The National Trails Office does not own land. It builds partnerships instead

The National Trails Office for Regions 6, 7 and 8 administers nine national historic trails and Route 66, which together stretch for 25,000 miles across 24 states. Yet it does not manage or own any land. Sections of the trails run over public or private ground, so its work rests on partners who own or manage the places a visitor can actually reach.

Historic trails, not scenic ones

The National Park Service administers 30 trails in the National Trails System, and 19 of them are designated historic trails. A scenic trail, like the Pacific Crest or the Appalachian Trail, is one people hike to experience nature. A historic trail is a route people have travelled for centuries, from Indigenous peoples to Spanish, English and French settlers. The way to meet one is through the museums and historic sites along it, which let a visitor picture what the journey was like. The National Trails System Act of 1965 calls for trails in both urban and rural settings, for people of all ages, interests, skills and physical abilities.

The partner certification program

Through the partner certification program, trail staff give guidance and technical assistance to the owners or managers of certified trail sites, trail segments, museums and visitor centers. Those owners can be a state, a city, a county or an individual person. Certification is entirely voluntary, assistance comes only when a partner asks, and the office does not tell land managers or private landowners what to do with their property.

For a partner, certification can mean a listing on the office’s Places to Go page on NPS.gov and in the new official NPS App, and help with grant applications to improve a museum, its interpretation or its workshops. One example is a historic 19th-century home, Casa San Ysidro, that the office discussed listing in this way.

A summer of outreach in New Mexico

In summer 2021 an intern in the Latino Heritage Internship Program worked in the office’s Albuquerque and Santa Fe locations, reaching out to certified partners on four of the nine historic trails:

• El Camino Real de los Tejas
• El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro
• Santa Fe Trail
• Old Spanish Trail

One visit was to the small village of Tomé, about 40 minutes south of Albuquerque. Tomé Hill there is a natural landmark that has served El Camino Real travellers for centuries. Renewing the partnership with the land managers and town managers brought help with road signs, promotion of the sites and more visitors to these historic places, and the office was able to replace some badly damaged road and site signs.

Tomé Hill, New Mexico, a natural landmark that has served El Camino Real travelers for centuries. NPS photo.

El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, the “Royal Road to the Interior Land,” reaches 1,600 miles north from Mexico City to West Texas and New Mexico. It was blazed atop a network of Indigenous footpaths and trade corridors that connected Mexico’s ancient cultures with the equally ancient cultures of the American Southwest, and at one point it was the longest road in North America. Part of its historic route is followed by Edith Boulevard in Albuquerque, where an official marker stands.

Official historic marker at Edith Avenue and Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard in Albuquerque. Edith Boulevard follows part of the historic route of El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro. NPS photo.

Why who tells the story matters

The intern said that people with a personal connection to the story of a trail, such as El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, bring passion and a different perspective to telling it. Programs such as the Latino Heritage Internship Program exist to bring more people of Latino heritage into the National Park Service. The intern also said that work in conservation and historic preservation is broad: communications, outreach, counting lizards or making trail maps with GIS all count.

The intern helped revitalize partnerships across the trails and identified new opportunities for collaboration that will keep helping the office. The NPS App provides information about the trails and other places to visit along them.

Sources

• National Park Service, Conservation Diaries podcast episode and article on the National Trails Office and the Latino Heritage Internship Program; rewritten in hubnx’s own words.