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NPS
Contact: Stephanie Steinhorst, 229 924-0343, ext. 203 Contact: Eric Leonard, 229 924-0343, ext. 201 ANDERSONVILLE, Georgia –Scientists, historians and Andersonville National Historic Site managers have taken a long look at the natural, cultural and historic resources in their care and summarized their findings in a new "State of the Park" report released this week. "The report is part of a larger effort to examine parks across the country, and gain valuable insights on our most treasured resources," said Acting Superintendent Eric Leonard. "It lets us see the entire park at a single moment in time. It's important because this is a complex park and our stewardship responsibilities are diverse and challenging. For example, the park offers educational programs, preserves artifacts and oral histories related to the prisoner of war experience, and manages an operational National Cemetery with nearly 200 burials per year. We will use this information to set park priorities for improvement and report on our progress to the American people." The Andersonville National Historic Site "State of the Park" report and others like it summarizes complex scientific, scholarly, and park operations information, highlights stewardship efforts of park staff to maintain or improve the condition of park resources, and identifies the key issues and challenges the park faces. The report is available online at www.nps.gov/stateoftheparks/ande/. The report for Andersonville shows an overall positive trend for continuing to provide visitors a place to consider the multiple meanings of sacrifice. It recognizes consistent high levels of visitor satisfaction since 2001, recorded through annual surveys, and it acknowledges recent achievements such as the Victory From Within traveling exhibit, ongoing 150th anniversary events, and youth outreach including a very successful junior ranger program. The report also highlights recently begun projects to improve stewardship of cultural resources, including a Cultural Landscape Report and Historic Resource Study. Some concerns identified in the report include an increased number of burials in recent years, aging exhibits, improvements needed to enhance accessibility to some park features, and deferred maintenance on all paved roads, parking areas and bridges. More "State of the Park" reports are underway and they will be available upon completion online at www.nps.gov/stateoftheparks/ and on each park's website. By the National Park Service Centennial in 2016, up to 50 parks will complete these in-depth assessments of key resources and values and will communicate their findings to the American people. Andersonville National Historic Site is located 10 miles south of Oglethorpe, GA and 10 miles northeast of Americus, GA on Georgia Highway 49. The national park features the National Prisoner of War Museum, Andersonville National Cemetery and the site of the historic Civil War prison, Camp Sumter. Andersonville National Historic Site is the only national park within the National Park System to serve as a memorial to all American prisoners of war. Park grounds are open from 8:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. The National Prisoner of War Museum is open 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., daily. Admission is free. For more information on the park, call 229 924-0343, or visit at www.nps.gov/ande/ Visitus on Facebook at www.facebook.com/AndersonvilleNPS, Twitter www.twitter.com/andeNHS NPS About the National Park Service. More than 20,000 National Park Service employees care for America's 401 national parks and work with communities across the nation to help preserve local history and create close-to-home recreational opportunities. Learn more at www.nps.gov Visit us on Facebook www.facebook.com/nationalparkservice, Twitter www.twitter.com/natlparkservice, and YouTube www.youtube.com/nationalparkservice. |
Last updated: April 14, 2015