Ever since President Theodore Roosevelt created the first national park in 1906, the National Park Service (in its various iterations) has served to protect and manage some of our nation’s most scenic landscapes and significant historical sites for all Americans to enjoy. Today, the NPS preserves approximately 84,000,000 acres, but if one former Roanoke City Councilman has his way, the NPS might preserve an additional 1,100 acres—in Roanoke County.
Rupert Cutler, who stepped down from the city council in 2010, is pitching an idea to western Virginia’s political leaders to have the NPS take control of the now-defunct Explore Park. Established in 1987, the Explore Park, was originally intended to be a nature conservancy, but later morphed into a living history park, interpreting life on the Virginia frontier of the 18th and early-19th centuries. While it was a very educational park to visit and was a frequent field-trip destination for Roanoke-area elementary school students, the Explore Park hemorrhaged money and was ultimately closed in 2007, although the hiking/bike trails remain open today.
Cutler’s plan is supported by both the Roanoke chapters of the Sierra Club and the Sons of the American Revolution, however, he is struggling to find new allies. An appeal to 6th District Congressman Bob Goodlatte was rejected posthaste:
I do not believe that it would be prudent to launch a study of whether the federal government—specifically, the National Park Service—should take over operation of the attraction. Because of the deepening federal budget crisis, I do not believe such a study would be a wise use of taxpayer dollars at this time, nor do I believe that the funds would be available in the foreseeable future for the Park Service to take over operation of the park. I hope you will appreciate my being hesitant to ask the federal government to take on yet another task not originally intended to be its responsibility.
At a recent meeting of the Roanoke City Democratic Women’s Club, Cutler argued that the Explore Park would be a worthy addition to the NPS because it adds to Roanoke’s vibrant culture as well as the fact that
It is contiguous to the Parkway, contains valuable forests and wildlife habitat, and offers the National Park Service an opportunity to interpret life on the western Virginia frontier and succeeding decades through the use of the many historic buildings that were moved to and reconstructed in Explore with great care, at great expense.
Rupert Cutler goes on to liken the Explore Park to other popular, NPS-operated attractions, including Mabry Mill, the Great Smoky Mountains and both Revolutionary and Civil War battlefields. While I can appreciate the need to protect the Blue Ridge Parkway’s viewshed, it is also important to note that there is nothing particularly special about the Explore Park: there are no unique natural features that make the park’s heavily wooded scenery unique from other undeveloped land in the Roanoke area. Unlike Yorktown or Gettysburg, nothing consequential happened at the Explore Park. It was a re-creation of farming communities and an Amerindian village, not actual ones that have been preserved for posterity. Furthermore, as this writer for the Roanoke Times admits, the remote nature of the park coupled with its severely limited accessibility (the only entrance is off the Blue Ridge Parkway), the risk of the property being developed is minimal.
Perhaps a better solution would be to make the Explore Park a state park. The park is already operated by the state-funded Virginia Recreational Facilities Authority. The Commonwealth has also done an admirable job operating the Jamestown Festival Park, which, like Explore, is a recreated, living history park that is based upon significant periods in Virginia’s history. That having been said, with the Commonwealth’s continuing budgetary challenges, the added expense of a new state park makes a Department of Conservation and Recreation takeover of the Explore Park unlikely as well.
With the federal government in a fiscal hole—and a president who appears unwilling to stop digging—Rep. Goodlatte is correct: now is not the time for the NPS to accept a park that has little historical significance (not even local historical significance) or ecological significance and that could not sustain itself while receiving what Cutler concedes was “generous” support from the taxpayers of the Commonwealth. It is critical that the NPS conserve some tracts of land in the United States, but the Explore Park should not be on that list.
