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Updated: Five National Monuments Expected To Be Designated Next Week

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This landscape in northern New Mexico is in line to be designated as a national monument next week. Photo © Adriel Heisey

Editor's note: This corrects that only three of the monuments will be placed under the National Park Service.

Five national monuments, including one in Delaware, the only state without a National Park System presence, are expected to be designated next week by President Obama.

The president has been criticized in the past for failing to designate more national monuments -- so far he's designated Fort Monroe National Monument in coastal Virginia and César E. Chávez National Monument in California -- and some residents of "the First State," as Delaware is known, have lamented its lack of a national park.

The monument coming to Delaware will be known as the First State National Monument, and will protect, in part, the Woodlawn Property, an 1,100-acre tract along the Brandywine River in Delaware.

Also expected to be designated through the president's use of the Antiquities Act are the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Monument in Maryland, the Rio Grande del Norte National Monument in New Mexico, the San Juan Islands National Monument in Washington state, and the Charles Young Buffalo Soldiers National Monument in Ohio. Colonel Young was an African-American soldier who in 1903 was appointed acting superintendent for Sequoia and General Grand national parks in California.

Two of the anticipated monuments, Rio Grande del Norte and San Juan Islands, are expected to be managed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, with the other three managed by the National Park Service.

Working to make the Woodlawn and Tubman monuments possible has been The Conservation Fund. Prior to the presidential proclamation that is scheduled for Monday, the Fund owned the Woodlawn property, which it donated to the National Park Service thanks to a donation from Mt. Cuba Center.

President Obama’s executive designation will honor the Woodlawn property along with the Old Sheriff’s House, the Old New Castle Courthouse, the New Castle Green and the Dover Green as a National Park Service unit.

Originally acquired by William Penn from the Duke of York in 1682, the 1,100-acre Woodlawn property lies on the banks of the Brandywine River, primarily in Delaware and extending north into Pennsylvania. Nearby, in 1777, General George Washington’s troops defended against British forces in the largest battle of the American Revolution. Since then, the Brandywine Valley’s natural beauty has inspired generations of artists, including acclaimed painter Andrew Wyeth. Today, however, rapid development is squeezing the pristine open spaces that remain.

Thanks to an unprecedented private contribution in excess of $20 million by Mt. Cuba Center, The Conservation Fund was able to preserve the Woodlawn property and champion its inclusion in the National Park System as a national monument or park. For more than a century, the land has been managed as a wildlife preserve and open space for public recreation. With Mt. Cuba’s foresight and commitment of resources, the Fund was able to donate the property to the National Park Service, making its designation as a national monument possible.

“History will be made in the place where it all began,” said Blaine Phillips senior vice president and Mid-Atlantic regional director for The Conservation Fund. “President Obama’s designation of the Woodlawn property as part of the First State National Monument will be a celebration of Delaware’s rich contributions to American history and its inherent natural beauty. It’s only fitting that here in our nation’s first state, the National Park system will be made whole, representing every state in the country."

Located within 25 miles of more than five million people, the national monument at the Woodlawn property will preserve the beautiful natural landscapes and historical character of one of the nation’s founding rivers. The Woodlawn property straddles the historic demarcation line known as the “12-mile arc,” which established the boundary between New Castle County, Delaware, and Delaware County, Pennsylvania, in the 17th century.

The Fund also played a role in the designation of the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Monument on Maryland’s Eastern Shore that pays tribute to an American hero who escaped slavery but returned repeatedly to lead dozens of family members and friends to freedom along the Underground Railroad.

Specifically, the Fund donated a property to the Park Service, adjacent to Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge, that once included the home of Jacob Jackson, a former neighbor and free black who used coded messages from Ms. Tubman to help free her brothers just before they were due to be sold. This site, together with additional historic lands to be included in the monument, tells Ms. Tubman's story where it happened and in a landscape that still looks much as it did during her famed journeys.

“One hundred years after her death, we still look to Harriet Tubman as an American symbol of heroism, equality, justice and self-determination. President Obama’s designation of a national monument honoring her life and legacy will be a testament to Harriet’s courageous efforts and the dedicated work of so many to preserve the landscape where she made her mark on history,” said Lawrence Selzer, president and CEO of The Conservation Fund. “The Conservation Fund is thrilled to facilitate the protection and donation of a significant property to the National Park Service for the new monument designation in her honor.”

Born on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, Ms. Tubman spent nearly 30 years of her life as a slave. She escaped in 1849, at age 27, but returned to Dorchester and Caroline counties an estimated 13 times over the next decade to help slaves escape to the North. While estimates vary considerably, potentially more than 100,000 fugitive slaves escaped to Canada via the Underground Railroad.

The Fund has partnered with the State of Maryland and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service to protect more than 7,000 acres within the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge and along the Eastern Shore. The Fund and its partners have protected roughly 155,000 acres across Maryland.

The Rio Grande del Norte area in New Mexico lies 28 miles north of Taos and just south of the Colorado border. It long has been protected by the BLM as a national conservation area, and is popular with kayakers, birders, anglers, hikers, and equestrians. There also is a rich cultural history here, with some archaeological sites dated back 11,000 years.

“Today’s designation of Rio Grande del Norte as a national monument is a result of the commitment and passion of our people for this landscape we call home," said Taos Mayor Darren Córdova. "For years, our community of sportsmen, ranchers, small business owners and other citizens across northern New Mexico has worked collaboratively with our members of Congress to protect it. Now we can rest assured that Rio Grande del Norte’s majesty will be preserved for generations to come.”

At New Mexico State University, Christopher A. Erickson, a professor in the Department of Economics and International Business, said, "For a state like New Mexico, preservation and improvement of recreational opportunities is critical both for attracting new business to our state as well as safeguarding quality of life for our citizens. National monument designation of The Rio Grande del Norte can play a critical role in ensuring continuation of New Mexico's well-deserved reputation for natural beauty, serving as a beacon for economic growth."

At the National Parks Conservation Association, President Tom Kiernan applauded The Conservation Fund for its work in making some of these monuments possible.

"These important additions to our National Park System would not be possible without the generosity of The Conservation Fund," Mr. Kiernan said in a prepared statement. "As we look to the 2016 centennial celebration of our National Park System, diversifying our national parks to more adequately reflect our cultural heritage, and connecting urban populations to our national parks are important goals that we share with the Administration and the National Park Service. The Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad, First State, and Charles Young Buffalo Soldiers National Monuments create our 399th, 400th, and 401st national park sites, and enhance our National Park System, from the inside and out.”

Comments

Steve, I fully understand the frustration you feel and the battle you're waging. It's being repeated constantly in many places with many people involved. I have to admit that I don't understand Virginia politics because it's a long way from here to there and I haven't been to Virginia for at least twenty years -- and then only to visit. But believe me, I'm fully behind you. At least insomuch as may be possible from 1700 miles away and almost total ignorance of the specifics of Ft. Monroe. Honestly, I've learned more about that place in the past two days than ever before.

It's tragic that those who have the money have the power. That seems to be a universal law. Even more tragic is the fact (yes, fact) that our legislators everywhere in both major parties are openly for sale. Sheri's "bi-partisan" comment just above reflects that.

I wish I had good answers and good advice to offer. But I don't. I don't think anyone really has the answers. We are facing a situation nationwide in which MONEY dictates virtually everything that happens in governments at any level. Worse than that, it is too often enabled by total public APATHY because, for the moment at least, whatever is at issue is not directly pinching the butts of those who are content to spend their time being entertained by TV or other media. Politicians depend upon the short memories and lack of caring among most voters. That's why they really don't like people like you who can't be easily manipulated.

About all I can do is to again say, "Don't give up. Never!"

And a note, perhaps your efforts here by commenting on Traveler may already have borne some fruit. Cathwestf and Sheri Bailey have offered support. If you don't already know who they are -- or if they wish to contact you, Traveler could assist. If you email Traveler using the CONTACT button, they can email the others with your contact information so you may get direct communication going. That protects all involved but provides a way to open the door if so desired.

EDIT: Ooops. I see that you and Cathwestf already know each other. If you haven't already tried, there might be someone in the Coalition of Retired National Park Employees who could help. Try www.npsretirees.org


Thanks yet again, Lee. It's great to talk to someone willing to try to engage the special complexities of Fort Monroe.

What you say about politicians calls to mind my disappointment with the Washington Post for continually missing the obvious. This new incident even involves your Rep. Bishop!

Recall, please, that the Post never did really get it about the national monument; they think that the moated fortress and the overall historic landscape are the same, so they also think that all of Fort Monroe is a national monument--a public-relations falsehood that was deliberately emphasized, including even by the president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation and others at NTHP. (Ask me for URLs on that.)

Now the Post has said something newly disappointing. In an article forecasting the coming designations of national monuments, the Post's Philip Rucker notes that "not everyone applauds the idea." He quotes Rep. Bishop saying, “The use of the Antiquities Act cuts out public participation,” and charging "an abuse of executive privilege," and asserting that the "fact that Congress doesn’t capitulate to the president’s political whims ... is hardly justification for taking unilateral action.”

Here's what comes next from the reporter, and it's what disappoints me not about politicians, but about journalists: "But proponents noted that each of the five sites had strong support from local officials as well as conservation groups. They suggested that Obama was designating the sites by executive authority because the last Congress has failed to pass legislation creating new national parks."

Now mind you, this is an article that cites Fort Monroe, which is just outside the Post's local area. And at Fort Monroe, it was precisely because of local officials, exploiting the pick-your-battles complicity of preservation groups, that Virginia's congressional delegation engineered the fake national monument.

First Virginia's politicians at all levels dithered for six years, dodging all suggestions for a sensible hybrid national park, and disingenuously asserting that NPS didn't want Fort Monroe anyway. (In fact, what NPS wanted was a sensible process for a national treasure, but NPS could not be expected to go against the political--and Big Money--energies in Virginia. And these same politicians, as I said above, were never shy about demanding federal compliance with Virginia's desires about the homeporting of aircraft carriers. The Fort Monroe fault is not at NPS. It's in Virginia.)

Then, to get some federal largess and to marginalize us, they engineered the fake national monument. They either enlisted or bamboozled Secretary Salazar and the president. I can't tell which, but I note that former Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine, a major perp of the failure at Fort Monroe, was Democratic national chairman at the time, in 2011. (Note: But Virginia's failure is widely bipartisan; Gov. McDonnell, for example, is also a major perp.)

But Mr. Rucker and other journalists have simply assumed the false thing about Hampton's leaders' and other local leaders'--and the state's leaders'--slating of Fort Monroe to be exploited by Hampton, as if it were a Fort Drab in a cornfield rather than a national treasure of the first order.

But then, why should the journalists not, given that NTHP and NPCA and others bought into and promoted the plan for a fake national monument? (Not even Adam Goodheart, the historian who understands Fort Monroe best, has been willing to stand up for Fort Monroe in public.) To outsiders from even as close a distance as Washington, the press-release explanations not only sounded plausible, but they had no contradiction from those the nation relies on to state the truth in these matters. It is that bad, Lee--and plenty of Virginians will say so.

As to public apathy, two comments.

First, the public helped us a lot. But over the years they grew tired, and then, as I say, they got misled by the falsehood about all of Fort Monroe having been designated a national monument. Often I have people congratulate me for the success at Fort Monroe. They don't know, since they were not accurately told, that Fort Monroe remains mainly a development plum for one city. They don't know that if you judge by the criterion of preservation of sense of place, the national monument is actually a squalid failure.

Second, people are busy. Life is hard. I know you know this too, but I must say that I hate to blame the public. What I always state is that our support on Fort Monroe is miles and miles wide--but only a millimeter deep. People have too much to juggle, and besides, the politicians have done a great razzle-dazzle to keep people misinformed. (For example, consider their outrageously disingenuous eight-year-old "public input" process, which is only friendly if you buy the foundational redevelopment-uber-alles premise--and which is outright hostile if you don't.)

And yes, the historian of science Catherine Westfall is an ally, and so is Sheri Bailey, who has commented before at NPT. Sheri is an activist leader of those who celebrate Juneteenth, the commemoration of emancipation. She and I co-authored an op-ed about the self-emancipators; it's linked from the web site that I keep citing. Catherine and Sheri often comment publicly on Fort Monroe.

And man, do I ever know what you mean when you say, "That's why [politicians] really don't like people like you who can't be easily manipulated." Earlier I mentioned a backstory, explained in a long note starting at the bottom of the home page at FortMonroeNationalPark.org. There's no point in flogging the issue here, except to report that the ruthlessness that I've witnessed (and have been subjected to) has come from politicians, from public officials, from officials of the developer-sympathizing National Trust for Historic Preservation, and even in one shocking case from a prominent talk show host whose journalistic ethics should have stopped her from her ethical lapse. I don't ask to air these disappointing stories in any detail. However, I also don't shrink from charging that that's the ethical level on which Fort Monroe's true defenders have gradually been marginalized in the squalid Virginia failure.

Lee, you advise repeatedly not to give up. I'm with you. But I report, again, that it only makes things worse not to understand that a bizarrely split, fake national monument is about to be cemented in Virginia. We have all but certainly lost. At Citizens for a Fort Monroe National Park--the tiny, public-excluding, self-appointed committee that I co-founded--they still operate on a naive faith that somehow Virginia's politicians will listen to us after all.

But the politicians do not intend to listen. They have been plain about that for eight years. Moreover, they marginalized us by masterfully engineering and carefully mis-publicizing a fake national monument. They marginalized us by persuading the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the Washington Post (and the NPCA, I'm afraid I must say) that theft of precious public land by Hampton's and Tidewater's leaders is somehow a good thing.

So yes, no one should give up. But similarly, no one should place any more faith in Virginia's leaders to do the right thing.

I must say it again: This is a national issue. It is profoundly connected to 400 years of American history, and to both the start and end of slavery. It is profoundly connected to the new birth of freedom, cited at Gettysburg, whereby this nation founded not on ethnicity but on ideas belatedly but beautifully began to stand up for its founding principles. If Fort Monroe is to be saved at the eleventh hour, it can only be saved by national attention that involves the shaming of Virginia's leaders for their squalid failure, and that thereby re-opens the question of sensible federal stewardship of the red spot seen at a glance in the illustration at FortMonroeNationalPark.org.

As the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot's editors put it, without unification of the split national monument to include that omitted land, Fort Monroe will remain forever "degraded."

Again I thank you, Lee, for this conversation.

P.S.: Often in this kind of conversation, a new voice pops up to protest that we can't afford to do right by Fort Monroe. Usually the voice represents valid, respectable, important concern about the country's financial state. I respect that protest. But I have lots of answers for it, starting with this: Except for near-term expenses that are going to be incurred anyway, to treat Fort Monroe financially responsibly means precisely the opposite of consigning it to selfish parochial short-sightedness.


Steve, I wish I could be more encouraging or had some kind of great ideas, but I don't. The battle to protect historic, environmental and other national treasures will never end. Sometimes the good guys will win, but all too frequently we won't.

About all we can do is the best we can and then celebrate the successes and try not to become too depressed about the losses.


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