sense of community that keeps the people and their descendants from staying there and coming back, a community which has always preserved its own heritage. The Emancipation Celebration, an annual event in Nicodemus which brings descendants and former residents back to town, most closely resembles a town-sized family reunion, which it essentially is.

The third, and most complicated way to go about preserving Nicodemus is some form of integration between the national park and the community. This is in fact the way they plan to go about it - to find a way to let the community keep its cherished old buildings in use but to keep them open to the public for park tours. The ranger I talked to said that had been working well with the church at the Martin Luther King, Jr. site, and expressed hope that some compromise would come along that would allow the National Park Service to help the community protect its heritage rather than take ownership of it.

It's going to take time, money, cooperation, good people, and hard work to make Nicodemus National Historic Site flower. When that happens - and I hope it happens sooner rather than later - the entire place will be a showcase for black history, American history, and the collective strength of home and community.

If you visit Nicodemus National Historic Site, you can visit the temporary museum with some decent exhibits to tell the story, then walk around town and find the historic buildings. There are five "pillars" of their community: two churches, the township hall, the first hotel, and the school. As we wandered the streets, often standing right in the middle of them like dumb tourists while taking pictures, we didn't see a soul in the whole town. I told that to the ranger, who said, "Oh, they know you were here! Believe me, they know you were here."

Will the community find a way to work with the NPS to preserve this unique place? Or will they retain a firm grip on their own heritage? Either choice leaves a painful void. By giving up the buildings to the NPS, they lose their sense of ownership and probably a chunk of their pride. But by holding out, even though the community retains its identity, I fear that the buildings will keep deteriorating and they will lose that original part of the town, that tangible link to the past -- to those who came and made a town where there was none, who broke the bonds of slavery and sought the American Dream on the plains of Kansas.

Photos:
#1. Township Hall and the Nicodemus NHS "temporary" visitor center.
#2. Looking through the glass of the African Episcopalian Church, which obviously needs work.
#3. The Nicodemus, KS water tower
#4. The Old First Baptist Church. The front looks nice, but the back wall has been buttressed to keep it from falling down.
#5. The original school, out of service for over 50 years and with a condemned playground.

Fort Larned is the National Park Getaway this Week

2010-10-20T23:00:00.000-04:00

It took months of work to get everything ready. I completed a thorough makeover of the Fort Larned NHS website amid a major agency-wide web software upgrade (and all the glitches that caused). It took time to get photos and to write the piece. Now, after much anticipation, this is our week to shine.

Fort Larned is the featured park on National Park Getaways this week. Every week one lesser-known park is highlighted with content provided by the park, arranged quite nicely by the Washington Office staff. They also wrote a nice press release. Also my photo is on the NPS.gov homepage this week.

It feels good when a plan comes together!

Fort Larned Candlelight Tour

2010-10-10T23:10:00.012-04:00

The Candlight Tour is the event everyone talks about. It's the one all the seasonal rangers, all the volunteers, and a lot of visitors say is the best. So I would say I had reasonably high expectations going into the event.

It was a lot of work to get everything ready. Because of the way my weekend landed, I was actually out of play the two days prior to the event, meaning I got out of a lot of the prep work.

This year, the park switched from kerosene lanterns to LED lanterns not just because they're more efficient but because they're safer, too. I got to check all of them, change batteries where necessary, then set them out along the tour route as prescribed. I'll spare you the details because I'm sure it makes for thrilling reading!

The program's theme was "Remembering the Forgotten," and it was about people who died at Fort Larned. Wagon accidents, freezing to death, fighting in the barracks, getting shot, child birth, sickness, etc. Each scene depicted a real person.

I played Pvt. Joseph Kuhn, a cavalryman in the 2nd Colorado Cavalry killed by Indians near Pawnee Rock, the landmark on the Santa Fe Trail. I was stationed with three volunteers by the dugout with a couple of fake horses. We were way out by ourselves on the farthest corner of the fort, but at least we had a campfire going. From our vantage point, after the tiny sliver of the moon dropped below the horizon, it was essentially blackness all around.

This is a rendering of approximately what I could see for the duration of the program.

We talked about how to set the scene before I gave my little talk about Kuhn and sent the tour on to the next destination. Knowing other stops on the tour were more dramatic, even though I portrayed the only soldier who died in combat, I felt our scene was most useful for setting up the tension that played out in the next scene. We decided one of the guys would stay with the campfire, two guys would act out tying up their horses while discussing their fears and uncertainties, and then I'd emerge from the shadows and tell them about Kuhn's untimely demise while holding my candle lantern.

"My name is Joseph Kuhn and I was a member of the 2nd Colorado Cavalry, Company H. In May of 1864, I was on patrol east of Fort Larned near a place called Pawnee Rock when all of a sudden we were attacked by Indians. My horse got shot out from under me, and I managed to get two shots off -- before they GOT ME. My partner escaped to Fort Larned and told them what happened. Lt. Ehle sent out a patrol to punish the attackers, but they didn't find anyone. To this day we don't know who attacked me. They sent the ambulance to retrieve my body and then buried me here in the cemetery."

While the light was working, the cenotaph in the cemetery was lit, giving it a spooky glow. After my spiel, I descended into the oxbow where our fire was going, symbolizing my descent into HELL MUAHAHAH.

Now that may not sound like a real thrill, but the idea that Indians could and would attack the army, and the unease the other soldiers indicated in front of the crowd helped set the stage for the next scene the tour group came upon. There, under the darkness of a moonless, starry sky, out of the shadows came Little Heart, a Cheyenne man approaching the sentry post. In the box, the sentry got increasingly alarmed as the man got closer and closer, shouting "Halt! HALT!" Then, BOOM, a rifle shot, and the Cheyenne man fell. Ranger Mike didn't have a hard time selling the frightened sentry, tapping memories of serving in 'Nam, and it was very dramatic. I snuck out to watch it several times!

The event went extraordinarily smoothly from our standpoint. A lot of people had very nice compliments for us. All in a day's work, really. When a good plan and good people come together, you get good results, and this was certainly a good event for the Fort. The program is so successful that not enough tickets are available. Unfortunately, time is limited, it can only be done one night because it relies so heavily on volunteers, and group sizes have to be limited for safety and logistics. The park almost needs to move to a lottery system rather than straight up reservations. I'd love to advertise it and say "Come on down!" but the truth is it's nearly impossible to get tickets!

The fun thing about it all was that it was interesting for me to see the fort in a different state. Being there in the dark with the candles and all the people definitely gave it a surreal quality. Not to mention I was pretty tired by the end of the night while visiting with friends that have been away for weeks only to appear for this one night then vanish again by morning. The evening was like my average nightly bad dream: a familiar place and/or familiar people with the twist that something about the situation is abnormal, yet acceptable in the context of the dream. Now that everything is put away and the post is back to normal, I'm left wondering if it was all a dream!

"Why did they kill the women and children?"

2010-10-03T12:33:00.003-04:00

I was doing living history in the barracks at Fort Larned, visiting with the folks trickling through the Fort on a quiet Saturday afternoon when I got a simple question with a complicated answer. After I had shown a couple around the room and given them my time-tested barracks interpretive notes about the soldiers, their lifestyle, and their equipment during the Indian Wars, a woman asked at an above-normal volume and with a degree of outrage, "Why did they kill the women and children?"

I was somewhat surprised by the question, and smiled because I knew it would be a challenge to answer. I told her "It's complicated," and proceeded to give the longest extemporaneous answer I'd ever given. The answer is multi-faceted and complex. It's impossible to pin down any one specific answer because it's really a chili pot full of influences that lead to the type of violence seen in the Indian Wars.

Here is an attempt to explain why women and children were killed in the Indian Wars.

The Strategic Level
I can think of three reasons why women and children became targets in the Indian Wars on a broad, strategic level.
1. The Need to Attack - The overarching goal of the Indian Wars was, for better or for worse, to end Indian peoples' control of the Plains and other areas of the west. In so doing, the military can only really do two things: deter attack through their mere presence (the threat of violence), or to actually attack. In some situations, the army was able to defuse potential violence through its presence, as was done by the Army escorting wagon trains at Fort Larned in 1864. However, so long as Indian peoples resisted through guerilla warfare and raiding, the call for military retribution grew more and more intense from American citizens and politicians, in some cases culminating in military action. When the regular army wouldn't intervene, state-led volunteer units were raised; these were virtually undisciplined mobs that were indiscriminate in their actions. Units raised in Kansas and Colorado come to mind.
2. Total War - Especially after the Civil War, with officers like General Sherman, then the head of the Army, well versed in the strategy of Total War, were accustomed to a style of warfare that allowed infrastructure, not just military personnel, to become targets. The purpose, of course, was to make continued resistance so horrible and unbearable that they would give up. The terror stemmed from both the deaths incurred during an attack, but more so from the deprivation of food and shelter. In order to survive, destitute people had to come in to the Indian Agencies to survive.
3. Winter Campaigns - The byproduct of total war was the winter campaign championed by General Philip Sheridan. The winter campaign's purpose was to deprive Indians of supplies, shelter, and food exactly when they depended on it the most, villages became primary targets. As such, women and children were present and thus subject at least to collateral damage and at most, to murder.

Tactical Reality
Realities on the battlefield made women and children targets, too. Because Plains Indians engaged in light cavalry tactics on the battlefield, because they knew the land better than the whites, and because they could still claim victory at the end of the day even if they left their opponents holding the battlefield (because taking and holding ground was not their primary objective), they were exceedingly difficult targets for the Army to engage. The warriors seemed to appear and disappear at will. Even in situations where the Army was permitted to engage the Indians, it was exceedingly difficult to find them. This difficulty was a major reason why Custer attacked when he did at Washita in 1868 and at Little Bighorn in 1876; his opponent was so difficult to find, so he had to attack while he knew where they were. Custer had been unsuccessful in finding anybody to engage in Kansas in 1867 after the situation at Fort Larned unraveled into war.

The other tactical reality was the limited amount of intelligence available to military organizers. By the time one got close enough to inspect a village, he risked being spotted, in which case, the village probably would not be there by the time the troops arrived. Attacking headlong into unclear situations became necessary for the Army, and there were consequences: getting in over one's head, killing innocent people, or even attacking the wrong tribe altogether.

Human Ambition
Most of the Army officers were veterans of the Civil War, and not only were they accustomed to Total War, many were ambitious and sought success in their careers. And what could be better than getting your name in the papers for a smashing, righteous victory? Not only did this recognition help them in their careers, many of the officers had political ambitions. Generals Grant, McClellan, and Hancock all ran for President. There is reason to believe Custer was thinking about running at the time of the Little Bighorn campaign.

Human Fallibility
It's also true that some people are just evil, pure and simple. They would take any opportunity to kill another person and mutilate the body just for their own amusement. This happened at Sand Creek, and I'm sure it played a part in other battles as well. Nobody told the volunteers at Sand Creek to cut off a woman's breast and wear it as a hat, or a man's scrotum and use it as a tobacco pouch; the people who did these things clearly had issues that took them far beyond their duties as soldiers. Frustration, bias, and revenge must also have played a role, for there were nearly constant murders, abductions, and attacks that stemmed from the Indian side as well as the white. Retribution for one attack tended to escalate violence as revenge killings created a feedback loop that amplified over time. There is also a place for ignorance, simply not knowing exactly who they were fighting against because of the pressure to do something and the unavailability of useful reconnaissance.

So while there are many factors at play, the short answer is that the Army, when ordered to attack, had to attack when they had the opportunity, and women and children happened to be present many times when those opportunities arose. That, coupled with indifference or malice on the part of the army personnel, whether organized or on an individual scale, made women and children targets.

There is also the possibility that soldiers either did not or could not make a distinction between men and women in the heat of combat.

At this point, the visitor asked, "But wouldn't attacking helpless people like children and the elderly just make them want to fight more?"

Yes it would! However, the reasons why, and why that didn't really matter in the long run, are again complicated, and they're the other part of the equation.

Tribal Organization and Polarization
As is the case in nomadic hunter-gatherer groups throughout history, the societies are roughly egalitarian. Although chiefs are respected by many, their power is limited to those who choose to follow them. This is possible in a hunter-gatherer society because everyone has roughly equal access to resources if he or she is willing to go and get them. Agrarian societies, where stockpiling food creates an imbalance in wealth, tend toward a pyramid-shaped society with identifiable classes; thus, feudalism, monarchy, despotism, and so on. So when a Plains Indian decided he or she didn't like the way one chief was handling business, they could choose to follow another. While this might be a natural progression of a society over time to grow and divide, this polarization within Plains Indian societies in this historical moment proved consequential.

While some people preferred a peaceful solution and were willing to go into the Indian Agencies and receive the annuities offered to them by the Government in exchange for treaty agreements designed mainly to get them out of the way of the advancing white society, others rejected that kind of subservience, and chose independence. Within the Cheyenne, specifically, chiefs like Black Kettle advocated a peaceful solution early; realizing that lasting independence was not possible, he was eager to get the best deal for his people to live peacefully. The Cheyenne were well known for their friendliness in the early days. However, the warrior faction of the tribe, the Dog Soldiers, was more inclined toward independence. Following the unprovoked massacre at Sand Creek, the Dog Soldiers gained more clout in the years that followed.

The tension pulling the Cheyenne apart in the 1860s was not unique. It had happened to virtually every tribe faced with the same dire situation. As one example, precisely the same thing had happened with the Sauk and Fox tribes when they were moved onto their reservation in Iowa; Keokuk wanted to maintain peace and Black Hawk wanted to wage war. The result of war was that both groups were punished together. The same happened to the Cheyenne.

The Warrior Tradition and its Consequences
Plains Indian culture placed value in warrior skills. Thus, there was a culturally-ingrained tradition of a warrior seeking honor and distinction. A young man was compelled to show his courage, bravery, and skill through counting coup in a variety of ways: stealing horses, touching an enemy in battle, etc. Raiding wagons on the Santa Fe Trail and stealing goods was one manifestation of this impetus. While the tradition might come across as playful youth looking for a good time, or "boys will be boys," its darker aspects should not be overlooked.

Certain actions, whether part of an overarching strategy of harassment or else actions perpetrated by factions or individuals, were more serious. These acts of bravery, however, were frowned upon by those affected by them, and they are largely responsible for the outcry for military proteciton by white society. Particularly, white people were routinely murdered, raped, abducted, mutilated, and forced into slavery by Indians. Understandably, this created a culture of fear and anger against the Indians that manifested itself in both organized and individual "revenge" of one sort or another.

Government Policy
The U.S. government, meanwhile, was conflicted in its policies towards Indians. On the one hand, people were shouting for military protection and action against "hostile" Indians. On the other hand, peace was much less expensive for the government, even at the cost of providing annuities for thousands of people every year. Fort Larned, as an Indian Agency site and as a site for distribution of annuities in the Medicine Lodge Treaty was part of this solution. The government see-sawed between the two policies, emphasizing one, then the other through the Indian Wars. Grant in particular was influenced by those who pursued the peace agenda through the Office of Indian Affairs, but eventually he turned to the military to end lingering conflicts.

This two-pronged strategy allowed the U.S. Government to emphasize either the carrot or the stick, as necessary. "Come in and be peaceful and get gifts, or, if you choose violence, we will punish you." When the Dog Soldiers continued violence in 1868, it culminated in the attack at Washita in November, 1868. In that battle, it was not the Dog Soldiers whom Custer attacked, but the peaceful village of Black Kettle's followers. Washita happened because of all of the above reasons on strategic, tactical, and personal levels, and I think it's fair to say that many battles throughout the Indian Wars that were begun in a premeditated fashion by the Army were similar in their multi-faceted reasoning.

Unsustainable War
While it is arguable that the military tended to increase violence with any action they took other than simply deterring attack, the true cause for the end of fighting was the utter destitution of the tribes opposing the U.S. Government. Deprived of food with the near-exctinction of the bison, elements of tribes that fought for independence ultimately could not sustain their war effort. The same had recently been true for the Confederates a decade prior. While the unavailability of food probably took the tribes 99% of the way to the brink, the military, through continued pressure, helped push them over the edge. In that sense, tribal resistance to U.S. dominion throughout the Indian Wars was really just a last, desperate, and ineffective gasp of the tribes to protect their autonomy, doomed to fail from the outset.

Even in the face of smashing victories like Little Bighorn, overall victory was impossible. The nomadic way of life dictated that the tribe had to move to support themselves and, just as importantly, their horses. The thousands of people gathered at the combined village at Little Bighorn were compelled to break up in order to have pastures for their horses, and thus, gave up their greatest strength: the sheer size of their village. The Army, capable of producing food elsewhere and ship it to where it was needed, did not have such problems, allowing it to move forces as needed, when needed. Additionally, there was the calculus of populations and attrition: army forces were replaceable and effectively numberless in the long term, warriors were not replaceable in the short term.

But if they had not resisted at all, would Plains Indians have been better off? Would it have spared the lives of some women and children? A historian isn't allowed to answer a question like this, so I leave it up to you to answer that for yourself.

The Thrill of the Kansas State Fair

2010-09-20T23:42:00.000-04:00

While I've mostly been enjoying some time off at home with my little one to look after, I took my turn manning the National Park Service booth at the Kansas State Fair in Hutchinson. It's been 10 years since I last went to a state fair. It turns out they haven't changed much.

I got to Fort Larned in time to retrieve the government car I was to take to Hutchinson. Unfortunately, the HHR (or, as we call it, the HURRRR) still smelled like the rawhide I had in there when I went to Oklahoma in July.

Now, it's probably my fault for not studying the map closer, but I got a little confused on the way into Hutchinson. I knew I wanted Main Street, but the exit I got off on was in South Hutchinson, which I was pretty sure wasn't the right thing. Long story short, when I finally got to a place where there was a sign for the State Fairgrounds, there was a guy directing traffic. By then, I was sufficiently distracted to miss the turn, so I went east a few more blocks looking for the tree-named street I was supposed to enter on. When the streets started being named after US Presidents, I turned around. I got back to the intersection where the cop was directing traffic and turned north.

There in front of me were other vehicles and, to my surprise, marching bands. Not wanting to bring up the rear of whatever parade I was about to be in, I did a U-turn and went through the cop's intersection a third time from a third direction and got the heck out of there. It turned out I was 20 blocks from where I needed to be.

When I did reach the parking area a few minutes later than I had planned for, the petty despot at the gate asked for my parking pass, which I had. "Tell me where to go!" He said he needed my ticket first. I thought about pointing at my badge and acting offended, but it was clear this guy was a little too zealous about his parking lot. I may have settled for a heavy sigh. I handed him my ticket, which perked him up and got me into the parking area.

I found my building relatively easily and found my booth. It wasn't hard to spot the cannon, limber, and plastic horses hitched up for transport. We were in a decent spot, but even though we had a howitzer, more people stopped for the plastic giveaways the US Army Corps of Engineers guys were giving away - and they had to take a test to get it! What a gyp! Down the way were the US Fish & Wildlife guys, and I talked to one of their people for a while. Once he found out I was into birds, he seemed to light up. On the back side of the building were the state game people and a collection of animals, some live, many dead and mounted, like that's all they're good for. I was nearest the instant ice cream stand, where they were freezing cream with liquid nitrogen, making a hell of a racket, and annoying the bejeezus out of me with their parakeet chatter, "Free samples! Free samples!"

Early, a patron asked about ammunition for the howitzer. When I reached into the ammo box for the fake round, the powder bag fell off the round and the fake powder - kitty litter - spilled everywhere. So I had to track down a broom and spent most of an hour reassembling that round and another that had ejected its contents. It was kind of like being back at Fort Larned, where each of us spends a good amount of time fixing things.

The whole day was a fun experience, like being thrust back into my days at Glacier when there were people lined up to talk to me, and interacting with those who came off as clinically insane. I had nearly lost my voice by the end of it.

One lady tried to convince me the cannon wheels were gauged for railroad tracks. They're not, and they aren't the right wheels for railroads, either. I was left with the "smile and nod" technique, or, more specifically, what one fellow student identified as "the Nathan face" based on a specific facial muscle we learned about in high school Anatomy class, a straight-across fake smile that says "I don't agree with you but obviously you aren't worth arguing with." It looks kind of like this (including the wild-eyed stare):

Another fellow stopped in to ask us about people fishing on his land and what legal protection he had when the insurance said this, the "game warden" said that, and people seemed to be trespassing on his land. After 15 minutes of that nonsense without him giving me or the other ranger from Brown V Board a chance to answer his questions, I told him, "It sounds like you have a real problem. However, we represent the National Park Service and we really can't advise you on this matter because it's not within the scope of our agency." He kind of settled down once I explained who we were and what our job really was, and that he really needed to be talking to the state officials around the corner, or better yet, a lawyer.

A third fellow got so into the discussion about the cannon, we had a really exciting discussion about western history. His wife was trying to get away for half an hour, but this guy kept leaving, then coming back to me with another question, which I enjoyed and found amusing. I recommended books and felt generally scholarly by the end of the discussion. It really beat talking to the crazies.

For the most part, I just told people about NPS sites in Kansas, directed them to the brochures, and talked about the cannon and Fort Larned. It's surprising how many people live within an hour and haven't seen it. I wondered why they'd drive to the big city, pay to get into the fair, then pay too much to eat funnel cakes, but would live their whole lives and not see the free national park in their back yard.

For lunch, I found some too-expensive nachos and washed it down with too-expensive soda. For supper, after our volunteer arrived to relieve me (and hopefully to get an earful of the Oak Ridge Boys concert down the street), I found the too-expensive cheese curds. Since I couldn't find cream puffs like you'd find at the Wisconsin State Fair, I had to settle for the next best thing. When my order was up, I was shocked and appalled by the portion they gave me. There must have been five pounds of cheese. I barely finished half of it, and even then, it felt like my heart was dying. I gave the rest to my buddy who had taken the helm at the booth. No word yet on what he did with them, but he appears to still be alive.

With the thrill of the fair coursing through my veins - or at least getting clogged in them - it was time to head home. I got back to Fort Larned after dark. Let me tell you, it's not a place to be without a flashlight. "Darker than a black steer's tuckus on a moonless prairie night," as they said in The Big Lebowski.

All in a day's work!

Fort Larned's Labor Day

2010-09-13T14:19:00.000-04:00

It's been a while since I last posted. I have three excuses. First, August was a slow month at Fort Larned because it was so blazing hot. Even native Kansans noted it was hotter than usual, which was interesting because the last two winters I spent in North Dakota were two of the coldest and snowiest in a long time. Thankfully, that seems to be over and temperatures are back down below 100. When it got in the 70s, I thought I needed a jacket. My transformation is complete.

My second excuse is that I actually spent most of my time working on the new Fort Larned website, which dominated most of my work time for the last two months. There are still a few bugs I'm working out due to the new software the NPS deployed still being perfected, but check it out anyway. Fort Larned National Historic Site website. We're also on facebook at www.facebook.com/fortlarnednhs

The third excuse is the arrival of our junior ranger.

I can tell when she's actually asleep because her arms go like this.

So while mom and baby were still at the hospital, I had work to do at Fort Larned because of our special event weekend. Since then I've enjoyed some time off, which has been necessary due to the impossibility of a good night's sleep.

Labor Day at Fort Larned was fun, even though the flies were atrocious. I presented a new program, "Connections: Fort Larned and the National Parks," which attempts to illuminate the ways in which Fort Larned's history connects it to other national parks. Attendance was pitiful, especially given the amount of time I devoted to preparing the program. So that was a disappointment. Hopefully I get a better venue for it sometime.

Here, we're marching out to retrieve the flag. I'm smiling because the first sergeant had to skip over the mule poo on the company street. "By column left, march!"

Here we are retrieving the garrison flag at the end of the day. Since it's pretty windy in Kansas, and the flag is enormous, the trick is to collapse the area of the flag as quickly as possible by giving it a big hug. Done wrong, it could easily knock people over. I'm on the left with my back to the camera.

Lastly, here is a video of another artillery demonstration. I'm running the sponge-rammer in this demonstration, one of three we did over the weekend.

Thanks to my dad for the Fort pictures above and to father-in-law for the artillery raw video.

Washita Battlefield National Historic Site

2010-07-31T23:16:00.000-04:00

"Here goes for a brevet or a coffin!"
-last known words of Maj. Joel Elliott

I was selected to bring down a collection of Cheyenne tipi furnishings to a teachers' symposium at Washita Battlefield National Historic Site over the weekend. I had read about Washita in several books and so was glad to get a chance to go see the site. In talking about Fort Larned's importance, I often reach back to Sand Creek in 1864 and reach forward to Washita in 1868, two events that bookend Fort Larned's prime years.

I could recall the whole story here, but suffice to say that despite the overall success of the Medicine Lodge Treaty of 1867, some Cheyenne were still raiding and causing problems in 1868, especially later in the year. Custer, who had been relieved of command in 1867 for a year, needed to win big to redeem himself in the Army's eyes and was looking for a fight. One group of warriors provided the necessary leverage to go to war with the Cheyenne again.

Custer's 7th Cavalry came upon Black Kettle's village of Cheyenne, a small encampment west of the much larger main encampment of Cheyenne, Arapaho, Kiowa, and others. Custer split his command into four sections intended to envelop and converge upon Black Kettle's village. At this point, none of the army knew the larger village was still a few miles east, yet had committed to this attack. Long story short, people died on both sides including Black Kettle and his wife, Maj. Elliott charged east and found himself outnumbered and was killed with 17 of his men, Custer hurried up and burned the village and killed 800 ponies before he and his troops got out of there. It's a tragic episode for the Cheyenne well told in books such as Washita and Black Kettle, both of which are good reading, and many others. Custer also told his version of the event in his writing.

Black Kettle's encampment was in the trees along the river. Custer's troops came over the hill on the left; Elliott's troops came down through the cut on the right between the red hills while two other elements swept from this side of the river.

Necessarily, any discussion of what happened to Custer at Little Bighorn hinges on what happened at Washita. At Washita, Custer split his command. At Washita, Custer had fresh troops and the hour of day on his side. At Washita, Custer was not up against the entire village. All these things that went right at Washita went wrong at Little Bighorn. A new book, The Last Stand, does a good job paralleling just how much Washita affected Custer's other officers in the future.

It was a warm day of about 100 degrees but I got the grand tour of the site with one of the rangers. It was good that I went early because I didn't have a chance to go during the event the next day. The nature trail is an easy walk down a mowed path to the river, the village site, and the pony kill site.

Black Kettle and his wife Medicine Woman Later were shot and killed along the banks of the Washita River.

Three Cheyenne chiefs came to speak at the event, as well as several other notable tribal members to provide the teachers with perspective on Cheyenne issues and their interest in sharing and keeping their culture through children. One of the chiefs directed the action and was an essential part of our tipi construction. I got a very nice compliment from him, "You must be part Indian," while I was working on the tipi with some apparent skill. Apparently I have more knowledge than I thought.

By the time the tipi was up and my furnishings were in place, I had burned up most of the day, was sprinkled with red Oklahoma dirt, had entirely sweat through my NPS uniform (a new record), and was ready to fall over with exhaustion. It was kind of a lot of work for a few minutes of attention from the teachers, who were on a jam-packed schedule. By 2:00 I could see the clouds gathering and started packing things back up into the car to take back to Kansas.

On the way back, I drove through a few rippers of thunderstorms: rain that turned into steam as it hit the ground, and wind blowing so hard I could barely walk when I stopped for gas.

Washita Battlefield National Historic Site is a nice, new park just 15 years old. It has a brand-new visitor center with great exhibits, some of which aren't quite complete yet. They have an interesting film, too, but it's a little long, clocking in at 27 minutes. Plus, they have a great air conditioning system! Very important! The bookstore has a wide selection of good books, plus armadillo stuffed animals. It's a nice place to visit if you're interested in this part of American History or if you think you ought to know. The staff is all very friendly and helpful. It's a bonus that the rolling hills of western Oklahoma with their shades of green and bright red are a nice change of scenery, too.

Summer in the Sunflower State

2010-07-17T21:52:00.000-04:00

Although the days are now getting shorter, the mercury keeps rising in western Kansas. However, thanks to late-season rains, the grass is still green. I can barely keep up with the mowing at the house. Temperatures have gotten just over 100, but the relatively higher humidity lately has had the heat index way up over 120 degrees according to our instruments. It's just not very fun to be outside when the weather is like that, but not impossible if a person stays hydrated.

4th of July festivities came and went at the Fort, though we were plagued with some rain and mist that dulled the fun a bit and made the company streets into gumbo. We successfully fired the cannon twice, and I felt redeemed at my position as loader after the misfire last time. I was in charge of heading up the period-style games played by the 7th cavalry near Ft. Larned in 1867 on the 4th of July, which included sack races, wheelbarrow races, and foot races. A few kids participated and everyone got some laughs, but it wasn't the rip-roaring success I had hoped for.

I've been working on my charcoal grill rib preparation, which is a 4- to 6-hour task. I found a technique online that described putting the coals all on one side with a pan of water over them. While the web recipe I saw said the pan of water helped with humidity, I think it has more of a role to play in regulating the temperature and keeping it close to 220 (steam will depart at 212 and take the heat energy with it). I opened the grill and added a handful of coals and a handful of soaked chips every half hour, never touching the meat. After a raging success the first time, I tried a total of three delicious times and feel good about the technique. As you see in the photo, a narrower pan of water on top would make adding coals and chips easier.

When we got to Kansas in May, I was a bit alarmed at the frequency and intensity of thunderstorms and crazy wind. It's settled down now that the summer weather pattern is established. If you look at a weather map and zero in on Kansas, you can see where the prevailing winds either come from the northwest or the southwest; in the springtime, it alternates frequently, causing the storms. However, we still get a zinger now and then. We saw a spectacular show of lightning just a few nights ago with near-constant lightning coming from a massive cloud that went past without hitting us. I got this photo among others of the storm.

Here's another one for good measure.

The wheat harvest came and went, leaving me with somewhat itchy eyes thanks to the dust in the air. It was kind of fun to see the machinery working in the fields churning all the wheat up and doing their thing. Some farmers now are into a second or third planting, depending on what they have been producing. Now, fields are lighting up with the brilliant yellow of sunflowers. So, in honor of the Sunflower State, I took a picture of one of the state's wild varieties, which grow about six feet tall along the edges of fields and roads.

Last but not least, fasten your seatbelts. A whole new Fort Larned NHS website will be coming to you in early August. We've already got a Facebook group; it helped that I had already written a policy for TR. And since I have nothing more to say, I'll leave you with a cliche sunset picture from the back yard. Except that the sky was totally weird.

War and Peace at Fort Larned

2010-07-06T16:50:00.000-04:00

The following is an article I've been working on for Fort Larned NHS's website, which I'll be tackling this summer. I appreciate your thoughts.

Introduction: Sand Creek

Established by the U.S. Army in 1859 to protect U.S. interests on the Santa Fe Trail from Indian raiders, Fort Larned was at the center of an intense cultural clash by 1867-1868. Fort Larned was both a site of war and of peace as government officials and chiefs met in council, gifts were distributed to tribes, and the military made preparations for war. The people that converged at Fort Larned in the late 1860s and their actions here changed the course of history on the Southern Plains.

The cultural interactions in and around Fort Larned in 1867-68 were strongly influenced by an attack nearly 200 miles away three years earlier. In November 1864, Col. John M. Chivington’s Coloradans attacked a sleeping Cheyenne camp at Sand Creek, killing 130 Cheyenne men, women, and children, including a number of prominent chiefs. After the battle, the troops mutilated the bodies and committed unspeakable atrocities, for which Chivington achieved lasting infamy. The Cheyenne were devastated by the attack. News of the event spread far and wide among the plains tribes. The Sand Creek Massacre became a turning point in the decades-long cultural shift taking place on the Great Plains; it was the beginning of a phase of increasing hostility.

Ever after Sand Creek, the Cheyenne were extremely distrustful of the U.S. Army. Their desire to avoid a second Sand Creek Massacre affected all the Cheyenne’s dealings with U.S. officials at precisely the time of most consequence. As more white settlers, trails, and railroads moved onto their land, the Cheyenne, desperate to save their lives, culture, and freedom, were left either to bargain for peace or to resist through military means. On one hand, a prominent chief named Black Kettle tried to negotiate with the U.S. Government to find a peaceful solution for his followers. Despite being a survivor of Sand Creek, Black Kettle believed that the Cheyenne would not be able to fight off the Army indefinitely and that peace offered the best chance for his people to survive. On the other hand, others such as the Dog Soldier warrior society within the Cheyenne tribe, remembering the injustice of Sand Creek, were more inclined to resist through violence to protect their freedom and independence.

The United States applied the same two-pronged approach of war and diplomacy to further the nation’s expansionist goals. Agents in the Office of Indian Affairs made treaties with the tribes to arrange for out-of-the-way places for the tribes to live and gifts to encourage them to do so. To this effect, Fort Larned served as an Indian Agency site for the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes with agents including the optimistic Colonel Edward Wynkoop. However, whenever one member or a contingent of a tribe appeared to disregard a treaty, the army was there to punish the tribe as a whole. U.S. Army commanders fresh out of the Civil War were eager to further their own ambitions and apply their military skill against an enemy that they did not fully understand. Fort Larned was a base for some of these military operations.

Hancock’s War

General Winfield Scott Hancock, a Union hero of the Battle of Gettysburg, arrived in western Kansas in 1867 to deal with the Plains Indian tribes that stood in the way of American expansion. At Fort Larned, Hancock met with several Cheyenne chiefs on April 12, 1867. Hancock intended to awe the chiefs with the army’s strength. Although Hancock expressed an interest in retaining peace, he elaborated much more on his ability and willingness to punish the tribe for any offenses. “You know very well, if you go to war with the white man you will lose….I have a great many chiefs with me that have commanded more men than you ever saw, and they have fought more great battles than you have fought fights,” Hancock warned the chiefs. Chief Tall Bull gave his reply, expressing willingness to make peace and concern over the diminishing animal herds that sustained his people.

Hancock had wanted to meet with all the chiefs and was disappointed when only a handful showed up to his council at Fort Larned. Desiring to “talk with them all together,” Hancock rode west on April 13 and 14 toward a combined Cheyenne and Lakota village with troops in tow. Among them was Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer’s 7th U.S. Cavalry. For all their military skill and experience, neither Custer nor Hancock had ever dealt with Plains Indians before this encounter. Hancock’s plan to awe the Cheyenne into submission with his military might instead just provoked them.

As the army drew nearer the village on the April 14, a group of Cheyenne warriors rode out to meet them. The 7th Cavalry, with their sabers drawn and glinting in the sun, faced mounted Dog Soldiers in their war paint, each sizing the other up but holding their fire. Colonel Ed Wynkoop, the Cheyenne and Arapaho Agent at Fort Larned between 1866 and 1868, rode out between the lines to ask the warriors to stay calm and stay put. The warriors, trusting Wynkoop, agreed. The army continued to within one mile of the village.

The sight of a massive formation of troops so near their village evoked memories of Sand Creek, prompting the women and children of all tribes at the combined camp to flee on the evening of the 14th, leaving most of their lodges and belongings behind. Hancock, who had insisted on parading his military so near the village and bullying the chiefs in his negotiations, apparently could not understand why his counterparts would run from him and his troops. Frustrated and furious, Hancock considered the villagers’ flight at the least insulting, and at the most, hostile.

To appease Hancock, Cheyenne warriors said they would try and track down the fleeing women and children and return them to the village. Recalling Sand Creek, the warriors were likely not inclined to bring their families back within reach of the army. However, the fading twilight made tracking the villagers impossible before long anyway. After some time, the warriors returned and reported that they had been unable to follow the others’ trails, then announced their intentions to leave, too. Before Custer’s troops could surround the village and corral the remaining Indians, the inhabitants escaped into the darkness leaving their lodges and most of their belongings behind.

Hancock, left with an empty village, was quickly losing what he might have seen as his best opportunity to score a major victory in U.S.-Indian relations as his counterparts fled. After failing to locate and return the Indians to the village over the next several days, a consternated Hancock kept his promise to punish those who did not want peace. Hancock ordered the village burned to the ground on April 19, 1867. Just two days before, Captain Albert Barnitz of the 7th Cavalry had visited the abandoned camp and wrote, “On entering the camp I was astonished at its magnitude – and magnificence!” Now it was no more than a pile of ashes. The act destroyed lodges, food, tools, and equipment that would take months for the tribes to replace, further frustrating and incensing the Indians. It was the beginning of “Hancock’s War,” the opening shots in a continuing state of conflict that raged across the plains of western Kansas for years to come.

Following the destruction of the village, battles raged across Kansas: June 12 at Fort Dodge, June 21-22 at Fort Wallace, June 22 at Baca’s Wagon Train, June 26 at Pond Creek Station and another at Black Butte Creek, July 2 Kidder’s Fight (in which his entire detachment was killed), August 1-2 at Saline River, August 21-22 at Prairie Dog Creek, and September 15 at Davis’s Fight. Raiding along the Santa Fe Trail also increased.

The Medicine Lodge Treaty

Seeking to bring about an end to the state of war, U.S. officials and several tribes including the Cheyenne, Arapaho, Kiowa, Comanche, and Apache agreed to meet at a site southeast of Fort Larned along Medicine Lodge Creek frequently used by the Cheyenne for ceremonial purposes in October, 1867. Fort Larned served as the supply depot for the treaty proceedings as the U.S. Government provided food for the thousands in attendance. The proceedings concluded with the signing of the Medicine Lodge Treaty of 1867.

Among its provisions, the Medicine Lodge Treaty relegated the Cheyenne to lands southeast of Fort Larned between the Arkansas River and the Cimarron River. On paper, the war was over, though Captain Barnitz of the 7th Cavalry, who recorded the speeches at the council, expressed his personal misgivings: “They have no idea that they are giving up, or that they have ever given up the country which they claim as their own…The treaty amounts to nothing, and we will certainly have another war sooner or later with the Cheyennes, at least, and probably with the other Indians…” Indeed, violence resumed in August, 1868.

Not all of the Cheyenne were hostile. In fact, many were peaceful, such as those that Captain Barnitz recognized at Fort Larned in July 1868 from the previous autumn. The Cheyenne and other tribes were able to collect annuities at Fort Larned per the Medicine Lodge Treaty. At Fort Larned on August 11, 1868, Captain Barnitz noted, “The Cheyennes have been coming in to Fort Larned to day for their arms and munitions,” which were ostensibly to be used for subsistence hunting. However, violence started up again in August of 1868.

During the Medicine Lodge Treaty proceedings in 1867, Buffalo Chief of the Cheyenne had said, “You think that you are doing a great deal for us by giving these presents to us, but we prefer to live as formerly.” Indeed, factions including the Dog Soldiers had continued violence throughout western Kansas in 1868. Fort Larned’s troop levels swelled to their largest in 1868. The additional troops at Fort Larned necessitated the construction of an additional warehouse, the New Commissary, which was to be the last sandstone building completed at the fort.

Lt. Col. Custer, who had been relieved of command in 1867 for insubordination when he had abandoned his post to be with his wife Libbie, was returned to command in late 1868. Perhaps eager to redeem himself, Custer led an expedition against the Cheyenne to the south. Unable to be a part of what he saw as a grave injustice in the face of the Medicine Lodge Treaty, which legally ended war between the U.S. and the Cheyenne, Ed Wynkoop resigned his post as Agent to the Cheyenne and Arapaho. Custer attacked the Cheyenne village at Washita on November 27, 1868. Among the dead was the chief Black Kettle, who had worked for years to achieve a peaceful solution to save his people.

Epilogue: Past Meets Present

Fort Larned was at the center of these tumultuous times of change on the windswept plains of Kansas. As violence on the Great Plains diminished, so did the need for Fort Larned. Over the following decade, troop levels tapered off until the last troops left in 1878. By that time, contingents of the Cheyenne were still fighting for independence elsewhere.

Today, Fort Larned remains an authentic, tangible link to the past, a reminder of the cultural conflict that defined 19th century America. The tribes with whom war and peace were made at Fort Larned are still with us, still struggling to maintain their cultural traditions and identity in an ever-changing world.

Morning Drill

2010-06-19T23:26:00.001-04:00

"You can get more of what you want with a kind word and a gun than you can with just a kind word."
Al Capone, kind of.

I was issued my 1866 Springfield rifle recently, which I will use for firing demonstrations at Fort Larned. Forced to learn the manual of arms through repetition and muscle memory, I started carrying the rifle around while giving tours. I quickly realized that people kind of liked walking around with a fellow with a .50 caliber rifle on his shoulder. It also lends itself to the possibility of some intangible interpretive opportunities: tension, nervousness, and fear on the Indian Frontier.

Temperatures have been warm following some vicious storms last weekend that left the Pawnee Fork as high as anyone had seen it "since 1993" and left standing water around all week, which made the corn and the mosquitoes happy. I had warned them that strange weather follows me. Since then it's been in the high 90s daily but at least there is low humidity and breeziness, which makes marching around in a wool uniform somewhat bearable. I took to watching Ken Burns' "The Civil War" so as to remember that a lot of other people had it a whole lot worse in that uniform, and I don't complain anymore. Once one gets sufficiently sweaty, it isn't so bad anyway so long as the Kansas wind keeps blowing; it usually obliges.

This week, I also started researching various first person accounts - diaries and letters - to get a better picture of people's experience out here. One illuminating account is that of Capt. Albert Barnitz of the 7th Cavalry, who wrote to his wife frequently and often with a bit of wit and sarcasm, which spices things up. I'll use some of the quotes I've found while overhauling the park's website in the coming months. Look for the NPS to dramatically upgrade its websites' design next month!

Fort Scott's "Good Ol' Days"

2010-06-07T19:09:00.000-04:00

My mission for this week was to haul Fort Larned NHS's 1871 Washington model ambulance across the state to Fort Scott's "Good Ol' Days" event, a city-wide festival more or less like a county fair without the livestock. Driving the truck and trailer across the state was enjoyable and I got to see a lot of Kansas countryside.

There didn't seem to be a coherent theme to the whole event. I thought it was like Summerfest, though without the headlining bands, or the fixation on beer, cheese, and sausages. Thankfully unlike Summerfest, everyone kept their shirt on. For its part, Fort Scott NHS was paying tribute to armed services throughout the nation's history. Outfits spanned the American Revolution through today, and numerous military band performances I couldn't see or hear from my position went on throughout the weekend.

I was stationed with my ambulance in front of the Hospital, right by the main entrance to the site. It proved to be a good location, right up until the time the CH-47D Chinook helicopter roared in and parked on the parade ground about 100 feet from me. After their dramatic entrance, I said to the folks around me, "Well, that was fun, now who wants to look at my wagon?"

Dramatization. I was closer.

So basically everyone bypassed me and made a bee-line for the helicopter all day. Adding insult to injury, by afternoon it was 95 degrees and sunny, and the few people who stopped by my wagon mostly asked if my wool uniform was hot. I must have looked it. I probably looked hot when I was laying in the shade under the wagon, too, demonstrating "how to loaf under a wagon." I tell you, I'd rather have been out there when it was 10 below zero. I stuck to telling them the safety reason why wool was important when using gunpowder. Mercifully, there was lemonade in an air-conditioned room for us to take breaks in, but getting cooled off just made me feel slimy in that uniform.

Then in front of me, the "All-American Lumberjack Show" was underway, so I got to shout over the sound of chainsaws, hot saws, and the emcee who used the phrase "on over here" far too often. Watching the log-rolling was the most entertaining part; the rest was just noise to me. Everyone in the show was from Minnesota or Wisconsin.

Later on, a crowd gathered again for the Chinook's departure. After liftoff, it circled for a high speed pass with one guy saluting in the window and another standing in the cargo hatch as they blasted by the fort. OK, I admit it was pretty badass.

The weekend continued Sunday with band performances, and more lumberjacking. I was somewhat more comfortable as it was a little milder outside, though the lemonade had run out. Still only a few people were interested in my wagon and I spent most of the morning reading "Theodore Roosevelt: The Strenuous Life" while ironically loafing on or under the wagon.

We departed Monday and drove part time in the rain across the state. Not far into the trip, I saw a cloud that looked terrifyingly like one I had seen in a tornado safety training just a week or two ago. The cloud was all alone, a giant arc shape level with the ground, and rotating like a street sweeper. The front edge of the cloud was lifting up violently while the back side was swooping down just as fast. This is precisely the type of cloud that can form a tornado as the rotation twists toward the ground. I nervously watched as we cruised down the highway with an invaluable wagon strapped to a trailer by a total novice (me).

Dramatization

About the time we got to Hutchinson for lunch, I noticed some slack in the straps holding the wagon to the trailer, which necessitated redesigning the whole strapping system in the middle of a rain shower. We got it back in one piece, but not before I clobbered a pigeon with the truck around Stafford, KS. So there was one fatality.

All in all, it was a successful adventure. I wished I had been able to see more of Fort Scott while I was there, but I was too loyal to my duty as wagon interpreter to wander off for long. Those guys out in back had it easy with their big shade tree, I tell you.

Fort Larned NHS Memorial Weekend

2010-06-02T18:46:00.000-04:00

We had a busy weekend with over 100 volunteers that checked in for at least part of the event and over 1,000 visitors over three days. The fort was alive with people in period dress, fiddle music, and the smell of baking bread.

Here I am in my 3rd Inf. Co. C uniform (with cavalry boots I tell people I won in a card game). The leather satchel is for transporting the artillery rounds so that flying embers won't blow me and the rest of the cannon crew up in a battlefield situation.

Saturday, we had beautiful, warm and breezy weather for the kickoff to the event. My morning started with a crash course in mountain howitzer loading and firing. I got the easy, but nonetheless terrifying, job of carrying the powder charge from the caisson to the cannon. I was literally getting instructions and pointers while the speaker was addressing the crowd of about 140 people for the first demonstration. Amber got it on video. We got better with practice, and did the entire thing "by detail" so the audience could hear the commands and follow the action.

Click here to see the video if it doesn't load in your browser.

Later, we rotated around so we could practice the different jobs on the gun. By the second day, I got to pull the primer, which was a good thrill. I have an image burned into my mind of looking over at our volunteer Clive, in the gunner position, and the intent look on his face when I gave him the nod that I was ready to fire. I can say that it felt quite natural. On the third day, I operated the sponge rammer. We had a perfect record going until we had a misfire during the last show. Apparently, the round was either not seated correctly or had something wrong with the foil so that it didn't get seated correctly in the breach of the gun. I thought it was my fault for not ramming it properly, though everyone said it looked like I had rammed it even better than the first one I had done. In any event, it finally went off on the third try, and we got practice dealing with a misfire. "It happens to everybody," they said.

The cannon is pretty interesting to operate. Each man has a very small part in the machinery, but has to be in the right place at the right time all the time. It's choreography.

The small arms demonstration was paired with our cannon demonstration. The third day we also demonstrated the trap-door 1866 Springfield and how much faster it can fire than the 1863 muzzle-loading model.

On Saturday, I participated in the "vintage base-ball" game. I made up some old-timey flyers to advertise the event.

Again with the baseball game, we were learning in front of a huge crowd. We didn't know all the different rules from regular baseball - highlights include being able to catch the ball off a bounce (helpful when you don't have a glove). So the club vintage baseball teams played first, and then the "Fort Larned Soldiers" took on whoever wanted to stay and play as the "All-Stars" in the afternoon. The Soldiers had a rough time running in their flat-bottomed shoes and found by about the 6th inning that they were better off without them. We finished 9 innings; 99% of the crowd did not. It would have been a very close game if not for the first couple innings in which the All Stars got a sizable lead. The Soldiers were happy not to get shut out since most of the volunteers were not athletes (though the two park rangers on the team did quite well, I might add!). Oh, and the catfish and peach cobbler was good, too.

Our other main responsibility as the soldiers of the fort was to handle the flag retreat ceremony, which involved a wardrobe change into the dress uniform and some ceremony and marching. It also involved the chief ranger, playing the role of first sergeant, harassing the privates after falling in for flag detail about shining their buttons. For my part, I tried not to laugh, but couldn't help it most of the time during this fun part of ending the day. The rest of flag retreat was a fairly solemn event as everyone still visiting ringed the parade ground to watch as we marched out, recovered the flag, and marched back. Again, we were getting pretty good at it by the end of the weekend such that the bugle calls were starting to make sense.

The soldiers were only part of the activity at the fort. We had surgeons in the hospital, ladies in the officer's quarters, blacksmiths, carpenters, Buffalo Bill, buffalo soldiers, horses, and more. My favorite part other than the things that go "boom" was eating the bread from the bakery.

It was a fun event, and I'm looking forward to the next one. Next week, I'll visit Fort Scott for their "Good Ol' Days" event, for which I will haul Fort Larned's ambulance across Kansas.

House Cleaning - Preparation for the Fort Larned Memorial Weekend Event

2010-05-27T10:03:00.000-04:00

Getting ready for a big event at a park is always a bit of work. You've got to dredge out things that are in storage, get your printed materials designed and deployed, and make sure everything looks tip-top before the massive throng of people comes to undo all your work. It's enough work in a visitor center, but it's more work when it involves 10 historic buildings and a winter's worth of dust, leaves, and guano.

So this week, I, with the rest of the staff at Fort Larned NHS powered through a lengthy checklist of projects to spruce things up for the big Memorial Day Weekend event at the fort, advertised as "Kansas's Largest Living History Event." In the ferocious winds, we beat 68 wool blankets in the barracks and re-made the beds while watching for brown recluse spiders (we only saw one), polished brass on 68 "3rd Inf. Co. C" Hardee dress uniform hats, swept buildings, dusted furniture, and got generally sunburned and physically exhausted by the end of all of it. I even used a leaf blower to dust out one building, which really cut through the thick dirt. I rescued a big, fat toad.

I selected an infantry uniform for myself that more or less fits, which I guess is part of the historical accuracy. Within seconds of donning the wool coat, I wanted to take it off. Needless to say, I have plans to bring more water bottles to work from now on, since there's no way I will stay cool until I've sweat through that thing. Summer is already here and we have daily highs in the upper 80s already. "Wait until August," they all say. The wool coats were used by the Army because they are not flammable, an important safety measure when dealing with black powder. I honestly think the dangers of overheating were (and are!) greater than the danger of death in combat.

I'm looking forward this weekend to seeing the fort humming with activity. We expect over 70 volunteers and staff to bring the fort to life. I'm looking forward to the 1870s rules "base-ball" game on Saturday, where I get to play for the "Fort Larned Soldiers" team. Rest assured your tax dollars were not wasted on the "Fort Larned Soldiers" getting one minute of practice before the game, which is a concern for me. I'm just a little bit competitive when it comes to baseball...

The New Adventure: Moving to Kansas

2010-05-07T16:14:00.000-04:00

Seeing as I'm crippled from moving everything we own over the course of the last two weeks, and unloading a packed mega-size U-Haul truck in a single day, I'll take a break to record a few of my thoughts.

Foremost is that we could not have completed this move without a legion of people helping us on both ends of the move. It simply would not have been possible to handle the furniture or to get it arranged into and out of the truck without the unwavering support of so many people. Thank you to everyone who helped. Not everyone got pizza and beer as a reward. Those who did, count yourselves lucky.

Moving has yielded two observations. The first is that I'll likely not find everything again since it's all jumbled up. Second is that we want to get rid of most of our stuff.

I will say that I'm proud of my large truck driving skills. I drafted semis, changed lanes in traffic in Kansas City, and kept it between the lines despite hurricane force winds in Minnesota and Iowa. Again, practice with the 747 in Flight Simulator has paid off.

We've moved into a house that was available mainly because it was in the process of being remodeled. There simply weren't any rental units available and we didn't want to sink more money into a house that we were unlikely to stay in long enough to get any benefit in a good market, let alone in rural Kansas during a recession. Not all the doors are reassembled, not all the switch covers nor the baseboards are installed, and things aren't exactly complete or cozy yet, but tolerable for the time being. There will be plenty of space even without using the basement.

Going around town, everyone asks who we are and typically asks if we have family out here. The reason, I think, is not to suppose that we would only move here if family lived here (which is what it sounds like they are asking) but rather to figure out to whom we belong. This, however, highlights another key difference between the places I have lived. In Wisconsin, people tend not to acknowledge you; eye contact alone in public would be seen as threatening, especially in Milwaukee. In North Dakota, people tend to look at you to figure out who you are, but never ask, perhaps in order to not appear nosy or ignorant. In Kansas, people come right up, slap you on the back, and ask you about ALL your business.

So we have a friendly community with everything we need and although we may not have a living space with all the doors and windows it's supposed to have, we have screaming fast internet like we've never had before. It's a new adventure. Life will not be the same. Stay tuned.

Omnibus Spring Blog Post

2010-04-19T12:11:00.000-04:00

We have some catching up to do. My apologies to the faithful blog reader for failing to post about the park as often as usual this spring. Prepare for an omnibus post.

We've been pretty busy and I haven't gotten into the park as much as usual. There are other exciting things in nature happening:

So the pictures are a bit spooky because of the inordinate detail they show in a single plane (and thereby cutting off other features!), but it makes more sense when you actually watch the pictures being taken. Even though it doesn't look like it in the pictures, that little creature has the correct number of limbs, digits, and organs. I told the ultrasound technician her job was a lot like wildlife photography in that she's constantly trying to keep a moving subject in frame and in focus.

Everything has been great so far and we're looking forward to a different lifestyle coming this August. No one has taken up my offer to nominate names, but I have one picked out (debate is still open). The sex of the baby is known (or presumed to be known) and will be revealed upon direct request.

Due to the amount of learning and looking around we've* done, and a desire to share that knowledge, Amber has embarked upon a new blog called Eco-Kid which aims to share information and resources on raising kids in ecologically responsible ways. Check it out!

*"We" might be giving myself too much credit.

So with the big news out of the way, I'll return to other wildlife news.

We took a day to drive up to Fort Union Trading Post NHS on our way to Wolf Point, MT. The site, of course, is a reconstruction of an American Fur Company trading post at the confluence of the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers. We mainly stopped to pick up the passport stamp, an obsession started last fall with our trip east. We were invited to help stretch a fresh bison hide, but amid the foul odor of fat, the pooling blood on the hide, and the desire not to smell like that all day, we declined. Good grief. I like to see wild bison, and I like to see bison meat on my plate, but don't want to see anything in between.

Ranger Randy had me send this picture to my new boss at Fort Larned to prove he actually does work. Gross.

We drove scenic Highway 16 from Beach, ND to Sidney, MT before cutting over to Fort Union. In Sidney, we ate lunch at Taco John's, where at some point in the conversation with the lady running the store, Amber said "I love Montana!" The Montanan replied, disbelievingly, "You love Montana?" Heck yes we do. It's a different world over there, including superior salad bars to North Dakota. Seriously, what keeps North Dakotans from putting together a salad bar with something other than iceberg lettuce and ranch dressing? Here's one of the reasons I love Montana:

The purpose of this whole day trip was to visit my friends Sherri and Gordon up in Wolf Point, MT. We know each other from a random event - some may call it providence - in which my car broke down and rolled to a stop in front of their house back in 2008. We enjoyed our visit chatting through the afternoon and showing a rough cut of our African travel video. Amber got introduced to the livestock including peacocks, horses, cattle, chickens, and a llama. We stayed for dinner before heading back down the lonely roads through Circle, MT to Glendive, MT and back to Medora. It was great to see them again and get a photo to prove that I'm not making the story up.

Gordon, me, and Sherri. I thought someone was pinching my butt during this photo, but it was the German shepherd whose back is visible in the lower left hand corner.

On our way back to Medora, we saw several large flocks of sandhill cranes, pronghorns, a coyote, and a porcupine. I also remarked how while driving Hwy 13 through rural Montana, there are plenty of places where all you can see for miles and miles in any direction is grassy hills. No lights, no roads, no telephone poles other than the ones right along the road, just big, open, sloping, grassy terrain. Knowing this makes where my car broke down back in 2008 that much more fortuitous (providential?), for if it had made it any further before quitting, I would have been there with the grass and the hills and no one around and no cell phone.

One thing that I find interesting about the natural setting in eastern Montana is how much the vegetation changes just a few miles west from Medora. In western Dakota, the prairie is a mid-grass prairie where, depending on the precipitation in a given season, the grass gets somewhere between my knee and my hip. Just a few miles over into Montana and the prairie changes dramatically into the shortgrass prairie that doesn't get as high as my knee. It looks completely different: soft, almost manicured.

This past weekend we made a circuit through North Dakota to again pick up a stamp at Knife River Indian Villages NHS even though we didn't have time to do anything there, and to watch Avatar in 3D while we still had the chance in Bismarck, ND. It was a good movie with easily identifiable themes and references to the Indian Wars, Gulf War II, American imperialism and manifest destiny, and Native American religion and/or Taoism. It's also a study in temptation, greed, loyalty, and bioluminescence.

Immediately, we looked at each other and said, "Ooh, I can see you in 3D!"

More importantly than the movie, we stopped for a short visit to Lake Ilo NWR to look for waterfowl. I told Amber the mission was to find grebes, so she referred to my bird book to figure out just what in the heck a grebe was. As luck would have it, she spotted the only ones we saw, a pair of eared grebes. Life list: check! Amid the common Canada geese, mallards, shovelers, and pintails, we also saw a couple of blue-winged teals, buffleheads, and redheads. For a quick excursion, I'd say we did pretty well.

In Theodore Roosevelt National Park, migratory birding has been very frustrating this spring. The wind has been just whipping the last couple of weeks, so most birds just blow right on by, it seems. The only summer birds I've seen arriving are the song sparrow, grackles, and chipping sparrows which just showed up today. No sign of white-crowned sparrows or my favorite, white-throated sparrows. Now that the cottonwood trees are starting to bloom, I expect to find some warblers.

We're looking forward to moving to Kansas and opening a new chapter there. We're also not looking forward to the physical act of moving all our junk. I hate having stuff. I also hate driving a big-ass U-Haul truck. Who wants to help me unload?

Reflections on Tanzania

2010-04-12T09:58:00.001-04:00

Armed with new video editing software, I have been making video montages of our photos from our 2008 trip to Tanzania. Each standalone video here is meant to be part of one long video not yet completed and too big to post online. I did not annotate the videos so as not to clutter them; the penalty for this is they will go by quickly and not answer any of your questions.

I recommend clicking on the links to watch the videos on YouTube since this blog isn't formatted to support the hugeness of the HD videos.

Mt. Kilimanjaro - This was a seven day trip warranting a longer video. There are two noticeable gaps in time - one is the six hours we spent hiking in pitch blackness to the summit, and most of the rest of that day as we were cruising down the mountain to get out. I wrote about Kilimanjaro right after we climbed it, in which I probably sounded more exhausted and glad to be done than thrilled with the experience. It's certainly a challenge to get to the top of the mountain, physically and mentally, but there is little like it. I haven't climbed or even been on the side of a mountain since.

Lake Manyara - The first stop on our wildlife safari was also our first education in baboons, tsetse flies, and dusty dirt.

Serengeti - We spent the most time in Serengeti, which is a large area. I learned so much about the animals and their habits from observing them and from our knowledgeable guide, Dennis, of Swala Safaris based in Arusha, Tanzania. When I first got my Field Guide to African Wildlife, I didn't know how so many animals could live together, but I quickly learned how each preferred a particular habitat or foraging niche. Impalas are most like deer, so you find them in woods, whereas gazelles are out in the wide open plains.

Ngorongoro Crater - In the bottom of an extinct volcano crater is a virtually encapsulated ecosystem including the endangered black rhino (we saw 5). Lions there have dark manes, maybe a dynamic of an isolated population. My favorite thing was the gathering of gray crowned cranes. My least favorite thing was a black kite stealing a sandwich out of my hand.

Tarangire - We were pretty tired of bouncing around in the back of the Land Rover when we got to the last national park in our tour, but we enjoyed the baobab trees and continued finding new species of birds we hadn't recorded yet.

We also visited Olduvai Gorge and Zanzibar, which I didn't include in the videos because they only included a few photos and neither was really that thrilling. Olduvai Gorge is mostly a visitor center in bad need of renovation and an outdoor bathroom with a trench urinal from which you can view the gorge while you take a whizz. My only achievements on Zanzibar were reading The Bin Ladens by Steve Coll, getting angry at people trying to bilk me out of my money, and stupidly drinking a beverage with ice, which I paid for when I got home.

Springtime in the Badlands

2010-04-01T19:36:00.000-04:00

It's hard to believe that just a few weeks ago, we still had all the snow, the temperature was still around zero, and it seemed like spring could not come soon enough. Now things are starting to look up! The river ice broke up on 3/20 and several days since then have been in the 60s, one in the 70s. Today, it's raining, bringing some color to the otherwise brown landscape.

Three beavers swim by the broken ice on the Little Missouri River

Downy woodpecker on the hunt

In the wildlife scene, I have been able to see some of the migrating birds. Some days there are hordes of one or another type of bird, such as the huge groups of mountain bluebirds the first day I saw them. I saw a couple of tree sparrows, heard a couple of meadowlarks, and saw quite a few bald eagles.

"Snort" says the bull bison.

The other interesting thing that has happened was a mass wasting event along the road. Melting snow saturated the ground to a point where the topsoil and vegetation slid off onto the road like a raft at mile marker 3 in the south unit. Previously, the snow in the same area had drifted so high in the blizzards this winter that there was a huge cornice there that eventually fell off in what you might call an avalanche.

The surface of the hill on the left slid onto the road. This is what it looked like after cleanup. The badlands are always changing!

At home, my new sock feeder with nyjer thistle has been a huge success with the goldfinches. I took this picture in late February. The males are showing more color now with their spring molt underway.

Sylvane Ferris & Bill Merrifield

2010-03-25T15:01:00.000-04:00

This is the story of Theodore Roosevelt's first ranch hands at the Maltese Cross Ranch. I wrote this for the NPS.

“The only security he had for his money was our honesty.” -Sylvane Ferris, on Theodore Roosevelt

Sylvane Ferris and Bill Merrifield were ranch hands at the Maltese Cross Ranch when Theodore Roosevelt first arrived in the badlands in 1883. Originally from New Brunswick, Canada, the two cowboys were tending a herd of 150 head of cattle on shares for investors from Minnesota, a common practice in those days. Merrifield made extra money by providing passenger trains with fresh venison. Both were known for being simple, quiet, and tough men.

Ferris and Merrifield were understandably skeptical of Roosevelt upon meeting him as he prepared for his initial buffalo hunting trip. Roosevelt wanted to borrow a horse for his hunting excursion. The cowboys knew nothing of the outsider, did not trust anyone who wore spectacles, and certainly did not want to loan a horse to a man they had only just met. For all they knew, the dude would ride off with their valuable horse. They finally agreed to loan the horse, but only after Roosevelt offered to buy the horse instead.

During his hunting expedition, Roosevelt held lengthy conversations about cattle ranching with another newcomer to the badlands, Gregor Lang, before deciding to invest in his own ranch. Roosevelt asked Lang to tend his cattle, but Lang politely refused and suggested Sylvane Ferris and Bill Merrifield would be good ranch hands instead.

Shortly thereafter, Roosevelt, Ferris, and Merrifield met in Lang’s cabin to discuss the proposition. Roosevelt offered to buy the cattle the men were already tending and handed over a check for $14,000. Merrifield later recalled that when he asked Roosevelt if he wanted a receipt, Roosevelt said, “Oh, that’s all right.”

The Maltese Cross Cabin, originally constructed by Ferris and Merrifield

The two cowboys set to work building the Maltese Cross Cabin during the winter of 1883-1884. Following the death of his wife Alice on February 14, 1884, Roosevelt invested in a second ranch, the Elkhorn, and hired two trusted Maine woodsmen to run it, Bill Sewall and Wilmot Dow. Roosevelt preferred the Elkhorn, which he called his “home ranch,” which might have come as a disappointment to Ferris and Merrifield. When Roosevelt visited the Maltese Cross Ranch, Ferris and Merrifield would climb up into the attic to sleep at night, giving Roosevelt ample living space and a private bedroom on the main floor.

Engraving on a rifle given to Bill Merrifield by Theodore Roosevelt to commemorate their 1884 hunting trip in the Bighorn Mountains

Ferris and Merrifield were capable ranch hands. In the spring, they were busy with the round-up, as range cattle from all over the area were brought together and sorted out to be counted, branded, and sold. As Roosevelt’s representatives, they were periodically sent to Minnesota to buy more cattle for Roosevelt’s ranches as TR added $82,500 to his original investment of $14,000 between 1884 and 1885. Roosevelt trusted their judgment in all matters of managing the cattle ranch, including selling some of the livestock at their discretion. They were also the ranch hands who stayed on the longest, tending the remainder of Roosevelt’s cattle after the Elkhorn Ranch closed in 1887. The two men worked together until Merrifield quit in 1892. Ferris continued on alone until Roosevelt finally sold out in 1898. Sylvane and his brother Joe Ferris were two of a handful of residents that remained in Medora after the cattle ranching collapse of 1887.

Joe Ferris, Sylvane Ferris, and Bill Merrifield in 1919

Though the cattle ranching boom is a distant memory, the handiwork of Ferris and Merrifield lives on in the form of the Maltese Cross Cabin. If it had not been for them, Roosevelt might not have procured the horse for his thrilling hunting trip, and Roosevelt might not have found someone to run a cattle ranch for him. No one else showed much trust in Roosevelt. In a way, Ferris and Merrifield’s cooperation with Roosevelt allowed him to have an experience that, in the end, was very influential in the young politician’s life, philosophy, and politics.

A rifle given as a gift to Bill Merrifield from Theodore Roosevelt commemorating an 1884 hunting trip in the Bighorn Mountains of Wyoming is on display at the South Unit Visitor Center. The Maltese Cross Cabin, which Ferris and Merrifield constructed, is open for public viewing year-round.

Bill Sewall and Wilmot Dow

2010-03-25T14:47:00.000-04:00

Some more of my historical writing for the NPS. I really enjoyed discovering the quote I used at the end.

"They were tough, hardy, resolute fellows, quick as cats, strong as bears, and able to travel like bull moose." -Theodore Roosevelt writing on Sewall and Dow

"We were very close in those days and he talked over about everything with me.” -Bill Sewall reflecting on Theodore Roosevelt in the 1880s

Bill Sewall, Theodore Roosevelt, and Wilmot Dow

William Wingate Sewall and Wilmot Dow first met Theodore Roosevelt in the 1870s, when they served as hunting guides for Roosevelt in Maine. Although they were skilled outdoorsmen, hunters, and woodsmen, that hardly qualified them for work as ranch hands; Sewall was more comfortable riding logs than he was riding horses. Nevertheless, when Roosevelt asked his two trusted companions to manage his new Elkhorn Ranch in 1884, they agreed.

Sewall designed the Elkhorn Ranch House, and he and Dow built up Roosevelt’s home ranch site in 1884-1885. Their contract, similar to that of Roosevelt’s other ranch hands, Sylvane Ferris and Bill Merrifield, allowed them to manage the ranch and sell cattle as they saw fit but not so as to reduce the herd below its size at the inception of the ranch. They were to keep 1/3 of the proceeds of any sales while Roosevelt kept the other 2/3, a slightly worse deal that Roosevelt had previously worked out with Ferris and Merrifield at a 50/50 split. Upon his arrival, Sewall was concerned that the badlands did not seem to be a good place for ranching cattle, but Roosevelt was optimistic.

Sewall and Dow were trustworthy companions for Roosevelt, and Roosevelt spent most of his time in the badlands with them at the Elkhorn Ranch. Their loyalty was undeniable. When it appeared for a brief time that Roosevelt might have to duel the Marquis de Morès, it was Sewall who offered to act as Roosevelt’s second. When thieves stole Roosevelt’s boat from the Elkhorn Ranch in early spring 1886, it was Sewall and Dow who built a new boat and accompanied Roosevelt downriver to capture the desperate men despite the dangers.

In 1885, Sewall and Dow brought their wives to live at the Elkhorn Ranch. Mrs. Sewall was toting a toddler named Kitty, who was about the same age as Roosevelt’s daughter Alice. The women kept up the ranch house and did most of the cooking and cleaning. They also tended gardens in the inhospitable badlands soil. Both Mrs. Sewall and Mrs. Dow bore sons jocularly known as "the Badlands Twins," in August 1886. As the families grew, Roosevelt began to feel somewhat of a stranger in his own ranch home. He married Edith Kermit Carow later that year. While honeymooning in Europe, Roosevelt was unaware of the toll the deadly combination of overgrazing and a ferocious winter was taking on his cattle. By the time Roosevelt returned to the United States, he had lost over half his herd. He decided to close down the Elkhorn.

After the Elkhorn Ranch closed permanently in 1887, the historical record for Sewall and Dow runs thin. Wilmot Dow died from an unexplained, acute illness at a fairly young age in 1891. Bill Sewall returned to Island Falls, Maine and did not see Roosevelt again for sixteen years though they exchanged letters from time to time. In the interim, Roosevelt had written ten major literary works, fathered five children, fought with the Rough Riders in the Spanish-American War, served as New York Police Commissioner, U.S. Civil Service Commissioner, Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Governor of New York, U.S. Vice President, and was inaugurated the 26th President of the United States following the assassination of William McKinley. Shortly after assuming the Presidency, TR invited Sewall to the White House. On seeing Theodore Roosevelt at the White House for the first time in sixteen remarkable and momentous years, Sewall wrote the following:

"[President Roosevelt] was not there when we arrived, for it was in the afternoon and he was out riding. By and by we heard a door open, then we heard his quick step in the hall, and it was for all the world like the way he used to come down the long hall at Elkhorn Ranch; and when he came into the room in his riding-clothes it seemed as though these sixteen years that lay between had never been and we were all back in the happy ranch days again."

Ranch clothing worn by Bill Sewall and a side saddle used by his wife are on display at the South Unit Visitor Center, as is a model of the Elkhorn Ranch House. The Elkhorn Ranch Site is protected within the park, and is accessible to visitors willing to take the time to travel to the remote location.

http://www.nps.gov/thro/historyculture/

The Marquis de Morès

2010-03-25T14:27:00.000-04:00

Some more of my historical writing for the NPS. Enjoy!

“I shall be the richest financier in the world!” - Marquis de Mores

The Entrepreneur

Antoine Amédée Marie Vincent Manca de Vallambrosa, more often called by his title, the Marquis de Morès, was an entrepreneurial Frenchman and a key player in the North Dakota badlands in the 1880s, coincident with Theodore Roosevelt’s ranching days. The Marquis was as well known for grandiose moneymaking schemes as for his skill as a rifleman. His wife, Medora Von Hoffman, the daughter of a wealthy Wall Street banker of German descent, was the source of his wealth. Using the wealth of the Von Hoffmans, he founded a meatpacking industry on the Northern Great Plains that he theorized would result in higher quality meat at lower prices for consumers.

On April 1, 1883, the Marquis de Morès claimed a six square mile area of Little Missouri riverbottom and founded the town of Medora, which he named after his wife. He founded his town intentionally close to the lawless settlement of Little Missouri as an affront to its unwelcoming residents. He built a slaughterhouse, or abbatoir, where cattle and other livestock could be slaughtered, dressed, and loaded onto refrigerated rail cars and shipped to markets in the east. As his economic theory went, cattle that came straight off the range to slaughter would be of higher quality than those who were shipped live by train to the Chicago stockyards, losing weight while in transit. The business intended to capitalize on the booming cattle ranching industry in the Dakota Territory in the 1880s. For a variety of reasons, including a lack of attention by the Marquis as he continually looked for new investments and his legal troubles stemming from the shooting of Riley Luffsey, the de Morès meatpacking empire never saw its full potential before it closed in 1886.

Medora von Hoffman

Disagreements with Theodore Roosevelt

The Marquis de Morès and Theodore Roosevelt were two men with extraordinarily large personalities, and, although relations between them were generally cordial, they occasionally clashed. Twice, they had disagreements over land rights, and once Roosevelt backed out of the sale of some of his cattle when the Marquis lowered the price per pound from the agreed upon 6¢ to 5.5¢. While the Marquis was in jail during his trial for the killing of Riley Luffsey (he was later acquitted), he shot a letter to Roosevelt on September 3, 1885 that expressed concern that Roosevelt’s employee and friend Joe Ferris had been “very active against me and has been instrumental in getting me indicted,” and asked “Is this done by your order?” The letter closed with the threat, "If you are my enemy I want to know it...between gentlemen it is easy to settle matters of that sort directly." [Emphasis added].

Roosevelt, in fact, had not acted against the Marquis, but if he could not convince the Marquis of his innocence, the disagreement might very well have been settled in a duel, implied by the word "directly," in the Marquis's letter. Privately, Bill Sewall offered to be Roosevelt's second in the duel TR wanted to avoid. Carefully, TR wrote back to the Marquis, “Most emphatically I am not your enemy; if I were you would know it, for I would be an open one, and would not have asked you to my house nor gone to yours." TR closed that he was "ever ready to hold myself accountable for anything I have said or done." TR's tactful response cooled tensions between the two giants of Medora. The Marquis backed out of any direct confrontation with Roosevelt.

Legacy

The Marquis's influence on Medora has been lasting, though his attitudes and actions serve to highlight how popular Theodore Roosevelt was with the people by comparison. The Marquis tended to use his wealth to inflict his will on people whether or not they agreed with him. He founded his own town to spite the settlers who did not like him, and was one of the first in the area to put up barbed wire fences, which irked free range cattlemen. Theodore Roosevelt showed more concern for the area and its people, organizing Medora’s first Stockmen’s Association, dealing fairly with the locals, and pursuing justice as deputy sheriff. Despite their differences, the Marquis de Morès’s legacy is not that of an antagonist to Roosevelt, but of a bold dreamer who embodied the spirit of the Wild West.

The State Historical Society of North Dakota operates the Chateau de Mores State Historic Site, located near the entrance to Theodore Roosevelt National Park’s South Unit in Medora. The site is composed of three separate parts: the Chateau de Mores, De Mores Memorial Park in downtown Medora, and Chimney Park. The Chateau de Mores site includes a visitor center, museum, and guided tours of the Marquis's home. De Mores Memorial Park features a statue of the Marquis. Chimney Park, where a picnic area and ruins of the abbatoir are located, stand as a quiet reminder of the Marquis's unfulfilled dreams.

Remains of the de Mores meatpacking plant. The plant burned down in 1906.

Fire Management in Theodore Roosevelt National Park

2010-03-18T17:40:00.000-04:00

The following is an article I wrote for Theodore Roosevelt National Park last year about wildfire and how the park manages fires. Spring is one of the times of year when the danger for wildfire goes up between the time the snow melts and the time the grass turns green again, plus high winds. The article was a collaboration with the park's Fire Management Officer.

When you think about the word “wildfire,” what do you imagine? Do you imagine a destructive fire burning everything in its path? Do you also imagine the fire’s aftermath as fresh, green growth returns shortly after the fire? Both are true. Fire is a natural process that can be both dangerous and beneficial depending on the circumstances. Theodore Roosevelt National Park’s fire management program helps to promote the positive aspects of fire while preparing for, reducing the chance of, and extinguishing wildfires.

The National Park Service Organic Act of 1916 broadly mandates that national parks are to conserve and manage resources in a manner that will leave them “unimpaired for future generations.” In that regard, fire is an important natural process and a tool to promote sustained health of plant and animal regimes. Further, current National Park Service policy requires that park areas with burnable vegetation must have a fire management plan. Other fire policies and procedures are defined by the National Interagency Fire Center. Theodore Roosevelt National Park’s Fire Management Plan contains operational plans for fire preparedness, preplanned dispatch, prescribed fire, and fire prevention.

Wildfires occur in Theodore Roosevelt National Park on average once or twice per year. Many variables contribute to the incidence of wildfires including weather, lightning, and human activity. Lightning is the most common cause of wildfires. Many fires that start in the uneven badlands terrain extinguish themselves as they run out of fuel on the sparsely vegetated slopes. Other naturally-caused wildfires may be declared “Wildland Fire Use” fires that can be used to achieve natural resources management goals. Fires started by humans, that threaten human lives or property, or that otherwise cannot be declared “Wildland Fire Use” fires are extinguished by firefighters.

NPS Photo (by me!)
Bison grazing in regrowth shortly after a prescribed burn

For most of the 20th Century, wildfires were extinguished immediately with the assumption that doing so would protect lives, property, and natural areas. However, following the unusually intense fire season of 1988, agencies including the National Park Service began to rethink their policies. After many decades without fire, fuels had built up as woody plants grew and died. When wildfires started in these fuel-rich areas, they burned with great intensity. In the grasslands, just as in the forests, periodic fire plays a role in removing plant material and in promoting new growth, both essential for maintaining a mosaic of habitat age and promoting diversity. In places like the grasslands of Theodore Roosevelt National Park, the absence of fire allows woodier plants such as sagebrush and junipers to become established, displacing many of the grasses and forbs that many animals require to survive.

Fire is essential for grasslands diversity. From one year to the next, the makeup of plant species in grasslands can change dramatically as early successional forbs and grasses give way to other plants. By returning fire to the landscape in a responsible way, prescribed fire allows Theodore Roosevelt National Park to sustain a mixed-age grassland, to increase forage and habitat diversity for wildlife, and to reduce the impact and intensity of wildfires.

Theodore Roosevelt National Park’s prescribed fire program addresses three important and interrelated goals: to benefit the natural resources, to reduce hazard fuels, and to address the wildland/urban interface. “Resource benefit burning” is intended to impact certain species or groups of species, and may be done to benefit or to be harmful to one or more species. Examples are to promote grass growth by reducing woody plants, or to control non-native plants like leafy spurge. “Hazard fuel reduction” removes the buildup of fuels, such as woody plants, that contribute to larger, hotter wildfires. Lastly, “Wildland/Urban interface” fires remove fuels adjacent to populated areas to protect lives, property, and to aid in controlling wildfires. Hazard fuels and Wildland/Urban interface management goals can also be achieved by mechanical means including cutting and haying. A prescribed fire can address one or more of these goals simultaneously, and a burn is typically performed at a precise time of year and under favorable weather conditions to attain the maximum benefit.

NPS Photo
Wildland firefighters igniting a prescribed fire

The prescribed fire program in Theodore Roosevelt National Park has been successful in returning the land to a proper fire return interval, resulting in a turnover of habitat from woody plants to new growth on a timescale that approximates the frequency of natural fires. Prescribed fires have helped to set back unwanted non-native plants, reduce woody vegetation encroachment in prairies, and to positively affect wildlife grazing patterns. The Park utilizes vegetation data and maps to chart the incidence of plant species and regimes before a prescribed fire and how they change years after the burn. The vegetation data and maps are studied and used to adapt future fire management decisions to achieve desired results.

In allowing fire to play a vital role in the ecosystem while preparing for, preventing, and extinguishing dangerous wildfires, Theodore Roosevelt National Park’s Fire Management Program addresses both the positive and negative aspects of wildfire. The program has been successful at using fire to establish healthy and vigorous ecosystems that reflect the natural landscape, to combat non-native plants, to reduce fuels, and to protect human lives and property from uncontrolled wildfires.

Movement

2010-03-17T10:59:00.001-04:00

We've been in a nearly perpetual fog for two weeks as the snow is slowly melting but not making it far in the atmosphere. Winter is slowly receding, though there is still most of a foot of snow to melt. The good news around here is that the gradual warm-up has allowed the ice to break up slowly on the river, so we probably won't see as exciting of a flood event as last year. The same can't be said for other parts of North Dakota. It's also nice to have the smells of water, mud, and grass, rather than winter air and wood stove smoke.

I managed to spot one redpoll, the first I've seen all winter, visiting my new thistle feeder. The feeder has been very popular with the goldfinches, who found it the first morning it was out there. The male goldfinches are just beginning their summer moult.

In other wildlife news, I spotted a bald eagle along the river. They don't stick around here, but seem to pass through in March. Mountain bluebirds have returned and I saw dozens of them recently.

I took a bold course of action and drove to the Peaceful Valley Ranch area, where I lodged my car in the snow. After trying to get it out for an hour, I gave up and called for a ride. By that time, the great-horned owls were hooting and looking at me, and their hooting sounded more like mocking laughter. Amber and I both noticed an unusual sound that almost sounded mechanical - a high pitched tone with a regular cadence. I thought it sounded like a rope clanging against a flagpole or a machine squeaking or something. Research proved it to be a Northern saw-whet owl.

The sun was working yesterday and it should approach 60 degrees today - tropical - so I'm hoping to get the car out with the help of the sun rather than the shovel. In the meantime, I hope the bison aren't rubbing on it or taking it for a joyride.

The Theodore Roosevelt National Park Facebook fan page, which I created and have been administrating, is approaching 1000 fans. It was my goal to get 1000 before I leave the park in April, and we just might get there.

America’s First Nobel Prize

2010-03-12T12:39:00.001-05:00

“I know perfectly well that the whole world is watching me…”

Theodore Roosevelt, 1905

Japan and Russia had been at war since February, 1904 as the two nations struggled for control of Manchuria and Korea. Among the battles on land and at sea, Japan annihilated Russia’s Baltic Fleet on May 27, 1905, in the largest naval engagement in the world in 100 years, sinking 22 ships and capturing seven with minimal losses.

For a variety of political reasons, President Theodore Roosevelt sought to end the conflict. Among Roosevelt’s motivations was his desire to assert American influence abroad, a mode of diplomacy new to the American presidency.

Roosevelt convinced the Russians and the Japanese to send delegates to Portsmouth, New Hampshire to negotiate a settlement in the summer of 1905. Meanwhile, Roosevelt sent his 21-year-old daughter Alice with William Howard Taft on a diplomatic mission to Japan. There, Alice enjoyed a certain celebrity and hammed it up with the press while Taft skillfully negotiated with Japanese officials.

Alice Roosevelt and William Howard Taft en route to Japan.

Diplomatic negotiations are typically the function of the Secretary of State, but Roosevelt’s Secretary of State, John Hay, who had once held the same post in the Lincoln administration, was ill at the outset of the negotiations in Portsmouth and did not participate. Without a Secretary to handle the negotiations during Hay’s illness and eventual death on July 1, President Roosevelt took on Hay’s role. In so doing, Roosevelt entered into a historic role for an American President.

The negotiations took weeks, with Roosevelt carefully acting as mediator. On August 29, Russia and Japan agreed to end hostilities, though Russia was forced to cede the southern portion of Sakhalin Island to Japan. Roosevelt had demonstrated extraordinary skill in mediating between the two warring nations. For his achievement, Theodore Roosevelt was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in December of 1905.

Theodore Roosevelt poses with Russian delegates Sergei Witte and Baron Rosen on the left and Baron Komura and Ambassador Takahira on the right, August 5, 1905. The disparity in the delegates' height was not lost on political cartoonists.

Theodore Roosevelt was the first American to win the Nobel Prize. However, he decided that it was unethical to accept the award or the $37,000 prize earned while a public servant, and delayed accepting the award until he was out of office. Roosevelt used the prize money to establish a trust to create an Industrial Peace Committee, though it never came to fruition. When World War I broke out, Roosevelt instead parceled the money out into a variety of war relief efforts including the Red Cross. Roosevelt never kept any of the prize money for himself or his family.

In the long run, the resolution of the Russo-Japanese War was eclipsed by vast changes in both Russia and Japan in the 20th century. Embarrassed, Russians lost faith in the Tsar and in their country’s apparent inability to manage or protect itself; the Bolshevik Revolution occurred in 1917. Japan was empowered by its successful war and continued to expand militarily through the first half of the 20th century, culminating in the World War II. At the close of World War II, Soviet troops dislodged Japan from southern Sakhalin Island and retook the land ceded in the 1905 treaty. The territory is still disputed.

Return to D.C.

2010-02-18T10:15:00.001-05:00

When there is a historic snow event in a city that can't deal with it, what do I do? Fly right straight into the middle of it.

I had been nervous that Snowpocalypse would keep me out of D.C., but non-refundable hotel rooms inspire a "might as well try" attitude. No flights had been in or out of D.C. for days before I was to go, and although my flight had not been cancelled, I was nervous it was only a matter of time before it would be cancelled. When the Delta ticket counter fellow was confirming that I was headed for D.C., my answer was, "I'm going to try!" As it turned out, my flight went just fine and I arrived in D.C. without a problem. If I had tried to leave the night before, or even on the earlier flight out of Bismarck, I surely would have been skunked.

We were able to take care of some touring we didn't have time for last fall. As before, the experience is totally overwhelming. There is just so much there. We got to view Theodore Roosevelt's African mammals collections at the Museum of Natural History, including a white rhinoceros. We also got to see the giant squid and much, much more. The Museum of History also had TR's riding chaps from Dakota (a whole riding outfit is on display at TRNP), and an interesting exhibit on Abraham Lincoln that includes molds of his face and hands, top hat, rifle, and more. We visited the U.S. Marine Corps War Memorial (Iwo Jima Memorial) and the obscure NPS site, the Netherlands Carillon. We got to see the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights at the National Archives. We revisited the Museum of the American Indian, where we saw a live performance by Peruvian scissor dancers, which, to me, seemed a dressed-up and traditional form of dance faux-competition a la "You Got Served." We also revisited the US Botanical Gardens.

In our first day of touring, we tried and failed to cruise through Arlington Cemetery. We didn't have any real business to attend to there, but we physically could not get in anyway. The gates were closed, and one of the entryways had collapsed from the weight of the snow and was impassable to boot. Amid our wandering, we ended up in the parking lot of the Pentagon and could see the side of the building hit in the 9/11 attacks.

We visited a couple of great restaurants including Lebanese Taverna and Founding Farmers. Lebanese Taverna is located near the Pentagon. We had a smattering of appetizers at Lebanese Taverna that included familiar things such as falafel and some more exotic flavors such as an extraordinarily potent cheese I couldn't pronounce nor eat. We ate at Founding Farmers, an all-organic restaurant that boasts it is proud to serve tap water. I had a salad that included the greatest deviled egg I've ever tasted while the city was gridlocked all night, crippled by narrowed roads following inadequate snow removal. I limited myself to one $6 beer, Scarlet Lady, which I enjoyed.

Once again the DC Metro proved to be the best thing about the trip. It's extremely convenient, especially if you get a hotel near a metro station and when you consider how difficult it is to navigate the serpentine, crowded roads even when conditions are ideal. You might just get the added fun of maybe encountering a homeless guy who leaves a wake of junk he's collected as he tries to scramble off the train and drops all his change.

We made it back out of D.C. just ahead of the next snow event, and were lucky to do so. After being in the big city, North Dakota seems that much quieter.

Peaceful Valley Ranch at Theodore Roosevelt National Park

2010-02-09T14:00:00.015-05:00

I wrote the following article for the park website. This is my original draft of the article.

The ranch house at Peaceful Valley Ranch is the only original ranch house remaining in the South Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Today’s visitors might drop in to Peaceful Valley for a guided horseback ride, which has been a popular activity there since the activity was first offered in 1918. The Peaceful Valley Ranch site has seen countless guests and many of residents in its lifetime. Like any historic site, the Peaceful Valley Ranch has seen its share of residents and guests coming and going, has undergone changes that reflect the changing needs of its occupants, and stands as a tangible reminder of a bygone era.

In its early days, the land where Peaceful Valley Ranch is today changed hands quickly and ambiguously, for no one in those days legally owned the land and little documentation of the transfers exists. The earliest Euro-American settler to live in the area that became the Peaceful Valley Ranch was Eldridge “Gerry” Paddock in 1883. Paddock shot wild game and sold it to the railroad, and became a close associate of the Marquis de Morès, his “right-hand man,” according to sources. 1883 was the same year that Theodore Roosevelt first came to the badlands. In December of 1883, Norman Lebo moved in; he became the sole occupant of Paddock’s 14’ x 16’ cabin by 1884.

22-year-old Benjamin Lamb, whose wealthy Boston family bankrolled his western venture, purchased the rights to the land from Lebo in 1885 and built the original buildings of the modern Peaceful Valley Ranch around that time, though accounts vary on precisely the year they were built. Lamb built the original barn, blacksmith shop, and house on the site. The original ranch house was a simple 58’ x 22’ two-story structure. The attic space was accessible from the outside by a ladder on the east side of the house.

Lamb sold the property in 1890 to Joe Caughton and Tom Donohue, who sold it between 1896 and 1898 to George Burgess. Despite its many previous residents, Burgess was the first to file a homestead patent for the land. Burgess sold the property in 1915 to Harry W. Olsen. The Olsen family shared ownership of the property within the family for several years, and their ownership is perhaps the most influential for the modern age.

The Olsens had a unique ranch at the time in that they had more horses than cattle. In 1918, the Olsens began running a “dude ranch,” taking vacationers on horseback riding trips to scenic places in the area, such as the petrified forest, and day trips to other ranches. Other entertainment for the Olsens’ guests provided included camping among the cottonwood trees adjacent to the ranch house, cookouts, branding, round-ups and moonlight rides. A popular destination was the Neuens ranch, where Mrs. Neuen was known for her good cooking. Guest facilities including a cabin were developed in 1920. In 1922, the ranch formally became the Peaceful Valley Ranch. Two years later, Carl Olsen became the sole owner of the property.

Carl Olsen was involved in the movement to create a national park, including the very land the Peaceful Valley Ranch was situated, in the 1920s and 1930s. In 1925 and again in 1928, Olsen’s ranch was a major stop during grand promotional tours of the area for politicians and NPS representatives including Stephen Mather, though the property was not selected at that time for inclusion as a national park. Olsen ran the dude ranch at Peaceful valley until he sold it to the federal government in 1936. The ranch was then converted to the headquarters of the Roosevelt Recreation Demonstration Area. Between 1934 and 1939, the Peaceful Valley Ranch site also housed Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), Works Progress Administration (WPA), and Emergency Relief Administration (ERA) staff. When Theodore Roosevelt National Memorial Park was established in 1947, the Peaceful Valley Ranch site was the park headquarters until the present headquarters and visitor center were built in Medora in 1959. The building continued to house park staff until 1965.

In the 1960s, after the ranch’s function as park headquarters ended, the National Park Service briefly considered tearing down the buildings on the ranch site in order to establish a new ranching demonstration area called the Longhorn Ranch. The plan never came to fruition and the historic buildings survived. In 1967, the park allowed a concessioner to use the ranch property to give guided horseback tours as the Olsen family had many years before. Though the concessioners have changed over the years, this tradition is ongoing in the park.

Peaceful Valley Ranch is an enduring reminder of the open range cattle ranching era in the 1880s and of the golden age of dude ranching. Though other structures on the site have come and gone, and the ranch house has been expanded and renovated at times in its life, the ranch property is remarkably intact and a rare reminder of the architecture of the period in which it was built. Three of the buildings, including the ranch house, are included in the National Register of Historic Places.

More Information:
Peaceful Valley Ranch model in Google Earth
Peaceful Valley Ranch Extended Narrative History

Cultural History of Theodore Roosevelt National Park

2010-02-08T11:03:00.002-05:00

I wrote the following article for the park website. I'm posting my original version of it here, which varies slightly from the park's final version.

When Theodore Roosevelt came to Dakota Territory in 1883, the Little Missouri badlands were a place where no one legally owned the land, the prairie was fenceless and like an ocean, and the game was plentiful. In the few years he spent here, Roosevelt saw the society and the land change dramatically as ranches, homes, businesses, roads, and government were developed. However, this was not the first society to make a home in the badlands. Echoes of a more distant past still ring in Theodore Roosevelt National Park: a bison processing camp, an arrowhead placed ceremonially on a cliff ledge, a ring of rocks, the skeleton of a lodge. Who were the people who inhabited this forbidding land long before Roosevelt? Why did they come here?

The North Dakota Badlands present many challenges and opportunities, certainly reasons why Roosevelt connected with the land so deeply. The badlands with their ecological diversity and geology provided the means for ancient peoples to gather plant materials, to procure clays for making paints, to find water, and to hunt animals for subsistence. However, the steep terrain and the slickness of the clay soil made travel as exceedingly difficult then as it still is now. The badlands were hardly an inviting place to live, and the archaeological record suggests that long term occupation was impractical. Modern interpretations of prehistoric cultures by tribal elders inform us that the difficulty of life in the badlands and the inspiring landforms made the site spiritually significant in many ways. People considered the buttes as the homes of many animal spirits and sought the badlands for vision questing and other rituals in addition to hunting and gathering plant materials.

Our current knowledge of the prehistoric past of the badlands region is very limited because only a handful of artifacts have been found. These few items, though, indicate that the badlands region has been inhabited for thousands of years. Archaeologists have dated artifacts found elsewhere in North Dakota back to 11,000 B.C., but so far no objects of that age have been found in Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Ancient artifacts have not been found in the park either because the land was not inhabited or because rapid erosional processes have altered the landscape and obliterated or obscured these ancient artifacts. Artifacts from the Archaic Tradition (5,500 B.C. – A.D. 500) have been identified in the park, however, including a spearpoint made of Knife River flint dating to the Early Archaic and seven Middle Archaic projectile points found in six locations within the park. Projectile points and cord-roughened potshards indicate the presence of people of the Plains Woodland Tradition (1 – 1,200 A.D.). More recently the pre-Columbian peoples in the Late Prehistoric / Plains Village Tradition also appear in the archaeological record in the form of a wide variety of projectile points, potshards of several designs, and remains of a bison processing camp. Presumably, the people who used these tools for thousands of years in the badlands region came to hunt and perhaps gather other materials, but there is yet no firm evidence of any permanent or long-term occupation.

Several sites from the Historic Period (1742 – 1880s A.D.) that coincide with oral tradition are in the park today including stone rings, a rock cairn, and four conical, timbered lodges. Two of the lodges, presumably used by men engaged in seasonal eagle trapping, are still standing today. These structures are astonishing reminders of how recently traditional societies used this land as their ancestors had done for untold generations. One archaeological interpretation indicated that the use of the badlands for hunting, gathering, and spiritual pursuits, though undertaken by numerous cultures and groups over millennia, had not significantly changed over that entire time span.

A rich diversity of cultures utilized the badlands region in the historic time frame. Perhaps the most significant groups in this most recent period were the Mandan and the Hidatsa, whose traditional bison hunting grounds included the Little Missouri River basin even though their lifestyle was primarily sedentary and agrarian. To the west of the badlands, the Hidatsa’s close relatives, the Crow, also utilized the badlands at the eastern edge of their territory. In the historic period, a great number of other peoples including the Blackfeet, Gros Ventre, Chippewa, Cree, Sioux, and Rocky Boy tribes came to western North Dakota mainly for hunting and trading, often at Fort Union Trading Post in the early 19th century, and these peoples did not necessarily seek out the badlands in the way the Mandan, Hidatsa, or Crow might. The Assiniboine occupied a large area of the Northern Great Plains north of the Missouri River. The Arikara entered western and central North Dakota and several bands of the Lakota (Sioux) expanded their range into western North Dakota in the 19th century. Each group has its own history, traditions, spirituality, stories, and uses associated with the badlands in Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Eagle trapping, bison hunting, and other spiritual purposes were among the traditional peoples’ uses.

Eagle trapping was an important Mandan and Hidatsa land use in Theodore Roosevelt National Park. The process of eagle trapping was intensely spiritual, following certain social, spiritual, and astrological protocols. Even today, many of the specifics of the ritual are known only to those who have the rights to the knowledge within the tribes. Traditionally, only men with rights to perform eagle trapping were allowed to perform the ritual, and then only during specific times of the year as determined by astrology and presumably to coincide with eagle migration. Preparation including fasting and prayer were essential prerequisites to the act of trapping an eagle. To trap an eagle, a man built a pit in a location of his choosing and covered it with a lattice of brush and grass. Atop the covering, he placed a skinned rabbit as bait. The man waited inside the pit for an eagle to come upon the rabbit, and then sprang up to grab the eagle by its feet. Typically, he would take select feathers from the wings and/or tail and then release the eagle relatively unharmed. If eagles were abundant, he might kill one to make use of an entire wing or the tail.

Bison were another critically important resource for traditional societies, and the badlands offered opportunities to hunt them effectively. The steep badlands terrain made it possible to hunt bison without firing a shot. All that was required of the hunters was to cause the bison to stampede down a steep drop-off. Ideally, a few of the bison would get killed in the stampede, and those injured could be easily finished off by the hunters. A handful of sites within the park are known to have been used for precisely this purpose, including the remains of a bison processing area. Plains peoples had uses for every part of the bison, but arguably the most important parts were the meat for food and the hide for clothing, blankets, and tipi coverings. Other parts of the animal could be used for tools, medicine, toys, decoration, rituals, and more.

People sought the badlands for a wide variety of spiritual pursuits. The buttes throughout western North Dakota served as waypoints for traveling plains peoples, and these striking points on the landscape were important in many tribes’ spirituality. For many, the buttes were the homes of animal spirits, and a journey to a specific butte might entail medicine-making rituals specific to that bluff’s animal spirit. The badlands, too, were spiritually significant. Isolated bluffs with their steep slopes were excellent vision quest sites. Vision quests took many forms, but generally involved isolation, prayer, abstinence from food and water, and awaiting a vision given by the spirit world to the vision-seeker. Springs were preferred places to collect colored clays used to make paints for warriors’ faces, horses, and homes; the paint was considered medicine and was thus powerful. Oral tradition tells us that some springs were used for very specific purposes: for drinking, to collect a certain material, or to perform a specific ritual or ceremony. Evidence from these activities is scarce, and our knowledge of them is largely based on oral tradition kept alive by today’s tribal members.

Today, Theodore Roosevelt National Park remains a significant place for many American Indians, whose association with the land is rooted deeply in the past. A modern visitor experiencing the park might look upon the landscape with the same sense of fascination, wonderment, and reverence that these traditional peoples did, even though their spiritual beliefs and values may vary. On a visit to Theodore Roosevelt National Park, you enter more than a landscape of unique scenery and abundant wildlife – you enter an ancient home filled with legends, lore, and sacred places.

Source:

Zedeño, M. N. Cultural Affiliation Statement and Ethnographic Resource Assessment Study for Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site, Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site, and Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North Dakota.
Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology. The University of Arizona, Tucson. 2006.

Suggested Websites:

Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site – An extraordinarily important trading post for Northern Great Plains tribes at the confluence of the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers.

Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site – The center of Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara cultures near the confluence of the Heart and Knife Rivers.

The Second Big Blizzard

2010-01-25T22:24:00.000-05:00

We're just now emerging from the second big blizzard this year. We didn't get as much snow over this one as we did during the Christmas blizzard exactly one month ago, but the snow seemed to be blowing just as intensely. I took some video, and climbed partway up the bluff to get some of the video, but the wind was simply ferocious, my eyes were getting blasted with snow and bentonite dust, and I had some concern I would go for a ride down the steep slope through the sagebrush.

We made a run to Dickinson mid-day on Monday to make it to an appointment, to use the gym, and to restock on food. The road was generally clear, though the north side of I-94 in both directions occasionally had a minor snowdrift; it would be serious if it were bigger and softer, but these were short and seemingly well-packed. The snow was blowing to an insane degree. There were times when I could look out across the road and it looked like we were driving on a cloud; it was no cloud but the snow blowing in an unbroken layer across the road. In some places, it blew up like a fog. It sounded like sand as it blew against the side of the car. We survived no problem because the road was actually dry. The same cannot be said for city streets anywhere.

The January Thaw

2010-01-23T14:57:00.000-05:00

After bottoming out at -33.9 degrees F on January 8, we've enjoyed relatively warm temperatures with highs in the 30s and 40s for the last couple of weeks. The sun has been out part of the time, but we've mostly had an eerie fog for the last week straight. Medora stays out of it because we're lower, but if you drive out of the valley, you hit a wall of fog before you get to Painted Canyon. With the nice weather, it's nice to hear the birds singing again.

I've been playing with a new HD video camera and have gotten some decent shots of critters and scenery in the park. I've posted a couple test videos elsewhere and will post one here at the end of the month.

The most interesting thing I've seen lately was a golden eagle eating a prairie dog. A magpie was skulking around the eagle waiting for a chance to grab a piece of meat. Then the eagle took off as another eagle came in to feed. So, two for one. You'll see it in the video.

I've done some research and dredged up a couple of Theodore Roosevelt's stories from the badlands, the time when he got into a bar fight in Montana and the time when thieves stole his boat and he chased after them, arrested them, and took them to jail personally. I also added a page for the museum collections intended to demonstrate that there is something along those lines to see in the park. Lastly, I found some information about how awesome the park's air quality is, second only to Denali National Park according to a recent 10-year study.

"Surveying the skies" - by Lisa Call, Dickinson Press

2010-01-14T19:21:00.000-05:00

This story about our Christmas Bird Count originally ran in the Dickinson Press on Jan. 14, 2010. Of course, if you read my blog, you already heard it here first. I'm only slightly embarrassed by one of the lines I was quoted on - see if you can guess which one.

Published January 14 2010

By: Lisa Call, The Dickinson Press

Despite frigid temperatures and windy, snowy surroundings, participants in the 110th Christmas Bird Count in Theodore Roosevelt National Park and Medora spotted a rare visitor.

Sponsored by the National Audubon Society, data collected from the count has helped identify birds most in need of conservation action, including documentation assisting in the comeback of the previously endangered bald eagle, according to the Audubon Web site.

The count relies on volunteers nationwide to collect data vital to tracking bird progress.
Twenty participants from five states, along with several cities in North Dakota, participated in the counts.

Overall, volunteers put in a combined 125 hours for the bird counts, covering 361 miles of roads and trails.

Park Ranger Nathan King, one of the event’s organizers, said a long-eared owl was spotted in the park’s South Unit during the Medora count on Jan. 2, a species the Theodore Roosevelt Nature and History Association lists as rare in spring and summer.

King said the owl does not usually exist in the park during winter months.

“That owl is so well camouflaged it’s hard to see even when you know what you’re looking for,” King said. “They have a very cryptic plumage. It looks just like the end of a broken-off tree limb. Even though it’s a fairly big bird, it blends in very well.”

Active mainly at night, to see the bird during daylight hours is a rarity.

“The people who found it worked really hard all day and I really give them a lot of credit for putting up with some pretty unpleasant weather,” King said.

King said the finders of the rare bird had been out in the field for close to seven hours when they spotted the long-eared owl.

“They were kind of on their way back, but they were still checking on things.”

Participants for the Medora area count traveled from Montana, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan as well as Medora, Dickinson, Halliday and Bismarck, according to a press release.

“We were pleased to have so many volunteers from so many different places count birds this year,” said Park Superintendent Valerie Naylor, who also served as the count’s compiler, in a press release. “Due to conditions, we did not see as many birds as we sometimes do, but it was a great day afield.”

During this year’s Medora bird count, 21 species were recorded along with 339 total birds.

“Our numbers as far as species representation were good,” King said. “I think we saw the species we expected for the most part. There are more of them out there, but because of the weather, we just couldn’t observe them on the count day.”

King said a few years ago, “tons and tons” of Robins could be observed, however this year had visibly less.

King attributed the lower number to less juniper berries, snowfall and extremely cold temperatures.

“One thing we didn’t see this year that we saw last year was the common redpoll,” King said. “Those birds are erratic. “They don’t necessarily show up every year in the same place.”

Overall, there were no major changes from last year to this year, King said.
Observation changes this year could be attributed to limited visibility for part of the count time and accessibility issues due to high snowfall, he said.

While the North Unit experienced deep snow on the Jan. 3 count, which restricted travel to a degree, six birders found nine species of birds, including woodpeckers, grouse and eagles, according to a press release.

Lapland Longspurs were also spotted, a bird King says are uncommon and not observed every year in the park.

Also a rare winter sighting in the Badlands, the American Tree Sparrow was observed this year.

“All of our dedicated and skilled volunteers contributed to the success of the event,” King said. “We greatly appreciated their time and effort.”

North Dakota Weather Trends

2010-01-09T14:12:00.002-05:00

Friday morning, it was -34 degrees F in Medora and -38 F in the North Unit. It was not a record in either location. Ironically, the headline on the NPS's internal homepage was about climatic warming in the southwest. My theory is that global warming stories and international summits are intentionally held when it is flipping cold outside so that we don't feel like we really have to do anything. Coincidentally, I was also working on some weather stats for Medora, so here are some charts.

The first graph shows smoothed lines for the record temperatures and the average temperatures. While these are the averages, it should be noted that around here, highs and lows from one day to the next can vary wildly.

This next chart shows monthly extreme highs and lows, as well as the average temperature for the month for the last few years for which we had complete data.

The next chart shows how the last three years deviated from the 1950-1994 average. I used a stock chart to show the record highs and lows by month during 2006-2009 and the bars show which direction the average for 2006-2009 deviated from the 1950-1994 average. Red (up) means that month was warmer than average, blue (down) means it was colder than average. The bar shows the distance the average for that month deviated from the long-term average. If you throw a trendline on this graph, the average temperature is actually going down. However, snow has not recently occurred in months it normally has in the spring and fall.

Finally, a comparison of the precipitation between 2007-2009 and 1950-1994 averages. Interestingly, December has been much snowier than average the last three years and January has been much drier than average. The annual precipitation average for 2007-2009 is 2" above the historic average. Notably, there was a historic average snowfall in May, September, and October that has not recently been achieved.

Glazed Over Pottery = Awesome!

2010-01-05T19:52:00.000-05:00

Amber bought me a bonus after-Christmas gift. It was a gift as much as it was consolation for breaking something irreplaceable, a tea tray that was a gift from a college roommate. It was inadvertently smashed when Amber became furious after watching a documentary about the war in Iraq. As I remember it accurately, the last words the old tea tray heard before it was shattered into a thousand pieces were, "People are dying in Iraq!" The logic as to how George W. Bush is responsible for my broken tea tray should be self-evident.

Anyway, Amber bought me a set of four tea trays at my recommendation from artist Jill Fine, who sells ceramics online. Her store is called Glazed Over and everything on there looks awesome. She also has a blog, which is not always about ceramics.

This is one of the four tea trays. They all have the same type of design, but, being hand-made, are all unique.

The tea trays are great, but the real surprise was the packaging, which was filled with hand-done drawings and an inspirational quote from Dr. Seuss. Unwrapping the package and finding all the little details made it one of the most fun packages I've ever opened. Here is a sample:

In fact, there is a video that shows the artist creating some of this packaging on her blog!

Check out Glazed Over! I recommend it!

Christmas Bird Count

2010-01-04T20:08:00.001-05:00

The Christmas Bird Count was a challenge. We had a great turnout for the Medora count, but we all fought snowy roads, flying snow, and found few birds. I blame a lack of juniper berries and deep snow for the dearth in birds. Dad, Amber, and I cruised around seeing only scant robins, a couple chickadees, a flock of horned larks, and our best sighting was Dad's 11 sharp-tailed grouse in a tree.

Some of our participants were extremely thorough and found some of the best birds of the day during the South Unit count. They discovered a rough-legged hawk, a difficult-to-find winter resident, and a long-eared owl. I was lucky to be able to get out and snap a picture of the owl.

I took a video while we were driving up US Hwy 85 up to the North Unit for the second day of the count. I can't figure out why more people don't visit North Dakota in the winter!

It's exhausting work staring into the snow all day. We all took naps after the North Unit Count.

We're bracing for another blizzard and yet more Arctic air. Now I'll ask for the first time: How many months until spring?

Theodore Roosevelt's Elkhorn Ranch Site

2010-01-04T13:46:00.000-05:00

We took a New Year's Day journey to the Elkhorn Ranch Site, the spot where Theodore Roosevelt's home ranch was located in the 1880s. The spot is about 35 miles north of Medora. We took the East River Road through the park and found a spot to park down by the Little Missouri River. From there, it was a one-way hike of most of a mile through knee-deep snow. The wind was constant and the temperature was below zero the entire time we were out.

The Elkhorn Ranch Site

I blazed the trail through the snow, alternately following deer and rogue cattle tracks through the drifted snow, periodically stopping to look back and stay within sight of my companions. Aside from the popping sound of a distant oil well and the mooing of cattle on the surrounding ranch land, it was silent.

For my comrades, I uncovered one of the foundation stones, all that is left of the building. I stood on the spot where the cabin's veranda once stood. There, Roosevelt rocked in his rocking chair, reading, chatting, and enjoying the view across the river. The setting sun must light the hills nicely in the evening, a nice reward for a hard day's work on the ranch.

This is the spot where Roosevelt's veranda once stood. Yes, my attire is ridiculous. But I wasn't cold and my pants and boots weren't full of snow.

The Elkhorn Ranch is a place to contemplate Theodore Roosevelt and his contributions to conservation. It was there that Roosevelt spent the most time in the badlands, there that he wrote about, there that he saw the need for conservation as the wildlife and range around him was decimated. It's also a reminder of the strenuous life, for a visit to the Elkhorn Ranch is a journey, especially when winter is relentless. Worried about the serious potential for frostbite and hypothermia, we started back after a few minutes milling around the cabin site.

I won't bother recounting the full history of the site here, but there is plenty to read, watch, and listen about the Elkhorn Ranch on the park's website. Perhaps the best resource is the Elkhorn Ranch Audio Guide, which I recommend for anyone to listen to on a trip to the Elkhorn or from home. You can download it for free, throw it on your MP3 player or a CD and run with it.

For more resources, there is a lot to explore. Learn more about the Elkhorn Ranch Site. Watch videos about the Elkhorn Ranch Site. Learn about Theodore Roosevelt and his ranch hands at the Elkhorn Ranch.

Moon Dog

2009-12-30T12:09:00.000-05:00

It's not uncommon to see sun dogs with all the blowing ice crystals in the North Dakota winter, but I can't remember seeing a full halo around the moon before! I saw this "moon dog" last night.

It's the same phenomenon as a sun dog in that the ice crystals act as a prism. It's the same reason you see a rainbow through mist.

Snowed In - Christmas 2009

2009-12-25T23:03:00.000-05:00

Constant light snow and a steady 25 mph wind out of the NW made staying indoors quite appealing. With just nasty weather outside, we had the town to ourselves.

Virtually all roads were closed in North Dakota. Montana had more roads open but, knowing Montana, that doesn't mean you can actually drive them.

Snow piles from street clearing. The snow has been drifting heavily for the last two days and will continue for the foreseeable future.

We had a Christmas first and opened some presents via webcam. Amber's parents seemed to enjoy the show. Taking this picture of them before they were set up was mean, though.

I took this picture of our cars between 3 and 4 PM. The drifts are so much bigger now.

We were very happy for the thoughtful gifts we got from everyone. We ate some of the goodies, played some of the games, and had a fun day of it! Here is a sample of our fun for the day.

The Thermometer

2009-12-22T13:14:00.002-05:00

We may not have a whole lot of snow, but the snowfall has been relentless. Lately, it seems to snow more days than it does not. We have almost 6" on the ground now and expect more soon. The good news is that with the snow comes warmer temperatures. The bad news is that makes it hard to get to the pool in Dickinson to get my swimming in.

The official Theodore Roosevelt National Park South Unit thermometer reading on December 15, 2009. It reports the actual temperature.

The Maltese Cross Cabin. Check out our new fence!