Delaware Delegation Proposes National Park
This is a bill that’s long overdue.
WASHINGTON — Today, the Delaware Congressional Delegation, Sens. Tom Carper and Chris Coons (both D-Del.) and Rep. John Carney (D-Del.), introduced historic legislation to authorize the creation of a national park in Delaware – the First State National Historical Park Act of 2011.
Currently, the first state to sign the Constitution, the first state in the union, is the last state to have a national park. If the First State National Historical Park Act of 2011 is adopted, that would change. The First State National Historical Park Act of 2011 would create a park celebrating early American Dutch, Swedish and English Settlements located throughout Delaware, and Delaware’s role in the events leading up to the founding of our nation. The park will include sites and attractions in each of Delaware’s three counties. The legislation also allows the Park Service to work with other historically significant sites that are not included in the National Park, but can be included in the National Park materials, tours and other related items.
This is the first bill sponsored by Rep. John Carney and with a GOP-controlled House he might not get many opportunities. A national park for Delaware seems like a good idea, but does this idea seem workable?
Tags: Chris Coons, Delaware, John Carney, Tom Carper
Where, this side of Marcus Hook?
Bad idea. What they are proposing is not a National Park in the classic sense (open space, a mountain, a volcano) but more like National Historic Landmarks. Now is not the time to be spending money on stuff like this. Perhaps our Delaware delegation could get a headline by proposing enforcing trade agreements, negotiating trade deals in Americas intrest, or closing job exporting tax loopholes. You know, jobs, jobs, jobs.
Nuts. A national park is exactly what we need. Delaware has a magnificent history that due to our small size, is too often understated.
Two years down the road, the trade agreements will be absolved, the deals used up, the tax loopholes back in…
When we die, the national park will still be there… Our kids can take their kids, and say… this, is your heritage….
(We can still do it today, but really, when was the last time you took your kids on a walk through downtown New Castle?)
Having a national park would be a defining moment for our state….
Since Ned Cooch died late last year, the property at the Cooch’s Bridge Battle of the Revolutionary War is just waiting for prime time. The interpretation of Delaware’s heritage is chock full of cool stories and with a little TLC from DEDO could be a huge tourism draw.
I think that Carper’s effort was already dissed by the National Park professionals and he needs to look in a new direction. How about Cooch’s?
How about the conference room where Pete DuPont and Tom Carper decided to eliminate usury laws and saddle American working families with theretofore unheard of levels of debt?
How about the lab where DuPont scientists figured out that tetra-ethyl lead could be used as an additive in gasoline?
How about the PO Box headquarters of Union Carbide?
Let’s celebrate Delaware!
Jason,
You’re on to something.
Should DuPont come crashing the way of Wilmington Trust, we could have a National Park that stretches from Rodney Square to Granogue, with Hagley and Winterthur in between.