We all heard about the Lewis and Clark expedition in school, right? We learned that President Thomas Jefferson dispatched the Corps of Discovery in 1804 on a journey through the newly acquired Louisiana Territory. They were ordered to map the terrain, to befriend the Native peoples they encountered, to document and collect new animals and plants, and to search for an all-water Northwest Passage to the Pacific Ocean.
But we unearthed some little-known facts about the expedition that we bet you didn’t learn in school. Take our little quiz to test your knowledge and wow your friends at the next Trivia Night.
While serving as a young army officer in 1795, a drunk Meriwether Lewis was court-martialed for allegedly challenging a fellow officer to a duel. Though he was found not guilty, he was transferred to a different rifle company to avoid future disputes. His new commander turned out to be – you guessed it – William Clark.
Scroll down and click page 2 for the next question.
During harsh winter conditions, most of us do our utmost to avoid driving on icy roads. But not so at Voyageurs National Park, where visitors intentionally drive on ice!
Every winter, park staff members clear snow from parts of Rainy Lake and Kabetogama Lake, creating ice roads that visitors can use. The roads are open to cars and trucks weighing less than 7,000 lbs. (Snowmobiles are not permitted). The speed limit is 30 mph. The roads are typically very wide – up to 60 feet or more – giving vehicles plenty of room to park and spread out.
Voyageurs’ two main ice roads begin at the park’s visitor centers, though the routes vary from year to year. Depending on weather conditions, they are open from early January to mid-March.
The park takes visitors’ safety very seriously. When heavy snow, slush, or thin ice exists, an ice road may be closed or shortened for safety. Specially trained staff test the ice thickness frequently and they post warning signs when the roads are unsafe for travel.
Steam log hauler, 1915
Northern Minnesota ice roads have a long history. Starting in the late 19th century, lumberjacks created ice roads to transport logs efficiently. And truckers carrying other loads commonly took advantage of the frozen lakes.
Why do park visitors use the ice roads today, you ask? Some use them to access cross country ski trails. Others take their kids to a popular sledding hill. Still other visitors drive to their favorite ice fishing spots, where they spend the day waiting at a fishing hole for a bite from below.
Whatever the reason, driving the ice roads is just another unique part of North Woods culture.
Who doesn’t love a birthday? Well, Julia Dent Grant has a milestone birthday this month. America’s 18th First Lady was born 200 years ago – on January 26, 1826. Throughout this year Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site will celebrate this auspicious event with special programs and exhibits that focus on various aspects of her life.
The fifth of seven children, Julia Boggs Dent was born in St. Louis and raised in comfortable surroundings on the 850-acre White Haven plantation. She was an active child who fished, played piano, rode horses, and played in the woods. Many of her early playmates were children of the enslaved who lived on the property. Some of these children would later become her servants.
As a schoolgirl, Julia declared that she would marry “a soldier, a gallant, brave, dashing soldier.” After returning home from boarding school, she met that soldier in Lt. Ulysses S. Grant, a former West Point roommate of Julia’s brother Frederick. When he was stationed at nearby Jefferson Barracks, Ulysses soon became a frequent visitor to White Haven, where he and Julia enjoyed walks and horseback rides. The couple fell in love quickly, and Grant proposed marriage on the front porch of White Haven in the spring of 1844. Because of his military service, however, they had to wait until 1848 to marry.
Neither set of parents was enthusiastic about the match – Julia’s were worried about Grant’s earning potential, while his parents objected to the Dents’ ownership of enslaved workers. However, the couple seemed deeply attached to one another and remained so throughout their 37-year marriage. Their four children were born between 1850 and 1858.
When Ulysses’ military career took him to remote locations, Julia did not accompany him. He suffered from loneliness and eventually resigned from the Army, returning to White Haven in 1854 to try his hand at farming. Julia considered herself “a splendid farmer’s wife,” raising chickens and even churning butter, though most of the daily chores were left to the enslaved laborers.
The Civil War dramatically altered the Grants’ lives. In 1861 Ulysses left to serve in the Union army, and his responsibilities kept him away from home for most of the war. Letters helped ease the pain of separation, and Julia frequently traveled to her husband’s encampments, both alone and with the children. For a close-up look at the couple’s intimate relationship, check out A Thousand Kisses, a short video that JNPA produced on behalf of the historic site.
When Grant was elected President in 1869, Julia became a trusted confidant to her husband and often participated in presidential matters. She attended Senate hearings, read through Grant’s mail, and met with cabinet members, senators, justices, and diplomats. She apparently enjoyed her role as hostess to the nation and brought a home-like atmosphere to the White House.
Grant succumbed to throat cancer in 1885, but the profits from publication of his memoirs left Julia a wealthy woman. (Pick up your copy of his memoirs at the park or from our online store.) For the next 17 years, she worked to sustain the memory of her beloved husband. She died in 1902.
Those interested in learning more about Julia are invited to attend Julia Dent Grant – Diplomat, a special lecture at Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site on Saturday January 24. The presentation will trace Julia‘s life from her childhood when she interceded with her father on behalf of the White Haven enslaved to her widowhood when she befriended Varina Davis, wife of Confederate President Jefferson Davis. It will also focus on Julia Dent Grant’s role as a diplomat and unofficial ambassador. The program is free but call 314-842-1867 ext. 230 for reservations.
Winter in Minnesota – what can there possibly be to do? PLENTY, if you’re up for the fun outdoor activities available at Mississippi National River and Recreation Area! Hardy souls who are willing to brave the snow and low temperatures have a range of pursuits to choose from throughout the park’s 72-mile corridor.
For wildlife lovers, there’s no shortage of opportunities to see eagles roosting in trees or fishing for prey along the Mississippi River, especially below Lock and Dam 2 near Hastings, MN. Observation platforms make bird-watching easy. You can also spot a variety of waterfowl that tend to congregate in open waters below the river dams, including the elegant tundra swan.
Of course, there’s always a bracing hike in the snow, either by taking advantage of groomed paths or by striking out across the untouched landscape. The park also serves as a vast winter playground for snowshoers.
Or how about a little ice fishing, a quintessential Minnesota sport? Both adults and kids can sign up for one of the park’s ice fishing workshops, where they’ll learn how to drill a hole through the ice, handle the equipment, and haul up the catch. Among the fish they might catch are sunfish, northern pike, crappies, and largemouth bass.
Experienced ice anglers and National Park Service rangers offer instruction, and provide poles, tackle, and bait. Participants can even warm up in a heated shelter or peer into the mysterious under-ice world through an underwater camera and learn about the challenging conditions faced by life beneath the ice. Of course, safety is a priority, so the park staff always checks the ice thickness before each event.
No matter where you wander this winter, be sure to make time to enjoy the outdoors. And remember, our national parks are waiting for you.
Most of us probably assume that Christmas Day has always been a holiday in the U.S., even during colonial days. Not so – it wasn’t until 1870 that December 25 was proclaimed a national holiday. And we have President Ulysses S. Grant to thank for that official declaration.
Early Americans’ observance of Christmas depended on where you lived. The Dutch colonists in New York celebrated the day, as did the British in Virginia. But many Puritans in New England looked upon Christmas as a pagan festival; in many communities, including Boston, it was actually a crime to celebrate on Dec. 25. The strict and pious Puritans disapproved of the drinking, feasting, and dancing associated with Christmas, regarding it instead as a muted, solemn affair more appropriate for church services and praying.
1659 public notice banning Christmas celebrations in Boston
In the early 1800s, Christmas became increasingly popular in the South, and newly arrived European immigrants in New England managed to lift the local bans on celebrating the holiday. A number of states (beginning with Louisiana in 1830) declared Dec. 25 a holiday. Families started sending Christmas cards, decorating fir trees, and preparing festive meals.
Early American Christmas card, 1850
During the Civil War, soldiers celebrated by decorating their camp trees and singing carols. During the first year of the war President Lincoln and his family observed the day by holding a Christmas party at the White House.
Thomas Nast illustration of Abraham Lincoln welcoming Confederates to Christmas dinner, 1864
It wasn’t long before business leaders became frustrated with the patchwork holiday celebrations that varied state by state, interrupting their businesses on different days in different places. They encouraged politicians to formalize the Christmas observance nationwide.
In June 1870, President Ulysses S. Grant signed a bill into law establishing Christmas Day and New Years Day, among others, as nationally observed holidays. In addition to appeasing the business community, it was hoped the move would help unify a nation still divided by the Civil War.
To honor Grant’s historic act, Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site has created a special Christmas exhibit in the park’s museum. Artifacts on display include holiday letters from Julia Dent Grant to family members, seasonal political cartoons, and a nutcracker representing Grant. The exhibit will last through early January.
You’ll also want to visit the park at 5:30 Sunday December 14 to experience White Haven by Candlelight. Lights and decorations will adorn the historic house both inside and out, carolers and musicians will entertain guests, and 19th century foods will be on hand. At 7:00, visitors can enjoy a concert by the Buckhhannon Brothers in the park’s theater.
As the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) turns 35 years old this month, the Centers for Disease Control reports that more than one in four Americans – roughly 70 million people – are living with a disability. This can include a wide range of conditions from mobility issues and hearing loss to vision impairment and cognitive limitations.
Yet there’s no reason people with physical challenges can’t enjoy our national parks. In fact, the National Park Service “strives to make its parks, monuments, and historic sites available to all.” And it offers a wide range of accessible experiences across its 400+ park sites.
As challenging as some of these physical accommodations are, making museum exhibits accessible is even more complicated. Designers of the new museum at Gateway Arch National Park, for instance, fully embraced the concept of Universal Design when planning new exhibits. The museum includes multiple accessibility features, like tactile exhibits and interactive computer simulations that are visitor-directed through a touchscreen. Visitors can make use of Braille signage, large-print, high-contrast text versions of exhibit copy, assisted listening and captioning devices, as well as a new device that allows non-speaking guests to type questions for museum staff. Similar accommodations are available in the park’s theater.
And since the tram ride to the top of the Arch is not wheelchair accessible, designers created the next best thing. Inside a full-size replica of the final piece of the Gateway Arch, video screens show live views from each side of the top observation deck, replicating the experience as much as possible for visitors who cannot make the trip to the top.
Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site also offers a range of accessibility services, including free wheelchair use, assisted listening devices for guided tours, audio descriptions of park films, and Braille and large-format brochures.
At Voyageurs National Park boating, fishing, and camping are the primary activities. All NPS boats are accessible. And visitors can make use of accessible lifts at boat launches as well as accessible campsites.
Similar accommodations are available at Missouri National Recreational River and the Lewis and Clark Visitor Center, both of which are popular with anglers. In addition to taking advantage of accessible trails, shelters, and cabins, visitors can fish from several piers that are reachable by those in wheelchairs.
All in all, NPS efforts to improve accessibility have principally focused on well-developed areas within easier reach, such as park visitor centers and established campgrounds. But accessibility advocates want to see more trails, shelters, and other park areas comply with ADA standards, particularly in more remote natural areas. Park Service officials acknowledge there’s a nationwide backlog of existing trails and structures that don’t meet accessibility standards, especially in the backcountry. But they say they’re making progress where they can.
Americans with permanent disabilities are eligible to receive the National Park Service All Access Pass, which provides lifetime benefits at federal lands managed by six agencies, including free entrance to parks managed by the National Park Service that charge an entrance fee. The free passes are available at certain federal recreation sites or can be ordered online (for a small shipping fee).
(Reader alert – if you’re allergic to puns, don’t read on. We’ve made generous and shameless use of many howl-arious puns in this blog post!)
Dog-gone-it – sometimes our canine friends have a ruff life. Especially when their human owners go on a fun vacation, and Fido gets left behind. Howl can we do that to them?
Well, the National Park Service believes that dogs deserve a round of a-paws. That’s why dozens of parks offer our four-legged friends special programs, tasty treats, and fun adventures when they visit with their human owners. It’s all part of the NPS B.A.R.K. Ranger program, a project of the agency’s Healthy People Healthy Parks Initiative.
What does B.A.R.K.stand for? Glad you asked, since there are a few simple rules (none of them too far-fetched) that pet owners should follow when they visit a park:
Bag your pet’s waste
Always leash your pet
Respect wildlife
Know where you can go
B.A.R.K.Ranger programs vary from park to park and are tailored to each site’s unique setting. Some parks offer a walk with a ranger program. Some have a pledge that owners take with their pets. Most sites adopt an honor system that assumes owners will follow the B.A.R.K. principles on their visit. (Well, anything is paw-sible…)
In return for abiding by the B.A.R.K. rules, pets can earn a variety of rewards. At Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site, dogs who take the pledge earn a special bandana (looks very fetching) and a signed certificate.
Dogs who attend one of the many annual B.A.R.K.Ranger events at Gateway Arch National Park can create special artwork or enjoy a cup of Puppuccino during their visit. Check out the upcoming B.A.R.K. events at the Arch in July, September, and October. Your pooch will be hounding you to attend!
If you and your dog visit a park that doesn’t offer special rewards, you can still fetch a special B.A.R.K.Ranger collar tag. Try the park’s gift shop, or purchase one at The Arch Store or online . Your pup will go mutts about the new jewelry!
But what about cats, you ask? Are they feline left out with all this attention on dogs, fur crying out loud? What a cat-astrophe! (Too much?)
Never fear, some national parks allow cats as long as they are leashed or restrained. One dedicated cat owner recently dressed his feline friend for an outing at Gateway Arch National Park. Hiss-terical!
And another NPS site even inaugurated a M.E.O.W. Ranger program, complete with a special collar tag for participating kitties.
No matter which furry friend you want to bring to a national park site, it’s always smart to check before you visit to learn about any restrictions and rules that might apply. Here’s wishing you and your companions a pawsitive park experience!
It’s hard to overstate the notable accomplishments of Ulysses S. Grant: military strategist, Commanding General of the U.S. Army, 18th president of the United States, supporter of the Fifteenth Amendment (which banned racial discrimination in voting), loving husband and father – the list goes on and on. However, there was one area where it seems Grant didn’t exactly shine: homebuilder.
When Grant resigned from the military in 1854, he returned home to his in-laws’ plantation outside St. Louis and turned to farming as a way of supporting his wife Julia and their young children. With the help of enslaved laborers, he cultivated fruit and vegetable crops on the 80 acres he was given as a wedding present, and harvested and sold firewood.
Grant also began constructing a house for his young family so they could live independently from his in-laws. In the fall of 1855, he started cutting, hewing, and notching logs for the cabin; the following spring he dug a cellar and laid stones for the foundation. Julia organized a house-raising with neighbors and enslaved laborers, but otherwise, Grant completed much of the work himself, including shingling the roof, laying floors, and building the stairs.
The family moved into the modest four-room log cabin during the fall of 1856, but their stay was short-lived. Accustomed to the relative finery of her upbringing at White Haven, Julia was unimpressed by the roughness of the log cabin, which she felt was beneath her standards. (Her father had discouraged Ulysses from constructing a frame house, saying a log cabin would be warmer.) Julia later recalled in her memoirs:
Hardscrabble was abandoned in early 1857 when Julia’s mother Ellen died and the Grants moved back into White Haven at her father’s request. They never re-occupied the log cabin.
But Hardscrabble eventually acquired a history of its own because of its association with the famous general and president. It was dismantled and moved three times, including to the site of the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis, where it became an attraction featuring refreshments and souvenirs!
Image of Hardscrabble on grounds of 1904 World’s Fair. General Frederick Dent Grant, eldest son of Ulysses, is shown in center. Courtesy of NPS
In 1907 Hardscrabble was finally moved to its current location at “Grant’s Farm,” a public attraction owned and operated by Anheuser-Busch and adjacent to Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site. The cabin is currently not available for tours, though visitors to Grant’s Farm can view it during a tram tour of the park.
Present-day interior of cabin, courtesy NPS
Hardscrabble is the only existing structure hand-built by a U.S. president prior to assuming office. For now, there are no plans to relocate it in the future.
With Father’s Day just around the corner, we wanted to send a shout-out to a very influential grandfather. The name Eldridge Cassidy may not be famous, but this modest Southerner had an outsized impact on the 42nd president of the United States.
When William Jefferson Blythe III was born in Hope, Arkansas, in 1946, his father had already died in a car accident several months before. So little Billy was raised by his mother Virginia and his maternal grandparents, Eldridge and Edith Cassidy. (He later took the name Clinton when his mother remarried.)
During Bill Clinton’s formative years Eldridge owned a small grocery store in an African American neighborhood of Hope. The store was one of the most integrated establishments in Hope, an otherwise segregated town. And Eldridge would serve anyone who shopped at his store, regardless of their race or background.
Bill Clinton credits his grandfather for his lifelong respect for all people, regardless of their race or background:
Photo courtesy of the Clinton Foundation
Clinton has described his grandfather as “the kindest man I have ever known,” instilling in the young boy the concepts of social justice, equality, dignity. Even after Eldridge’s early death of a heart attack, he kept his grandfather’s photograph on his desk.
When Clinton accepted the presidential nomination at the Democratic National Convention in 1992, he honored Eldridge Cassidy this way:
National parks aren’t just for adults. If you’re planning a trip to a park with your kids this summer, make sure you check out the site’s Junior Ranger activities when you visit. These programs help children appreciate and connect to our parks – whether it’s walking in the footsteps of famous people, exploring beautiful landscapes, developing new interests, or just having fun.
Here’s how it works: Before your visit, go to the park’s webpage to learn about its special kids’ activities. Most of the nation’s 400+ national park sites offer Junior Ranger programs. When you’re on site, check in at the visitor center. That’s where kids will typically receive a free park-specific activity book that helps them learn about the landmarks, history, wildlife, geology or other themes unique to that park.
After your kids complete the activities in the book, they’ll need to present it to a park ranger to receive a special Junior Ranger badge and certificate. Often, they’ll also take a pledge to learn, protect, and explore their national parks.
For kids who can’t visit in person, the National Park Service website offers a Junior Ranger Online section featuring videos, games, and songs, allowing families at home to connect with parks around the country. And many parks have their own Virtual Junior Ranger programs. Voyageurs National Park, for instance, includes fun activities on its website, as well as the opportunity to download the Virtual Ranger badge. U.S. Grant National Historic Site created a special Bicentennial Virtual Ranger Activity Book to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Grant’s birth.
Finally, for those kids who want to go the extra mile, why not let them dress like a park ranger with a special Junior Ranger Vest and Flat Hat! JNPA carries a wide range of Junior Ranger products like these in our online store, including mini building blocks, pins, and activity books.
However you introduce national parks to your kids, they’ll be sure to get more out of their visits when they become Junior Rangers!
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