From New York to North Carolina: In Praise of Preservation

Blog 2 (11/20/11)

In Praise of Preservation

Lately, as travelers do, we have savored fine examples of the enterprise of safeguarding.  Art museums, national parks, memorials, wildernesses, natural history museums, historical sites, villages and cemeteries have moved us deeply, and inspired a thematic approach to this chapter.

  

While in Boston we went to nearby Concord, an historic vortex. Here was the start of the American Revolution as well as the home of literary and intellectual giants Nathanial Hawthorne, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Louisa May Alcott and Henry David Thoreau.  

Henry David Thoreau

The townspeople have taken care to preserve their history and make it accessible in a meaningful and beautiful way. Our long-held inner visions converge with an outer reality here.  The physical presence of Emerson’s study; Walden Pond and the site of Thoreau’s cabin; the graves; the countryside; all animate these cherished human beings in ways biographies cannot. We were touched and grateful to have been given tangible access to the lives of our luminaries. 

Boston Fall

In Cambridge, a bastion of heritage, we shared time with nephew Galen, an environmental consultant, and fiancé Miya, doctoral candidate in political science at Harvard.  The conversations were rich and often focused on the future of the environment and humanity. We took in the Harvard Museum of Natural History, where preservation is decidedly world class. Recently extinct sea cow, moa and dodo skeletons reminded us of the fragility of species; too late to preserve anything but the bones. Realistic delicate glass plants created 150 years ago for botanical studies and still in use defy comprehension. Juxtaposed manifestations of human care and carelessness baffle the mind.

Left: A grass flower, magnified (38x) in glass

 (For photos of the glass flowers, go to the website of the Harvard Museum of Natural History.) 

The turtle shell is from the age of gigantism (think giant ground sloth). Craig is with an icthyosaur; the rest of the intact body stretches out of the lens.
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 We were not prepared for the National Memorial at Antietam, the site of the bloodiest battle of the Civil War.  Twenty-three thousand casualties in a single day, more than in the American Revolution, the Mexican War and the War of 1812 combined. Incomprehensible suffering. 

Though for worthy causes, preservation of the Union and an end to slavery, what can we say about war? As wished by the families of the dead, the memorials for the battles are the exquisite, peaceful countryside itself, a confounding contrast. In addition to the stories and monuments, care in the preservation of the place itself helped us to understand the events and arouse our shock and compassion in a way that no history book ever could.

The witness tree at Antietam Bridge

We camped in a dramatic example of habitat preservation:  Assateague Island National Seashore, famous home of wild horses. Southeast of Washington D.C beyond Chesapeake Bay, it is a long, thin, sand barrier island.  Uninhabited, it provides no toxic runoff from farms and towns. The bay is unpolluted, a rare surprise in this age. The island supports complex marine, salt marsh and scrub forest ecosystems. A birder’s paradise, it is also home to clams, crabs, deer, foxes, possums and more. It is so productive that visitors may harvest as many clams and crabs as they like.  Hunting and fishing are allowed, and people kayak, canoe, swim, bike and generally holiday to their heart’s content, sometimes sharing the beautiful wide beaches with the wild horses. It is fabulous.

Assateague became an island in 1933 when a giant nor’easter breached the thin isthmus to the north, at Ocean City (Maryland). We approached from even further north, believing we could enjoy ocean views in each direction (we should have Googled Earth).  We found instead opaque walls of factory outlets, franchises, high rises and hotels. A few alleys provide public access to the beaches.  The contrast with the adjacent National Seashore is stunning. How did Assateague come to be spared?

Ocean City on island 1/4 mile wide.  It stops at a narrow gap, and Assateague begins (below)

Bridge to Assateague

In 1962 Assateague was platted for 9000 private lots and a road was laid down the center of the island. A giant nor’easter  destroyed the road in 1963, crashing confidence in the devlopment.  In l965 Assateague became a National Park, and Chincoteague to the south became a National Wildlife Refuge. Thanks to some help from “nature running wild,” this remarkable site will remain home to its denizens, its deep complexity and beauty available to all of us.

(remains of road on Assateague to right; wild turkeys on Assateague below)

Migrating White Ibis (juvenile)

Many species of egrets here (this one is the great);  immature little blue herons are white too.  Can get confusing! We saw the little blues, great blues, migrating marbeled godwits, tundra swans, snow geese northern gannets, among others. 

Since the start of this blog we continued south along the barrier islands, North Carolina’s Outer Banks.  At Roanoke Island, we visited the NPS memorial to the mysterious and sad lost first English colony, 100 men, women and children (1585). Nothing was ever discovered of their plight.  Nearby at Kitty Hawk is the memorial to the Wright Brothers thrilling first human-powered flight. Only 66 years elapsed between the first flight at KittyHawk (1903) and the landing of man on the moon (1969).

The actual spot where the first plane went aloft, and the distance marks for the 4 flights on that amazing day.  A mere sixty six years later we were on the moon!!!

Perfect reproduction of the original Wright Bros. flyer, Kitty Hawk National Memorial

Further south are Cape Hatteras and Ocracoke, North Carolina.  That these absurdly thin sand islands even exist is a wonder.  They are mostly National Seashore (NPS), with little villages as inholdings strung along the way.  The relationship between the locals and the National Park Service is not always easy; sport fishing and warm ocean waters exert pressure from tourists and developers. But the island ecosystems are protected, which protects the islands themselves.

Our journey so far has enhanced our confidence in the process of protecting and memorializing treasures in our country, both natural and man-made.

A few lighter notes:

We have been enjoying local wild seafood cooked in IRV, blue crab, shrimp, butter clams.  YUM! Hate to leave the coast but the Blue Ridge Highway and Great Smokies beckon.  Craig reminds me that we will be returning to the land of seafood before long.

Interesting highlights and factoids: 

• Armstrong took a little piece of the Wright brothers’ first flyer to the moon with him.  It’s on display at the memorial site.
• The ponies on Ocracoke, unlike Chincoteague, are true descendants of Spanish Mustangs.  They are stocky, with one less vertebra in the neck and one less rib than other horses.
• The ponies on Assateague run wild, but population is controlled by hormonal injections delivered by dart.
• We left Ocracoke for the mainland by ferry at sunset and saw thousands and thousands of double-crested cormorants streaming from the sea to a small sand island that became slathered by their dark bodies.  We’ve never seen so many birds in a single place. 
• Robert E Lee was first invited by Abraham Lincoln to lead the Northern Armies before he aligned himself with the south, due to loyalty to his home state of Virginia. 
• In The Great Dismal Swamp in Virginia and N. Carolina (now a National Wildlife Refuge)  George Washington surveyed the first drainage and passage canal (called a ditch)  as it was being dug by slaves.  We stood on the unobtrusive spot of his camp. George himself called it a great dismal swamp, and the name stuck, so we are told.

• North Carolina’s black bears ar the largest in North America – up to 900 lbs!  They are shy and stuff themselves on domestic corn.  Good eating, we hear!

Outstanding visits with dear people included Cousins Steve, Sue, Kiley & Julia  in Boston who made us feel wonderfully welcome for a week in their lovely home near Boston. And Bill Campbell gave us an intimate glimpse of the Vermont hills, his home away from Anchorage.  Thank you!

Vermont home of Bill Campbell of Anchorage

Last:  a few funny/peculiar signs:

• On Blue Ridge Parkway:  High Collision Area Ahead. We could hardly wait to get to that part.
• Sudden Icing on Road (multple interpretations possible, e.g., wedding cake? Or something more threatening…?)
• On Hattaras Island, fancy sign advertising new upscale vacation homes destroyed by recent Hurricane Irene: Dare to Dream the Impossible Dream. Oh dear.
• Summit Closes 5:00 (sort of like a government office)

We're heading now for the Great Smoky National Park, after having traveled a day on the Blue Ridge Parkway, a road that exists solely for the sake of the beauty of the trip.  We continue to be challenged, thrilled, and loving our adventure.