Recent Stories
Fast-paced Cajun music draws dancers
NEW ORLEANS — Lou Neville jerks the bow of his fiddle back and forth with an aggression and fervor that would make Charlie Daniels blush. Neville, along with his four-member band—which includes a steel guitarist, a drummer and a woman on the harmonica—is playing authentic Cajun music at Michaul’s, aRead More…
Parks prepared for natural disasters
America’s national parks cannot prevent Mother Nature from her wrath, but preparation, planning, and help from federal, state and local governments can minimize the peril and damage. When a disaster occurs, managers of public places such as national parks must be ready to respond. Each national park must deal withRead More…
Parks popular as movie locations
When people think of national parks, movies aren’t usually the first thing that comes to mind. The national parks aren’t just providing a home for wildlife, but they’re also providing gorgeous locations for Hollywood to use when shooting its movies. According to the internet database website (www.idbm.com) these movies haveRead More…
Parks balance overcrowding, preservation
The U.S. National Park Service and its 392 different locations have hosted almost record numbers of visitors in recent years. In response, many of the parks have created plans to handle the large crowds. In 2009, about 285 million people visited one of the various parks, which is the highestRead More…
Urban parks offer different experience
National monuments, iconic symbols, and rosy-red brick buildings may not be what come to mind when thinking about a national park. But they are part of our collection of American national parks. And they are the most often found in our cities. An urban national park is often made upRead More…
Cell phones helpful, but their use is limited
Nothing is better than a stroll through one of our national parks on a cool summer day, but park visitors need to always be well prepared for any unexpected occurrences. Park visitors are usually well aware of the fact that cell phones are not very reliable in general. So itRead More…
Parks work to attract minority visitors
Last summer, Yosemite National Park Ranger Shelton Johnson saw something he doesn’t see on a regular basis: an African American family admiring the natural beauty of one of America’s national parks. It was a moment that Johnson wishes all families, especially minority families, could share together. That family taking inRead More…
Volunteers, hard work keep parks clean
The roughly 300 million people who visit our national park system each year leave behind a lot of trash. Unfortunately, not all of it makes its way to the proper place. Despite public awareness campaigns and the installation of receptacles throughout the parks, trash and litter control remains a priority.Read More…
Foreigners face language barrier in parks
Throughout the year, there are foreign tourists that visit prestigious national parks around the nation. The best part of visiting these magnificent parks is to experience the wonders one has never encountered. But what happens to those few visitors who cannot understand the displays or exhibits because they do notRead More…
Sunsets, starry nights perfect for romance
FLORIDA CITY, Fla. — Mud, alligators, mosquitoes and swamp. The sprawling water, sawgrass and marshes of the Everglades National Park, just south and west of Miami, don’t exactly scream romance. The Everglades is the largest sub-tropical stretch of wilderness in the U.S., and it is the only national park createdRead More…
Everglades visit fun, educational for families
SHARK VALLEY, Fla.— The Everglades is actually a very slow moving river that is made up of 80 percent grass and water. The rest of the area is land that was once inhabited by Indian tribes. The two main tribes of the area were the Calusa and the Tequesta tribes.Read More…
Acadian Center preserves regional music
THIBODAUX, La.—While the soulful flavor of saxophones, trumpets and a wailing piano inject the sultry streets of New Orleans with color and movement, communities located just an hour outside of the city pulse with a different sort of lifeblood. It is the rich reedy call of the accordion and theRead More…