Shifting Lenses

I’ve been lucky enough to visit quite a few national parks across the U.S., and every time, I have been amazed by the natural beauty of my home country. We always stop at the visitor center and it is always a welcome break from the hours of driving. Last summer, we did a big road trip from New Jersey to Texas, hitting a many parks and sites along the way.

As part of that trip, we spent some time in Shenandoah National Park hiking and driving along Skyline Drive. Towards the end of the day, we visited the Harry F. Byrd Visitor Center. Even though it was quite small, I was genuinely impressed. What made it so unique was its heavy focus on the people who made the park possible. Not just the presidents or influential names, but the landowners and families who actually lived on the land that eventually became the park. It laid out the park’s history as a timeline of the people who inhabited that land.

Most national park visitor centers I’ve seen, especially out West, tend to focus heavily on geology, which, of course, is important. But I really appreciated the human-centered approach at this particular visitor center. I truly hope the exhibit at Harry F. Byrd helps make people more curious about the people who lived on that land before the park was established. It’s a powerful reminder of how their history is so deeply intertwined with the land itself and with our own experience of these places today.