A bipartisan bill to make the Ocmulgee Mounds Georgia’s first and only national park and preserve was reintroduced Wednesday after an effort in 2024 didn’t ultimately make it through Congress. Democratic Sens. Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock, and Reps. Sanford Bishop (D, GA-02) and Austin Scott (R, GA-08) introduced the legislation.
Notable sites such as the Smoky Mountains and the Lincoln Memorial rounded out the top 10 visited places in the National Park System as visits began rebounding from 2021.
Hundreds of Native Americans returned to their historic capital in Macon, Georgia, this weekend for the 30th annual Ocmulgee Indigenous Celebration. Nearly 200 years after the last Creek Indians were forcibly removed to Oklahoma to make way for slave labor in the Deep South, citizens of the Muscogee Creek Nation are celebrating their survival. They're also supporting an initiative to put the National Park Service in charge of protecting the heart of the Creek Confederacy.
The town of Orick sits just steps away from Redwood National Park. It has prime real estate for recreation and tourism, so why are its motels and restaurants shuttered and its residents impoverished?
Tourists are visiting national parks and surrounding public lands in record numbers this summer, which is causing some overwhelmed national park gateway towns to rethink their promotion strategies.
Growing crowds at America's national parks have prompted some of them to allow entry by reserved tickets only. Arches National Park in Utah may be next, and there's renewed controversy over that step.
Whitmore died from complications from COVID-19, according to his wife. The storied climber helped make history as part of the team who first climbed Yosemite's El Capitan.
