National Parks

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

https://www.fodors.com/world/north-amer ... ver-a-year

This 100 Year Old National Park Recently Opened Its Doors for the First Time in Over a Year

Hot Springs National Park officially reopened earlier this month for the first time since the outbreak of COVID-19 and has also just marked its centennial year. Like every major national park, it’s more than its natural wonders—its story has layers, shaped by westward expansion, a new industry of wellness, and the Jim Crow era. Human history and geologic change are intertwined, and the centennial anniversary prompts a look at how the park realizes the NPS mission to coalesce nature, culture, and history to tell a complex story.

The park’s museum curator Tom Hill notes, “People have been coming to Hot Springs to get what they need out of the ground, whether it’s rock or water, for thousands of years, not hundreds of years.” The park’s tribal partners are from the Shawnee, Osage, and the Caddo and Quapaw nations, the latter two of whom ceded massive acreages to the U.S. government in the early 1820s. Evidence of early quarrying sites is discernible throughout the park, where Indigenous communities mined for Arkansas Novaculite, the same rock that enriches the water, for making tools and weapons, preparing hides, stripping bark, and for trade, Hill explains.

People began arriving from the east in greater numbers following the Hunter-Dunbar expedition’s documentation of the springs in 1803. Local congressional representative Ambrose Sevier sought federal protection, hoping to avoid haphazard land claims and monopolies. The designation of Hot Springs Reservation in 1832 was the very first federal designation to protect a natural resource, 40 years before Yellowstone became the world’s first national park.

Bathing was interracial before the passage of Jim Crow laws, but after, things changed dramatically. Hill has, in the past, employed a character actor to tell the story of a Black bathhouse employee named Katie Tate—Hill intends to revisit this approach as well as to install more sculptural mannequins once tours resume again.

“It gets the points across—[Katie Tate] could only eat lunch in the basement, only when she had no customers, and after work she couldn’t ride on a streetcar if there was not a seat in the back, per the ‘Streetcar Act,’ so she may have to walk home,” he explains.

My maternal grandmother suffered from rheumatoid arthritis and regularly visited the baths. Hubby's maternal grandfather was born and raised near Hot Springs.

[AndyinPA]

Interesting. I missed this in June because I was out West--visitng a national park.

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states ... g-addition

Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park Gets Big Addition
A national historical park in central Georgia that is home to a prehistoric American Indian site is more than doubling in size thanks to a recent land acquisition.

MACON, Ga. (AP) —

A newly protected 951-acre (384-hectare) property is being added to the Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park, according to a National Park Service news release. The property is next to the park and within the city limits of Macon and was in danger of development before it was protected using Land and Water Conservation Fund and private funding, the release says.

The property is located within the “Ocmulgee Old Fields,” which is also known as the Macon Reserve and is considered sacred to the Muskogean people. The Ocmulgee Old Fields-Macon Reserve is made up of land retained by the Muscogee (Creek) Nation from 1805 until the Treaty of Washington in 1826, which, along with other treaties, resulted in the removal of the Muskogean people to Oklahoma, the release says.

“This additional property includes some of our most important unprotected ancestral lands,” David Hill, principal chief of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, said in the release. “The Muscogee (Creek) Nation have a long-standing history of preserving the Ocmulgee Old Fields-Macon Reserve. We have never forgotten where we came from and the lands around the Ocmulgee River will always and forever be our ancestral homeland, a place we consider sacred and a place with rich cultural history.”

Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park was established in 1936. Artifacts from every major period of American history in the Southeast have been found there, the release says. Visitors can explore earthen mounds, a restored ceremonial earth lodge, an early colonial trading post and Civil War earthworks.

ETA: Arkansas has a state park with mounds.

https://www.arkansasstateparks.com/park ... state-park

TOLTEC MOUNDS ARCHEOLOGICAL STATE PARK
A National Historic Landmark, one of four in the Arkansas State Park system, this park interprets the largest and most complex mound site in the state. It also offers the rare opportunity to see archeological research at work. This site was a ceremonial ground for prehistoric Native Americans and stands today as an important and fascinating piece of history. A popular field trip destination for local schools, the park recommends that requests for guided tours be made well in advance. Located 4 miles from Scott, a short and beautiful drive from Little Rock.

45c3aebea5799317e6c1001a2f9aa5c4_Toltec_Mounds_State_Park02.jpeg (35.08 KiB) Viewed 1414 times

https://res.cloudinary.com/miles-extran ... ate_Park02

[AndyinPA]

It's always nice to see land added to parks, national or state!

[RTH10260]

just wait until 2024 until the proponents of small government sell it off to the highet bidder

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

https://www.livescience.com/yellowstone ... tem-mapped

Secrets of 'mystery sandwich' beneath Yellowstone revealed in new map
Researchers mapped the national park's hydrothermal 'plumbing system' using a giant flying magnet.

The subterranean "plumbing system" of superheated water that feeds Yellowstone National Park's geysers and other hydrological features has been mapped out in stunning detail — and the findings could fill a major knowledge gap that experts have described as a "mystery sandwich."

Yellowstone is home to the world's largest hydrothermal system, which contains around 10,000 hydrothermal features, including geysers, hot springs, mud pots and steam vents, according to the National Park Service. These aboveground features are fed by a network of underground water pathways that get superheated by underground magma, causing the water to rise to the surface. However, researchers know very little about this underground network, or plumbing system.

"Our knowledge of Yellowstone has long had a subsurface gap," study co-author W. Steve Holbrook, head of the Department of Geosciences at Virginia Tech University, said in a statement. "It's like a 'mystery sandwich' — we know a lot about the surface features from direct observation and a fair amount about the magmatic and tectonic system several kilometers down from geophysical work, but we don't really know what's in the middle."

NERD ALERT! NERD ALERT!

In the new study, researchers attached a giant electromagnet, known as SkyTEM, to a helicopter and then flew back and forth hundreds of times above Yellowstone to scan the ground below. The magnet consists of an 82- feet-wide (25 meters) charged wire loop which generates a strong electromagnetic field. Because different types of material, such as rock or water, respond differently to the magnetic field, the researchers were able to create subsurface maps of large sections of the underground hydrothermal network for the first time.

[AndyinPA]

Cool!

[Gene Kooper]

From a hydrogeologist's perspective this is way cool.

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

The technical term for that magnet is BFM.(BIG F*ing Magnet)

[AndyinPA]

https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... ional-park

An Ohio woman was killed by a bison after approaching the animal while visiting Yellowstone national park in Wyoming, park officials said on Tuesday.

The 25-year-old woman was visiting the national park from Grove City, Ohio, about 20 minutes outside Columbus.

Park officials say the woman, whose name has not been released, got within 10ft of the female bison on a nearby boardwalk. The animal then gored her and tossed her 10ft in the air.

She was treated by park emergency medical staff onsite and later transferred to Eastern Idaho regional medical center via ambulance. The woman died after sustaining a puncture wound and other injuries.

It's not like she wasn't warned. The warnings are all over the place.

[Foggy]

Good candidate for the Darwin Award.

[pipistrelle]

https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... ional-park

An Ohio woman was killed by a bison after approaching the animal while visiting Yellowstone national park in Wyoming, park officials said on Tuesday.

The 25-year-old woman was visiting the national park from Grove City, Ohio, about 20 minutes outside Columbus.

Park officials say the woman, whose name has not been released, got within 10ft of the female bison on a nearby boardwalk. The animal then gored her and tossed her 10ft in the air.

She was treated by park emergency medical staff onsite and later transferred to Eastern Idaho regional medical center via ambulance. The woman died after sustaining a puncture wound and other injuries.

It's not like she wasn't warned. The warnings are all over the place.

Apparently she didn't die.

This article was amended on 1 June 2022 to clarify that the health status of the woman remains unclear

While initial reports stated that the woman had died as a result of her injuries, that does not appear to be the case.

NBC News first wrote that the woman had died but then corrected themselves to say that she had survived.

"A previous version of this article misstated the severity of the woman’s injuries," they wrote. "She survived being gored by a bison at Yellowstone. She was not killed."

Read More: Ohio Woman Has NOT Died As A Result of Being Gored By A Bison At Yellowstone National Park | https://k2radio.com/ohio-woman-has-not- ... m=referral

[Foggy]

Okay, I retract my snotty Darwin Award crack. She's going to have a great story to tell, but she's probably going to buy one-piece swimsuits from here on out.


Which is not an insult, all my swimsuits are one-piece.

And AndyinPA is right, it takes some industrial strength stupid to get gored in Yellowstone.

[AndyinPA]

She's one very lucky lady. When we were in Yellowstone, there was a family with two young kids who wanted us to take their photo standing about fifteen feet from a mother bison and her young calf. We told them to get away, and we didn't take their picture. We had come close to it inadvertently and moved away instantly, with them calling us to take their photo. In Custer State Park, we also came across a bison inadvertently and got back in the car. We had seen a herd safely in the distance and went to take photos from a different perspective. That one had moved away from the herd, and we didn't see it until we were about 20 feet away. That's way too close. If you see a herd, even in the distance, that doesn't mean there aren't stragglers.

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/yellowst ... 6173514ac0

Yellowstone Mountain Renamed To 'Honor Victims' Of 1870 Montana Massacre
"The name change is long overdue," said Piikani Nation Chief Stan Grier in a statement.

A government panel has renamed a Yellowstone National Park mountain that had been named for a U.S. Army officer who helped lead a massacre of Native Americans.

Mount Doane will now be called First Peoples Mountain after the unanimous vote by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names, the National Park Service announced Thursday.

Yellowstone officials consulted with 27 tribes on the name change, according to the statement.

“This name change is long overdue. We all agreed on ‘First Peoples’ Mountain’ as an appropriate name to honor the victims of such inhumane acts of genocide, and to also remind people of the 10,000-year-plus connection tribal peoples have to this sacred place now called Yellowstone,” Piikani Nation Chief Stan Grier said in a statement Wednesday.

► Show Spoiler

The 10,551-foot (3,200-meter) peak in southeastern Yellowstone in Wyoming had been named for Lt. Gustavus Doane, who in 1870 helped lead an attack on a band of Piegan Blackfeet in northern Montana.

Doane bragged for the rest of his life about what become known as the Marias Massacre. The attack in response to the alleged slaying of a white fur trader killed at least 173 American Indians, including many women, elders and children suffering from smallpox, Yellowstone officials said in a statement.

Besides being a leader of the massacre, Doane was a key member of a Yellowstone expedition the same year. Yellowstone became the world’s first national park in 1872.

[AndyinPA]

[humblescribe]

A zillion years ago, I was at Yellowstone in winter. It was absolutely wonderful!

Anyway, the rangers who led us on some Nordic skiing journeys and other delightful things told us the following about bison:

Bison remain in the herd for most of their lives. Females generally until death. However, periodically older males (who likely are way down the reproductive chain) are kicked out of the herds by the younger males. Those pariahs are then left to fend for themselves by themselves. Those solitary males are dangerous because they don't have the protection of the herd. They are much easier pickin's for mountain lions or coyotes or wolves.

So, keep a good distance from all solitary bison and from all cow/calf pairs.

And for that woman that was gored: Spend a few bucks and get a good camera with a telephoto lens. Your entrails will thank you. And this is not some sort of visceral comment!

[pipistrelle]

Can't take one of those precious selfies with a telephoto or zoom.

[Volkonski]

[Volkonski]

[AndyinPA]

That's disgusting.

[AndyinPA]

The year we went to Yellowstone was a year of severe flooding, and the water was very high, but I didn't see roads washed out like that. Our cabin was right on the Yellowstone River in Montana. There was a man who was killed on the high water near us, though. He was with his young family, and they saw him fall off the boat and get swept down the river. When the water is that high, it is not safe to boat in. We had planned to go out on the water that week, but knew before we got there that that wasn't happening.


Edited to add:

Saw something more detailed than the tweet. That's the road we used every day to get into and out of the park. We stayed in Gardiner and had to go through the Roosevelt Arch every day. We'd be in serious trouble if it were now. We'd be stuck either in the park with no place to stay or not be able to get into the park.

[RTH10260]

[RTH10260]

[AndyinPA]

That’s exactly the road we traveled. Wow!