Free Republic

There will be no after hours at Devils Tower National Monument. The monument abruptly announced Tuesday that, starting Thursday, the monument is no longer open 24/7 and will only be open from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. The change was announced on the Devils Tower Facebook page. The monument, usually open 24 hours a day, will be closed overnight. The National Park Service (NPS) has not provided a reason for the sudden change, and Cowboy State Daily couldn’t reach anyone at Devils Tower National Monument for additional clarification. That includes more information about whether that includes camping at the...

The National Park Service has scrubbed references to transgender and queer people from the website of a monument to the 1969 Stonewall riots, a foundational moment in the struggle for LGBTQ rights, igniting protests in New York City on Friday. The move comes as President Donald Trump has sought a return to a strict binary definition of gender in the United States, leading attacks on transgender people and issuing an executive order that states the country only has two genders — male and female. The website — managed by the National Park Service, a branch of the federal government —...

...less than an hour after we brought attention to it. MOST EFFECTIVE AND EFFICIENT ADMINISTRATION IN HISTORY! Thank you Trump and Elon!

On June 24, National Park Service Director Jonathan B. Jarvis asked park superintendents to work with their partners and bookstore operators to voluntarily withdraw from sale items that solely depict a Confederate flag. The National Park Service press release can be found here. "We strive to tell the complete story of America," National Park Service Director Jonathan B. Jarvis said of the agency's reputation for telling difficult parts of our history. "All sales items in parks are evaluated based on educational value and their connection to the park. Any stand-alone depictions of Confederate flags have no place in park stores."...

Jonathan (Jon) B. Jarvis officially became the 18th Director of the National Park Service on October 2, 2009. [appointed by Barack 0bama] A career ranger of the National Park Service, who began his career in 1976 as a seasonal interpreter in Washington, D.C., Jarvis takes the helm of an agency that preserves and manages some of the most treasured landscapes and valued cultural icons in this nation.

House Republicans on Wednesday assailed the National Park Service director for erecting barriers at national monuments during the government shutdown. They accused Jonathan Jarvis of violating federal law by putting up the barricades at 401 national monuments and parks with no apparent imminent threat. In a joint hearing Wednesday, the House Natural Resources, and Oversight and Government Reform committees met to review the actions of the Park Service since the government shutdown took effect Oct. 1. Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah) charged the NPS with violating the Antideficiency Act in barring visitors from the parks during the shutdown. The law prohibits...

National Park Service director Jarvis said he discussed closing the open-air monuments and memorials with the White House, as well as the secretary of the Interior Department.

Native American groups did not support the removal of a statue of William Penn from Welcome Park in Philadelphia prior to the Biden administration’s now-abandoned effort to do so. William Penn was an English Quaker who moved to the American Colonies in 1682 and founded the British colony of Pennsylvania, during which time he maintained friendly relations with Native Americans of the Lenape tribe. The National Parks Service recently canceled plans to remove Penn’s statue from federal property at Welcome Park, in Philadelphia’s downtown historic district, amid strong political and public backlash against the plan, though representatives for a native...

It’s time to stop debating history and facts with people who only care about the exercise of raw political power.div class="article-content"> The news that the Biden administration planned to remove a statue of William Penn in a federal park in Philadelphia that commemorates the founding of Pennsylvania, and that the purpose of the removal was to “provide a more welcoming, accurate, and inclusive experience for visitors,” should at this point not come as a surprise.Once the removals and destruction of Confederate statues and memorials began a few years ago, it was inevitable that all historical figures from America’s past, even...

The National Park Service on Monday suddenly withdrew its plan to remove the statue of William Penn from the site of his home during a "rehabilitation" of Welcome Park in Philadelphia. NPS had opened a public comment period on Monday but by 6:30 p.m., it was closed. "The preliminary draft proposal, which was released prematurely and had not been subject to a complete internal agency review, is being retracted. No changes to the William Penn statue are planned," the NPS said in a statement. The NPS faced widespread backlash after announcing its plans to update the park to "provide a...

Independence National Historical Park has withdrawn the review of a draft proposal to rehabilitate Welcome Park and closed the public comment period, the National Park Service (NPS) said Monday. The preliminary draft proposal, which was released prematurely and had not been subject to a complete internal agency review, is being retracted. No changes to the William Penn statue are planned, according to the press release, which continued: “The National Park Service remains committed to rehabilitating Welcome Park as the nation prepares to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in 2026. Upon completion of all the necessary internal...

Joe Biden's National Park Service under Interior Secretary Deb Haaland will remove the statue of William Penn from the park erected in 1982 to commemorate the 300th anniversary of his founding of the colony of Pennsylvania. The park is on the site of his original home in Philadelphia. The park, located in Philadelphia near the Delaware River at Sansom and Second Streets, will be "rehabilitated" and that proposal will include an "expanded interpretation of the Native American history of Philadelphia." The plan was "developed in consultations with the representatives of the indigenous nations of the Haudenosaunee, the Delaware Nation, Delaware...

Yellowstone today is on high alert for “touron” behavior, but in the Roaring ’20s it was an all-out petting zoo. Attractions included the popular feeding of the bears -- a nightly dinner show that became more popular than Old Faithful. Hardly a day has gone by this summer season where a tourist in Yellowstone National Park hasn’t been caught doing something illegal, dangerous, stupid — or all three. Facebook page Yellowstone National Park: Invasion of The Idiots! has become the TMZ of the NPS (National Park Service). Public shaming hasn’t seemed to slow offenders much. Healthy fines do not appear...

The National Park Service (NPS) is advising visitors to proceed with extra caution as two people were recently injured after interactions with wild bison at both Yellowstone National Park, and Theodore Roosevelt National Park. On Monday, a woman from Arizona was charged and gored by a bison at Yellowstone National Park. “The female was walking with another individual in a field in front of the Lake Lodge when they saw two bison," the NPS explained of the incident in a release the NPS shared. "Upon seeing them, the visitors turned to walk away from the bison. One of the bison...

School leaders in rural northwest Oregon are worried about big budget cuts. The Oregon Department of Forestry is working on a plan to protect habitats for endangered species across 640,000 acres of state forest. The loss of timber revenue will affect local schools. The Jewell School District expects to be the most heavily impacted because it gets almost all of its funding from timber revenue. It could see budget cuts of 40 percent. The Jewell School District has about 150 students and a budget of $5 million. District superintendent Cory Pederson estimates the cuts will bring his annual budget down...

asks are returning to the Skyline Drive. Citing high community transition rates of COVID-19 in and around the Shenandoah National Park, officials say they will follow National Park Service policy and CDC guidance by requiring face masks be worn in all Shenandoah National Park buildings. The ruling takes effect Monday, August 22, 2022. “We monitor local community levels and respond when transmission levels are high,” Park Superintendent Pat Kenney said. “The trigger to require masking is when the majority of the counties that the park resides in move into high transmission status.” The CDC community levels are released weekly and...

SNIP Major, the Biden’s 3-year-old adopted pet, has been in another biting incident requiring medical attention, CNN reports. The dog reportedly bit a National Park Service employee on the White House South Lawn Monday afternoon. “Yes, Major nipped someone on a walk,” first lady Jill Biden’s press secretary Michael LaRosa told CNN.

Malcolm X’s boyhood home in Boston was added to the National Register of Historic Places. The 2½-story house is the only surviving residence associated with the slain civil rights leader’s formative years in the city, according to Massachusetts Secretary of State William Galvin, who chairs the state historical commission that requested the designation. The home, which was originally built in 1874 and designated a city landmark in 1998, was officially listed on the federal register last month, the National Park Service that oversees the listing said this week. The former Malcolm Little was a teenager in the 1940s when he...

KNOXVILLE Tenn. – On December 7, 2020, Dusty William Oliver, 41, and Richard Graham, 49, both from Blaine, were sentenced by the Honorable Judge Thomas A. Varlan, in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee at Knoxville, for raping two men in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park (GSMNP).Oliver and Graham pleaded guilty to an indictment charging them with two counts of aggravated sexual abuse in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2241(a) and 2. Oliver was sentenced to 300 months in prison, followed by 15 years’ supervised release. Graham was sentenced to 230 months in prison,...

All in-park overnight lodging will be closed for incoming arrivals beginning on Monday, December 7, 2020 and will remain closed until further notice. All overnight camping within Yosemite National Park will be prohibited beginning on Monday, December 7, 2020 until further notice. This includes all park campgrounds, wilderness camping, and overnight use along climbing routes. Overnight backpacking trips into Yosemite’s wilderness will also be prohibited. All visitors planning trips to Yosemite are asked to be our partner in recreating responsibly. Yosemite National Park conducts hundreds of search and rescue missions each year, many of which could be avoided with visitors...