National Park Service History Electronic Library & Archive
The NPS History Electronic
Library & Archive is a portal to electronic publications covering the history of
the National Park Service (NPS) and the cultural and natural history of the national
parks, monuments, and historic sites of the U.S. National Park System. The
information contained in this Website is historical in scope and is
not meant as an aid for travel planning; please refer to the official
NATIONAL
PARK SERVICE Website for current/additional information. While we are not affiliated
with the National Park Service, we gratefully acknowledge the contributions
by park employees and advocates, which has enabled us to create this free
digital repository.
New eLibrary Additions
Below is an incomplete archive (only 7,253 issues) of
NPS Morning Reports (some are only the Blackberry/Summary Editions)
along with a complete collection of Coalition (Weekly) Reports (courtesy The Coalition to Protect
America's National Parks). Please see the provisions/limitations
section toward the bottom of the following Web page regarding this
archive of Reports. In addition, the Incidents section of these Reports
has been duplicated and are listed chronologically by park unit. Our
thanks to Bill Halainen (the long-time editor) for providing us with
these copies and the Coalition for granting us permission to continue to
post their most current editions.
NPS Morning Reports / Coalition Reports (Field Incident Reports, National Park Service courtesy Bill Halainen, 1986-1988; NPS Morning Reports, National Park Service courtesy Bill Halainen, 1989-2015; Coalition Reports courtesy The Coalition to Protect America's National Parks, 2017-2022)
Featured Publication
 cover only Requiem for America's Best Idea: National Parks in the Era of Climate Change (Michael J. Youchim, 2022)
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Historic Resource Study: Chalmette Unit, Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve (Jerome A. Greene, September 1985)
Archeological Assessment: Barataria Unit, Jean Lafitte National Park and Preserve Southwest Cultural Resources Center Professional Papers No. 10 (John Stuart Speaker, Joanna Chase, Carol Poplin, Herschel Franks and R. Christopher Goodwin, December 12, 1986)
Archaeological Investigations of Six Spanish Colonial Period Sites, Barataria Unit, Jean Lafitte National Park and Preserve, Louisiana Southwest Cultural Resources Center Professional Papers No. 25 (Jill-Karen Yakubik w/Herschel A. Franks and Marco J. Giardino, 1989)
Archeological Survey on 65 Acres of Land Adjacent to Bayou de Familles, Barataria Unit, Jean Lafitte National Park and Preserve, Louisiana Southwest Cultural Resources Center Professional Papers No. 26 (Herschel A. Franks and Jill-Karen Yakubik w/Marco J. Giardino, 1990)
Terre Haute de Barataria: An Historic Upland on an Old River Distributary Overtaken by Forest in the Barataria Unit of the Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve Monograph XI (©Betsy Swanson, 1991)
2020: A Year in Review Preserving and Interpreting World War II Japanese American Confinement Sites (Winter 2021)
Personal Justice Denied: Report of the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians, Part 1 (December 1982)
Historic Resource Study: Kay Moor New River Gorge National River, West Virginia (Sharon A. Brown, July 1990)
Location Study: Davis Tavern Site, Cumberland Gap National Historical Park, Kentucky-Tennessee-Virginia (Ricardo Torres-Reyes, December 2, 1969)
Historic Structure Report, Historical Data Section: The Delaware Aqueduct, Upper Delaware National Scenic and Recreational River, New York-Pennsylvania (Harlan D. Unrau, September 1983)
Demography of Grizzly Bears in Relation to Hunting and Mining Development in Northwestern Alaska Scientific Monograph NPS/NRARO/NRSM-93/23 (Warren B. Ballard, Lee Anne Ayres, Daniel J. Reed, Steven G. Fancy, Kathryn E. Roney, 1993)
National Park Service Geologic Type Section Inventory, Pacific Island Inventory & Monitoring Network NPS Natural Resource Report NPS/PACN/NRR-2022-2371 (Tim C. Henderson, Vincent L. Santucci, Tim Connors and Justin S. Tweet, April 2022)
National Park Service Geologic Type Section Inventory, Central Alaska Inventory & Monitoring Network NPS Natural Resource Report NPS/CAKN/NRR-2022/2369 (Tim C. Henderson, Vincent L. Santucci, Tim Connors and Justin S. Tweet, April 2022)
Shoreline Change at Gulf Islands National Seashore, Florida and Mississippi: 2018-2021 Data Summary NPS Natural Resource Data Series NPS/GULN/NRDS-2022/1348 (Jeff Bracewell, March 2022)
Women's History in the Pacific West (University of California Davis, April 2022)
Glaciers of the Olympic Mountains, WashingtonThe Past and Future 100 Years (Andrew G. Fountain, Christina Gray,, Bryce Glenn, Brian Menounos, Justin Pflug and Jon L. Riedel, extract from Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface, March 8, 2022)
Vegetation Community Monitoring Trends in Restored Tallgrass Prairie at Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield, Missouri: 2008-2020 NPS Natural Resource Data Series NPS/HTLN/NRDS—2022/2368 (Sherry A. Leis, March 2022)
Length-based risk analysis of management options for the southern Florida USA multispecies coral reef fish fishery (Jerald S. Ault, Steven G. Smith, Matthew W. Johnson, Laura Jay W. Grove, James A. Bohnsack, Gerard T. DiNardo, Caroline McLaughlin, Nelson M. Ehrhardt, Vanessa McDonough, Michael P. Seki, Steven L. Miller, Jiangang Luo, Jeremiah Blondeau, Michael P. Crosby, Glenn Simpson, Mark E. Monaco, Clayton G. Pollock, Michael W. Feeley, Alejandro Acosta, extract from Fisheries Research, Vol. 249, February 9, 2022)
Exclusionary effects of campsite allocation through reservations in U.S. national parks: Evidence from mobile device location data (William L. Rice, Jaclyn R. Rushing, Jennifer M. Thomsen and Peter Whitney, extract from Journal of Park and Recreation Administration, 2022)
National Park System: What Do the Different Park Titles Signify? Congressional Research Service R41816 (Laura B. Comay, February 20, 2013)
Training Methods 5th Edition (Dave Dahlen and Connie Backlund, 1991)
Ethnographic Overview & Assessment, Piscataway Park (Julia A. King, Travis Hanson and Scott M. Strickland, 2021)
Traditional Use and User Groups Study, Aniakchak National Monument and Preserve Draft (Douglas Deur, July 2007)
Resource Brief: Historic Storms in Denali (December 2021) (January 2022)
Native Place Names Mapping in Denali National Park and Preserve Draft Final Report (James Kari, August 1999, revised December 1999)
The Lost History of Yellowstone (Richard Grant, Smithsonian Magazine, January 2021)
Of Various Magnificence: The Architectural History of the San Antonio Missions in the Colonial Period and the Nineteenth Century (James E. Ivey, Center for Cultural Sustainability, University of Texas at San Antonio, undated)
Mission Espada North Gate: Documentation, Condition Assessment, and Treatment Plan (Center for Cultural Sustainability, The University of Texas at San Antonio, November 2019)
Historic Structure Report: Mission Concepción Convento (Center for Cultural Sustainability, The University of Texas at San Antonio, 2019)
Historic Structure Report: Mission San José Convento (Center for Cultural Sustainability, The University of Texas at San Antonio, 2019)
Economic Impact of the San Antonio Missions National Historic Parks (Center for Cultural Sustainability, The University of Texas at San Antonio, March 2011)
Featured Publication
 cover only Crafting Preservation Criteria: The National Register of Historic Places and American Historic Preservation (John H. Sprinkle, Jr., 2014)
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Recording Historic Structures & Sites for the Historic American Engineering Record (Richard K. Anderson, Jr., ed., 1994)
Historic American Buildings Survey / Historic American Engineering Record: An Annotated Bibliography (James C. Massey, Nancy B. Schwartz and Shirley Maxwell, comp., 1992)
New Perspectives on Haberdeventure Plantation in Charles County, Maryland, 1770-1787: A Historic Resource Study of Thomas Stone National Historic Site, Port Tobacco, Maryland (Amy Speckart, February 2022)
Cultural Landscape Report for Johnstown Flood National Memorial (Jennifer G. Hanna, Emelyn Najera, Kelsey Little and H. Eliot Foulds, 2021)
Cultural Landscape Report: King Family Home, Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historical Park (WLA Studio, August January 2022)
Cultural Landscape Report: Allenbrook, Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area (WLA Studio, September 2001)
Cultural Landscape Report: Island Ford Lodge, Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area (WLA Studio, October 2001)
Historic Resource Context Study Cedar Creek and Belle Grove National Historical Park in Frederick, Shenandoah, and Warren Counties, Virginia (David W. Lewes and William H. Moore, William and Mary Center for Archaeological Research, December 20, 2013)
Research and Documentation of the Agricultural Landscape and Agricultural Economy: Cedar Creek and Belle Grove National Historical Park (Brian Katen, Mlntai Kim and Christine Calorusso, January 2020)
Historic Structures Report: Old Housing Historic District, Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah (Center for Cultural Sustainability, The University of Texas at San Antonio, c2016)
Historic Structure Report: Utah Parks Company Service Station, Bryce Canyon National Park (Preservation Studies Program, The University of Arizona, November 2005)
Best Practices in Stone Building Preservation Management (Center for Cultural Sustainability, The University of Texas at San Antonio, December 2021)
Architectural/Historic Survey of Route 66 in Missouri Summary Report (Maura Johnson, June 1993)
Historic Resources Survey, Route 66 through Texas: Historic Context Final Draft (Monica Penick and Gregory Smith, March 2005)
Cyclical Maintenance for Historic Buildings (J. Henry Chambers, 1976)
Keeping it Clean: Removing Exterior Dirt, Paint, Stains and Graffiti from Historic Masonry Buildings (Anne E. Grimmer, 1988)
Caring for the Past: Landscapes, Battlefields,, Landmarks, Federal Preservation Historic Preservation Publications (1997)
Caring for the Past: Mapping & Information Services for Cultural Resources (1997)
Caring for the Past: Preserving, Rehabilitating and Restoring Historic Buildings Historic Preservation Publications (1996-1997)
Landscape Culture: A newsletter for NPS cultural landscape stewards (Spring 2022)
Damaged and Threatened National Historic Landmarks 1995 (c1996)
America's Historic Landmarks at Risk: The Secretary of the Interior's Report to the 105th Congress on Threatened National Historic Landmarks (c1997)
National Historic Landmarks at the Millennium: A Report to Congress and the American People 2000-2001 (c2001)
List of National Historic Landmarks by State: National Historic Landmarks Survey (July 2001)
NPS Reading List
Historic Building Interiors: An Annotated Bibliography (Anne Grimmer, comp., 1989)
Historic Concrete: An Annotated Bibliography (Adrienne Beaudet Cowden, comp., 1993)
Historic Masonry Deterioration and Repair Techniques: An Annotated Bibliography (Catherine Carosino, John Carr, Millan Galland, Janel Houten, Molly Lambert and Ana Sanchez, comp., 1993)
Maintaining Historic Buildings: An Annotated Bibliography (Kaye Ellen Simonson, comp., 1990)
Making Educated Decisions: A Landscape Preservation Bibliography (Charles A. Birnbaum, Cheryl Wagner and Jean S. Jones, comp., 1994)
Making Educated Decisions 2: A Landscape Preservation Bibliography (Charles A. Birnbaum and Heather L. Barrett, eds., 2000)
Painting Historic Buildings: Materials and Techniques: An Annotated Bibliography (Marianne Bevil, Meredith Fiske and Anne-Leslie Owens, comp., 1993)
Pioneers of American Landscape Design (Charles A. Birnbaum and Lisa E. Crowder, eds., 1993)
Pioneers of American Landscape Design II: An Annotated Bibliography (Charles A. Birnbaum and Julie K. Fix, eds., 1995)
Preserving Historic Landscapes: An Annotated Bibliography (Lauren Meier and Betsy Chittenden, comp., 1990)
Preserving Historic Lighthouses: An Annotated Bibliography (Camille M. Martone, Lauren McCroskey and Sharon C. Park, comp., 1989)
Preserving Wood Features in Historic Buildings: An Annotated Bibliography (Erica C. Avrami, comp., 1993)
Twentieth-Century Building Materials: 1900-1950: An Annotated Bibliography (George M. Bleeman III, Ann Girard, Karin Link, Donald Peting, Anne Seaton, Jonathan Smith, Lisa Teresi-Burcham and Richa Wilson, comp., 1993)
Francis Marion National Forest: Cultural Resources Overview (David G. Anderson and Patricia A. Logan, April 1981)
For the Trees: An Illustrated History of the Ozark-St. Francis National Forests, 1908-1978 (Sharon M.W. Bass, 1981)
The Work of the Civilian Conservation Corps: Pioneering Conservation in Louisiana U.S Forest Service General Technical Report SRS-154 (James P. Barnett and Anna C. Burns, May 2016)
Campfire Safety (August 1960)

Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve (Harpers Ferry Center)
NPS REFLECTIONS

Chenier Grand Coquilles in Barataria Preserve, Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve. (Courtney A. Schupp photo)
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Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve
Brief Description of the Park
In creating Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve in
1978, Congress recognized the Mississippi Delta region as an area of
national significance, in terms of its natural, cultural, and historical
resources. At the mouth of the Mississippi River and the gateway to the
interior of the North American continent, the region has long been a
focus of economic, political, and cultural activities. The region
contains the largest and most productive estuarine and wetland system on
the continent, and the wetlands of the Delta are among the most
extensive and productive in the United States.
In 1939, Chalmette National Historical Park, the first unit of the
national park system in Louisiana, was established on the east bank of
the Mississippi River below New Orleans to preserve a portion of the
site of the 1815 Battle of New Orleans. In 1966, Louisiana proposed a
state park named for Jean Lafitte, a French pirate and privateer, to be
established at the present site of the Barataria Preserve. Although
advocates of the state park concept emphasized wetlands preservation and
recreational needs in the Jefferson and Orleans Parish areas, no funds
for land acquisition or lease of property for such a park was authorized
by the state. Eventually, the supporters of expansion of Chalmette
National Historical Park and state park proponents found a champion in
Senator J. Bennett Johnston, and their efforts culminated in the
establishment of Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve in
1978. The enabling legislation was amended in 1988 by Public Law 100-250
to authorize the establishment of folklife centers in the Acadian
region. This expanded the park into six geographically separate units in
south Louisiana that are managed as three administrative units: the
Crescent City Unit (including the French Quarter site in New Orleans,
and in neighboring Chalmette, Louisiana, the Chalmette Battlefield and
Chalmette National Cemetery), the Barataria Preserve Unit, and the
Acadian Unit (the Prairie Acadian Cultural Center in Eunice, Louisiana,
the Acadian Cultural Center in Lafayette, Louisiana, and the Wetlands
Acadian Cultural Center in Thibodaux, Louisiana). The historical figure
Jean Lafitte was associated with the three original sites of the park:
he roamed the streets of New Orleans’ French Quarter, he navigated the
swamps of the Barataria Preserve for smuggling contraband and slaves,
and he helped the Americans win the Battle of New Orleans at Chalmette
Battlefield.
Laid out in 1722 on the bank of the Mississippi River as the colony’s
principal settlement, the French Quarter is the cultural heart of
present day New Orleans. It is a historic/cultural area of local,
regional, state, national, and international significance and tourist
interest, and it is listed as the Vieux Carré National Historic District
in the National Register of Historic Places. The French Quarter unit of
Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve houses the Laura C.
Hudson Visitor Center and the park headquarters.

Chalmette Unit. (Larry E. James/National Register of Historic Places photo)
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The Chalmette Battlefield and National Cemetery is located in
Chalmette, Louisiana, approximately six miles southeast of downtown New
Orleans in a highly industrialized corridor along the east bank of the
Mississippi River. The battlefield preserves a portion of the former
agricultural landscape on which the January 8, 1815, Battle of New
Orleans was fought. Non-battle-related features such as the
Malus-Beauregard House (c. 1833) or the trace of the Fazendeville
community (c. 1867–1964) emphasize the multiple layers of Chalmette’s
history. These features hold historical, cultural, and ethnographic
significance in their own right. The land acquisition of the
Fazendeville community was instrumental in the expansion of the
battlefield as we know it today. The Chalmette National Cemetery holds
graves of American veterans from the Revolutionary War to the Vietnam
War.
Barataria Preserve is located in southeastern Louisiana approximately
15 miles from downtown New Orleans in the upper freshwater zone of the
Barataria Basin. The 20,000-acre preserve houses numerous facilities
including the Barataria Visitor Center, the Environmental Education
Center, and numerous hiking and canoeing trails. The visitor center
exhibits exceptional examples of natural and cultural resources
reflective of the Mississippi River Delta.
The Acadian units interpret the Acadian culture of the Mississippi
Delta region at each of the park’s three cultural centers. Located in
contrasting ecological and economic zones, the three centers demonstrate
the variation of cultural and economic outputs that have evolved in
relationship to the natural environment. The Acadian Cultural Center in
Lafayette presents the history of the Acadian (Cajun) people who settled
southeast Louisiana, and it offers a museum, bayou boat tours, music,
and cultural folklife programs. The Wetlands Acadian Cultural Center in
Thibodaux offers a museum, jam sessions with local musicians, French
Cajun language instruction workshops, and history walks that focus on
the story of Louisiana’s bayou country. The Prairie Acadian Cultural
Center in Eunice focuses on prairie lifeways of Cajun culture told
through museum exhibits, music, dancing, craft demonstrations, cooking
demonstrations, and the Saturday night "Rendez-vous-Des Cajuns” where
traditional and contemporary Cajun and Creole Zydeco music in the Grand
Ole Opry style is played at the historic Liberty Theater.

Swamp in Barataria Preserve, Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve. (Urbatsch photo)
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Park Significance
Significance statements express why a park’s resources and values are
important enough to merit designation as a unit of the national park
system. These statements are linked to the purpose of Jean Lafitte
National Historical Park and Preserve, and are supported by data,
research, and consensus. Statements of significance describe the
distinctive nature of the park and why an area is important within a
global, national, regional, and systemwide context. They focus on the
most important resources and values that will assist in park planning
and management.
The following significance statements have been identified for Jean
Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve. (Please note that the
sequence of the statements does not reflect the level of
significance.)
The park’s Acadian cultural centers trace the transformation of
Canada’s Acadians to Louisiana’s Cajuns, descendants of Acadian exiles,
as they adapted to their new home’s physical and cultural
environments.
Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve connects
people to places to experience the living legacy of south Louisiana’s
blend of diaspora cultures from Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Caribbean.
Together with the indigenous American Indian cultures that have thrived
in this dynamic natural environment, their stories and lifeway are
shared with park visitors.
Chalmette Battlefield commemorates the 1815 Battle of New Orleans
and those soldiers who died during this last major engagement of the War
of 1812. The American victory shaped new ideas of American identity,
encouraged American expansionism, began an era of national pride, and
had broad and lasting consequences on the American Indian population and
homelands.
The Chalmette National Cemetery is a commemorative site
established as a Civil War cemetery in 1864. It is the final resting
place for more than 15,000 interments from every major U.S. conflict
between the American Revolution and Vietnam.
Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve tells the
story of New Orleans, a cultural crossroads for more than 300 years. A
colonial French African population and culture helped shape the city by
preserving the city’s Creole culture, which produced distinctive
architecture, food, music, legal framework, and customs.
The Barataria Preserve provides a glimpse of the Mississippi
River Delta’s natural world, and its interactions with humans from
pre-European contact to the present, a "cumulatively man-altered
landscape” that has changed over time. The river’s creation of the land
over thousands of years, the wide biodiversity of plants and wildlife,
ecosystems from bottomland hardwood forest to deepwater swamp to one of
the world’s largest expanses of rare, floating freshwater peat marsh,
and evidence of human occupation, reveal a complex interrelationship
between natural and human history in the Mississippi River
Delta.

Barataria Preserve Audio Tour Stop 7, Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve. (NPS photo)
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Fundamental Resources and Values
Fundamental resources and values (FRVs) are those features, systems,
processes, experiences, stories, scenes, sounds, smells, or other
attributes determined to warrant primary consideration during planning
and management processes because they are essential to achieving the
purpose of the park and maintaining its significance. Fundamental
resources and values are closely related to a park’s legislative purpose
and are more specific than significance statements.
Fundamental resources and values help focus planning and management
efforts on what is truly significant about the park. One of the most
important responsibilities of NPS managers is to ensure the conservation
and public enjoyment of those qualities that are essential (fundamental)
to achieving the purpose of the park and maintaining its significance.
If fundamental resources and values are allowed to deteriorate, the park
purpose and/or significance could be jeopardized.
The following fundamental resources and values have been identified
for Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve:
Cultural Lifeways of the Lower
Mississippi River Delta – The park interprets and perpetuates
cultural lifeways of Louisiana’s Lower Mississippi River Delta Region.
Such lifeways include language, food, music, art, and customs.
Traditions such as ceremonial practices and cultural organizations are
also highlighted. In accordance with the park’s establishing
legislation, traditional uses such as hunting, trapping, and fishing
continue to be practiced in the Barataria Preserve as a continuation of
the relationship between human communities and the delta
landscape.
Dynamic Delta Landscape –
The Mississippi River Delta, created by the interaction of one of the
world’s great rivers with the Gulf of Mexico, has created a dynamic
landscape shaped by complex geologic processes and climate influences on
both local and continental scales that give rise to diverse and highly
productive wetlands. This low gradient landscape is experiencing rapid
change including the highest rate of relative sea level rise and land
loss in North America, providing a living laboratory for understanding
consequences of climate change and human engineering, impacts of
hydrologic modifications, and opportunities for adaptation.
Barataria Cultural Landscape
– The fertile estuaries of the Lower Mississippi River Delta have
provided a rich matrix for human beings throughout its short geologic
existence, and the cultural landscape at the Barataria Preserve includes
a nearly complete chronology of human habitation in the area as
exemplified by prehistoric shell midden complexes; legacies of colonial,
plantation, and 20th century agriculture; and the physical imprints of
land uses including navigation, logging, hunting, trapping, fishing, and
oil and gas exploration, development, and transportation, some of which
continue today.
Barataria Wetlands
Ecosystems – The Barataria Preserve protects representative
samples of a highly productive delta landscape including a significant
remnant bottomland hardwood forest, deepwater swamps, and the eastern
edge of one of the largest expanses of rare, floating freshwater peat
marsh in the world. As part of a large coastal wetland ecosystem, these
wetlands provide habitat for diverse and abundant plants and animals.
Among other services, they help support one of the most productive
seafood harvests in the United States, and they buffer major
concentrations of development from the effects of climate change and
storm events.
Chalmette National Cemetery
– The Chalmette National Cemetery is a contemplative landscape that
commemorates the military service of more than 10 generations of
Americans. It includes more than 15,000 interments spanning the
Revolutionary War, War of 1812, Civil War, Indian Wars, Spanish-American
War, World Wars I and II, and the Vietnam War. The cemetery is also a
noteworthy final resting place for approximately 700 United States
Colored Troops and 100 Buffalo Soldiers. Cultural landscape features
include post-and-panel brick walls, an iron entrance gate, the
Superintendent’s Lodge complex, the Grand Army of the Republic Monument,
the gridded organization of grave markers, and relic allées of trees
that line the main drive. The cemetery was closed to further interments
in 1945 except for exceptional cases, such as the Vietnam
burials.
Chalmette Battlefield – The
Chalmette Battlefield contains archeological and landscape elements of
the most significant land battle of the War of 1812. Landscape elements
include the battlefield, trees, levees, rampart, and the Rodriguez
Canal. The battlefield also contains commemorative memorials, including
the historic Chalmette Monument and Spotts Marker, as well as the
proposed site of the "Passage to Unity” commemorative work that
recognizes fallen British soldiers.
Museum Collections and
Archives – The park museum collection supports research and
scholarship on a wide variety of topics: natural history specimens with
associated field records; archeological objects systematically recovered
from within the park’s boundaries with associated field records;
historic objects; tools and equipment; furnishings and household items
related to the Barataria Preserve and the Acadian Culture; and various
military implements and materials related to the Battle of New Orleans.
The archives consist primarily of resource management and administrative
documentation.
Cultural Connections –
Community collaborations are needed to carry out the park’s mission
related to its diverse cultures and the tangible and intangible
expressions of the culture and heritage of living communities. Working
with a broad range of formal and informal organizations, the park
facilitates connections to present and past cultures of Louisiana’s
Lower Mississippi River Delta Region. These collaborations increase
crosscultural appreciation for the cultural traditions of
others.

Malus Beauregard House. (NPS photo)
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Other Important Resources and Values
Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve contains other
resources and values that are not fundamental to the purpose of the park
and may be unrelated to its significance, but are important to consider
in planning processes. These are referred to as "other important
resources and values” (OIRV). These resources and values have been
selected because they are important in the operation and management of
the park and warrant special consideration in park planning.
Other important resources and values for the park include but are not
limited to the following:
El Camino Real de Barataria (the
royal road of Barataria) – The Spanish named it "El Camino Real
de Barataria,” for it was owned by their king. It now exists only as a
remnant of the public road built by the Spanish colonial government
(1763–1803). It was known in French as "Le Chemin de Barataria” and in
English as "Barataria Road.” Some of the Isleños settled in houses along
this road located in the Pecan Grove area of the Barataria Preserve. It
is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
Malus-Beauregard House (c.
1833) – This historic building is an excellent example of
French-Louisiana architecture and was built after the Battle of New
Orleans, c. 1833. It is a summer home that was built on Chalmette
Battlefield and never associated with a plantation. It served as a
country residence for a succession of people in the 19th century, and is
named for René Beauregard, its last owner, the son of the Civil War
Confederate General, P. G. T. Beauregard.
Fazendeville (1867–1964) –
Fazendeville is the site of an African American community once located
on the Chalmette Battlefield site. Referred to as "the Village” by many
of its residents, Fazendeville now constitutes only their memories of a
once thriving and vibrant community during its almost 100-year existence
as a river settlement.

Chalmette Battlefield and National Cemetery. (NPS photo)
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Interpretive Themes
Interpretive themes are often described as the key stories or
concepts that visitors should understand after visiting a park—they
define the most important ideas or concepts communicated to visitors
about a park unit. Themes are derived from, and should reflect, park
purpose, significance, resources, and values. The set of interpretive
themes is complete when it provides the structure necessary for park
staff to develop opportunities for visitors to explore and relate to all
park significance statements and fundamental and other important
resources and values.
Interpretive themes are an organizational tool that reveal and
clarify meaning, concepts, contexts, and values represented by park
resources. Sound themes are accurate and reflect current scholarship and
science. They encourage exploration of the context in which events or
natural processes occurred and the effects of those events and
processes. Interpretive themes go beyond a mere description of the event
or process to foster multiple opportunities to experience and consider
the park and its resources. These themes help explain why a park story
is relevant to people who may otherwise be unaware of connections they
have to an event, time, or place associated with the park.
The following interpretive themes have been identified for Jean
Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve:
For centuries, the transformative currents of the Mississippi
River have altered southeast Louisiana’s landscape and influenced the
peoples who have made the delta their home, providing land for
communities, plentiful food sources, and acting as conduit for cultural
exchange.
The War of 1812 and the American victory at the Battle of New
Orleans fueled national pride, catapulted Andrew Jackson into national
prominence and the presidency, and led to a watershed moment in the
shaping of the national identity of the United States.
The Battle of New Orleans drew together people of different
races, ethnicities, religions, social classes, and cultures to win the
last major battle of the War of 1812, and this cultural interchange
continues to play a vital role in the identity of southern Louisiana
today.
Southeast Louisiana’s natural history is shaped by the unending
conversation between the Mississippi River, the Gulf of Mexico, and the
consequences of human activities.
Cajun culture began with the Acadian exile from Canada and
resettlement in Louisiana, and it survived due to complex interactions
with other cultures and a fertile and dynamic landscape.
Creoles in Louisiana—those who are "native-born,” descended from
the colonial settlers in Louisiana, especially those of French, Spanish,
and African descent, as well as American Indian ancestry—have had a
major impact on Louisiana’s culture, particularly in shaping the
distinct cuisine, music, and language found across the state.
South Louisiana’s culture is best experienced personally—through
dances, live music, the smell and taste of traditional foods, the unique
Cajun language, the oral story traditions, family stories—all of which
animate and give deeper meaning to everyday life.
From the colonial Code Noir and Governor Alejandro Conde de
O’Reilly’s ban of the American Indian slave trade, to the 1896 Supreme
Court ruling codifying "separate but equal” practices, to the 1960
integration of its public schools, to the devastation of Hurricane
Katrina, New Orleans has played a critical role in the social and legal
civil rights struggle of Americans.
The park’s six sites reflect a broad range of the Gulf Coast’s
human and natural history: the beauty of the Louisiana wetlands,
centuries of human activity interacting with natural forces, the
consequences of climate change and rising sea levels, the problems of
invasive species and wetlands loss, and the opportunity to learn from
the past and take action for the future.
Text from Foundation Document, April 2015

Marsh Overlook Trail, Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve. (NPS photo)
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huge debt of gratitude is extended to all NPS employees (current
and former) and other park supporters who have graciously contributed
their personal collections, thus enabling us to present these rather
scarce documents for free public use. Due diligence has been employed in
scanning these documents in an attempt to ensure the accuracy of the
materials presented, however, we make no representations or warranties
of any kind about these digital documents. While most of the content
contained herein is in the public domain, the Website also contains
copyrighted works (permission to host this content is on file); please
respect the reserved rights of these copyright-holders. Use of this
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any loss or damage arising from information or links contained within
this site. Enjoy!
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