Hello and welcome to a program by
the National Park Service called
"Exploring Harry Truman's Hometown."
However, we won't be talking
much about Harry Truman or his
hometown in this first program.
There will be two programs here.
The first one that you're watching
now will be about the National Park
Service's National Landmark Program.
We need to cover that before we can move
on to talk about Harry S Truman Historic
District National Historic Landmark.
That's what Truman's neighborhood is called.
It will be in the second program that
we'll focus on Harry Truman's hometown.
So tune in for that one.
I'm Jeff Wade. I'm a park ranger at
Harry S Truman National Historic Site,
which is in Independence, Missouri.
The National Historic Site consists
of five houses connected to Harry
Truman. The most famous one is
what we call the Truman Home.
In addition to that house,
the park also includes what
we call the Wallace Homes.
Mrs. Truman had two brothers
who built small homes in the
backyard of the Truman home.
The one on the left is the Frank
and Natalie Wallace House.
The one on the right is the
George and May Wallace House.
Then across the street is the Noland home.
These are Harry Truman's relatives.
His Aunt and Uncle Noland lived in this house.
Also, 20 miles south of Independence,
is the town of Grandview, where Harry
Truman's grandmother's house is.
It was once a 600-acre farm where
Harry Truman lived with his family
and his grandmother for 11 years.
He was 22 years old when he moved
there and he stayed until he was 33.
This would have been the years 1906 to 1917.
The Truman Farm here is a
detached unit of Harry S
Truman National Historic Site.
Harry S Truman National Historic Site
is a unit of the National Park System.
But obviously there's more to Harry
Truman's story than just these five houses.
As I mentioned before,
the second of these programs will
be about Harry Truman's hometown,
which is a National Landmark,
and not a National Park.
So today we're going to talk about
what a National Landmark is.
What is a National Landmark?
Or you could call this program,
"What Should I Do Next Weekend?"
Let's assume you like National Parks.
I assume you do or you
wouldn't be watching this.
Let's say that you would like
to go to a National Park,
but there aren't any close to where you
live or you've already seen them all.
Where could you go for a long weekend?
Or maybe even a day trip to a
place much like a National Park?
You might want to start to explore more
than just the National Park System.
You might want to start to explore...
"The Shadow National Park System."
This is what I call the Landmark System.
The Landmark System is like a gigantic
National Park System that hides
behind the more famous Park System.
I find that a lot of people, even ones
who work for the National Park Service,
aren't quite clear about what the
National Landmark Program is all about.
The National Park Service is
responsible for a lot more than
just the National Park System.
I came up with 31 different programs other
than the National Park System that are
operated by the National Park Service.
For example, we operate the Heritage
Education Services Program,
the National Recreation Trails, and the
American Battlefield Protection Program.
There's a lot that this agency does.
The two programs that we are going to
be interested in today are the National
Historic Landmarks Program and the
National Natural Landmarks Program.
Very basically: The mission of
the National Park Service is to
preserve and protect United States
sites of national significance.
That's an important phrase,
and there's two parts to it.
"National" is the first word. That
means a place must have meaning
and significance to all Americans,
regardless of where they live
or their cultural background.
If somebody calls themselves an "American,"
then a National Park must represent
something to them about the natural
or cultural history of their country.
The second part of the phrase
is the word "significance."
The National Park Service has
some very specific criteria
that we use when we talk about
the significance of a resource.
A "resource" is whatever it is
that is being preserved.
It could be an ecosystem.
It could be a building.
So the first criterion is, "Is
whatever is being preserved
an outstanding example of a
particular type of resource?"
The second criterion is, "Does the
resource possess exceptional value
or quality for illustrating or
interpreting the natural and cultural
themes of the nation's heritage?"
"Does the resource offer superlative
opportunities for public
enjoyment or scientific study?"
Lastly, "Does whatever is
being preserved retain a high
degree of integrity as a true,
accurate, and a relatively
unspoiled example of the resource?"
I'm sure you all know some of the famous
units of the National Park System,
such as Yellowstone National Park,
Yosemite National Park in California,
and Grand Canyon National Park.
I would suspect that if you ask
most people what three places
come to mind first when they
hear the words "National Park,"
it would be those three right there.
But the National Park Service
is also responsible for places
like Roger Williams National
Memorial in Rhode Island,
Grant-Kohrs Ranch National
Historic Site in Montana,
Great Egg Harbor National Scenic and
Recreational River in New Jersey,
Cumberland Island National
Seashore in Georgia,
Little Rock Central High School
National Historic Site in Arkansas,
and City of Rocks National Reserve in Idaho.
As of mid-2021, there are 423
units in the National Park System.
All states and most territories have at
least one unit of the National Park System.
This is the most recently established one.
It's in Mississippi. It's the Medgar and
Myrlie Evers Home National Monument.
It was established on November 9th, 2020.
Both the Evers were civil rights activists.
Mr. Evers, however,
was the first prominent civil
rights activist to be assassinated.
It happened in the carport
at his home in 1963.
This event shocked people so much that
it played a large role in Congress's
passing of the 1964 Civil Rights Bill.
There's a lot of variety in the
subject matter that is included
in the National Park System.
We cover topics from the Yellowstone geysers
to the story of the American
Civil Rights Movement.
There are around 19 different
types of National Park units.
Only 63 out of the 423 are
actually called "National Parks."
For those of us who work for the
agency, it's common for us just to
refer to all of them as "parks."
But officially,
there's titles like "National
Historical Park" or "National
Memorial" or "National Parkway"
or "National Recreation Area."
None of them, however,
is called a "National Historic Landmark."
There are two types of National Landmarks:
National Historic Landmarks,
and National Natural Landmarks.
The National Historic Landmarks
came first, so let's start with them.
It was in the 1930s, specifically 1935,
when the Historic Sites Act was passed.
That was when the National
Park Service began to involve
itself in cultural preservation.
The idea was that, since we had
been taking care of the natural
history of the country at places like
Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon,
then perhaps we should also start
to preserve the cultural history
of the country as well.
The first unit to actually be called
a National Historic Site, like
Harry S Truman National Historic
Site, was Salem Maritime National
Historic Site in Massachusetts.
That was in 1938.
The National Park Service was to
identify at least 12 cultural sites per
year that were nationally significant
enough to become National Parks.
The idea was that the places
on this list would become units
of the National Park System.
So the list was begun, but a
couple of events intervened.
The Great Depression was already
going on, even by the time the
Historic Sites Act was passed.
Within just a few years after
that, World War II started.
So for a while people had
other things to think about.
But all that ended.
And then came... the 1950s.
Throughout the Depression,
people had had to do without,
because there was not much being
produced and there was so little money.
When the war came along,
people started to have
jobs again and had money,
but there was so much rationing that
they still didn't have much to spend it on.
Now that that was all over,
people were ready to start
living a good life again.
The soldiers came home,
they got married, the baby boomer
generation started to be born and lots
of young couples wanted to move to
the suburbs and have their own brand
new home loaded with all kinds of
modern conveniences like television
machines or electric ice boxes.
People started to look ahead to
the future and wanted to leave
all this old stuff behind.
People started tearing down
lots of older buildings.
The problem with this was that
the United States found itself
in danger of losing the tangible
evidence of its cultural identity.
It was during the 1950s that this
country really started to lose a
lot of its remarkable architecture.
It became obvious that most of the
sites on the potential National
Park list would never become part
of the National Park System.
So the question became, "What the real goal?"
Is the goal to create a gigantic bloated
government agency that can barely afford
to take care of what it already owns?
Or, is the goal to be sure that America's
nationally significant places
are cared for by someone, even if
it's not the National Park Service?
So this is where the National
Historic Landmark Program came from.
It was created in 1960.
There was not going to be any
federal ownership of these places,
although sometimes landmarks
happened to be on property operated
by another government agency, such
as the US Forest Service or the
US Fish and Wildlife Service.
Occasionally, a landmark does become
a unit of the National Park System,
but that's the exception, not the rule.
What the National Park Service was
going to do was only extend the
recognition of national significance.
Let's say someone lived in a
home where a historically notable
person had lived before them.
The Park Service would evaluate the house,
and if it really was nationally significant,
put it on the list of
National Historic Landmarks.
If the homeowner wanted,
the National Park Service would give them
very nice bronze plaque that they could
hang on their house if they wanted to.
If they wanted, the National Park Service
would present them the plaque at a little
ceremony to commemorate the designation.
I spoke at the ceremony when the Harry
S Truman Historic District National
Historic Landmark was designated.
But they don't have to take
the plaque. As a matter of fact,
they don't have to be on the list at all
if they don't want to. Say you bought
a piece of property that had been
designated a Landmark before you got it,
and you didn't want to be involved
in the program.
The National Park Service would
just take it off the list for you.
The main thing was that this recognition
put no limits on the owner's
use of their property.
They could do whatever they wanted
to it. If they wanted to change it so
that it didn't look historic anymore,
the National Park Service would
just take it off the list.
One thing the owner definitely
did not have to do was to open
their property to the public.
The goal of the whole program was to
encourage preservation by the owner.
By letting them know that they owned
nationally significant property,
that might make the owner think,
"Well. Maybe I should take care of this place."
Now, we've been talking about buildings,
but there are actually five types
of resources that can be designated
National Historic Landmarks.
Buildings, though, by far, are the
most common type of resource.
This is the Harriet Beecher
Stowe House in Brunswick, Maine.
Harriet Beecher Stowe
lived from 1811 to 1896.
She was an author,
humanitarian, and abolitionist.
She lived in this house from 1850 to 1852,
during which time she wrote her famous novel,
"Uncle Tom's Cabin."
That book was influential enough to
make this house nationally significant.
Therefore, it's important enough to
be a unit of the National Park System.
Another type of resource that
can be a Landmark is an Object.
An Object is something that can be moved,
such as a battleship or a submarine.
This is the "Ferdinand Magellan,"
also known as U.S. Car Number
1 National Historic Landmark.
It's in Miami,
Florida, at the Gold Coast Railroad Museum.
The car was named after
the Portuguese explorer.
It is a former Pullman company observation
car that served as presidential railcar
US Number 1 from 1943 to 1958.
Franklin Roosevelt was the first president to
use it and Dwight Eisenhower was the last.
In between them,
Harry Truman used it during his
administration from 1945 to 1953.
This was the railroad car that
he used in the 1948 Whistle Stop
Campaign when he defeated Thomas
Dewey for president that year.
There could be a National Historic
Site in the National Park System
specifically for this railroad car.
A resource that can be a National Historic
Landmark might be a Site where something
nationally significant happened.
This is the Goddard Rocket
Launching Site in Massachusetts.
Doctor Robert H.
Goddard launched the world's first
liquid propellant rocket here in 1926,
setting the course for future
developments in rocketry.
This proved that rockets could be propelled
by the emission of their own exhaust,
which meant that they
could fly in outer space.
This Site is now on the 9th hole
of a golf course in Massachusetts.
I had to ask the fellows that were
getting ready to tee off if they'd
give me a second so I could run
out and take a picture of it so
I didn't get hit by a golf ball.
Since the golf course is
there, it's unlikely that this will ever
become a unit of the National Park System,
but it is important enough to be one.
Structures are another type of
resource that can be National
Historic Landmarks.
Structures are objects that are
too large to be easily moved,
but they aren't buildings.
The Brooklyn Bridge, for instance,
is a National Historic Landmark.
It's not something that can be easily moved,
but it's not a building either.
That's the situation with the
Horn Antenna in New Jersey.
In 1965, while using this antenna, two
astronomers discovered what's called
the cosmic microwave background
radiation that permeates the universe.
This was one of the most important
discoveries in physical cosmology
since Edwin Hubble demonstrated in the
1920s that the universe was expanding.
Everything was getting further
away from everything else.
This radiation provided the evidence
that confirmed the "Big Bang" theory
of the creation of the universe.
This antenna is nationally
significant enough to include
it in the National Park System.
Historic Districts are different
from other types of resources that
can be National Historic Landmarks.
This is the J.C. Penney Historic District.
It's in Wyoming. The J.C. Penney Historic
District is a Historic District
encompassing several properties
associated with James Cash Penney.
Penny was born in Missouri in 1875,
and he lived until 1971. When he was 27,
though, he moved to Wyoming.
The Historic District includes
the Golden Rule Store,
the first in what became the
J.C. Penney department store chain.
Penny's home is also part
of the Historic District.
The Historic District is significant
for Penny's role in creating one of the
first national department store chains.
The store is still active,
so it's unlikely that it will ever become
a unit of the National Park System,
but it is nationally significant.
What makes Historic Districts
different from other resources
is that, usually, no one single
resource is important by itself.
Collectively, however,
the resources create an area
that is nationally significant.
Often they are due to an event or the
architecture in the Historic District.
An example of a Historic District that's
nationally significant in connection with
an event is the Dealey Plaza Historic
District National Historic Landmark in Texas.
Dealey Plaza was built between 1934
and 1940. It served as Dallas'
western gateway and was the focus of
civic pride prior to the tragic event
that unfolded on November 22nd, 1963:
The assassination of
President John F. Kennedy.
The Dealey Plaza Historic District is
one of only two extent presidential
assassination sites in the United States.
The other, of course, is Ford's
Theater in Washington, DC, where
President Lincoln was assassinated.
Ford's Theatre is already a unit
of the National Park System.
The Dealey Plaza Historic District
includes the plaza itself and
the Texas School Book Depository,
which is right here.
That's the Depository.
The president's car was on this road
coming towards us this direction,
and he had already passed the
Depository, so the shots
came from behind him.
A Historic District connected
to architecture is the Cape May
Historic District in New Jersey.
With over 600 summer homes,
hotels, and commercial structures,
this seashore resort has one
of the largest collections of
19th-century frame buildings
remaining in the United States.
Only San Francisco has more.
Right now there are a little less than
2,600 National Historic Landmarks in
the United States and its territories,
so this is a very select group of places.
I understand, though, that
2,600 may sound like a lot,
but let's just consider buildings.
How many buildings are
there in the United States?
We're only talking about less than 2,600
of them being nationally significant.
That's not very many.
On the other side of the coin,
can you imagine a National Park System
that would have 2,600 units in it?
Because I can't.
I don't think the National Park
System will ever be that big,
and that's why the Landmark
Program is so important.
This way somebody is taking
care of these places.
Now, let me make a distinction here.
National Landmarks are not to be
confused with sites listed on the
National Register of Historic Places.
National Landmarks automatically
go on the National Register.
But this is a mistake
a lot of people make.
The National Register
was established in 1966,
and this is another of those programs
run by the National Park Service.
Even though Landmarks
automatically go on the Register,
the Register mainly contains sites
that have only local significance.
There are more than 95,000 places on
the National Register. Independence,
Missouri, alone, where the Truman site is,
has 24 sites on the National Register.
You can imagine what a big city like
New York City or Los Angeles must have.
You can get a plaque,
but you have to get it yourself.
The National Park Service does not
provide plaques for places that
are only on the National Register.
The National Park Service's website,
however, provides guidance on the wording.
You know, you can buy these on eBay
and hang it on your house even if your
house isn't on the National Register.
I checked.
Now let's talk about the
National Natural Landmarks.
This was a companion program
to the National
Historic Landmark Program.
It was started in 1964.
And there are around 600 National
Natural Landmarks. As a matter of fact,
I think that as I record this,
there are actually 602.
The rules are the same.
There is no federal ownership.
There is only federal extension of the
recognition of national significance.
It puts no limits on owners'
use of their property.
And again, the hope is to encourage
preservation by the owner.
If the owner wants a bronze plaque,
they can get one just like they
can for the Historic Landmarks.
Remember the Landmark plaques are
provided free of charge by the
National Park Service to owners of
resources of national significance.
For resources of only the local significance,
like the places on the National
Register of Historic Places,
you have to get your own plaque.
So let's look at some examples
of these Natural Landmarks.
This is Rock City National Natural Landmark.
It's in Kansas.
Rock City is a unique cluster
of about 200 great spherical
sandstone concretions occurring
in the midst of rolling farmland.
This is the Dinosaur Trackway in Connecticut.
At least three types of reptile
have been identified from over 1,000
fossilized tracks at Dinosaur Trackway,
one of the largest known exposures of
dinosaur tracks on a single bedding plane.
Preserved in place -
they just built the museum around it -
preserved in place and representing
a single moment in time,
this site affords a rare opportunity
to study the animal life of
an ancient reptile community.
Okefenokee Swamp in Georgia is
a National Natural Landmark.
Most of it's located in the
Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge.
It's one of the largest and most
primitive swamps in the country.
It contains a diversity of ecosystems and
is a refuge for native flora and fauna,
including many uncommon threatened
and endangered species.
This is really an amazing place.
Although for me, at least, I would not
want to be on foot in a place like this.
Canaan Valley in West Virginia
contains a large aggregation of
Pleistocene habitats seldom found
in the United States. It's unique as
a northern boreal relic community
at this latitude, by virtue of its size,
elevation, and diversity.
A Pleistocene relic community is a habitat
that existed during the last Ice Age,
but remained in the area even
after the glaciers receded.
These habitats still exist,
but you would usually only expect
to find them a lot further north
where it's cold like it was in
West Virginia during the Ice Age.
Franconia Notch in New Hampshire is a
deep gorge formed by glacial movement.
It includes landscape
scars, talus slopes,
and stream-cut gorges.
This is an exciting place.
Check this out. That is a person
on a trail that has been bolted
to the wall of the gorge.
You will get wet if you visit this place.
Here's what it comes down to:
If a place is designated a National Landmark,
either "historic" or "natural,"
it's important enough to be a National Park.
A lot of people throw the term "National
Landmark" around kind of casually,
but if you're talking about something
the National Park Service
has designated a Landmark,
you're talking about something that
could be in the National Park System.
National Landmarks are of equal importance
as any unit of the National Park System.
It's like another National Park
System with over 3,000 units
that's hiding behind the more famous
National Park System that only has
423 units, and nobody knows it's there.
That's why I called the Landmark Program...
"The Shadow National Park System."
So let's go back to where
we were at the beginning.
Some people dream about visiting
every National Park they can find,
and they focus exclusively only
on the National Park System.
I meet them every day.
Sometimes they focus only
on the 63 units that are
actually called "National Parks."
Obviously, these people often miss things.
For instance, Missouri
has seven National Parks:
The Gateway Arch National
Park in Saint Louis;
George Washington Carver
National Monument in Diamond, Missouri;
the place I work, Harry S Truman National
Historic Site in Independence;
Ozark National Scenic Riverways, which
has its headquarters in Van Buren, Missouri;
Sainte Genevieve National Historical
Park in Sainte Genevieve, Missouri.
This is the second most recently
established National Park unit right now.
It only consists of two houses,
though, one of which is not open to
the public because the Park Service
is using it for offices right now.
Ulysses S. Grant National Historic
Site is in Saint Louis. Ulysses S.
Grant lived here with his wife's family
for four years before the Civil War.
The last National Park in
Missouri is Wilson's Creek
National Battlefield in Republic.
So let's say it again,
you're looking for something
National Park-like to go see.
Let's say that you were to limit
yourself just to Missouri.
If you focused only on units
of the National Park System,
you would have only seven
sites to choose from.
But if you threw in all the
National Historic Landmarks and
the National Natural Landmarks,
your number of choices would grow to...
60 nationally significant sites.
If all these Landmarks were part
of the National Park System,
Missouri would have 60 National
Parks instead of just seven.
The circles are the counties
where the National Parks are.
The Gateway Arch and Ulysses S. Grant are
both in the same county. Seven parks,
but only six circles.
The other burnt orange-colored
counties are where the Landmarks are.
You can see how much more
spread out the Landmarks are.
Only 12% of Missouri's
nationally significant sites
are actually National Parks.
Which is about the way the nation goes.
Only 13% of sites recognized as nationally
significant by the National Park Service
are included in the National Park System.
So, nationally, instead of focusing
on the National Park System and
having only 423 places to visit,
throw in all the National Historic and
Natural Landmarks, and suddenly your
number of choices grows up to over..
3,200 units. That is one
big National Park System.
Now, some of these must be close to
home because there's so many of them.
And these are good places to
consider for weekend or day trips.
If you can't make it to a National Park,
check out the closest National Landmark.
If you want to know more about
all this, check our website.
If you visit a National Park,
please do not rely on third-party websites.
Go to nps.gov.
That's the web address of the National
Park Service where you can find out all
you need to know about every National Park,
all the Landmarks, all those programs
we talked about at the beginning,
all the places on the National Register.
You can even find out why our
uniforms look like they do.
NPS - National Park Service -
nps.gov - that's the place to check.
In the second video in this
little two-part series,
we will take an in-depth look at a
specific National Historic Landmark,
Harry S Truman Historic District
National Historic Landmark,
and explore Harry Truman's hometown.
I took most of the pictures myself,
but for those that I didn't,
here are the credits.
You can pause that if you want
to look at it more closely.
And
until next time, start to explore
"The Shadow National Park System."
I will see you the next time around.