It was a short skirmish, perhaps just 15 minutes, but it left 10 French soldiers dead, precipitated the French and Indian War, and perhaps was instigated by a young, brash George Washington.

In the southwest corner of Pennsylvania, just about an hour shy of the Ohio state line, sit a couple of National Park System units that might not be on your radar. I wouldn’t call them obscure, but being from the West Coast I had not heard of either until my NPS passport led me there a few months ago. Treasury Secretary Albert Gallatin’s wilderness house at Friendship Hill National Historic Site and Fort Necessity National Battlefield, a small palisade built by then Lt. Colonel George Washington at the very beginning of the French and Indian War, introduced me to history that I was only vaguely familiar with.

The calendar will be turned back to the mid-1700s at Fort Necessity National Battlefield in Pennsylvania when a re-enactment of the French and Indian War will be staged.

Across the nation, people took to the national parks in late-April not only to visit, but also to roll up their sleeves. They worked on projects to improve the parks and help others learn about these special places.