NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
                           MORNING REPORT


To:         All National Park Service Areas and Offices

From:       Division of Ranger Activities, Washington Office

Day/Date:   Thursday, December 14, 2000

ALMANAC

On this date in 1902, Julia Dent Grant, Ulysses S. Grant's widow, 
died.  She was interred beside her husband in Grant's Tomb, later 
designated General Grant National Memorial, in New York City.

INCIDENTS

00-744 - New River Gorge NR (WV) - Illegal BASE Jumping 

On the afternoon of December 9th, visitors in the Fayette Station area 
of the park called 911 via cellular phone and reported that several 
parachutists had just jumped off of the New River Gorge Bridge and 
landed on park property below.  The visitors took photos of two of the 
parachutist in mid-air, then called 911 again with vehicle 
descriptions when the jumpers drove off. Rangers and officers from 
several other law enforcement agencies responded and stopped both 
vehicles.  Four men - J.K. of Landsdowne, Pennsylvania, R.E.W. 
of Alexandria, Virginia, D.G.M. of Louisville, 
Kentucky, and D.E.B. also of Louisville - were issued 
mandatory appearance violation notices for aerial delivery.  D.G.M. 
and D.E.B. got out of the second vehicle just before it was stopped 
and hid in a wooded field near the roadside.  Rangers located the two 
men after a short search.  Each of the four men was found to have a 
portable two-way radio in his possession. It appears that jumpers in 
the first vehicle radioed those in the second vehicle with a warning 
after the former was stopped.  [Rick Brown, ACR, NERI, 12/11]

00-745 - Delaware Water Gap NRA (PA/NJ) - Structural Fire

A non-historic garage located on the grounds of the historic Peirce 
House just outside of Milford, Pennsylvania, burned to the ground in 
the early hours of Friday, December 8th. A passerby saw fire issuing 
from the building just before 4:30 a.m. and reported it to 
authorities. Fire departments from Westfall, Dingmans, Milford, 
Matamoras, Montague (New Jersey), and Huguenot (New York) responded 
and quickly contained the blaze, but not before the building was 
totally consumed. Pennsylvania State Police arson investigators are 
investigating. Preliminary results point to arson or possibly an 
unattended fire left by a homeless person in the building's basement. 
The structure had been empty for many years and was under 
consideration for use as a storage facility. It was associated with 
the Peirce House, once the residence of noted philosopher Charles 
Peirce and his spouse Juliette, but was not contemporaneous with the 
Peirces. [Susan Zoccola, Acting DR, DEWA, 12/10]

00-746 - Delaware Water Gap NRA (PA/NJ) - MVA with Fatality

On the morning of December 8th, rangers responded to a single-car 
accident on Community Drive. Ranger Mark Hnat arrived just four 
minutes after the call and found that the driver - 17-year-old high 
school student D.B. - had no pulse and was not breathing. D.B. 
was pronounced dead at the scene by the county coroner. The accident 
was evidently caused by a combination of excessive speed and snowy, 
icy road conditions. An autopsy revealed the cause of death as blunt 
force trauma to the head. State police are continuing the 
investigation. [Susan Zoccola, Acting DR, DEWA, 12/10]

                   [Additional reports pending...]

FIRE MANAGEMENT

National Fire Plan

No new information. Please check the NPS Fire Management Program 
Center web page (www.fire.nps.gov) for further information on fire 
plan projects.

Park Fires

No fires reported.

CULTURAL/NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

No submissions.

INTERPRETATION AND VISITOR SERVICES

No submissions.

OPERATIONAL NOTES

No submissions.

MEMORANDA

No submissions.

INTERCHANGE

No submissions.

PARKS AND PEOPLE

Saguaro NP (AZ) - The park currently has a vacancy on USAJobs for a 
GS-303-6 permanent part-time (24 hours per week) program support 
assistant.  The vacancy closes on December 29th. The person who takes 
this new position will work in the Division of Visitor and Resource 
Protection for the chief ranger.  Job duties include providing 
administrative services for the division, programming and tracking the 
division budget, assisting the chief ranger in managing the park's 
incidental business permit program, and processing timekeeping and 
travel. The job is advertised under both merit promotion (SAGU-01-01) 
and direct examining unit (SOAR-00-36) authorities.  Please contact 
Paula Nasiatka at 520-733-5110 for more information.

FOOTNOTE

Department of Misplaced Parks, Continued: There was a surprising 
volume of email yesterday regarding the Wednesday "Footnote" entry on 
the misplacement of Ninety Six NHS and Mount Rainier NP in prior 
Morning Reports. The entry properly relocated the former in South 
Carolina, then, flippantly, noted that the latter was "still in 
Texas." A statistical analysis of these messages reveals that 43.6% of 
readers thought that this was a moderately amusing way of saying that 
such errors would no doubt persist, 37.2% thought that a refresher 
course on geography and the parks would be in order, and 19.2% thought 
it was a shameless attempt to suck up to the new administration by 
relocating the park to the president elect's home state. A 
clarification is therefore in order (Not a correction, mind you - as a 
colleague in WASO used to say, tongue in cheek: Never issue 
corrections, because that implies that we make errors; instead issue 
clarifications). Mount Rainier NP is definitely in Washington, a fact 
attested to by the presence of a little green square in the middle of 
the state of Washington (just left of the "W") on your map of the 
system, and by reports from readers who purportedly work there. Thanks 
to all of you who wrote in - particularly the wag (Bob Mackreth at 
APIS) who suggested that Ninety Six be moved to Massachusetts and 
joined with Minute Man as a new Revolutionary War park called Ninety 
Six Minute Man NHP, which would commemorate lethargic patriots who 
were tardy in answering the call. . .

                             *  *  *  *  *

Distribution of the Morning Report is through a mailing list managed 
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address requests pertaining to receipt of the Morning Report to your 
servicing hub coordinator.  The Morning Report is also available on 
the web at http://www.nps.gov/morningreport

Prepared by the Division of Ranger Activities, WASO, with the 
cooperation and support of Delaware Water Gap NRA.

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