14 October 2011

NPS: Diverse Cultures Itineraries

People from all over the world came together to create the United States, and people continue to arrive here from many corners of the earth. It is the responsibility of the National Park Service to preserve the historic places and stories of America’s diverse cultural heritage. In keeping with its mission to document and share the history of the American people through interpretation and preservation of historic places, the National Parks Service has recently launched 150 new itineraries to historic sites and stories more representative of this nation's diverse cultural heritage.

Among the new itineraries is one for our own Gullah/Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor. Important sites in the history of the Gullah people are mentioned from North Carolina to Florida, including Beaufort County's Penn Center on St. Helena Island.

For additional information, visit the National Park Service Gullah/Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor website or call 843-881-5516.

Click here for the National Historic Landmark registration file for the Penn School Historic District: text and photos. Reservations for tours of the island can be made by calling 843-838-2432.

Rice plantation farming and slavery in Lowland South Carolina are the subjects of an online lesson plan, When Rice Was King. The lesson plan has been produced by the National Park Service’s Teaching with Historic Places program, which offers a series of online classroom-ready lesson plans on registered historic places. To learn more, visit the Teaching with Historic Places homepage.

To read a short essay on "Rice: A South Carolina Tradition" by Amber Shorthouse, click here.

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