National Park: William Howard Taft Home

On a whim the family decided to drive down to Cincinnati which is about 2 hours away. There was a snowstorm going on at the time, but we didn't care we were itching for something to do. Once we got to Cincy, we found a BOFA (yes, BOFA has no branches in Indiana, go figure) and made a bank deposit. After that initial stop (still can't believe BOFA doesn't have branches in Indiana) we went for some German grub at the second largest biergarten in the world (after Munich's), Hofbräuhaus.The menu for this fine establishment can be found here. I enjoyed the sampler platter and a couple of their tasty beers while tapping my toes to the Alpen/Polka music (what do you call that German Octoberfest music when it isn't October???). We also made a trip to the Cincy IKEA to pick up some things for the house. We need one of these nearby. 

Regarding the National Park Site, William Howard Taft's house is located in a downtown neighborhood not far from the Ohio River that separates Cincinnati from Kentucky. The house is modest in stature, of the dozen or so presidential houses I have been to, this one ranks towards the bottom in its splendor (Harry Truman's is the most modest thus far) but I have quite a few to go. 

It is safe to say that Taft, the 27th US President, was a large individual. Many folks will remember the story about him needing a new bathtub installed into the White House to support his girth. I did learn less trivial facts; he was that he first president to also subsequently serve as a Chief Supreme Court Justice which meant he served alongside justices that he himself appointed. It also meant that he was the only President to give the oath of office to another president. I also found it fascinating the things that he was involved with before and after he became president. He was such an accomplished individual before he became president after Theodore Roosevelt. He served as Governor of the Phillipines, U.S. Solicitor General, Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, Provisional Governor of Cuba, and Secretary of War for Teddy Roosevelt. 

Taft and Roosevelt go at it.

Another interesting thing I learned was that he became a president on a wave of support for Teddy Roosevelt when TR chose not to run again after serving one full term and one abbreviated term as a result of the assassination of  President McKinley in Buffalo, NY.  This may have made Taft's term more challenging because he made decisions in office without consideration of the political consequences. When Roosevelt did decide to run again as a third party Progressive candidate to succeed him, it got ugly. While Wilson won convincingly in the election of 1912, it could be argued that the political discord between the two divided two wings of the Republican party and helped Woodrow Wilson win with a plurality but not a majority of the votes. Wilson did win a extremely large portion of the Electoral College.

Our daughter was a little fearful of the size of  President  Taft.

National Park: Hopewell Culture

It is unfortunate that ancient Native American artifacts and sites would be sullied by the adjacent building of an extremely large correctional facility that houses Ohio's death row inmates. I have to assume that they did not know these mounds were sacred/important when the Chillicothe Correctional Institute was built. It is chilling to think that Charles Manson was once held there.

Regarding the site itself, it may be a misnomer to say that the site is enclosed to this one location when there are sacred Native American sites all over southern central Ohio. Supposedly the mounds here were built by Native Americans that flourished here between 200 B.C. and AD 500. The mounds on the site seem to be nothing more than that, but an informational video at the visitor's center makes it clear that the mounds may have a celestial importance (much like Stonehenge in England). I couldn't quite grasp the full explanation in the video film was in development (they were trying it out during my visit of February 2012), but apparently the stars line up with certain points on some of the structures within the site on the solstice. Perhaps this was lucky at one site, but the same structures were built dozens of miles a way in such a manner that they too would line up so there has to be something there, right?

The visit to the park itself is short, one needs no more than 90 minutes or so to hit the educational video and take a walk around the site. There are nice explanatory markers along the hiking route which is no more than a mile. The markers may inform you about cremations, burials, and other artifacts identified during archaeological digs around the site.

National Park: Carl Sandburg Home

Who the heck is Carl Sandberg and why is there a National Park dedicated to him near Asheville, North Carolina? This was the thoughts going through my mind as I drove from Charlotte to Flat Rock, NC on a Sunday in Spring, 2011. As it turns out, this may be one of the most underrated national park sites of the ones that I have been to thus far. The location of this park is spectacular, Sandberg’s wife chose the site because is offered peace and tranquility required for Sandburg’s writing, decent year round weather and enough space for the raising of her prize-winning goats.

View of the house from the front lake

Carl Sandburg (1878-1967) was a writer, poet and musician from the Midwest who won the Pulitzer Prize for some of his poetry and a biography of Abraham Lincoln. He was also a social activist most notably involved in Wisconsin politics. On his death, his wife Lilian wanted his life preserved at their home, named Connemara Farms. The site has walking trails, a beautiful pond and a dairy barn that houses their goat herd. Sandburg was a prodigious talent and the site (and indeed his home) is home to hundreds of thousands of archived items including books, letters, sound recordings, telegrams, maps and photographs.

I don’t know  much about his poetry or folk songs for which he is widely famous, but I do know a bit about his Abraham Lincoln biography. I am currently reading the Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years, and it is astounding the amount of detail he gets into about our 16^th president’s life. I learned that this comes from listening to stories by individuals that knew Lincoln. The writing is as much historical as it narrative which I liken to Caro’s The Power Broker or Shelby Foote’s Civil War. Sandburg set strange hours for himself writing until the wee hours of the morning, and sleeping later than his wife. The schedule was so out of the ordinary that his wife, Lillian, slept in a separate room so she could schedule her time to care for the prize winning goats.

Front Office

In addition to the beautiful setting, the site itself is memorable in the sense that there are so many books and historical artifacts that are left untouched. Books are left open to the page they were left open when the site was left for preservation, the calendar is set to the month/week that he passed away, the dining room table is set as if dinner would be ready that evening and the cluttered desks and workspaces indicate a constantly working mind.

Mrs. Sandburg's Prize Winning Goats

After a short 20 minute tour of the house, you can take a walk to the barn where the prize winning goats are still a part of the farm. Supposedly, you can still buy a goat from her original herd. 

National Park: Shenandoah National Park

So we decided to visit Northern Virginia and Charlottesville, VA over the Labor Day Weekend of 2011. It was a wonderful trip which involved seeing lots of family and friends. In addition to that, we took a visit to three of our National Parks that weekend: The Blue Ridge Parkway, Shenandoah National Park and Manassas Battlefield.

The Shenandoah National Park is a skinny park in western (not West by God) Virginia. It encompasses part of the Appalachian or Blue Ridge Mountains. The Skyline Drive is the most pronounced aspect of the park. This road is very popular during the fall for views of the beautiful autumn foliage. This being labor day, the park was very green and misty. 

Big Meadows in Shenandoah National Park

The drive through the park from the North (in Front Royal) to the South (in Waynesboro) is about 100 miles and takes about 3 hours of straight driving. However, you will want to stop numerous times as we did. There have got to 40 or so overlooks with beautiful vistas of the valley and the surrounding landscape. We also had an opportunity to have lunch at Harry F. Byrd Visitor Center at the Big Meadows area which is a visitor center roughly halfway through the drive. The restaurant near Big Meadows which had some great fried chicken.

The AT

Another popular feature of the park is the Appalachian Trail which runs from Georgia to Maine. There are other hiking trails in the park, but the AT is the most famous. One of my favorite trails in Shenandoah National Park is Old Rag Mountain. There are a few technical spots to the Old Rag hike, but nothing that even a novice hiker couldn't handle. There are also some stunning waterfalls in the Shenandoah National Park and plenty of wildlife. We also had to stop about a half dozen times for white tail deer the road. 

The great thing about Shenandoah National Park is that it is close to Charlottesville, VA which is "Grammy's" hometown. We made a point of meeting up at King Family Vineyards on our way back into town to take in the view and a couple glasses of wine. 

Enjoying a game of "tag" at King Family Vineyards

National Park: The Blue Ridge Parkway

So we decided to visit Northern Virginia and Charlottesville, VA over the Labor Day Weekend of 2011. It was a wonderful trip which involved seeing lots of family and friends. In addition to that, we took a visit to three of our National Parks that weekend: The Blue Ridge Parkway, Shenandoah National Park and Manassas Battlefield.

The Blue Ridge Parkway is probably the one National Park that I have been to most frequently due to its proximity to where I went to college and where I used to work. While I was a field sales representative, and if the timing was right, I would get on the parkway in Central Virginia and drive back to Waynesboro on a Friday evening, it helped bring me back down to earth after a busy work week. This route may not have been the most direct route home at the end of the week, but it provided nice scenery, lacked traffic lights and traffic. Prior to that, there was also an annual pilgrimage for me and my UVa pals to Humpback Rock at the beginning of the year, and then the odd occasion throughout the year. By going to Humpback Rock, however, visitors are only “dipping their toe” into the Blue Ridge Parkway.

The park starts in Waynesboro, VA at the northern end and goes through Virginia’s Appalachian Mountains and well into North Carolina. I think it is the only US National Park that is specifically a road. The views are stunning, especially in the fall when the trees are a bright orange, yellow and red. The Appalachian Mountains (older than their Rocky Mountain brothers and sisters) have a mystical look about them in the morning when the fog is laying low over them.

View from Humpback Rock near the Blue Ridge Parkway

On this occasion, I only dipped by proverbial foot in and hiked Humpback Rock. It is an easy 20-30 minute hike and it very accessible from the I-64, so it can get crowded. The Visitor’s Center doesn't open until 9AM so folks start rolling in then, but the parkway and the trails themselves are open a lot earlier. There were a few early bird hikers and photographers out there that morning, but I had enough to find my little slice of solace that Labor Day Saturday.

After the quick hike it was back to Charlottesville for a fall football game at Scott Stadium. That evening, UVa Cavaliers trounced the William and Mary Tribe.

National Park: Manassas Battlefield (Virginia)

Manassas or Bull Run? This was the question that we were asking ourselves as we drove down I-66 on Labor Day 2011. As it turns out, we learned, from a quick iphone query, many of the battlefields in the Civil War have two names. One name reflects how Northern or Union forces identified them, while the other name reflects out the Southern or Confederate forces identified them. In this case, probably the most famous of the 15 or so battles with two names: First Manassas is the Southern name, while First Bull Run is the Northern name. The Northern side often named battles for bodies of water or natural features. The Southern side most often used the name of the nearest town or man-made landmark. Here is a list of American Civil War battles with their Southern (S) and Northern (N) names:

• First Manassas (S) and First Bull Run (N)
• Oak Hills (S) and Wilson's Creek (N)
• Leesburg (S) and Ball's Bluff (N)
• Mill Springs (S) and Logan's Cross Roads (N)
• Elkhorn Tavern (S) and Pea Ridge (N)
• Shiloh (S) and Pittsburg Landing (N)
• Seven Pines (S) and Fair Oaks (N)
• Mechanicsville (S) and Battle of beaver Dam Creek (N)
• Gaines's Mill (S) and Chickahominy River (N)
• Second Manassas (S) and Second Bull Run (N)
• Ox Hill (S) and Chantilly (N)
• Boonsboro (S) and South Mountain (N)
• Burkittsville (S) and Crampton's Gap (N)
• Sharpsburg (S) and Antietam (N)
• Perryville (S) and Chaplin Hills (N)
• Murfeesboro (S) and Stones River (N)
• Mansfield (S) and Sabine Cross Roads (N)
• Winchester (S) and Opequon (N)

I don't know a lot about the Civil War, but I am fascinated by it. It is a relentlessly studied subject, and I recently learned at the Abraham Lincoln Library that President Lincoln lags only Jesus in terms of biographies written about him. I don't know if that is true or not, but it seems plausible. What I do know about the First Manassas (that is how the National Park Service refers to it) is that it was one of the first major land battles of the Civil War. While the first shots were fired at Fort Sumter in South Carolina a few months earlier, the shots fired here were in anticipation of a short battle with a quick Northern victory. I also remember reading somewhere that there were spectators that came from Washington, D.C. to watch the action thinking that there would be a quick Northern victory. What ultimately happened was that the Confederate side won the day, but suffered so many casualties they were unable to pursue the North into Washington, D.C. This battle is also commemorated for the fact that it was the first time in world history that soldiers were transported by train (on the Southern side).

"Stonewall" Jackson monument at First Manassas Battlefield with sleepy daughter, nephew and  Moose.

I won't get into the technicalities or outflanking maneuvers here, there is plenty of that in animated movies at Civil War Trust. There are some important characters and some features of today's park that I wanted to call out. First and foremost, is Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, who earned his name here. "Stonewall" Jackson earned his name during First Manassas when Brig. Gen Barnard Elliott BE, Jr. said, "There is Jackson standing like a stone wall. Let us determine to die here, and we will conquer. Rally behind the Virginians!" There is some debate as to whether the statement was meant to be pejorative. While Jackson's brigade lost more men than any other that day, the were effective enough to hold off the Union. Jackson is considered to be the greatest military tactician in American history, and is also (in)famous for having been shot by his own men and having his left arm buried in Orange County, VA after the Battle of Chancellorsville. Stonewall Jackson is buried in Lexington, VA. His image and name are memorialized in numerous parks, monuments, schools and his visage is seen carved into Stone Mountain outside of Atlanta, GA.

Secondly, Henry House Hill figured prominently. The Henry family owned the farm on which much of the fighting of First Manassas took place. "Stonewall" and his men fought from positions on the Hill. There is a house on top of the hill in the park. This is where many of the Hill family is buried including the matriarch, ultimately killed during by a shell during the battle. The house has been refurbished and you can see the interior during your walk around the park.

Finally, the beautiful Stone Bridge features prominently in today's park. It markets the eastern entrance of the park. It was destroyed during First Manaassas. The bridge  lay in ruins after the battle.

Later it was refurbished using the original design.

National Park: Brown vs the Board of Education of Topeka, KS

Topeka, Kansas is the state capital and is home to over 100,000 residents. I made it to Topeka, Kansas on my Missouri/Kansas road trip in the spring of 2011. I spent a couple of hours at this National Historic site and the harrowing images from this time have stuck with me ever since.

The Civil Rights struggle is certainly one of the darkest moments in American history. During the early 20^th century, the “separate but equal” ruling of Plessy vs. Ferguson had legitimized the move toward racial segregation in many parts of the country.  The Plessy vs. Ferguson case involved Homer Plessy boarding a train in the “white” section of a train car, he refused to move to the colored section, subsequently he was arrested and jailed. Mr. Plessy appealed his case to the Supreme Court, where they ruled that “separate but equal” was acceptable. The idea was that separation of citizens of different races and genders was legal as long as the facilities were of equal quality. This case took place in Louisiana, and many often think of this issue as a "Southern" issue, but this racial controversy existed elsewhere including the District of Columbia, Delaware and Kansas.

The Brown vs. Board of Education National Historic Site in Topeka, Kansas

In most instances (including public bathrooms, water fountains, cafes and most relevant public schools) the facilities were not of equal quality. In 1952, there were cases from Kansas, Delaware, Washington, D.C., South Carolina and Virginia which challenged segregation in public schools. The U.S. Supreme Court consolidated them into one case named after Oliver Brown in Topeka, KS. One of the most pivotal cases in U.S. History became formally known as Oliver Brown et al vs. The Board of Education of Topeka, KS et al. Because all the cases were consolidated under the one name, the Brown moniker has stuck in history. The case involved Oliver Brown’s daughter who had to walk six blocks and ride a bus over a mile to get to a segregated school while the white school was approximately seven blocks from her house. Oliver Brown decided to attempt to enroll his child in the white school, she was denied admission and directed towards the segregated school. Initially, the District Court found for the Board of Education based on the Plessy vs. Ferguson precedent, and the case was appealed all the way to the United States Supreme Court. Thurgood Marshall (later appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court) would take the case as the chief counsel for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

The strategy of the NAACP was to point out things that were shortcomings of "Separate But Equal". In some cases the inequality was overt. African-American children were made to go to separate schools on a bus even if one were blocks away, the African-American schools may not have the same coursework or programs as the white schools. In other instances inequalities were subtle, renovations were delayed, cost/student disparities were present. Some instances of the "Separate But Equal" were just humiliating, like George McLaurin. Mr. McLaurin fought to get admitted into the University of Oklahoma because they offered coursework in public education administration which wasn't available at the segregated school, only to be humiliated by being made to sit in the corner of the room.

George W. McLaurin (!887-1968) was forced to sit in a separate classroom, library, cafeteria, and restroom areas while attending the University of Oklahoma.

The Brown vs the Board of Education museum itself is a renovated schoolhouse that was in use at the time. There are pictures of classrooms and school children throughout the museum that reflect the era. The main atrium at the center of the room has a series of educational films that walk young students through the Civil Rights movement through the eyes of a modern day teenager. There is another gallery where one can learn more about the people, places and events that shaped the years right before and after the decision. In this room is a passageway that may not be appropriate for young children as the language and some of the imagery is deplorable, but it gives one a sense of what vitriol existed at the time. This exhibit really stuck with me. There are other exhibits throughout the site that outline the legacy of Brown vs. Board of Education where the case is linked to the larger Civil Rights movement, and other struggles for equality like South African apartheid and the Polish Trade Union, Solidarity lead by Lech Wałęsa in the 1980's.

Here is a brief clip from PBS about the case with some background.