Inspire Preservation: Roberta YoungRoberta’s seed of…

NPS tour: Loess Hills, Iowa (L-R) D. Stevens, Me, C. Goetcheus, R. Page, G. Burt, (top) C. Kenkel, (not shown – S. Williams, M. McEnaney) c. 1999.

Memorabilia from an internship with the Eureka Coal Heritage Foundation, Windber, PA. (R. Young)

New Jersey Girl – Age 5 – Boonton Twp. NJ (Courtesy of R. Young)

Where it all began: Memory map of family home (Not Extant) – where “old stuff” was explored and imagination ran wild. (R. Young)

Inspire Preservation: Roberta Young

Roberta’s seed of cultural

resource stewardship was planted and nurtured at her family’s rural New Jersey

property, where everything was old and the stories of past occupants were told through

the site’s over grown vegetation, gardens, various buildings, roads, and

trails.

Inspirational places for

imaginary adventures included an old home site with a cabin and outdoor fire

oven, a sea of forest with rock islands, and a secret hideout under the graceful

arch of a giant forsythia.  However, it

was the field trips with family and friends during her early years that introduced

her to historic sites, where cultural resources were preserved for everyone to

experience.    

Field Trip Memorabilia –

Note Liberty Bell photo from 1976! (R. Young)

Eventually, Roberta found herself at

Penn State University enrolled in the Landscape Architecture Program. This is where new growth and appreciation for

cultural resources and history flourished and every project assigned was guided

by a site’s past and an abundance of analysis. 

Roberta’s first “real” opportunity to work with a cultural landscape was

as an intern with the Southwestern Pennsylvania Heritage Preservation

Commission. Tasked with designing the

first walking tour for the Eureka Coal Heritage Foundation in Windber,

Pennsylvania, she was fascinated by the history represented in the landscape

and architecture, the pride associated with the hard working miners who shaped

the town, and a desire on the part of the town’s people to preserve and

interpret the resources before they disappeared. Wanting to work with cultural landscapes in a

professional capacity, Roberta accepted a position with the Midwest Regional

Office Cultural Landscapes Inventory Program, where her career in cultural

resource stewardship firmly took root.  

Roberta’s interest in Cultural

Resources Stewardship has since continued to branch out.  She continues to find working with historic

landscapes and structures as inspiring as her first day on the job. 

“Cultural

Resources under the stewardship of dedicated NPS employees connect people to places

of historic significance in tangible and experiential ways.  

When NPS professionals do their job well, they

plant new seeds of cultural resources stewardship that have the potential to

grow in the next generation of professionals – just as it did for a little girl

from New Jersey who “found all of her parks” in the Midwest Region Cultural

Landscape Program.”

• Discover National Parks of the Midwest Region

• Find out more about cultural landscape preservation 

• A handful of cultural landscape profiles in Midwest Region national parks – more to come!

As 2017 begins, we are featuring a series of landscape preservation inspiration posts from members of the program. Missed anything? Check out the series here.