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Why You Should Not Store Food in Your Car at Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Travel to just about any park with black bears and you'll either be handed information or see signs clearly detailing how to protect yourself and your belongings in bear country. While the accompanying video of a bear breaking into a car at Great Smoky Mountains National Park is nine years old, it could have been taken yesterday.

National Parks in the News: Did You Say that Park Police Officer Mary Jane Hempfield is a Turtle?

It was an event certain to send chills down the spine of evil doers everywhere. For the first time ever, the Park Police used information gathered with the help of a radio transmitter-outfitted box turtle to arrest a man growing marijuana in a national park.

Is It Time to Overhaul the National Park Service and the National Park System?

With the National Park Service's centennial eight years off, it's not too early to take the measure of both the service and the National Park System it manages. Has the time arrived to overhaul and strengthen this venerable agency?
Image icon National Park Centennial Commission.pdf

Fort Donelson National Battlefield Commemorates the North’s First Major Victory in the Civil War

In February 1862, the Battle of Fort Donelson yielded the North’s first major victory of the war and propelled General Ulysses S. Grant into the national spotlight. Today you can visit Fort Donelson National Battlefield, which celebrated its 23rd anniversary August 9, and see where the Union’s greatest military hero earned the nickname “Unconditional Surrender” Grant.

Pilgrim Places: Civil War Battlefields, Historic Preservation, and America’s First National Military Parks, 1863-1900, Part II

The event in American history prior to the Civil War that had the most potential to inspire the preservation of historic places was the American Revolution. Yet, between the Revolution and the Civil War, historic site preservation in America was limited and sporadic.