Appreciating America's other national treasures

In a week in which Americans celebrate both their independence and the real beginning of the summer travel season, it's appropriate to shine a little light on some of this nation's natural treasures.

For all its shortcomings and recently publicized problems, the U.S. National Park System encompasses a bounty of blessings almost beyond belief. From Acadia in Maine to Zion in Utah, the 81 national parks and preserves are managed "for the benefit and enjoyment of future generations." Each year, the big parks, Great Smoky, Grand Canyon, Yellowstone and Yosemite, host many millions of visitors from across the country and around the world. Others, such as Gates of the Arctic in Alaska, which happens to be the country's second largest park by area, are vast wildernesses where few travelers are ever likely to venture.

But the nation's treasure chest includes much more than these crown jewels. Since 1935, Congress has designated 123 locations as national historic sites. The eclectic collection is also administered by the National Park Service, but rather than parks, these sites tend to be time capsules that preserve historical places and honor individuals who helped to shape the country.

National historic sites range in size from the ruined foundation of a single building to a thousand-acre estate. Some historic sites are situated in the middle of major cities, others in the middle of nowhere. Many include original architecture while others offer accurate re-constructions. The common thread? Each has a distinctly American tale to tell.

Homes where presidents were born, lived or died are well represented on the rolls of national historic sites, but so are the residences of poets and sculptors, settlers and slaves. More than a dozen important forts and trading posts from America's westward expansion have been preserved, along with several Native American villages. There's a battlefield from the Mexican-American War and a prison camp from the Civil War. There are vintage railroads and early factories.

Other historic sites remind us of our own intolerance. Consider the California internment camp where Japanese-American citizens were confined during World War II, or the Kansas schoolhouse where the battle began to end segregation in public education. All these sites present a living link with the past.

Pennsylvania is well represented, from Fort Necessity National Battlefield just east of Uniontown, where George Washington fought the first installment of the French and Indian War, to Valley Forge, where his Christmas Eve initiative turned the tide of the Revolution. And of course, there's Independence National Historical Park, the square in center city Philadelphia that can lay legitimate claim to being the birthplace of our nation. Visitors can see the Liberty Bell, an international symbol of freedom, and Independence Hall, a World Heritage Site where both the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution were created.

In addition to this august historic site, Philadelphia also boasts Thaddeus Kosciuszko National Memorial, a house at the corner of Third and Pine streets that was once home to the Polish-born military engineer who one of the first foreign volunteers to come to the aid of the American revolutionary army.

Other Pennsylvania sites are significant to the country's industrial and social development, from Hopewell Furnace near Philadelphia, which supplied iron shot for the Revolution, to Steamtown in Scranton and the Allegheny Portage Railroad National Historic Site just west of Altoona. Then there's the Johnstown Flood National Memorial.

But the list of national treasures officially managed by the U.S. Park Service doesn't end with historic sites. Only Congress can create a national park or preserve, but national monuments can be proclaimed by presidents. And over the years, they've proclaimed plenty of them. Usually smaller and much less visited than the major parks, 99 of these relatively undiscovered travel treasures are scattered from sea to shining sea.

Thirty of these gems display the handiwork of Mother Nature, the products of millenniums of wind and water, from South Dakota's Jewel Cave and Wyoming's Devils Tower, to the 275 square miles of New Mexico's White Sand Dunes. Muir Woods, just north of San Francisco, shelters that area's last large virgin stand of redwoods. Buck Island Reef near St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands, is the only underwater national monument. Its coral reef is a world of bold, unearthly colors and a myriad variety of shapes. Buck Island itself is a mile-long fairyland, the domain of emerald-throated hummingbirds, pelicans, ginger and cactus.

Forty-five other national monuments are designated gateways to our country's past. These manmade memorials anchor us to our forebears and help us to understand their principles and aspirations. That list runs from Arizona's Navajo National Monument, to famous forts and battlefields, to Lady Liberty in New York harbor. And the national monuments are big on Washingtons, including the birthplaces of George, Booker T. and George Washington Carver.

Here's one of the most amazing aspects about all 379 of these national treasures: Admission to all of them is $50 per family per year.

Although many Park Service-managed sites are free, under new congressional mandates, many more are charging admission fees, and others that have charged in the past have raised their prices. While still not particularly expensive, these costs can certainly add up, especially for families.

The new National Parks Pass offers free, unlimited entrance to all national parks, monuments and historic sites that charge an entrance fee, including Forest Service, Fish & Wildlife Service, and Bureau of Land Management areas.

In addition to being a great travel bargain, a pass is a great way to show appreciation and support for these national blessings. What better way to honor our independence?

For comprehensive information on all U.S. national parks, preserves, monuments and historic sites, visit the U.S. Park Service Web site at www.nps.gov/.