The Delaware National Park is the dumbest thing
Senator Thomas Carper realized the most significant achievement in his long congressional career on Saturday night: when the Cromnibus Bill passed, the long sought after Delaware National Park was finally established. For years, Delaware was saddled with the indignity of being the only state in the union not to have a national park. This was the most important and damaging problem facing Delaware for decades, second only to the lack of bipartisanship, so of course our brave and tireless Senator fought to solve the problem.
U.S. Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., who has steadfastly sought a park designation for Delaware, released a statement after the vote on Friday. “Now, Delaware can have a national park that preserves and teaches the lessons of our state”s heritage casino online and our country”s history,” he said.
U.S. Rep. John Carney, D-Del., called the historical park a “tremendous achievement,” in a written statement, saying “I look forward to taking my family and visitors from out of state to visit the natural and historic sites in our park.”
Now, I don”t know about you, but when I think of a “national park,” I think of a contiguous natural place that we have preserved in its wild state. I also think of a park. Examples of what I am talking about are the National Parks of Yellowstone, Acadia, and whole host of other physical parks.
What Delaware has is a collection of national monuments and historical landmarks, placed throughout the state. Our national “park” is as follows:
New Castle County, DE / Delaware County, PA:
· Woodlawn Trustees PropertyNew Castle County, DE:
· The Old Sheriff’s House
· Old New Castle Courthouse
· New Castle Green
· Old Swedes Church National Historic Landmark
· Fort Christina National Historic LandmarkKent County, DE:
· Dover Green
· John Dickinson Plantation National Historic LandmarkSussex County, DE:
· Ryves Holt House
That is not a park. It is the First State or Delaware National Collection of Historic Landmarks. To call it a “park” is ridiculous, and speaks to an inferiority complex because, you know, Delaware can get along quite fine without pretending we have a national park.
“Fort Christina National Historic Landmark” is shit. I hope notforeign tourist or crazy National Park completeists are tricked into going there.
It is a miracle that this even passed considering the fact that the Keystone XL pipeline is still screwing things up in DC and the ongoing cause of all gridlock.
Bipartisanship works! We could never have gotten our unique national historic park, with nine — count ’em, nine — venues, with those Republican votes. Thank you, Sen. Carper and Rep. Carney, for proving the value of bipartisanship.
What a crock.
There are several National Parks that are historical sites. Constitution Hall comes to mind, along with the Liberty Bell. Gettysburg is also a National Park. To cramp the protections to these sites that comes with the designation of National Park simply because they aren’t open beautiful spaces misses the point. The feds are now involved with preserving these sites. Their special expertise and resources will be useful down the road.
Delaware doesn’t have the open spaces of our western neighbors. No important battles have been fought here. But there seem to be some important places that could preserve some of the legacy of early history of this state.
The real discussion should have been over what to include, not the fact of its existence. I would have suggested including CS 107. And, since National Parks can grow, and isn’t limited to one “contiguous natural place,” maybe one day it could be included.
If only we had something historically worthy of a national park like Gettysburg or Independence Hall.
This is going to be some Delaware “Historical trail” comprised of mostly historically insignificant sites.
Thank you for saying it, Point of Order. Delaware Dem’s conception of what a national park “should be” is irrelevant. The entire city of Lowell, MA is a national park. Each individual monument in DC is a national park. The point is to protect our heritage – both natural and non. I’m a big proponent of preserving our beautiful outdoors, but I’d also like to save historic buildings thank you very much, and I don’t see why I have to choose between the two.
You’ve all missed the point. Woodlawn Trustees want to develop most of the Beaver Creek valley in exchange for giving up some of the land for this “national park.” Because the land they want to develop is in Pennsylvania but the beneficiaries are in Delaware, making it a national park instead of a state park is necessary for them to get what they want.
Fort Delaware is the most overlooked treasure for anything worthy of support I have ever seen in this state. I spent an entire Thanksgiving weekend in Charleston, SC one year to do the whole historic thing with kids, at the “national park” there. All I kept thinking was “is this all you got??!!!”. We have Ft. Delaware, and you’re not just standing on dirt, looking at a cannon ball replica, with knee high fragmented supposed brick fencing in places…..and then get to imagine…..Highlight of the weekend? Waking up to police cars lining the streets because some joker(s) went up and down the streets inserting glue in all the locks of the local shops in protest of Black Friday shopping (yes, my children were accounted for)! That’s what they’ll remember of that National Park trip.
Couple of things to ask….1) I thought we were getting the “Underground Railroad” hodgepodge of places as our national park? 2) Why is Fort Delaware always overlooked but is such a FABULOUS place to visit, take kids, and out-of-towners? 3) If we can’t come up with a credible National Park at one site, why don’t we just be the “Birthplace of the Nation” National Park, as a Gateway to the national parks…..and use the Smyrna Rest Stop? That’s a keeper. And has won awards.
My pride in being a Delawarean is being diminished by those “of note” sites with a yawn. And Zwaanandel Museum in Sussex didn’t matter???
Woodlawn sold some of its land for the National Park. They say they donated it, but really all they did was to create a nonprofit they control, and then donated the land to it (can you say tax writeoff). The nonprofit then sold the land for $21 million (can you say tax free…it is Delaware afterall!). Now, they want to develop that land they still own that is adjacent to the National Park. Some is just over the line in PA and some is in Delaware. The well respected Brandywine Conservancy has rightly pointed out the absurdity of this. While many Delaware politicians are congratulating themselves over the National Park, if Woodlawn has its way it will build McMansions directly adjacent to it. And…clear cutting mature forests that are uphill from the Brandywine River will endanger Wilmington’s water supply (Brandywine Conservancy’s expert opinion not mine). Go to savethevalley.org to stop it!
“The point is to protect our heritage – both natural and non.”
Of all the sites listed, only one does not currently have some level of protection, the Woodlawn Trustees Property. And, to my knowledge, non of the others are threatened by developers. Is the Dover Green threatened with developments? The Dickenson Plantation?
They have been doing just fine without needing the Feds. You don’t need the Federal Gov’t to protect our heritage sites.
Can anyone else name a National Park that has its sites miles apart in non-contiguous locations? A town in MA may be a National Park, but is it all in one location. Independence Hall site contains several sites covering blocks and blocks of the city but they are all close together.
Senator for Life, Tom Carper, Vanity Park and Monument is the only one that comes to mind.
BTW – Today Carper, Coons and Carney are crowing about how they paid off Cigna to keep 500 jobs here (for another year).
I can only imagine the windfall that Cigna lobbyists have written into the legislation that outlines the deal.
Would have been nice to see Cape Henlopen / Ft. Miles get some of the support as well. It has the nature and the history…why overlook it and leave it out?
Downstate parks make a lot of money for the state parks system. The parks would not want to give it up. And if you think getting money for repairing the fishing pier is a problem now, just imagine trying to get it through an act of Congress.
Like the cannonball house, CHSP it is interesting but hardly significant.
Thanks for calling it, DD. The National Park has been a flustercluck since day one. Emperor Carper has no clothes — and the national park has no trees. A while back I witnessed the Big Announcement in New Castle. Every politico and “dignitary” within miles arrived , each sweeping in in their own individual black SUV. All levels of law enforcement were there including the Secret Service, NCC police horses and several dogs. People entering the roped off section had to be screened and frisked. The head ranger has essentially no budget and for a long time didn’t even have a desk to call his own. I tend to be an optimist and try to give things the benefit of the doubt, but this whole fiasco has elevated my cynicism quotient considerably. (This, and the contorting of the I-495 bridge story to serve as a symbol of the country’s aging infrastructure!) GIVE ME A BREAK.
Listen all you naysayers and park poo-pooers. Repeat after me: “This is Delaware. We don’t have grand vistas or a lot of room. If Sen. Tommy wants to shoe-horn a National Park in here, sideways sorta, well then it’s the only one we got and we’ll take it, dammit! “
Isn’t part of the Woodlawn land supposed to be a small campus for Wilmington University?
How can you have a problem with Delaware getting a national park. All this negativity over the feds coming into to preserve historic aspects of our country’s history is the mark of losers. If anything, the fact that Delaware does not have to maintain these 200+ year old properties anymore is a win. I understand that you don’t like these guys, but jesus
I was opposed to this from the get go. I don’t care who came up with the plan. Its stupid.
When I asked Carper why, he said because Delaware doesn’t have one. Seriously, he said that. “when you look at a national parks map, every state has a place except for Delaware. This will bring tourist dollars to Delaware.” (Paraphrasing) Not one mention of preservation of our (IMHO questionable) historic landmarks.
Well whatdya expect when I don’t think George Washington ever slept here either.
We are now ceremoniously irrelevant except in our own minds. Nothin’ to look out, and “now stand here at Battery Park and imagine the Dutch/Swedes/fill in the blank, across the Delaware, sailing towards….just ignore that diaper floating by……”
It was probably cooler, not having a National Park. At least for trivia sake.
I hope nobody tells Tom Carper that Delaware doesn’t have Ebola.
“That”ll do Pig, that’ll do.”
@SA: “When I asked Carper why, he said because Delaware doesn’t have one. Seriously, he said that.”
Lucky you, being exposed to the blazing intellect of Tom Carper like that.
Seriously, after many, many years of observation, I have concluded that the only explanation for Tom Carper’s behavior is that he’s incredibly stupid, at least for someone in public life in the northeastern US. Has anybody reading this ever heard him say anything even remotely intelligent?
Best vista in DE is in Cape Henlopen State Park
“Best vista in DE is in Cape Henlopen State Park”
Why? Because looking out to sea you don’t have to see Delaware?
JC: I think you are really on to something. “Delaware — the state with no sales tax and no national park!”
I’ll buck the trend. Across this nation locals have always derided the Interior Dept. whenever it moves in to make a new park. So expecting Delaware to be any different would be unrealistic. People who see things every day of their lives, tend to dismiss any importance whatsoever that those places may have held…
Most Delawareans have an inferiority complex. “Oh, I’m too stupid to live and work anywhere else, so I’m currently residing in a little place on the Atlantic Ocean, maybe you’ve heard of it? It’s called Delaware?”
Point is: we have some of the most relevant historical sites in this country, precisely because we were in the backwaters for so long, so developers did not bulldoze a bunch of old buildings and put up row houses whose aluminum siding is already buckling due to shoddy non-union workmanship.
New Castle County, DE / Delaware County, PA:
· Woodlawn Trustees Property
Preserves the Brandywine River, one of the most historic in early America, in its natural state…. The Brandywine Valley was to automation 200 years ago, what Silicon Valley is to microprocessing today. Plus, the fact that Woodlawn exists at all, is a monument to the Quaker thrift and ingenuity that thrived in this particular section of the country, and which had along with the local Presbyterian Church, considerable impact on how our Constitution was put together. This valley also dominated America’s artistic direction, spawning the Brandywine School of American Painting. Imagine if in 30 years it looked just like Concord Pike?
New Castle County, DE:
· The Old Sheriff’s House
· Old New Castle Courthouse
· New Castle Green
These three preserve the essence of the town New Castle. This was THE first landing of the Swedes, the first landing of the Dutch, and THE unofficial capital of Delaware for its first 140 years, It’s Green was laid out by Peter Stuyvesant’s one leg who himself later moved on and is quite famous for establishing New York City as the center of North America, which it still is today. But he got his start here. The tell-taie signs of Dutch eave architecture are preserved only in these two places here in the New World.
· Old Swedes Church National Historic Landmark
· Fort Christina National Historic Landmark
Both celebrate the Swede’s single attempt to settle the New World. Without this preservation, 100 years from now no one would know or care… Yet in its way, it would be the equivalent of Germany putting a colony on the moon, an amazing attempt one which quite luckily worked. There are many monuments to the English, Spanish, French settlement here in the America’s. The Dutch have New York. The only other nation to ever attempt colonization (excluding Russia in Alaska) were the Swedes. This is their monument. They were quite a power during the times of colonization, but being so far removed from the rest of Europe, not so mainstream in our history lessons. And they brought us Finns which are why today… we can even have: “Log Cabin” Republicans…
The town of New Castle is often compared to Williamsburg. Yet Williamsburg was completely rebuilt ground up with Rockefeller Money. New Castle is the real thing, preserved only because it became bypassed by progress in the form of steel rails which ran from Wilmington to Baltimore, instead of first dipping South… Like sleeping beauty, New Castle slept, awakening only in the 1980’s as its charms were gradually re-discovered.
Kent County, DE:
· Dover Green
· John Dickinson Plantation National Historic Landmark
The Dover Green preserves the last of the best rural colonial architecture in America. Were it to ever modernize, future generations would never see how early America looked in its original state. Plus just off the Green lies a certain Tavern, where the First State, first ratified the Constitution of the United States of America… What if they said No? Like any committee, things on the inside are never the same as they appear after it has deemed its decision. But, once a committee somewhere has said yes to joining something, it becomes easier for others in other committees to prevail and do the same. This has great national value, for this is where that first happened….
Dickenson ran a slave plantation. That is now preserved. He was also one of the strongest voices for independence from Britain’s tyranny… He was troubled over the moral opposition of the two. Way ahead of his new nation, he freed his slaves some 90 years before that would be mandated by Lincoln’s Proclamation. Even back then, Delaware got some things right.
Sussex County, DE:
· Ryves Holt House
Allegedly this was built in 1665. It will be 350 years old this upcoming new year. 28th oldest structure in America. 16th if excluding Puerto Rico and the American Indians. And the oldest Brick House in America. How could one leave that to the Paul Clarks and Rich Collins to bulldoze and put up a cheap tawdry mall with one of those blinking LED signs? State ownership is flaky; enough money could let such happen … It is now preserved as a national treasure…
Everyone scoffs that other people can ever see value in things they see everyday… “Duh, why would anyone ever want to come here when they can go to New York and get drunk.” But often if you have nothing of historical value around where you live, when you do come to a locality where it exists, you actually do go out to seek it for its novelity…
Yellowstone would never have been preserved if left up to the yokels there… So hat’s off to Carper’s vision for this one. Now that the 400th National Park’s seeds are now sown, once it sprouts it should be easier to graft additional little pieces on (many mentioned above) as we progress further into the future.
Preservation is not the issue. Local control is.
“Local control” has been eating away at the Gettysburg battlefields for 150 years. “Local control” has seen the battlegrounds of Virginia become shopping malls. Local control does not ensure preservation the way National Parks do. Even in Delaware much has been lost. Perhaps a lot of it was not historically significant. But, when it’s gone, it’s gone forever.
The Woodlawn thing is the tell that this is some cash grab tarted up to look like the “preservation” of history. You are sounding sillier and sillier PoO
“But, when it’s gone, it’s gone forever.’
No, not really. Much of New England was cleared of forest for agriculture, but when the US expanded beyond the Appalachians, people who were tired of plowing around the rocks moved west. The farms went fallow and New England has far more tree cover today than it had in the 1700s.
“Would have been nice to see Cape Henlopen / Ft. Miles get some of the support as well.”
I agree. I am surprised that it wasn’t considered or included. Still, the more people that don’t know about Cape Henlopen the, the better. Just like when people ask me about good resort beaches I tell them about Ocean City and the Jersey shore.
Actually Jason, Woodlawn is attempting to sell much of this property before the national park is officially established. They know that after the park is established, development of that area will be a lot more difficult. So if you don’t want to see the development, you should actually hope that the National Park starts moving forward as quickly as possible. If left up to New Castle County Government and “local control” there will be university campuses, strip malls, and apartments going up within the next 5 years. This is a losing argument for the “Anything Carper Likes must be Evil” crowd.