National Park Service

The U.S. Senate has unanimously approved the nomination of Charles “Chuck” Sams III as National Park Service director, which will make him the first Native American to lead the agency that oversees more than 131,000 square miles of parks and other landmarks.

A California condor egg has hatched in Northern California’s wild, the newest member of Pinnacles National Park’s recovery program for the endangered species.

Face masks are now required in all National Park Service buildings, and on land maintained by the Park Service when physical distancing is not possible, federal officials announced Tuesday.  Visitors and employees must wear masks indoors, plus outdoors on Park Service land when social distancing cannot be maintained, “including [on] narrow or busy trails, overlooks and historic homes,” a...

The National Park Service says it’s investigating an incident in which a visitor was tased by a ranger at Petroglyph National Monument in New Mexico.

The historic home of slain civil rights leader Medgar Evers is now a national monument, the U.S. interior secretary and members of Mississippi’s congressional delegation announced Thursday. The designation for the Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home was required by a law President Donald Trump signed in March 2019. The Interior Department said in a news release Thursday that Tougaloo...

A bear was found eating the remains of an Elgin man Friday near a campsite in Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina. The remains were of Patrick Madura, 43, although it’s unclear if he was mauled to death by the bear or died by another means, according to National Park Service spokeswoman Jamie Sanders. Backpackers found Madura’s...

A Flagstaff, Arizona, man has pleaded guilty to starting a wildfire at the Grand Canyon during a backpacking trip.

A parks and recreation staff member spotted a cougar at Big Hill Park in Beloit, Wisconsin Saturday. The City of Beloit Parks and Recreation posted on Facebook that one of their staff members found a cougar in Big Hill Park. The city reported the sighting to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, according to the social media post. In an…

Three of America’s best-known national parks — Yellowstone, Grand Teton and Great Smoky Mountains — closed their gates Tuesday as parks struggle to keep popular recreation areas open while heeding warnings from officials urging them to prevent spreading the coronavirus at congested sites.

Most national parks are open as a refuge for Americans tired of being stuck at home because of the coronavirus

The National Park Service has added five suburban spots to the register of historic places after deciding they were all worthy of preservation for their noteworthy significance. One of those includes the ‘Leaning Tower of Niles’ in Niles. The tower is a half-sized replica of the real Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy, at 94 feet tall and leaning 7…

More than 1,000 acres of the Indiana Dunes National Park will soon be going up in flames during prescribed burns at Indiana’s only national park.

The newly upgraded elevator at the Washington Monument stopped working just days after reopening to the public following a three-year, $15 million renovation project.

For the first time in three years, you can go to the top of the Washington Monument and see panoramic views of the Capitol, all the monuments and everything in between.

Boating enthusiasts have been slow to return to the Lake Michigan shoreline in northwestern Indiana after a chemical spill killed thousands of fish and prompted the temporary closure of beaches.

Beaches at the Indiana Dunes National Park have re-opened after a cyanide spill caused a massive fish kill earlier this month.

Specialists are using lasers to clean up the black biofilm on the Jefferson Memorial dome.

Water tests in Indiana show that cyanide concentrations have fallen to acceptable levels about a week after a steel plant leaked toxins into a tributary of Lake Michigan, killing several thousand fish and shutting down part of the Indiana Dunes. Portage steel factory owner ArcelorMittal and the Indiana Department of Environmental Management have been criticized for failing to report the...

A steel company apologized for a spill of cyanide and ammonia that led to a fish kill and prompted the closure of beaches along Lake Michigan. ArcelorMittal issued a statement Friday night saying it “apologizes and accepts responsibility for the incident from the Burns Harbor facility.”

City officials in Portage, Indiana said they weren’t informed of a chemical leak in the Little Calumet River for multiple days after concerns were first reported.