Doubling the Size of America – at 4¢ an Acre!
Tomorrow we commemorate an important milestone in the history of our nation. On April 30, 1803, the United States and France signed the Louisiana Purchase agreement. With one stroke of a pen, the U.S. purchased 828,000 square miles of land west of the Mississippi River at a cost of $15 million (approximately $371 million in today’s dollars). For roughly 4 cents an acre, our nation doubled its size, expanding our borders westward.
Now That’s Old!
We join our friends at Voyageurs National Park as they proudly celebrate the park’s 50th year with the National Park Service: quite an impressive anniversary. Since 1975, this pristine site in northern Minnesota has been a sanctuary of natural beauty, cultural heritage, and outdoor recreation. Yet as notable an achievement as this is, the history of the park’s 281,000 acres goes back much farther – and we mean way back.
A Shameful Chapter in America’s History
A horrendous chapter in the history of race relations in America is the focus of one of JNPA’s newest park partners. Springfield 1908 Race Riot National Monument was included as a National Park Service site in 2024. It commemorates the tragic events of August 1908, when African American residents of Springfield, Illinois, were targeted and attacked by thousands of White residents.
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