[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 152 (Tuesday, October 20, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10571-S10573]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. CARPER (for himself and Mr. Kaufman):
  S. 1801. A bill to establish the First State National Historical Park 
in the State of Delaware, and for other purposes; to the Committee on 
Energy and Natural Resources.
  Mr. CARPER. Mr. President, I am delighted to be joined this afternoon 
by my colleague, Senator Kaufman, from Delaware. Today, he and I are 
going to do something I don't think has ever been done in the Senate in 
the 200 years since this institution has been together. We will be 
introducing legislation which will establish the First State National 
Historic Park within the State of Delaware.
  There are, as we all know, 50 States, and 49 States have national 
parks. In all, there are 58 national parks. There are something like 
more than 300 units of national parks. The first State to ratify the 
Constitution--that would be Delaware--was the entire United States of 
America for 1 week beginning December 7, 1787, and it still has no 
national park--not that we don't have historical and cultural heritage 
that is noteworthy in Delaware.
  Think back roughly 400 years ago when the first settlements in this 
country from Europe were that of the Dutch in what is now Lewes, DE. 
And 372 years ago, the Swedes and Finns sailed across the Atlantic 
Ocean up the Delaware Bay and the Delaware River, took a left turn on 
the river they decided to name after the child queen of Sweden, 
Christina, and established the colony of New Sweden and what is now 
known as Wilmington, DE.
  To the south in Dover, DE, at the Golden Fleece Tavern for roughly 3 
days in December 1787, 25 or so men holed up in the Golden Fleece 
Tavern drinking what I describe as hot chocolate in order to decide 
whether the State of Delaware was going to be the first State to ratify 
the Constitution.
  A few miles south of there is the childhood home of John Dickinson,

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who worked with folks in Connecticut at the Constitutional Convention 
to come up with a grand compromise which says every State will have two 
U.S. Senators and we will apportion the seats in the House of 
Representatives in accordance with the population of the States.
  From one end of the State of Delaware to the other, there are any 
number of things that are important to our Nation's heritage and I 
think certainly to the people of Delaware. Yet we have no national park 
commemorating any of that at all. Roughly 8 years ago, shortly after I 
came to the Senate, we went to work to see whether we could change that 
situation. A lot of good people in my State submitted ideas, from one 
end of the State to the other, what they thought might be reasonable, 
acceptable, appropriate items or places to designate as our national 
park. We created a wonderful citizens group about 3 or 4 years ago. 
They went the length and breadth of the State, led by professor 
emeritus Jim Solis of the University of Delaware. They came back with a 
wonderful group of ideas they collected from people from all over the 
State.
  They said: This is what we think the national park should be--a 
unique concept. If you can imagine four bicycle wheels, each has a hub, 
and from the hubs emanate the spokes. The vision of our working group 
was to have four hubs--one in northern Delaware, Wilmington; one maybe 
in Delaware City; another in Kent County, the central part of our 
State; and another in Lewes, DE, the southern part of our State. From 
each of those hubs--think of the spokes emanating--is a variety of 
attractions to which people could come. Each hub would be a hub 
established with some presence by the National Park Service.
  These were the ideas we submitted to the National Park Service 
roughly 3 years ago. The National Park Service went to work on it. To 
their credit, they came to our State. They covered our State and met 
with all kinds of people from one end of Delaware to the other and came 
up with another idea. They said: We like what you came up with, but 
here is what the National Park Service would like you to do. It is 
this: Create a national park that focuses on Delaware from the early 
settlement of the Dutch, the Swedes and the Finns and the English--a 
national park theme to run from that period of time until first 
statehood, December 7, 1787, roughly 130, 140 years.
  The idea is to place in old New Castle, colonial New Castle, about 10 
miles south of Wilmington, DE, on the Delaware River, a national park 
site that would be colocated and located in an existing structure that 
is suitable for that purpose. That spot will be populated by park 
rangers, who will be there to serve as interpreters and help welcome 
people to the site and help inform them, share with them other ideas 
and places to visit.
  We are excited about what the National Park Service has decided. Is 
it everything we had hoped for? No, it is not. Is it a whole lot better 
than being the only State in the country without a national park? It 
sure is a lot better than that.
  I express great thanks to all the men and women in my State who for 
almost 8 years worked on this concept, created and gathered good ideas 
and suggested those to the Park Service. I thank the Delaware Division 
of Parks and Recreation, the Delaware Division of Historical and 
Cultural Affairs, the National Park Service, former Secretary of the 
Interior Dirk Kempthorne; and certainly our current Secretary of the 
Interior, Ken Salazar, for their steadfast support for this initiative.
  About half a dozen or so years ago, my family and I--my boys are now 
19 and 21, but when they were younger, we liked to travel in the 
summers and visit national parks. We visited national parks from 
Pennsylvania, the second State in the Union, to Illinois, the Lincoln 
sites. We went to Alaska, to Denali, the great one, a huge national 
park that is two to three times the size of Delaware. We loved to visit 
national parks. This summer, our boys took a cross-country tour to the 
west coast for a summer job for one of our boys. They drove all the way 
across the northern part of our country and got to spend time in the 
Badlands, Mount Rushmore and Yellowstone and other sites along the way.
  National parks were described as--I think it was Wallace Stegner who 
said our national parks are America's best ideas. Ken Burns, the 
documentary filmmaker whose series on national parks was on National 
Public Television--beautifully done, beautifully videographed, and the 
story told of our national parks and how the first national park began 
about 140 years ago. Here we are 140 years later. They are a national 
treasure. People come from all over the world.
  When we went on the national park Web site 6 years ago to look for a 
place to go as a family, do you know what we ended up with? Nothing. 
There was a lot of stuff to visit from Alabama to Wyoming, A to W, but 
when we got to Delaware, nothing.
  We have a lot in our State of which we are proud. We have a lot in 
our State of which our country can be proud. We want not only people in 
Delaware to know but people throughout the country and the world. When 
they are looking for a good place to visit for some culture and history 
and, frankly, for a good time, we want them to know that Delaware--
little Delaware--is on the map. We are ready. The doors are open. The 
``welcome'' mat is out. We are ready to receive them.
  I want to say a big thanks to everyone who got us to this point. We 
are delighted to introduce the legislation that will designate and 
establish the first national park in the State of Delaware. 
Fortunately, I am not introducing the bill by myself. I am joined by my 
colleague, Senator Kaufman, and in the House by Congressman Mike 
Castle. This will be a bipartisan, bicameral initiative.
  I yield to Senator Kaufman.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Delaware.
  Mr. KAUFMAN. Mr. President, this has been a great journey for me, 
before I came to the Senate, watching my present senior Senator, Tom 
Carper, then junior Senator--I am proud to say one of my greatest 
accomplishments as a Senator was to promote Tom Carper from junior 
Senator to senior Senator--to watch him work on this bill for a 
national park for Delaware for 8 years.
  I think if you were trying to do a case study on what it takes to 
make an accomplishment in the Senate, his efforts would be an excellent 
case study. He has been working for 8 years to bring a national park to 
Delaware. It is the only State in the Nation that does not have a 
national park, and yet it has so many wonderful things to see. I think 
people who visit Delaware will know that.
  I am proud to be a cosponsor of a bill that really my senior Senator 
has worked so hard on. He already explained much of the history of how 
we came to this point, so I want to simply say again that I appreciate 
how he has worked with the National Park Service to design a national 
historical park for Delaware.
  Earlier this year, when we were discussing the Travel Promotion Act, 
I discussed many of Delaware's attractions, from the colonial history 
dating back to before it became the first State to ratify the 
Constitution, to the beautiful beaches. We have a wealth of 
opportunities for tourism. However, until this bill is signed into law, 
we will not have a national park.
  No one needs to be told about the value of national parks, the way 
they offer recreational opportunities, support local businesses, and 
protect natural and cultural heritage. What is perhaps most important 
about them, however, is the way they define and preserve our 
relationship with possibility. They speak of a quintessential American 
world view that everyone has a right to share in what is greatest and 
magnificent in our world, in this case our national parks.
  Since the creation of Yellowstone and Yosemite over a century ago, 
millions of Americans have had their eyes opened by breathtaking vistas 
and the rich history of our wonderful country. The park in Delaware 
will play an important role in preserving our colonial history. 
Remember, Delaware was a crossroads for early Dutch, English, and 
Swedish settlers. Our State has a rich endowment of colonial landmarks.
  Bringing these together the way Senator Carper has proposed in a 
national historical park, this bill will allow all Americans to 
appreciate our history leading up to the signing of the Constitution. 
That is why I am glad to join

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with my senior Senator, Tom Carper, in cosponsoring this bill. It is 
high time Delaware has a national park, and I believe this bill will 
create one that preserves Delaware's rich pre-Constitution history for 
generations to come.
  I thank my senior Senator for what he is doing, not just for me, not 
just for the people of Delaware, but for the country. This will be a 
great place for people to come from all over the country and all over 
the world to see the glorious history that is in Delaware.
  Mr. CARPER. Mr. President, in conclusion, I say a special thanks to 
Senator Kaufman. I thank members of our staff who worked on this bill--
not just us--literally for years in Delaware and here as well.
  I want to thank my colleagues who earlier voted with us to authorize 
a study, and to the National Park Service to fund that study, which 
came back to us with the recommendations of the National Park Service 
literally earlier this year.
  I also want to say that in this proposal we give a nod to the fact 
that these are trying fiscal times in which we live, and we don't have 
the ability to spend boatloads of money for a national park anywhere, 
including the First State. The proposal that we have before us is one 
that recognizes that and is, I think, responsible, and fiscally 
responsible, too.
  So with all that having been said, we are delighted to say that while 
this is not the end, this may be the beginning of the end, we hope, of 
the journey that will lead us to a national park, and we are delighted 
to stand here together to get us on the last part of that journey.
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