As the National Park Service began its annual week to draw attention to its properties around the country in the hopes of encouraging tourism, budgets have been reduced by the Department of Government Efficiency. In this National Park Week series, the Washington Examiner is taking a closer look at those impacts, along with how you can celebrate at a park near you.
Part 1: National Park Week 2025 begins with National Junior Ranger Day
The annual National Park Week began this year with National Junior Ranger Day across the country.
The National Park Service marks the day every year to spotlight its Junior Ranger program, which allows children and families to participate in activities that educate them on the specific parks and sites they are visiting. As part of the celebration, entrance fees to national parks are waived on Saturday.
To mark National Junior Ranger Day, Independence National Historic Park, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is providing free admission to its Benjamin Franklin Museum, which is dedicated to the history of one of the nation’s Founding Fathers. George Washington Birthplace National Monument, likewise, is doing events to tie into the holiday, including a hike on Saturday afternoon and giving attendees a map to find the first president’s survey points.
Read more from the Washington Examiner.
Part 2: Six national parks near DC are free for the first day of National Park Week
The National Park Service offered free entrance on Saturday, April 19, in honor of the first day of National Park Week.
There are six national parks within an hour and a half radius of the heart of Washington, D.C., that can be visited on Saturday at no cost: Great Falls Park; Prince William Forest Park; Shenandoah National Park; Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine; Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historical Park; and Harpers Ferry National Historical Park.
Read more from the Washington Examiner.
Part 3: Minute Man National Historical Park celebrates 250th anniversary of Revolution’s first shots
Minute Man National Historical Park in Massachusetts hosted a series of events to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the Battles of Lexington and Concord and the first shots of the American Revolutionary War.
On April 19, 1775, Massachusetts minutemen stood on Lexington Green and faced down the seemingly indomitable British military. Around 5:00 a.m., the “shot heard round the world” rang out, and throughout the day, colonists fought off British regulars over 16 miles along the Bay Road from Concord to Boston.
Saturday’s Battle Road Tactical Demonstration at Minute Man NHP marks the park’s signature living history event for its Patriots’ Day celebrations.
Other events at Minute Man NHP include a North Bridge Battle Walk to honor the 96 patriots who guarded Concord’s North Bridge against 200 British regulars and a Battle Road Anniversary Hike that will take visitors through the “ill-fated” footsteps of the British column.
Read more from the Washington Examiner.
Part 4: Marian Anderson’s ‘seminal’ Easter concert at Lincoln Memorial commemorated in DC
The National Mall and Memorial Parks is conducting its annual tradition of commemorating Marian Anderson’s “seminal” concert at the Lincoln Memorial this Easter, with this year’s holiday falling within National Park Week.
Anderson’s concert, performed in 1939, was conducted outside the Lincoln Memorial after the singer was denied access to perform at Constitution Hall, as Jim Crow laws were still in use within the United States. Ranger Bob Herendeen explained to the Washington Examiner that Anderson’s concert was performed on April 9, Easter Sunday in 1939, and that the National Mall and Memorial Parks would perform a program on the history of Anderson and her seminal concert at the national monument.
The program by the National Mall and Memorial Parks documents the history of Anderson’s concert, including who Anderson was, her travels in Europe, and her return to the U.S., which included a visit to the White House during President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s time in office. After being denied access to Constitution Hall, Herendeen stated that then-Interior Secretary Harold LeClair Ickes arranged her Lincoln Memorial concert.
Read more from the Washington Examiner.
Part 5: Explore New River Gorge, America’s newest national park
New River Gorge National Park & Preserve became the nation’s newest National Park in 2020, but many Americans may not be familiar with it.
Preserving 53 miles of the New River, the park covers over 70,000 acres throughout the beautiful hills and mountains of southern West Virginia.
The New River earned national river status in 1978, and Congress began talks of redesignating it as a National Park in 2018, according to a report. After concerns regarding hunting and fishing were quelled, the redesignation effort gained popularity with the West Virginia congressional delegation and was incorporated into an omnibus bill in late 2020.
New River Gorge became a National Park when President Donald Trump signed the bill into law on Dec. 27, 2020.
Visitors to New River Gorge can participate in myriad outdoor activities, from whitewater rafting on one of the oldest rivers on Earth and conquering the “Hello Rock!” rapid to hiking and biking along an old railroad grade.