The Best Idea Liz Putnam Ever Had

August 25, 2016 will mark the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service. But in 1953, there was an article in Harper's Magazine by historian Bernard DeVoto in which he suggested that the National Parks be surrounded by the US Army in order to protect the parks from the hoards of visitors. The parks and the Park Service were struggling in the '50s because of the expendable income that Americans had after the war and the parks and the National Park Service were underfunded. DeVoto's proposal to solve a very real problem caught the attention of college student Liz Putnam.

Photo: thesca.org

Liz Putnam was a student at Vasser College and, after reading DeVoto's article, she switched her major to Geology and wrote "A Proposal for A Student Conservation Corps" as her senior thesis. Since she had changed her major so late in her college career, she missed a required summer course, but her advisor arranged a unique experience for her. She spent the summer volunteering with the newly formed Upper Hoosick Valley Watershed Association. This experience allowed her to see what did and did not work when setting up a new organization. 

Photo: hudsonhoosicpartnership.org

In August 1955, Putnam went on an excursion to the National Parks to propose her idea of a student conservation corps and to hear what park staff thought about it. Putnam was joined by Marty Hayne Talbot and, at the suggestion of former National Park Service Director Horace Albright, they visited Olympic National Park, Mount Rainier, Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon. After submitting the report to Albright, her proposal became a reality and Olympic and Mount Rainier requested to be test parks for the first trial of the Student Conservation Association. In 1957, 53 college and high school student volunteers were sent into parks to assist in a number of different projects. 

Photo: thesca.org

Today, Putnam's college thesis has evolved into an extremely useful tool for the National Park Service. Over 3,000 students volunteer annually with the SCA and provide over one million hours of service, completing projects that would be neglected due to continued and persistent underfunding of the National Park Service. If the Army had to guard the perimeter of the National Parks, would we have 407 National Park units today?

Photo: exotichikes.com

The Destruction of the Tea

On December 16, 1773, a group of men made their way to Boston Harbor and onto merchant ships. Once aboard, they gathered up chests of tea and threw them into the harbor. Today, this event is called the Boston Tea Party, but when the events occurred, it was called the "Destruction of the Tea in Boston." Calling it a Tea Party at the time would have trivialized their actions, when in reality their actions sent a very strong message to England.

Photo: wnd.com

At the end of the French and Indian War, the British Parliament needed funds and one untapped resource were the colonies in America, where a large portion of the war had taken place. The colonists, however, found Parliament's actions unacceptable. They saw this increase in their taxes as a violation of their rights, which were guaranteed to them in the English Bill of Rights, because at the time the colonists still viewed themselves as British citizens. The British in England did not view the colonists as equals and it was their superior attitude, and increased taxation for a war that was not caused by the colonists, that sparked the beginning of the American Revolution.

Photo: duhaime.org

In particular, the Tea Act rankled the colonists and the Sons of Liberty. The Tea Act did not add to the taxation of the colonies but instead placed the East India Trading Company above all else. The Trading Company was in financial trouble and had 18 million pounds of tea that needed to be sold. The Tea Act required that the tea be sent directly to the colonies where it would be sold for a bargain price. However, the higher taxes on the colonists were still in place and many colonists viewed the Tea Act as a way to buy their favor. In addition, the Tea Act hurt local merchants.

Photo: landofthebrave.info

When the ships arrived with the tea in Boston, the colonists attempted to turn back the ships, but the governor held the ships at port. British law required the ships to be unloaded and a duty paid within 20 days or customs could confiscate the tea. On the night of the 19th day, the Sons of Liberty took action. They disguised themselves as Mohawk Indians, boarded the ships and proceeded to dump more than 300 chests of tea into the harbor.

Photo: britannica.com

In response, the British closed the port of Boston and placed the Coercive Acts on the Colony of Massachusetts. These acts took away many rights from the citizens in order to punish them for their actions against the Tea Act. This sparked even more dissent in the colonies and the First Continental Congress was organized. The British plan to make an example of Massachusetts backfired and the American Revolution quickly followed.

Photo: loc.gov

Old Ironsides

At the end of the American Revolution, the fledgling country was strapped for cash and in 1785 the last ship of the U.S. Navy was sold, ending U.S. armed maritime presence. However, that same year, U.S. merchant ships fell prey to the Barbary Pirates in the Mediterranean. Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson pushed for protection for the merchant ships in the form of warships until their efforts came to fruition in the form of the Naval Act of 1794.

Photo: archives.gov

March 27, 1794, the U.S. Congress passed the Naval Act, which established a permanent Navy for the U.S.  Four warships began to be constructed until peace was reached with the pirates and a clause in the Naval Act was put into practice: if peace were achieved, construction would end. After some prompting from President Washington, Congress passed an act that allowed three of the ships to be completed: the United States, the Constellation and the Constitution. 

Photo: nps.gov (The Charlestown Navy Yard where the Constitution was built.)

September 20, 1796, the Constitution was launched in the presence of President John Adams. Unfortunately, the weight of the ship prevented her from being launched into the water and it wasn't until October 21 that the Constitution made it into Boston Harbor. 

Photo: jrusselljinishiangallery.com 

In 1798, all ships were ordered to sea as a part of the Quasi War with France and the Constitution patrolled the U.S. coast and the Caribbean until 1802. Between then and the War of 1812, the Constitution saw action in the Mediterranean. Soon after war was declared in 1812, the Constitution set sail and her captain was under the impression that he was joining a U.S. squadron but he quickly realized he was amongst five British ships. When the British recognized the Constitution as American, they quickly gave chase but the Constitution and her crew escaped. 

Photo: armchairgeneral.com

On August 12, 1812, the Constitution and the Guerriere came within range of each other and a battle ensued. Severe damage was done to the British Guerriere and the two ships ended up entangled but in the end, the Guerriere surrendered. Despite having many shots fired at her, the Constitution suffered very little damage and one soldier reportedly exclaimed "Huzzah! Her sides are like iron." This quote earned the ship the nickname Old Ironsides. 

Photo: archives.hnsa.org

Today, Old Iron Sides sits at port in the Charlestown Harbor in Boston. She is the world's oldest commissioned Navy vessel still afloat and she is used by the Navy to educate the public on the Navy's role in war and peace.

Photo: Hilary Grabowska 

Boston, City on a Hill

In 1630, Puritan colonists left Charlestown, Massachussets in search of new water sources and settled on the penninsula called Trimountaine, named for the three hills of the promontory. They renamed the new settlement Boston, after the town of Boston in England. 

Photo: common-place.org

The Boston of today is very different from the Boston of 1630. Two major differences are that the spring that brought the Puritans to the site is bricked over and only marked with a plaque. The other is that the three hills the penninsula was named for were quickly demolished and used as fill to enlarge the area for the town of Boston. 

Photo: Hilary Grabowska

Boston grew as a port city and was at the center of the beginnings of the American Revolution with the Boston Massacre, the Boston Tea Party and the Siege of Boston. Adding to its Revolutionary War history, Lexington and Concord are just outside the city and Paul Revere, William Dawes and others set out from Boston to warn that the British Regulars were marching to seize weapons stockpiled in Concord. 

Photo: Hilary Grabowska

As Boston grew, manufacturing became a prominent industry, along with trade from the port. In the 1820s, different immigrants began to arrive and changed the makeup and culture of the city, particularly the Irish, and especially during the Potato Famine. The  existing residents resented the influx of Irish immigrants and how they shifted the religious makeup of the town towards Catholicism; but the Irish enlisted in great numbers in the Union Army during the Civil War, which impressed the residents and they relaxed their harsh views. 

Photo: loc.gov

A third major difference between the Boston of today and the Boston of the 1600s is that it is ethnically diverse, though still predominantly Roman Catholic due to the Irish and Italian populations. In the Colonial Era, Boston was a city of white, Anglo-Saxon Puritans. Today, the hills of the penninsula are gone, the spring is bricked over but Boston is still a sea of culture and political activism. 

Birthplace of Presidents

In Quincy, Massachussets, there sit two houses from the colonial era, right next to each other. The painted one is older than the unpainted, weathered one but both have an important place in American history. It was in these houses that the second and sixth US Presidents were born. 

Photo: Boston.com

John Adams, the second President, was born in 1735 to John Adams, Sr., a deacon in the Puritan church.  John Adams had two brothers who became farmers while John Adams was sent to Harvard in order to be a minister. But, John Adams was uninterested in becoming a minister and instead, turned to law. In 1770, he was asked to represent the soldiers who fired on a Boston crowd in what became known as the Boston Massacre. John Adams took their case not because he sided with the soldiers but because he wanted to demonstrate to England that the colonies were civilized and upheld just laws. 

Photo: whitehouse.gov

John Adams and Abigail Adams moved into the house next door to the house in which John Adams was born and it was in this house that John Quincy Adams, the future sixth President, was born. Before he was elected President, he served as a diplomat and helped to negotiate the Treaty of Ghent, which ended the War of 1812. John Quincy Adams lost his bid for a second term to his Vice President, Andrew Jackson, but he returned to public office by being elected to the House of Representatives for Massachussets. He became staunchly anti-slavery and predicted a dissolution of the Union over slavery and he predicted that in the event of a civil war, the President would be able to use his presidential powers to abolish slavery. 

Photo: whitehouse.gov

The "Rodney King" Riots

23 years ago this week, Los Angeles was consumed by civil unrest and riots. Similar to the Baltimore situation of today, the riots in Los Angeles began because of police brutality directed at a black man.

 Photo: dailynews.com

On March 1991, Rodney King and his friends had been out drinking and while King was driving, police attempted to pull him over. King later said that he panicked because driving while intoxicated was a violation of his parole, so he attempted to flee. Eventually, he pulled over in front of an apartment complex. 

Photo: articles.latimes.com

King resisted arrest and the officers attempted to swarm him in order to subdue him. This tactic did not work so they tried a taser, which also was ineffective. Then the police began to beat him with batons. The entire beating was captured on videotape by a resident of the apartments. Once King was subdued, the police transported him to a hospital. 

The video footage was turned over to a local TV station and it quickly spread throughout the news networks and around the world. What everyone saw was a use of excessive force and an example of police brutality.  Due to the footage, the officers were charged with excessive force. Initially it did not appear to be a racial issue but evidence discovered during the investigation indicated that there was a pattern of racist behavior by the LA Police Department. 

Photo: newsone.com

Instead of holding the trial in LA, it was moved to suburban Simi County for fear of an inability to call an impartial jury. Simi County was then and is now an overwhelmingly white county. None of the jurors were black and most were pro-police. This makeup of the jury was ignored by the media, which made the country believe that the video footage would sway the jury. Instead, the jury acquitted three of the officers and could not make a decision on the fourth. 

Photo: darleeneisms.la

Hours after the verdict was handed down on April 29, 1992, violent protestors took to the streets of LA and quickly outnumbered law enforcement. In response, the police retreated and the violent rioters took control. They attacked innocent bystanders and inflicted damage to the local infrastructure. The riots lasted for six days and it wasn't until the California National Guard was called in and a citywide curfew was implemented did the violence end. It was the largest riot since the 1960s and had the highest death toll since the New York City draft riots of 1863. 

Photo: s-usih.org