Sometimes you need to look beyond the surface of an object to appreciate its true beauty. That certainly can be said now of a number of plaster-encased molds that had been stashed away at Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site in New Hampshire.

Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell on Thursday announced a new study showing that spring is beginning earlier than its historical average in 75 percent of the national parks examined — providing further evidence that climate change is already impacting public lands. The announcement came during a visit to Shenandoah National Park, one of the sites identified in the study as experiencing the impacts of an early onset of spring.

On Saturday, September 3, from 8 p.m.-10 p.m., Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site will host its seventh annual Star Party in partnership with the Springfield Telescope Makers of the Stellafane Observatory in Springfield,Vermont. The event will be held at Saint-Gaudens NHS in Cornish, New Hampshire, and is free and open to the public.

Almost every NPS site has more interesting items in its archives that it has room to display to the public, so choosing the ones to exhibit is an on-going challenge. The staff at Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site had one solution last year—letting the public "co-curate" an exhibit by voting on-line for items to be displayed. It was such a success they're repeating the program and expanding it to a second site, Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historic Park.