The National Park Service announced the formal establishment of a new National Historic Site, and subsequently, the latest "park" yesterday.
The Blackwell School in Marfa, Texas, is the newly designated site. According to Outdoors.com, while school may not be another Yellowstone or Grand Canyon, it is certainly important and worth protecting.
While it was once part of a larger complex, today the site includes only two buildings. An original schoolhouse from 1909, and the Band Hall from 1927. Notably, NPS says the buildings retain their integrity, and do well in highlighting the adobe structure, and clay tile construction representative of the local building methods and the time period.
Within the buildings, "photographs, memorabilia, and interpretive panels" pay homage to former students and teachers alike. The history is vast, as the school spent 56 years educating Mexican and Mexican-American children of Marfa, Texas. Today, NPS says the site serves as a reminder of the "lasting impact of this prejudice on the American people of this town and similar towns across the country."
Historic Marfa, Texas School Named National Historic Site
While the school's identification as a "National Park" may seem confusing, it is not alone in its distinction. St. Louis's Gateway Arch National Park is similar in nature, as a "monument-centric" national park. Moreover, the National Parks Conservation Agency noted that the addition of Blackwell to the National Parks System brings the tally to 430 official park sites across the United States.
The distinction of "site" versus "park" is really a much more trivial in nature. Any location listed as a "historic site" falls into the National Park System, therefore making the location a "park."
While many think of the massive, awe-inspiring sites like the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone or Yosemite, many of the 430 national park sites are too often forgotten. Our nation's history, that crosses several centuries, is spotted with moments and locations to be preserved from coast to coast. Next time you pass through Marfa, make sure to stop into our nation's newest National Historic Site - The Blackwell School.
