history

Today I was working on revising my "history hike" at the park. I was reading through the binders of type-written "histories" that we have, and looking through old pictures. I realized once more the complete disarray that the information we have about the 19th century Newton Hills is. I also realized how much I would love to dig deeper and write an actual history of the area. There's so much just beneath the surface. And then I remembered that I'm moving in two months and will not be getting that opportunity. It was sort of a sad moment.

On a slightly different note, I'm starting to discover my leanings toward archeology. There are a lot of legends of buried treasure and such about Newton Hills, and I find myself thinking that it'd be pretty cool to try to find some of the locations talked about in the old writings about the park.

It's crazy, the people that work at Newton Hills right now have NO IDEA of the history of the park - even the manager probably couldn't tell you when the park was founded. I'm not much better, but I do wish that more was made of the rich history of the area. For example, at another park in our district, a man used to live in a cave. No one working there would even know about the fact that there's a cave in that park if I hadn't told them. And they don't seem to care at all.

I realize I'm sort of a nerd...but this stuff is fascinating to me. Almost to the point where I'd consider going to grad school for local history. But, my course is set, and I'm equally passionate about modern German history, so it'll work.. :)