Big Bend is the 15th largest National Park in the United States at 801,163 acres or 1,250 square miles (National Park Service).
The Park is a dry and rocky mountainous area with many rock formations, caves and canyons.
An abundance of wildlife inhabit the park and there are more than 450 species of birds that inhabit the park. This is more than any other National Park in the United States (N.G.S.).
History
The presence of humans dates back to 8000 B.C. but not much is known about the inhabitance of these Paleo-Indian people and their uses of the land (NPS).
Spanish exploration first entered the area around 1535 A.D. (NPS.).
Up until the 1800’s, Mexican families and Indians were the only human inhabitants of the Big Bend area.
After the war between Mexico and
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Native American Tribes for historical significance.
Texas Historical Commission
Many local and State organizations for funding and support.
Critique of Management Plan
Overall a good general management plan for the park.
Would like to see the wildlife Management Plan, water Resource Management Plan, Wildland Fire Management Plan and Water Conservation Plan incorporated into the general Management Plan.
The plan has three different avenues of approach which is good for public support and involvement.
Sustainability is the focus within this plan although there was not any discussion for long term sustainment of more than 20 or 30 years.
The plan uses stagnant data from past studies. The plan should incorporate new statistical data and GIS mapping rather than studies over 20 years old.
Critique of Management Plan
The largest impact currently within the park is visitor use. More emphasis should be put on the impact of visitors on the land, wildlife and water quality.
The plan was excellent in the protection and addressing historical significance across the entire
There are three parts in West’s book; the first part focuses on the sociological, ecological and economic relationships of the plains Indians, starting with the first establish culture of North America, the Clovis peoples. Going into extensive detail pertaining to early geology and ecology, West gives us a glimpse into what life on the early plains must have looked to early peoples. With vastly differing flora and fauna to what we know today, the early plains at the end of the first ice age, were a different place and lent itself to a diverse way of life. The Clovis peoples were accomplished hunters, focusing on the abundance of Pleistocene megafauna such as earlier, larger forms of bison. Though, little human remains were found, evidence of their s...
Committee on Senate Energy and National Resources Subcommittee on National Parks. 3 June 2003: ESBCO. Mission Viejo Library., Mission Viejo, CA. 31 July 2005. http://web31.epnet.com/citation.
-New Evidence Puts Man in North America 50,000 Years Ago. Sciencedaily. 2004. Retrieved from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/11/041118104010.htm
Debate started to arise when an archaeologist by the name of Thomas D. Dillehay found artifacts of people existing 14,600 years ago, before Clovis, in Monte Verde, a site in southern Chile. These people slept in hide tents, had access to seafood and potatoes, and shared similar characteristics to other artifacts found in North Ame...
spanned millions of acres, is now a mere 1,800 mile National Park, dedicated to preventing the
Robbins Burling, David F. Armstrong, Ben G. Blount, Catherine A. Callaghan, Mary Lecron Foster, Barbara J. King, Sue Taylor Parker, Osamu Sakura, William C. Stokoe, Ron Wallace, Joel Wallman, A. Whiten, Sherman Wilcox and Thomas Wynn. Current Anthropology, Vol. 34, No. 1 (Feb., 1993), pp. 25-53
This article focuses mainly on the emergence of the first people in America: Who they are, where they came from and how they got to America. He discussed three main routes as to how they arrived in America, none of which were without criticism. In trying to determine who the first people in America are, Hadingham began with the Clovis points and their creators, the Clovis people, who lived about 12,500 to 13,500 years ago, and tried to trace their origin. According to the article, a Gault site was first investigated in 1929 and the Clovis people who inhabited the Gault seem to have stayed there for long periods. Also from this site, the Clovis people seem to have preyed on mammoths, deer, turkeys, horses, frogs, birds, turtles and other small animals.
As children, students are taught from textbooks that portray Native Americans and other indigenous groups as small, uncivilized, mostly nomadic groups with ways of life that never changed or disfigured the land. Charles Mann’s account of Indian settlements’ histories and archaeological findings tell us otherwise. Mann often states in his book 1491: New Revelations of the Americas before Columbus that the indigenous groups of North and South America were far more advanced and populous than students are taught. He focuses on many different cultural groups and their innovations and histories that ultimately led to either their demise or modern day inhabitants.
The more than four hundred locations that are currently recognized as national parks have been set aside because they are considered special places of beauty, character, or uniqueness. Whether visitors come from the natural state or the concrete jungle, the magnificent aesthetics of these sites can cause anyone to be astonished. As they ponder on the wonderful landscapes and the closeness to the wilderness, their souls are nourished. Some people acknowledge the planet or the creator, but all appreciate the splendor of biodiversity and gain a new understanding of it. According to Frye and Nuest, “watching other species and interacting with them helps [people] better understand and appreciate [their] place among them and [their] obligations to other living creatures and the same planetary environment that sustain both [their and the lives of other species]” (54). Furthermore, since these sites have been carefully preserved, they have undergone very little physical or geological change in centuries. The NPS claimed through its website that “by preserving biodiversity, [they] also ensure that future citizens, artists, and explorers of science experience [America’s] lands as the founders of the parks did long ago.” National parks allow visitors to relive scenes from the past and appreciate the nation’s history as expressed in these iconic sites. However,
In Ostler’s The Lakota and the Black Hills, Jeffrey Ostler details the history of the Lakota tribe, beginning with the earliest records we have about them, detailing their origin story of humanity. The Lakota believe that the earliest humans came about within the earth and came to the surface through a narrow cave opening, called the Wind Cave, in the Black Hills, a beautiful h...
Every year, over nine million hikers and adventure seekers travel to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park making it the most visited national park in the United States. There are abundant reasons for this, but many popular reasons include over 150 hiking trails extending over 850 miles, a large portion of the Appalachian Trail, sightseeing, fishing, horseback riding, and bicycling. The park houses roughly ten thousand species of plants and animals with an estimated 90,000 undocumented species likely possible to be present. It is clear why there was a pressing interest in making all this land into a national park. My research was started by asking the question; how did the transformation of tourism due to the establishment of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park affect surrounding cities such as Gatlinburg and Sevier County, and in return, its effect on the popularity of the park?
...g most of the initiatives indicated however it is unlikely that all of them will be carried out within the next decade or so.
National Park Services, U.S. Department of Interior. Nps.gov, 27 Dec. 2004. Web. The Web. The Web.
When European settlers arrived on American shores to settle a New World, around 7 million Native Americans had been settled in the wilderness north of present-day Mexico for some time. It is believed that the first Native Americans arrived during the last Ice Age, approximately 20,000 - 30,000 years ago, by crossing the Bering Strait from northeastern Siberia into Alaska. Over thousands of years, “spiritual kin-based communities” had survived by living off the land and bartering goods. Their diversity was reflected by their societies, which ranged from small, mobile bands of hunter-gatherers in the Great Basin to temple-mound builders in the Southeast (DiBacco, 1995).
Yellowstone is bigger than Rhode Island and Delaware combined. There are 50 mammal species, 311 bird species, and five endangered species. Rivers and lakes make up only 5% of Yellowstone (By 1870, Gold Fever Was Gone and the Great Yellowstone Expeditions Began. "Yellowstone National Park History."). The largest lake is called the Yellowstone Lake and is 136 miles long. The lake is known for having the highest altitude in North America ("56 Interesting Facts About . . . Var Addthis_config = ). In addition to lakes and rivers, there are about 290 waterfalls in the park. The highest waterfall is called Lower Falls and is 308 ft tall. Forests make up 80% of the park and an additional 15% is made up of grassland ("10 Surprising Facts About Yellowstone." National Geographic.). Yellowstone has one of the largest petrified forests from the big 1978 fire. The burned trees reformed into wood and minerals due to heat from the fire. The park sits on the Continental Divide, this means that half of the lakes run to the Pacific and the other half run into the Atlantic Ocean (United States. National Park Service. "Park Facts.). The average temperature during the summer is 70-80 degrees Fahrenheit and in the winter the average temperature is 0-20 degrees Fahrenheit. The average elevation is about 8,000 feet above sea level covered by mountains and lakes ( "Yellowstone National Park - Fast Facts."). The highest peak in the park is called Eagle Peak and is 11,358 feet high. The lowest peak in the park is Reese Creek which is 5,282 feet high. ( United States. National Park Service. "Park