In celebration of the National Park Service’s 100th anniversary this year, adventurer Mikah Meyer is traveling across America with the goal of visiting every one of the more than 400 sites within its jurisdiction. And VOA has been following him every step of the way.
Mikah spent part of September traveling to several sites in the state of New York where he was once again steeped in U.S. history, but also managed to squeeze in some good clean fun at the spectacular waterfalls on the U.S.-Canada border.
Of all the museums he’s visited so far, Mikah Meyer said in Buffalo, New York, has been one of his favorites.
The site preserves the home of Ansley Wilcox, a New York political insider and friend of Theodore Roosevelt, one of America’s best-known and influential presidents. It was here, on September 14, 1901, that Vice President Roosevelt was sworn into office as America’s 26th commander in chief after the assassination of President William McKinley.
Not quite 43 when he took the oath of office, Roosevelt was the youngest president of the United States, serving from 1901 to 1909.
“Because it is just a house,” Mikah said about the site, the folks at the museum “wanted to make it a special place to really engage the community.”
So they brought in a museum consulting firm from Boston, and came up with what he described as "a lot like a Disney experience."
Docents lead tours around the house, stopping in each restored room to talk about Roosevelt's place in history and explain the significance of the items on display. Compelling audio-visual presentations and interactive exhibits help tell the story of Roosevelt's presidency.
“They did a great job of making it more than just rooms with artifacts,” Mikah said. That artful storytelling “really helped the story come alive, which they recognize they needed to do, or else people might not want to come to this place.”
A written account of the circumstances leading to Roosevelt’s sudden entry into the presidency ends with these words by Ansley Wilcox in October, 1902: “It takes less in the way of ceremony to make a President in this country, than it does to make a King in England or any monarchy, but the significance of the event is no less great.”
Another highlight for Mikah was the opportunity for an interactive exercise that he and other Millennials on the tour happily engaged in...
At a mock presidential desk, visitors used a computerized screen that asked a series of questions about pieces of legislation and whether they wanted to veto or sign them.
“And then it would show you what Roosevelt did with those exact pieces of law. And then it would take your picture and put a fake headline and email it to you.”
“That was very cool,” Mikah said, and was a memorable keepsake of a museum experience he says was made “interesting for my generation.”
While in Buffalo, Mikah couldn’t resist the opportunity to visit nearby ... an enormously popular tourist destination.
While people may assume that the breathtaking waterfalls straddling the U.S.-Canada border are part of the National Park Service, Niagara Falls is in fact a state park -- the oldest one in America.
“Even though it wasn’t a national park,” Mikah said, “it’s obviously such a cultural piece of America that I had to go. I couldn’t be that close and miss it.”
And although it’s “made for tourists,” Mikah said for him and his companion Andy, it was fun.
“We went on the Maid of the Mist and took the boat down which was really cool," he recounted enthusiastically, "and we did the Cave of the Winds which takes you right up against the falls so you can feel them and get drenched.”
“Everyone was giggling, everyone was hooting and screaming when the water came and the wind came and it was this communal smile essentially,” he said. “It was touristy in the sense that there were people everywhere…but it was still a pleasant experience.”
He said he suspects that the falls are not part of the U.S. National Park Service because “to preserve it as it looked before man developed it, you’d have to get Canada on board and the Canadian side is very developed and it’s probably a huge economic boost so I doubt they would do that. And likewise on the United States’ side, I heard that the state of New York makes so much money off of it that of course they wouldn't want to hand that over.”
“Human rights are women’s rights and women’s rights are human rights.” Former first lady and the first female presidential nominee of a major U.S. political party, Hillary Rodham Clinton, famously said that in her remarks to the 1995 U.N. World Conference on Women in Beijing.