12 July 2018
Klondike Gold Rush National Historic Park
Skagway, Alaska
Filed under Family, National Park, Photo, Travel
The Until We Meet Again Tour opened the day in the canyon lands of New York on a walking tour of Wall Street. A ferry ride to Governors Island followed for a visit that included the national monument and the newly opened The Hills. The day ended with a return to Community Food & Juice with Tricia, Nicole, Desi, and Boxster.
Filed under Family, Friends, National Park, New York, Photo, Uncategorized
The Until We Meet Again Tour wandered out Long Island with Tricia. The first stop was Sagamore Hill National Historic Site.
See you along the Trail.
Filed under National Park, New York, Photo
28 May 2016
Theodore Roosevelt House
Sagamore Hill, New York
Filed under National Park, Photo
13 May 2015
Haleakala National Park
Maui, Hawai’i
Filed under National Park, Photo, Travel
Today marks the 150th anniversary of the Sand Creek Massacre. A National Park Service press release describes the event in these words (italics added):
The Sand Creek Massacre, tragic and unnecessary, impacted Federal-Indian relations and created the circumstances for years of warfare. With the events of November 29, 1864 fixed in their minds, Plains Indian nations faced an uncertain future between warring against and accommodating the federal government.
Cheyenne and Arapaho peace chiefs [Black Kettle among them], influenced by assurances of peace at the Camp Weld Conference, reported to Fort Lyon throughout October of 1864. The fort’s commander told Black Kettle and other leaders to await a peace delegation at their camp on Sand Creek and to fly the U.S. flag to indicate their peaceful intent. Throughout November, these elders waited.
On November 29, U.S. Army (Volunteer) soldiers
[under the command of Colonel John Chivington, a Methodist minister], attacked the village. Disregarding the greetings and calls to stop, these “beings in the form of men” fired indiscriminately at the Cheyenne and Arapaho. Of approximately seven hundred people in the village, about two hundred died that day. Two-thirds of the dead and mutilated bodies left on the ground were women and children.Boasting of his victory and downplaying Army casualties, Colonel John Chivington paraded the body parts of dead Cheyenne and Arapaho through the streets of Denver, reveling in the acclaim he long sought. However, not all of Chivington’s officers and men agreed with his actions, and soon the
consequences of these actions would sweep up and down the Plains, back to Washington, D.C., and into the lives of thousands of people. [Captain Silas Soule refused to order his company to fire during the massacre; he and Major Ned Wynkoop played key roles in the investigation of the massacre.]
Learn more about the Sand Creek Massacre:
Remember.
Remember those killed and wound and violated.
Remember the horror, the atrocity.
But remember also Black Kettle, who sought a just, honorable peace for his people; and remember Silas Soule, and Ned Wynkoop and the others who, in their way and fashion sought peace and justice for those touched by this day of horror.
May the day soon come when, by God’s grace, we transform weapns into implements of production and healing.
See you along the Trail.
Filed under Antiracism, Current Events, Human Rights, National Park
I went to pick up another stamp for my National Park Passport.
I ended up in the middle of a multi-sport festival.
Governors Island has a long history. It lies a few hundred yards off Manhattan.
It served as part of the fortifications of New York during the War of 1812. However the guns mounted in Fort Jay, Castle Williams, and the South Battery did not fire a shot. During the Civil War it served as a prison for Confederates. The island housed military command headquarters and the U.S. Coast Guard.
I learned about this history as spent the afternoon on the island. I saw the barracks and touched the guns. I took in the views of Liberty Island, Ellis Island, Manhattan, Brooklyn, and New Jersey.
In 2003, a portion of the island was designated as Governors Island National Monument; The Trust for Governors Island administers the rest. There are walks, opportunities to ride bikes, and cultural events.
Today one could view three different sporting events:
A badminton tournament
A large screen TV showing the World Cup
And the Gotham Base Ball Club played
All three made great additions to my visit. A good day. A fun day. And another stamp.
See you along the Trail.
Filed under National Park, New York
5 August 2013
Shiloh National Military Park
Shiloh, Tennessee
Filed under Advent, National Park, Photo
They shall beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks.
They shall transform their cannons into nests.
Nation shall not lift weapons against nation
neither shall they learn war any more.
5 August 2013
Shiloh National Military Park
Filed under National Park, Photo
He winced as he stepped from the carriage,
pain shooting through his leg.
His leg.
Always his leg.
After thirty years, his leg.
A leg, he knew, that could have been lost
on that long ago, hellish April day.
He took the cane the young man offered,
nodding his thanks.
Silently he started across the lane into the woods.
“Do you know …?”
Before the young man could finish,
he cut him short with a growl:
“I remember.”
And to himself, he softly said:
“I will always remember.”
Moving with surprising quickness,
he left the young man behind and
descended toward the creek.
He stumbled once,
caught his balance with the cane,
stopped to rub his thigh,
and then continued.
At the creek he paused and
looked carefully around.
The young man came up beside him.
Their eyes met briefly;
he shook his head and started forward.
Water splashed his pants
as the rocks shifted slightly
beneath his weight.
Across, he climbed the gentle rise.
Roots tugged at his feet,
briars clawed at his clothes —
once tearing his hand.
Only when he crested the rise
did he slow his pace.
The young man came to his side and asked,
“Are you sure?”
“I remember,” he said.
And as he started to walk again, he softly said,
“I will always remember.”
On through the woods he walked,
the young man sometimes at his side,
sometimes falling behind.
When he saw the crosses,
simple, wooden crosses
that marked a slight depression in the ground,
he stopped. “This is the place?” the young man said.
“Stay here,” he ordered and he stepped
to the depression’s side.
He noticed the blood on his hand
as he reached into his jacket.
For several moments, he stared at the
thin trickles that made a spider-web pattern.
He wiped the blood on his pants,
made sure his hand was clean, and took
a silver flask from his inner pocket.
“I’m back.”
He spoke to the air
to the ground
to the ghosts of those who lay
in the common grave before him.
“Thirty years gone. But I am back.”
He breathed deeply, then spoke again.
“I remember.”
Looking down, he repeated,
“I will always remember.”
He removed the flask top and
gestured toward the depression.
“I remember. I will always remember.”
Raising the flask to his lips,he leaned back his head
and drank deeply.
Then carefully, reverently, slowly
he poured the contents on the ground before him.
“For you.
My comrades. My friends. My brothers.
Thirty years.
And still I remember.
I will always remember.”
A solitary tear escaped
from the moisture pooled in his eyes,
coming to rest in his snarled, gray beard.
He stood in silence for ten brief, eternal seconds.
Then, stopping the flask, he turned
to begin his journey back to the carriage.
He winced as the motion sent
pain shooting through his leg.
Always the leg.
After thirty years, the leg.
5 August 2013
Corinth, Mississippi
Inspired by a visit to
a Confederate Burial Trench
at Shiloh National Military Park.
Filed under National Park, Travel
Along the Graybeard Trail 