These Six American Parks are Ecological Marvels

Stephanie Pearson, the author of the new book 100 Great American Parks, defines parks as places of refuge, reflection, conservation, and community in her National Geographic article.

The U.S. National Park Service, established in 1916, manages more than 420 units, including 63 national parks, covering 85 million acres. Some parks protect valuable and endangered habitats. Other parks commemorate important events in our history, and still, others provide a tranquil place for visitors. Notable American parks include historic sites, wildlife refuges, and congressionally designated wilderness areas. But each place has the potential to inspire.

The American South cradles parks that reveal surprising natural and social histories of places in Louisiana, Arkansas, North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, and other places. Pearson noted that visitors of American parks are rewarded with vivid stories of Native heritage, civil rights heroes, and ecological marvels.

Atchafalaya National Heritage Area

Louisiana's Atchafalaya National Heritage Area highlights the Atchafalaya Basin, which spans 14 of the state's 64 parishes. It is home to ancient oaks and towering cypress trees along bayous, swamps, and backwater lakes, all clustered around the Atchafalaya River, which comes from the Choctaw word hacha falaia, or "long river."

The complex cultural history of the Atchafalaya began about 6,000 to 2,500 years ago when the first Native Americans lived along the natural levees and bayous that once formed the traditional floodplain of the Mississippi River.

Buffalo National River

The Buffalo River in Arkansas is the first national river in the United States, a designation that protects it from industrial uses and other encroachments that would alter the natural character of the waterway. The 135-mile national river portion features dramatic limestone and sandstone bluffs, more than 500 caves, over 100 miles of hiking and equestrian trails, and 12 species of fish.

Despite its protected status, the Buffalo is still tagged as a vulnerable eco-park. In 2019, the nonprofit organization American Rivers ranked Buffalo as the eighth most endangered river in the country. The reason is a 6,500-head hog farm, also known as a Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO), located on a hill overlooking Big Creek, which is one of the river's main tributaries. In June 2019, the state reached an agreement with the hog farm to close the facility. Governor Asa Hutchinson announced a permanent moratorium on industrial operations in the watershed.

Cape Hatteras National Seashore

Visitors to North Carolina's Outer Banks look forward to the roaring surf, a secluded beach, and a cool dip in the Atlantic Ocean. The three sandy islands of Bodie, Hatteras, and Ocracoke, parts of Cape Hatteras National Seashore, offer this peaceful respite or a restorative space. They are also a haven for five species of sea turtles, nesting colonies of shorebirds, and a herd of banker ponies. Legend has it that the ponies are descended from animals that shipwrecked sailors found in the 16th or 17th century.

Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historical Park

Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historical Park spans a few blocks on Auburn Avenue in Atlanta, Georgia. It once was the thriving heart of the city's Black community, which was known as Sweet Auburn. The National Historical Park features the most formative places in the young King's life.

The park, a four-hour drive southwest in Alabama is the Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail, where King led nonviolent supporters of all races to fight for black suffrage, and is also the final resting place of King and his wife, Coretta Scott King.

Gulf Islands National Seashore

The Gulf Islands National Seashore stretches 160 miles from Florida's Santa Rosa Island in the east to Mississippi's Cat Island in the west and spans two states, including seven islands and portions of the mainland. The 13 unique areas range from historic Civil War-era forts to wild white quartz sand beaches accessible only by boat. It has emerald coast waters, magnificent white beaches, fertile marshes and historical landscapes.

Cumberland Island National Seashore

The ghosts of the past haunt the shifting sand dunes, salt marshes, coastal forests, and miles of pristine beaches of Cumberland Island National Seashore on Georgia's largest and southernmost barrier island.

For centuries, people have inhabited this 18-mile-long island, from the original Indigenous residents to the Timucua people and Spanish missionaries to formerly enslaved Blacks to wealthy industrialists.