NPS Archeology Program. The National Park Service: Preserving America's Past

Present Day

After the mid-century, the destructive effects of post-war urban and infrastructure development and social struggles for equality affected park archeology. Laws such as the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 and the Archaeological Resources Protection Act of 1979 strengthened the protection of archeological places. New parks built on traditional NPS site types but also reflected ethnic diversity, women's history, and labor; while existing parks drew on archeology to develop more inclusive interpretations of untold stories. Archeology showed that everyday people make extraordinary contributions. view slideshow >>

Nineteenth century visitors left their mark on this Yellowstone tree.

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Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho is best known for its extraordinary wild landscape and geysers, hotsprings, and wildlife species. From ancient hunters to European explorers, hotel entrepreneurs to tourists, archeology shows that America's first national park has inspired people for thousands of years.

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The footprint of the Robinson house at Manassas NBP.

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Soldiers converged on the Robinsons' house and farm during the Battle of Manassas, Virginia in 1861. The Robinsons, a free African-American family, prospered while slavery persisted as a national debate. Park establishment in 1940 commemorated the battle. Archeologists working with the Robinsons in the 1990s recovered evidence of their ancestors' resilience and spirit at a time of significant change in America.

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Archeologists excavate an ornamental pond at Manzanar.

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Archeological evidence of extraordinary times make the past more real to visitors today. Manzanar was a Japanese American internment camp during World War II. It became a national park in 1992. Archeologists working with descendants located structures, gardens, and artifactual evidence of a hybrid Asian and American culture. Together, they show the everyday lives of people whose rights as citizens were affected in a time of crisis, and remind us of the park's refrain: "Never again."

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Overhead view of the African Burial Ground National Monument.

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Free and enslaved Africans were not buried within New Amsterdam's 18th-century city walls; instead, they were interred in a separate place. The African Burial Ground National Monument was established in 2006 on the basis of archeological rediscovery of the burying ground. The finds conveyed the impact of slavery on the human body, and that enslaved persons retained and practiced cultural rites from their homelands in the New World. Today, the national monument is a place for descendants and community members to remember their past.

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