NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

MORNING REPORT

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

INCIDENTS

Fort Smith NHS

Visitor Brings Live Civil War Cannon Ball To Park VC

A local homeowner brought a cannon ball that he'd dug up in his garden into the park's visitor center on the morning of April 21st. Ranger Jeremy Lynch, the park's historic weapons specialist, recognized it as a six pound cased shot (fragmentation ball) with what appeared to be a rusted but still intact fuse. Fort Smith police were called and Lynch removed the ball from the visitor center, placed it in a red wood box, and moved it out onto park grounds away from everything. After police arrived, park staff were evacuated and a perimeter was established to keep visitors and others away. There were no visitors in the buildings or on the nearby grounds at the time. The city fire department's bomb squad arrived shortly thereafter and confirmed that the cannon ball might be live. They removed it and will arrange to have it rendered safe. The shell was found on the east side of the city on a steep bluff that is now a residential area. The site is well outside the Civil War fortifications that surrounded the town in the 1860's, but there were a number of skirmishes near this area and the bluff would have made a good target for practice. The homeowner told us that he had taken his five kids to school that morning with it rolling around in his van. [Bill Black, Superintendent]

OTHER NEWS

The following stories are among those in today's edition of InsideNPS:

Rocky Mountain NP - Spring, which theoretically arrived in the Rockies in March as much as it did elsewhere, took a holiday last week. A day-and-a-half long snowstorm dropped nearly four feet of new snow on the park between Thursday night and Saturday.

HYPERLINK "http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/headline.cfm?type=Announcements&id=7589" http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/headline.cfm?type=Announcements&id=7589

National Capital Region - The regional office recently held a ceremony to recognize NCR employees who worked to support the Presidential Inaugural and related events this past January. Nearly 300 employees attended.

HYPERLINK "http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/headline.cfm?type=Announcements&id=7590" http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/headline.cfm?type=Announcements&id=7590

Colorado NM - A DOI superior service award has been presented posthumously to Ann Elder, the park's paleontologist, who died suddenly and unexpectedly on March 31st.

HYPERLINK "http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/headline.cfm?type=PeopleNews&id=2312" http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/headline.cfm?type=PeopleNews&id=2312

US Park Police - Army specialist Samuel Castaneda has been presented with a USPP certificate of appreciation following his successful completion of a project at headquarters as part of a program that details recovering soldiers to federal agencies as interns during their healing process.

HYPERLINK "http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/headline.cfm?type=PeopleNews&id=2311" http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/headline.cfm?type=PeopleNews&id=2311

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Submission standards for the Morning Report can be found at the following web site:

HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=viewnpsnewsarticle&type=Announcements&id=3363" http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=viewnpsnewsarticle&type=Announcements&id=3363

Prepared by the Division of Law Enforcement, Security and Emergency Services, Washington Office, with the support of the Office of the Chief Information Officer and Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. Edited by Bill Halainen ( HYPERLINK "mailto:Bill_Halainen@nps.gov" Bill_Halainen@nps.gov).

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