[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 34, Number 17 (Monday, April 27, 1998)]
[Pages 689-690]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Proclamation 7086--National Park Week, 1998

April 22, 1998

By the President of the United States

of America

A Proclamation

    Within our national parks, we find all the rich diversity and 
extraordinary beauty of America's natural heritage. From the majestic 
Grand Tetons to the mysterious Everglades, our parks preserve for us the 
treasures of our magnificent country: the astonishing variety of plant 
and animal life, the tranquility of forests and meadows, and the 
breathtaking grandeur of our great rivers, deserts, and mountains. Our 
national park sites also provide us with vital links to our heritage as 
a people and a Nation. They tell us the stories of the individuals, 
places, and events that have shaped the American character.
    The Statue of Liberty National Monument and Ellis Island are 
tangible reminders of the more than 12 million immigrants who came to 
the United States through this small gateway to a new world and a new 
life. For many Americans, this national park site tells a very personal 
story of family struggles and triumphs and of the courage it takes to 
seek freedom.
    Many African Americans took a different but equally brave route to 
freedom. Their story has been preserved for us by the National Park 
Service in the many historic sites marking the route of the Underground 
Railroad. In homes, churches, and farms in communities throughout Ohio, 
Indiana, Pennsylvania, New York, and elsewhere, we can experience the 
determination and indomitable spirit of African American men and women 
fleeing the bonds of slavery, and we can learn more about the many 
heroes like Harriet Tubman who helped them on their dangerous trek north 
to freedom.
    This summer, our Nation will celebrate the 150th anniversary of the 
first Women's Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, New York. That event 
will be commemorated at Women's Rights National Historical Park, where 
we are reminded that the idea that men and women are created equal was 
once

[[Page 690]]

considered radical. On this site, visionaries such as Lucretia Mott, 
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Frederick Douglass helped our Nation take an 
important first step toward legal, political, and educational rights for 
American women.
    At these and so many other historic places across our Nation, the 
National Park Service preserves and protects the American legacy, 
reminding us not only of who we are as a people, but also of how far we 
have traveled together on our great American journey. Our national parks 
are classrooms and laboratories, windows on our past and doorways to our 
future. As we celebrate National Park Week, I commend all the talented 
and dedicated men and women of the National Park Service for telling the 
story of the people and places that have shaped our destiny and for 
preserving for our children the riches of our natural and cultural 
heritage.
    Now, Therefore, I, William J. Clinton, President of the United 
States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the 
Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim April 20 
through April 26, 1998, as National Park Week.
    In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-second 
day of April, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety-eight, 
and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred 
and twenty-second.
                                            William J. Clinton

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 8:45 a.m., April 23, 
1998]

Note: This proclamation was published in the Federal Register on April 
24.