Date: March 31, 2017
Morristown, NJ – As the National Park Service embarks on its second century of service, Morristown National Historical Park is celebrating the significant accomplishments of its centennial celebration and engagement with the Find Your Park / Encuentra Tu Parque initiative.
We are proud to announce that Morristown National Historical Park (NHP) recorded 252,514 visits in 2016, which is a 15% increase over the 218,959 visitors to the park in 2015.
Superintendent Tom Ross credited the increased visitation to the Find Your Park national marketing campaign and centennial programming at the park. Ross noted that “we owe a great deal of appreciation to our community partners who collaborated in offering a broad array of new and varied programs at the park. The Morris County Tourism Bureau was especially active in promoting and marketing the centennial which considerably helped increase and diversify our visitors to the park.”
This trend occurred across the country where centennial programs resulted in a significant level of public interest and social media engagement with the National Park Service and the National Park Foundation (NPF). The NPS, NPF, and partners across nation reached hundreds of millions of people with the centennial’s Find Your Park message, and engaged the public in the NPS stewardship mission.
“Stunning,” Acting National Park Service Director Michael T. Reynolds said of the 331 million visits counted across the National Park System. “We expected more visitors in 2016 as the NPS celebrated its Centennial with special events and activities, but these numbers really show the depth of feeling people have for their national parks, especially considering that increased visitation was recorded not just at the biggest and best known parks but at smaller historical and cultural sites as well.”
Half of national park visitation happened in 26 parks but visitation growth from 2015 to 2016 was greater, by 13 percent to 9 percent, in parks that see more modest annual visitation. “That shows the breadth of support for parks and, I think,” Reynolds said, “the Find Your Park / Encuentra Tu Parque campaign launched with the National Park Foundation reached new audiences but also highlighted what we might call lesser-known parks.”
Planning is underway to build on the success of Find Your Park / Encuentra Tu Parque as the National Park Service, the National Park Foundation, and other partners will continue the campaign’s momentum in 2017. The Find Your Park movement will continue to engage new audiences, especially around significant moments, including National Park Week (April 16-24) and the NPS 101st birthday on August 25th. Throughout the year, the NPS and its partners will invite the public to explore parks they haven’t yet discovered, build personal connections to special places in their communities, and find ways to help ensure that future generations are able to fully experience their national parks and the NPS programs that steward America’s treasures.
For more information about visitation, please go to the National Park Service’s Social Science web page.
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Morristown National Historical Park preserves, protects, and commemorates the landscapes, structures, features, and museum collections of the Continental Army winter encampments, the headquarters of General George Washington, and related Revolutionary War sites at Morristown, New Jersey for the benefit and inspiration of the public. Morristown NHP also represents a continuum of our nation’s efforts to protect our common heritage: as the very first “national historical park”, the park was also established to commemorate, preserve, and memorialize American history and heritage.
For more information about the park, please call 973-539-2016 ext. 210 or visit our website - there you’ll find updates on Morristown NHP’s big April 22nd and 23rd Spring Encampment, and other exciting events scheduled throughout the year. Also check out our Museum Blog!
