National Park Centennial Celebration

NPS Logo

This month of August is the 100th anniversary of the creation of the National Park Service. I briefly talked about the creation of the National Park Service in this blog post, but in the context of the dual mission of protection and enjoyment as a balance. The National Park Service is one of the most prestigious interpretive institutions in the United States that daily interacts with the public regarding its environment and history. This month will feature a two part blog post. Part one will talk about the Parks' programming in general and their interpretive goals. The second will talk about the local National Park Centennial celebration close to the actual date of Aug 25.

The National Park Service is a wide government agency within the Department of the Interior. It oversees national parks, monuments, sites, trails, recreation sites, and seashores. The Parks in the system chooses to actively engage visitors coming to their respective unit sites through interpretive programming and campaigns. A few branding campaigns had been launched in the last few years to draw the ever decreasing visiting public to the parks: the "Find Your Park" campaign, as well as the Centennial campaign. Find Your Park is aimed at connecting people to the parks by emphasizing 'ownership'.

I've found my Park, have you?

As national public lands, the Parks belong to the people of the United States. Since they belong to each and every one of us, it is up to us to take care of them, whether that is visiting our favorite park or the local one. By 'finding your park', you identify with it like a favorite color or food or movie; it becomes part of a definition of your personality. We take care of and prioritize things that are personal and meaningful to us and that logic is extended to the park of choice. It also emphasizes 'finding', as in to 'seek out' and compare and contrast other parks, and thereby encourages visits.

The Centennial campaign is more of an awareness program to draw attention to the fact that the Parks will be 100 years young.  It means new branding for NPS gear and limited edition collectibles that highlight and popularize the National Parks.  The intention is to increase dwindling visitor numbers and connect visitors, especially young visitors, so that future generations will continue to visit and appreciate.

Another unexpected way that people are connecting with the Parks is through a game released this summer called Pokemon Go. It is an augmented reality game played on smart phones where the players capture these digital creatures (Pokemon) wandering around in physical settings but can only be seen through the lens of the mobile phone screen. These settings include public locations like the Parks. The game's reception has mixed emotions and reactions from all quarters since being released. The Parks generally welcome and encourage the visitors searching for the Pokemon, and a few of them are apparently going to lead tours exclusively to sate players.

If you need this new-fangled game explained to you,

 ask a kid or teen. 

They want the visitors to look around and enjoy the Park rather than simply visiting to collect digital creatures as well.

The Parks also stress using tact when searching in places of solemn reflection such as memorials, cemeteries, and battlefields. Collecting things in the Parks is not totally unusual, (although collecting things like rocks, fossils, and leaves are illegal!); the Parks have their own version of this called National Parks Passports. Each National Park has cancellation stamps that collectors can place into a purchased passport book, so that they can "catch 'em all", including limited edition stamps especially for the centennial. They also have sticker stamps that can be collected. In the last few years the Parks had a Civil War to Civil Rights trading card series that were location specific. Of course, there are also the Junior Ranger badges that children and adults can collect which I mentioned last month.

But far and wide the daily Interpretation talks, walks, and programs are the real highlight of the Park system. While nature and wilderness often speak for themselves, many people do not or cannot hear what they are saying. It is the job of the interpretive staff to speak in understandable terms what is both obvious or hidden from mere observation to visitors, whether it is a 'natural' park or a historical one. These people help make meaningful connections between the visitors and the protected resource the Park offers and make the visit worthwhile. The Park System protects the resource designated at the site and tries to make full use of the enjoyment of the visitor. It is not a perfect system and it does have a lot of problems, but the National Park system works for the visitor to help them learn to appreciate, protect, and enjoy the parks and sites. Here's to another 100 years, National Parks!

End Part One

Part two Local National Park celebration Aug 25-27