NATIONAL PARK SERVICE Who am I? Reflections on the Meaning Of Parks on the Occasion of The Nation's Bicentennial

"Within national parks is room—room in which to find ourselves, in which to think and hope, to dream and plan, to rest and resolve."

Enos Mills in
John Muir of the Rockies

As the United States celebrates its 200th birthday, millions of Americans and people from other lands will be visiting National Park System sites to see where the Revolutionary War battles were fought, where the major philosophical ideas were debated, and how people lived their daily lives in colonial America.

Though our attention may be drawn to these places directly related to the War of Independence, we must keep in mind that we have ties to all of America, that our heritage goes back to prehistoric Indians, to European explorers of the New World, to the frontiersmen, and to the land and the sea.

Who we are as a people and who we are as individuals are questions important to all of us.

Freeman Tilden, an author who has distinguished himself as an interpreter of the nation's parklands, has pondered these questions a long time. After an extended tour of the parks a few years ago, he recorded his views on our national and individual identity—reflections that seem particularly appropriate on the 200th anniversary of those events which did so much to mold our government and our character.

Today, as we observe the nation's Bicentennial in parks directly or indirectly associated with the American Revolution, I invite you to look behind the pageants and reflect with Freeman Tilden on the eternal human question, "Who Am I?"

Gary E. Everhardt
Director, National Park Service