WEEK 2: THE POWER OF PLACE



What is a National Park? And what is this National Park?

In week 1 we reviewed pages and pages of NPS literature, including the General Management plan for San Juan Island National Historical Park. We understood the Park Service’s definition of this place, as a site that “commemorate[s] the historic events associated with the final settlement and peaceful arbitration of the Oregon boundary dispute,” where the NPS “protects natural resources and provides compatible recreational and educational opportunities.”

Once on San Juan Island, however, we learned that the Park embodies many definitions. Its meanings are as varied as the individuals who hold them. The Park is deeply imbued with thousands of years of history, revealing a rich tradition of human interaction with the land. Only part of this story is currently being told.

The Imagery of Place

The Park evoked vivid associations in the minds of many of us, illustrating the importance of place as an imaginative and emotional, as well as a physical, space. Though our site is deeply grounded in its Pacific Northwest context, we were amazed that the images, words, and concepts it inspired came from many different cultures and many different places. Below are a few selections:

Explorations of Place

When we returned to Seattle we explored ways we might engage these additional—and vital—aspects of our site to resonate with today’s visitors. The National Park Service has set forth a preliminary set of design principles to guide parks in the 21^st century, and in small groups we examined how these principles currently operate and how they might operate in our park in the future. These principles are:

· Reverence for place

· Engagement of all people

· Expansion beyond traditional boundaries

· Advancement of sustainability

· Informed decision-making

· An integrated research, planning, design, and review process

We shared our explorations through slide presentations. One of the most compelling ideas presented was a vision of interpretive stewardship for the park, which links cultural history and ecological literacy. For example, the practice of controlled burning is a way for the NPS to ensure a rich and varied ecosystem in the Park and maintain the threatened Garry oak woodland at English Camp. This practice was also employed by the Native Americans who originally inhabited the islands and might be a fascinating lens through which to interpret historical and current management of the land.

Other groups suggested that a reverence for place can take all forms, and that it would be powerful to capture living histories of the Park and of the Island as part of an expanded interpretation program for the site. We were also reminded of J. B. Jackson’s definition of a cultural landscape as “infrastructure or background for our collective existence . . . which underscores . . . our identity and presence.”

This, then, is our design challenge at San Juan Island National Historical Park: the infrastructure is there, but we need to frame it in such a way that it is meaningful to all. In other words, we need to draw these many threads of meaning together into a resilient, multivalent experience of place.