Jonathan Jarvis, a Valley native and Director of the U.S. National Park Service, will bring his passion for “his children” – the 408 national park service sites – to the 20th annual banquet of the Augusta County Historical Society March 19. The National Park Service turns 100 this year, and Jarvis will describe the service’s breathtaking history under the topic “Celebrating 100 Years of America’s Best Idea: The National Park Service.”
The annual ACHS banquet will be held at the Stonewall Jackson Hotel and Conference Center in Staunton. Tickets to the unique event are $50 and are still available through online sales. The evening begins at 6 p.m. with a social, with dinner at 6:45 followed by the program. The night will also feature a fundraiser drawing for trips, pieces of art and other prizes.
Jarvis, nominated by President Obama and confirmed by the Senate in 2009, is the 18th Director of the park service. He is a native of Rockbridge County.
“The inspiration for my work came out of the fantastic Shenandoah Valley,” Jarvis said in an interview recently. “I climbed every mountain within sight of my house. I fished every river.”
In his 40 years with the Park Service, Jarvis has served in locations across the U.S., in Alaska and even served as regional director of the area including parks far out in the Pacific. In the past year alone he has met Pope Francis and former President Jimmy Carter.
Jarvis sees the Park Service Centennial as a way to celebrate the 408 special outdoor and cultural Park Service places, and to ensure they remain relevant for the next 100 years. “They represent our national character and are a field guide to our American values. We must find a way to connect to the next generation of park visitors, supporters, and advocates, and the centennial is the path to solving many of those challenges,” he said with some passion.
For the last four decades Jarvis has been having fun preserving America’s special places with a love of the great outdoors rooted amid Valley forests. He has visited 290 of the Park Service’s locations. When asked about his favorite park, he just smiles and says softly, “I love all my children. All 408 of them. My favorite one is the last one I visited.”
It’s particularly appropriate for Jarvis to come to Staunton to talk about the nation’s park system. Importantly, the Service has many entities in the area – the Shenandoah National Park, the Blue Ridge Parkway, the Appalachian Trail, and the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields District. Also significantly, John Colter, famed mountain man and scout on the Lewis and Clark expedition, was born in Stuarts Draft. Colter became the first white man to explore Yellowstone, and Yellowstone became the FIRST national park.
Tickets for the annual Banquet March 19 are available at www.augustacountyhs.org, or by emailing [email protected],or by calling 540-248-4151.
Share
Contributors
