24th Annual NPTC Convention!

Our 2nd NPTC Convention

We joined the National Parks Travelers Club (NPTC) in 2018 and attended our 1st convention that summer in New Bedford, MA. This was the 1st one since then that fit into our schedule.

We checked into the Hilton Garden Inn Waldorf, Maryland on Wednesday afternoon. Then, for almost 4 full days, we went on tours, networked with other National Park enthusiasts (got some good tips), attended lectures and the annual membership meeting, ate some good food, and survived Hot & Humid weather. Next year is in Medora, ND. Host National Park is Theodore Roosevelt National Park, one of our favorites!

Highlights of the Convention-Day 1

• History of George Washington & Family Bus Tour…sites associated with George Washington, including
  • Stratford Hall, historic home of the Lee family – loosely tied to Washington since Robert E. Lee was the last to live there as a child and later married Martha Washington’s great granddaughter, Mary Anna Custis.
  • George Washington Birthplace NM (see below)
  • Historic Kenmore, home of George Washington’s sister Betty and her husband, Fielding Lewis, who also was Washington’s second cousin and a commissioned colonel during the American Revolution
  • George Washington’s Ferry Farm, his boyhood home, with reconstructed home and continued archeological work going on there

Highlights of the Convention-Day 2

• Footsteps of Lincoln’s Assassin Bus Tour…sites associated with “the consparitors”
  • Rich Hill Farm House childhood home of Thomas Stone’s wife, Margaret Brown, and her brother, Dr. Gustavus Brown, who tended to George Washington on his deathbed, as well as being another site where Booth was given food and shelter during the manhunt
  • Dr. Samuel A. Mudd House Museum, home of the doctor who set Booth’s broken leg and helped hide him during the manhunt
  • Surratt House Museum, where Mary Surratt hosted John Wilkes Booth and fellow conspirators to plot the assassination
• Thomas Stone NHS (see below)
• BBQ Dinner at Gilbert Run Park – Hot, humid, good company, good food

Highlights of the Convention-Days 3 & 4

• Port Tobacco Village – Tour of what was once Maryland’s largest and busiest shipping port
• Annual Meeting & President’s Dinner, both inside…in A/C!
• The American Revolution in our National Park System Lecture, about the over 40 of 430+ National Park Service sites with a direct connection to the American Revolution.
• Piscataway Park (see below)
• Fort Washington Park (see below)

The 4 (7) new National Park Sites Visits in the Convention Highlights:

• George Washington Birthplace National Monument (#335), located in the Northern Neck of Virginia, encompasses 551 acres of land where seven generations of the Washington family lived and where George Washington was born in 1732. The park was also central to one of the earliest efforts to memorialize George Washington during the celebration of his bicentennial birth anniversary in 1932. There is still active archeological work going on there, which was the primary topic of our Ranger Tour there.
• Thomas Stone National Historic Site (#336), where lived Thomas Stone, who in 1776, with 55 others, signed the Declaration of Independence to support the Declaration of Independence’s promise of freedom. We had a fascinating tour and talk by a Ranger, who laid out the importance of Maryland in the fight for freedom, and pointed out that the Declaration of Independence actually took months to get signed! The painting is FAKE NEWS!
• Piscataway Park (#337), last “official” tour of the convention, on Sunday. It has an interesting history, including being a sacred site of the Piscataway people. It is managed jointly with them. However, it was protected largely to preserve the view-across-the-Potomac from Mount Vernon…warding off a sanitation plant!!! This was accomplished by the the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association, the Piscataway Natives, and residents of the areas.  It has, in addition to a public fishing pier and two boardwalks over fresh water tidal wetlands, a variety of nature trails, meadows, and woodland areas and is home to National Colonial Farm.
• National Capital Parks-East (#338), an officially counted National Park Unit, it is comprised of other “counted” and “not counted” units, 2 of which we visited Sunday…Piscataway Park and Fort Washington Park.
• Fort Washington Park (#339), home to historic Fort Washington, with great views of the Potomac River. Built to defend the river approach to Washington, DC, Fort Washington has stood sentry for over 200 years. As technologies advanced, so did Fort Washington from the brick and stone of the 19th century to the concrete and steel of the 20th century. The Visitor Center, built in the 1820s, once the home of Fort Washington’s commander, today has a small museum. We stopped on our return to camp (Sunday) after the convention, arriving just in time for the last tour of the day, along with several other convention goers!

• And 3 “not counted” new to us National Historic Trails we encountered at multiple stops (over the weekend and the last few days):
  • Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail…people first arrived in the Chesapeake Bay during the last ice age. As glaciers melted, diverse societies learned to thrive in a world of water. When Englishman Captain John Smith explored the Bay in 1608, he documented hundreds of American Indian communities. Today, sites on his map are archeological treasures and sacred sites for tribal citizens, i.e. Piscataway Park.
  • Star-Spangled Banner National Historic Trail, a collection of sites impacted by the War of 1812. These local, historic sites tell the story of the Chesapeake Campaign, culminating in the writing of our National Anthem.
  • Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionaly Route National Historic Trail, a  680-mile-long trail of sites, which follow the paths taken by George Washington’s Continental Army and Jean-Baptiste de Rochambeau’s Expédition Particulière during their 1781 march from Newport, Rhode Island, to Yorktown, Virginia. France’s support in America’s struggle for independence was vital to victory at Yorktown. The trail commemorates that victory and the lasting Franco-American friendship.

Back in Millersville, MD campground

Got back to Millersville campground Sunday evening, with one more week to explore the Greater DC National Parks. Unfortunately, Gail’s PC stopped connecting to the internet, hence this post is delayed a few days, as it was only recently fixed. Hope to catch up by Sunday night, before we move on!

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