Tag Archives: garden

Mississippi

Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home National Monument

October 23, 2024 Raven About The Parks 4 Comments

Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home National Monument

Mississippi

Managed by National Park Service

Established 2019

0.74 acres

Website: nps.gov/memy

Overview

In the early 1960s, Medgar Evers served as a field secretary for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and became a target for racial hatred in Jackson, Mississippi. After Medgar was slugged while aboard a bus and almost run over by a car, the Evers family home was firebombed on May 28, 1963. Then just before midnight on June 11, Medgar was assassinated in his driveway by a sniper from a vacant lot across the street. Medgar died the next morning and his wife Myrlie moved the family to California where she continued as a civil rights advocate (and was eventually elected as Chair of the NAACP). The family rented the property for 30 years before donating it to Tougaloo College who restored the house and sold it to the National Park Service (NPS) in 2020.

Learn more about the other 137 National Monuments in our book Monumental America: Your Guide to All 138 National Monuments. It is now available for sale on Amazon.com.

Highlights

Evers’ House, Myrlie’s Garden

Must-Do Activity

In 1956, the Evers family chose this new house because it did not have a front door, but rather an entrance on the side off the covered carport for security. After you enter the house from the back door, be sure to find where the bullet hole is still in the wall to the kitchen. You will also notice that the children’s beds were on the floor below the window level for safety, and Medgar trained them to crawl to the bathroom in case of an attack. There is a four-page Junior Ranger booklet for the site that can be completed during a short visit, which takes a serious yet positive tone for this important civil rights site. Still, it made it on our list of the Top 10 Most Depressing National Park Service Sites.

Best Trail

There is a sidewalk through Myrlie’s Garden, a community garden less than one-tenth of a mile from the house where interpretive signs on the wooden fence tell the life story of the Evers.

Photographic Opportunity

In Jackson’s Elraine Subdivision, the Evers’ house is one of 36 ranch-style houses built as the first planned middle-class subdivision for African Americans in Mississippi after World War II.

Peak Season

Spring and fall

Hours

Closed Sundays and Mondays, and noon to 1 p.m. for lunch

https://www.nps.gov/memy/planyourvisit/hours.htm

Fees

None

Road Conditions

There is street parking available in the neighborhood, but rangers prefer that you park at Myrlie’s Garden and walk over.

Camping

There are three free NPS campgrounds along the 444-mile Natchez Trace Parkway, which runs through Jackson, Mississippi. To the east on Interstate 20, Bienville National Forest also has camping options.

Related Sites

Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument (Mississippi-Illinois)

Natchez Trace National Scenic Trail (Mississippi-Alabama-Tennessee)

Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument (Alabama)

Explore More – The assassin Byron De La Beckwith was immediately caught, then set free after two deadlocked trials, so how many years later was he finally convicted?

Learn more about the other 137 National Monuments in our book Monumental America: Your Guide to All 138 National Monuments

Pennsylvania

Flight 93 National Memorial

September 9, 2021 Raven About The Parks 2 Comments

Overview

One of the most emotionally difficult places we have ever visited is the Flight 93 National Memorial in southwest Pennsylvania. Most readers remember the details of September 11, 2001 vividly and the feelings of that day still resonate. Thanks to the courage of the 40 passengers and crew aboard United Flight 93, the airplane crashed only 18 minutes short of its target in Washington, D.C.

Highlights

Museum, Memorial Plaza, Wall of Names

Must-Do Activity

Even if you never saw the Hollywood film, the story of Flight 93 is well known. The National Park Service (NPS) has put together a high-quality museum near the airplane crash site and the memorial itself is simple yet strong. One wall is inscribed with this excellent quote: “A common field one day. A field of honor forever.” The focus is on the bravery of the 33 passengers and seven crew members that stood up to the four hijackers that tragic morning. Since it is essentially a mass grave, the actual crash site is off limits except to family members of the victims, but it is marked by a large boulder visible from the Memorial Plaza. We left after our visit feeling both saddened and empowered.

Best Trail

An allée (formal walkway) leads from the NPS visitor center past the 40 Memorial Groves of trees (planted in 2012) to the Memorial Plaza and the Wall of Names. You can also drive to the parking lot at the visitor shelter next to the Memorial Plaza.

Instagram-worthy Photo

The names of the Flight 93 passengers and crew are on the 40 marble panels of the Wall of Names (the NPS visitor center is visible in the background).

Peak Season

Summer and the September anniversary

Hours

https://www.nps.gov/flni/planyourvisit/hours.htm

Fees

None

Road Conditions

All roads paved

Camping

We camped on state forest land near Stoystown, Pennsylvania.

Related Sites

Johnstown Flood National Memorial (Pennsylvania)

Fort Necessity National Battlefield (Pennsylvania)

Gettysburg National Military Park (Pennsylvania)

Explore More – Where was the United Airlines flight from Newark, New Jersey bound for on September 11, 2001?

District of Columbia

National Mall

July 8, 2021 Raven About The Parks Leave a comment

Overview

Part of Pierre L’Enfant’s 1791 design for Washington, D.C., his “grand avenue” was not fully realized until the 1900s when a train station was removed to fully open up two miles of grass between the U.S. Capitol and Lincoln Memorial. Today, America’s front lawn is lined with National Park Service (NPS) monuments and Smithsonian museums. The 2003 Reserve Act declared the National Mall a completed work of civic art and restricted further construction after completion of the World War II Memorial. However, in 2014 the American Veterans Disabled for Life Memorial was dedicated at its eastern end.

Highlights

Lincoln Memorial, Reflecting Pool, Washington Monument, Ulysses S. Grant Memorial, U.S. Capitol

Must-Do Activity

There is no official visitation count kept for the National Mall, but if there was its 24-million annual visitors would make it the number one busiest site in the entire NPS system. Not far from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial where he gave his most famous speech in 1963, is the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial, one of the numerous NPS sites located here. The National Air and Space Museum is one of several awesome galleries of the Smithsonian Institution, containing Charles Lindbergh’s The Spirit of Saint Louis, an Apollo Lunar Module, and the original Wright Brothers flyer used in 1903. There is so much to see and do, you could easily spend more than a week exploring.

Best Trail

One of the greatest overlooks of the National Mall is from the U.S. Marine Corps War Memorial (part of George Washington Memorial Parkway), located across the Potomac River in Arlington, Virginia. It is a bit of a walk from the National Mall, but the view is especially breathtaking at night.

Instagram-worthy Photo

At some point during your visit, do yourself a favor and come after dark. It is nicely decorated each December (but you might need a tripod for photographs).

Peak Season

Summer, and also weekends during the National Cherry Blossom Festival (March-April)

Hours

https://www.nps.gov/nama/planyourvisit/hours.htm

Fees

None

Road Conditions

As with most NPS sites in Washington, D.C., it is easier to walk or take the Metro than find parking for your car.

Camping

There are no NPS campgrounds in the Washington, D.C. area, so it might be best to head for Shenandoah National Park in Virginia.

Related Sites

Lincoln Memorial (District of Columbia)

Constitution Gardens (District of Columbia)

Korean War Veterans Memorial (District of Columbia)

Explore More – The Tidal Basin (home to the Thomas Jefferson Memorial and Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial) is considered part of the National Mall, so when were the famous cherry trees (a gift from Japan) planted there?

Oregon, Washington

Fort Vancouver National Historic Site

April 2, 2020 Raven About The Parks Leave a comment

Overview

Across the Columbia River from Portland, Oregon stands the palisade of Fort Vancouver National Historical Park. From 1825 to 1860 it served as the Hudson’s Bay Company’s western headquarters, even after the U.S. took control of the territory from Great Britain in 1846. Within walking distance, the National Park Service (NPS) also manages the free Pearson Air Museum at an active airport surrounded by the Vancouver National Historic Reserve. A separate unit of the park, the McLoughlin House (free) is found in downtown Oregon City and focuses on the area’s significance as the terminus for the Oregon Trail.

Highlights

Reconstructed fort, period garden, Pearson Air Museum, McLoughlin House

Must-Do Activity

Today’s fort buildings are reconstructions, including the bakehouse, blacksmith shop, chief factor’s house, fur store, and bastion which are open to visitors with costumed reenactors inside happy to answer questions.

Best Trail

True to its past, Vancouver, Washington (not to be confused with the large city across the Canadian border) remains a major shipping center to this day. Its waterfront is home to a sculpture honoring “Wendy the Welder” and the women who worked here during World War II. Many structures are preserved in the surrounding Vancouver National Historic Reserve, including the Marshall House (tours for a fee).

Instagram-worthy Photo

A garden designed to mimic one from 1845 is maintained just outside the fort’s palisade.

Peak Season

Summer

Hours

https://www.nps.gov/fova/planyourvisit/hours.htm

Fees

$10 per person (only to enter the fort itself) or America the Beautiful pass

Road Conditions

Access roads paved, but parking is a short walk from the fort.

Camping

Battleground Lake State Park has a campground 20 miles northwest of Vancouver, Washington. There are many camping options across the Columbia River in Mount Hood National Forest.

Whitman Mission National Historic Site (Washington)

Mount Rainier National Park (Washington)

Explore More – Before it became a unit of Fort Vancouver National Historic Site in 2003, when was McLoughlin House named a National Historic Site in the “father of Oregon’s” honor (even though he was Canadian)?

North Carolina

Fort Raleigh National Historic Site

December 5, 2019 Raven About The Parks Leave a comment

Overview

In Manteo, North Carolina, the Outer Banks islands protect Albemarle Sound, where Roanoke Island can be found. If that name sounds familiar, it is because it was here that Fort Raleigh became the first English settlement in North America. First scoped out in 1584, its original inhabitants all left with Sir Francis Drake after supply ships failed to arrive. The 117 colonists that came in 1587 actually wanted to settle further north on Chesapeake Bay, but their captain left them here instead. John White soon sailed back to England to get aid, but an ongoing war with the Spanish Armada kept him away until 1590. Upon his return he found the fort deserted, the buildings stripped, and a fencepost marked “CROATOAN” (the name of nearby island). White was thwarted in his attempt to land on Croatoan Island by a hurricane, so to-this-day nobody knows the true fate of the colonists.

Highlights

Museum, site of first British colony in America, Lost Colony Outdoor Drama

Must-Do Activity

The National Park Service museum has excellent displays, including the videos of Sir Walter Raleigh (the fort’s namesake) in the Elizabethan Room. It offers all the theories on happened to the settlers so visitors can decide what they believe. “The Lost Colony” did lend its name to an outdoor musical performed most nights throughout the summer within the boundaries of Fort Raleigh National Historic Site.

Best Trail

The Thomas Hariot Nature Trail provides views of the reconstructed earthen fort, musical theater, and Albemarle Sound. Hariot was a scientist who searched Roanoke Island in 1585 for precious metals and made drawings of the local flora and fauna.

Instagram-worthy Photo

Waterside Theatre has hosted the outdoor symphonic play “The Lost Colony” every summer since 1937.