At least 300 Historic Preservation professionals were fired from the National Park Service on February 14, 2025

This totally unanticipated gutting of the NPS’s role in preserving our nation’s heritage occurred mainly at the Harpers Ferry National Center, but will now spread to regional offices. More summary terminations of senior archaeologists, architects, urban/regional planners, historians, cartographers, geologists and engineers at Harpers Ferry are expected to follow.

by Richard L. Thornton, Architect & City Planner

Harpers Ferry National Historical Park

The prime responsibility of these highly educated, skilled professionals is the preservation of historic buildings, archaeological sites and natural landscapes, owned by the federal government . . . not just NPS properties. However, they also coordinate the National Historic Preservation Program, first created by Congress during President Richard Nixon’s administration. This program involves grants to state and local governments to carry out large scale historic preservation efforts, plus reviews of plans for private properties that will receive tax credits.

Under the heavy fist of “Project 2525” . . . the National Park Service is expected to reduce its total employment 75% by privatizing most of the National Park System. Like the proverbial boiling of a frog in a pot of water, this process is to begin slowly at first by selling off prime sea coast and mountain parklands to become exclusive resorts. The process will be cloaked with the excuse that these sales are necessary to reduce the national deficit. No discussion will be made of perhaps requiring those who benefit most from our economy, paying a little for that service.

Remembering NPS Director Roger Kennedy

That I am even here to write this disturbing article, you can thank former National Park Service Director (and earlier, Director of the National Museum of American History) Roger Kennedy. Almost exactly 15 years ago, Roger somehow found out that I had been illegally foreclosed upon and then evicted on Christmas Eve with three days notice . . . by the same sort of self-proclaimed gods, who are now reeking havoc in our nation. They seem to forget also that federal employees are a major stabilizing factor in our national economy. The financial destruction of their middle class families will spread an economic downturn in communities around the USA.

I had made enemies ten years earlier, when a lady-friend and I helped stop well-advanced plans for Georgia to lease Etowah Mounds National Historic Landmark for a dollar a year to a wealthy developer and major contributor to the George Bush Presidential Campaign. He planned to build a gated golf course community around the Native American town site then build a museum named after himself. There was little we could do individually, but we did make the Muscogee-Creek Nation aware of the project and they did stop it.

Roger also somehow found out in February 2010 that I was living in a tent in the national forest near Fontana Lake, North Carolina. He sent me an email, hoping that I would retrieve it somehow.

I checked emails at the local Graham County Library. Out of his own bank account, he offered to pay me to do the graphics and some research for his planned book, Greek Revival America . . . but also paid me extra to do research on the 16th and 17th century European explorations and colonization of the Southern Appalachians. He proposed that we write a book together on that subject. However, Roger died of cancer before that could happen. I had to write the book by myself, but helped by his former tutoring.

With that income, I still lived in a tent or an abandoned chicken house for two years and five months, but had plenty of food . . . kept my hair trimmed and washed my clothes at laundromats. I was able to pay my car notes and car insurance, thus was eventually able to dig out of the financial disaster.

In the process of exploring the Southern Highlands, I made major archaeological discoveries, which got me on several nationally televised documentaries . . . most notably, the December 2012 premier of “America Unearthed” on the History Channel. I had been “un-homeless” (of sorts) about six weeks, when the program was filmed.

Entrance hall at the Smithsonian Christmas Party

I first met Roger at the 1990 Smithsonian Institute Administrative Staff Christmas Party. I was ostensibly invited to sample the goat cheese from my federally-licensed creamery in the Shenandoah Valley, but actually the party’s hostess was doing some match-making.

Roger and his wife, Frances, were initially more interested in chatting with the vivacious French actress – history lover, whom I had just met at the party. However, over time he learned about the fascinating research being done by NPS archaeologists and historians on my farm. When Roger was selected as the new Director of the National Park Service, he appointed me to the Advisory Council for the National Battlefield Protection Program.

This article is just a small way of saying “Thank You” for Roger’s compassion and the assistance given me through the years by National Park Service employees.