How To Celebrate 100 Years of National Parks This Weekend In An Around Morris County

It won't come again for another 100 years so this is a good weekend to get out and celebrate the heritage of our land with some of the closest National Park Service Centennial events.

If you're right in Morris County, the best place to celebrate the centennial is at the Morristown National Historical Park in Morristown, NJ. This park, which also includes a museum and a library, commemorates the sites where George Washington and the Continental army camped out during one of the coldest winter's on record, between December 1779 and June 1780.

The park kicked off the centennial celebration on August 25 with cake, a talk, and a tour. The celebration continues into the weekend with a ranger-led historical walk on Saturday and a series of events on Sunday.

On Sunday morning, discover Morristown's revolutionary past on a hike with a ranger. Participants will learn about the winter encampments of 1777 and 1779-1780 in and around Morristown. Stops will include the Presbyterian Cemetery, the Schuyler-Hamilton House, and the Ford Mansion. Hikers will learn how a town can be full of historic sites, hidden in plain sight.

Continue the celebration into the afternoon with a ranger-led hike through Jockey Hollow. You can find out about the Wick Farm, where Major General Arthur St. Clair made his headquarters one winter, and how Jockey Hollow has been preserved.

If you want to stay indoors, you can join others in the Washington's Headquarters Museum for a piano recital to celebrate the Centennial. Pianist Peter Toth will perform solo piano works on the park's 1873 Steinway grand piano. Hungarian pianist Peter Toth is one of the most recognized artists of his generation whose first released CD recording won the Grand Prize of the Hungarian Liszt Society (2006).

Travel about 40 minutes outside of Morris County to the Paterson Great Falls National Historical Park and spend the day attending their BioBlitz. For nature lovers of all ages, the BioBlitz is an ecological scavenger hunt to identify as many plants, birds, insects and other animals as you can. Get the lowdown on birds of prey and learn how to check water quality with experts.

If you're willing to go a little farther, find your park at the National Park Service website.

Image via Merle Allen, Wikipedia, used under Creative Commons.