Trail of the Shadows: Welcome to the Neighborhood Exhibit Panel

Follow a spur trail into the Longmire Meadow to view this exhibit. Keep an eye out for wildlife too!

NPS Photo

Quick Facts

Location:

Trail of the Shadows, Longmire

Amenities

1 listed

Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits

Title: Settling Into History

Main Text

Tall trees at the edge of the meadow define the boundaries of a diverse wetland neighborhood. A community of animals lives within and forages upon the array of meadow plants that grow here. 

Swallows and other migrating birds come to rest, and feast upon an abundant supply of insects around the meadow. Deer browse on local plants growing near the edge. The calm meadow water is a preferred habitat where frogs mate and lay eggs. 

An underground network of mineral springs, and forest streams that flow through the meadow, generate the neighborhood's water supply. Beavers are skilled engineers that build dams which create varying water levels suitable for cattails, reeds, and grasses of different heights and colors to grow. 

Secondary Text

How do you think this neighborhood- including the animals, plants, and water sources - changes with the time of the day? Or with the change of the seasons? 

Exhibit Panel Description
A single photo of the Longmire Meadow fills the exhibit panel. In the foreground of the photo, bubbles from underground mineral springs disturb a pool of standing water surrounded by green reeds and grasses. Further into the meadow the grasses shift colors, turning yellow-brown around a section of whiteish-tan travertine ground. Dense forest surrounds the meadow, beneath a steep ridge topped in snow-dusted cliffs. The main text stretches across the upper left side of the panel. Three small photos overlap the background photo on the right side of the panel. The first photo is of a fox with silver-black fur standing in a patch of tall grass. A caption under the photo reads "Cascade red fox, Vulpes vulpes cascadensis". The middle photo, positioned to the right and slightly lower than the fox photo, is of two geese standing next the edge of a pond. A caption under the photo reads "Canada goose, Branta canadensis". Above the goose photo against the right edge of the exhibit panel, is a photo of a brown deer with short, fuzzy antlers. Beneath the photo a caption reads "Columbia black-tailed deer, Odocoileus hemionus columbianus." The secondary text is set into a small grey oval in the bottom left corner of the panel. Above the text is a small graphic of a historic gas lantern lit with a soft yellow light. 

Visit This Exhibit Panel
This exhibit panel is located in Longmire along the Trail of the Shadows, a short trail that starts across the street from the National Park Inn. Longmire is open year-round.