This year we celebrate the centennial anniversary of the National Park Service and its amazing network of more than 400 national parks and monuments. However, for the first 97 years of the National Park Service’s existence we couldn’t say that there was a national park in all 50 states, because my home state of Delaware had been lacking a national park.

Delaware is known as the “First State" because it was the first of the 13 original states to ratify the U.S. Constitution back in 1787, but somewhat ironically it was actually the last state to gain a national park. The effort to find a site that would qualify as a national park had been going on for decades, and being part of the effort that finally succeeded in bringing the First State National Historical Park to Delaware was a very personal and important project to me.

Here’s how it happened. In 2012, The Conservation Fund orchestrated the purchase and protection of 1,100 acres along the historic Brandywine River called the "Woodlawn" property. We partnered with the Mt. Cuba Center, who made an unprecedented $20 million commitment to acquire this important property. Along with incredible scenic beauty, Woodlawn also possessed the perfect combination of cultural and historic significance plus recreational opportunities to provide a renewed spark to Delaware’s effort to secure a national park designation. Once the Fund had the property under contract, we conducted public hearings to determine what the community wanted to do with this property, and there was a groundswell of public support for pursuing a national park designation.

First State National HIstorical Park. Photo by Whitney Flanagan.

I remember one particular muggy evening in August 2012, when sitting in a packed high school auditorium, I realized that the dream of creating a national park in Delaware was going to become a reality. Previous public meetings had attracted a handful of interested citizens, but on that night more than 600 boisterous, enthusiastic people showed up. Delaware’s Congressional delegation and National Park Service director John Jarvis were also there, and after our presentations they opened the floor for comments and questions. There were specific concerns about traffic, parking and the continuation of recreational uses like biking, but most people sat taking it all in and wondering what having a national park in their community would mean.

First State National HIstorical Park. Photo by Whitney Flanagan.

Just as the meeting was wrapping up, a Boy Scout in uniform raised his hand to speak in the midst of this giant crowd. He stood up and spoke eloquently about how he grew up camping along the Brandywine River on this property, that he also visited with his Boy Scout troop and helped fix up the trails, and how much he cared about the property. He said that he could think of no higher recognition for this place than for it to become a national park; that it deserved it. There was a long pause after he finished speaking, and then applause that rose into cheers and a standing ovation. His heartfelt words erased any doubt that becoming a national park was the right outcome for this property. He was not a “scripted” speaker and I have never heard from or seen him again. But on that night, that young Boy Scout provided the wisdom and insight that sometimes only children have, and became a critical part of establishing Delaware’s first national park.

And indeed it did. In March 2013, President Obama designated Woodlawn (in combination with four other historic sites) as the First State National Monument, and in 2015 it was redesignated as First State National Historical Park through Congressional action led by Delaware’s U.S. Senators Tom Carper and Chris Coons and U.S. Representative John Carney, and Pennsylvania’s U.S. Representative Patrick Meehan.

Before it was redesignated as a National Historical Park, First State was a National Monument. Photo by Claire Robinette Cooney.

Having this national park in my home state has been both professionally and personally rewarding for me. A particularly fun thing for me to see was my sons’ desire to have a Delaware stamp in their Junior Ranger National Park Passport book. They were adamant about having a National Park stamp from their own state. Seeing this park come to life was very personal to them because of the time that we had spent as a family at many other national parks in other states and the pride they took in having one in their own state.

And it’s not just great for my family—the First State project created a park with tremendous accessibility for millions of kids and their families. I encourage you to visit the First State National Historical Park the next time you’re in the area. Until then, you can click here to explore the park virtually via Google Trekker—a mapping tool from Google that we used to create a 360-degree digital view of the trails and landscapes of First State and many other sites that The Fund has helped protect.

Working for The Conservation Fund and with the National Park Service has helped me realize that the legacy of what we do isn’t just about the places we protect, but the people that use them. In the end, that is the privilege of working in conservation—seeing people connected to the places and knowing the legacy will continue. Here’s to another 100 years of the National Park Service doing just that.