Ocmulgee Mounds, a site in central Georgia with , may be on the verge of . This is the flagship designation of the National Park Service system, which includes many types of properties in addition to formally designated national parks.
Although this may not include much change for the site itself, it could mean quite a lot to visitors, supporters and locals alike.
The protects land and features important to the , which built the mounds there starting roughly 3,000 years ago, and the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, for which the site is an ancestral homeland.
The site includes , the largest of which is 55 feet (15 meters) tall and covers about 2 acres, as well as a museum containing , including pottery, stone tools, jewelry and bells.
The National Park Service has , first as a and , as a . There are no legal or practical differences in protection between these redesignations, though the branding and marketing of the site may change.
As a who studies parks and the naming of places, I have seen that when a National Park Service unit is redesignated as a national park, as a pending for Ocmulgee Mounds, it does not typically change the funding available to run the site. That’s especially true at a time when . However, a park redesignation does serve political purposes and affects how visitors perceive that park.
How parks are designated
The National Park Service with , such as “national battlefields,” “national lakeshores” and “national scenic trails.” Only carry the formal title or designation of “national park.”
All but one of these categories can be bestowed only by Congress. National monuments, however, can be created by the president directly, under the provisions of the .
For example, the Antiquities Act allowed President Barack Obama to designate 1.3 million acres in Utah as in a December 2016 proclamation. That same act allowed President Donald Trump to in 2017 – and President Joe Biden to in 2021.
Other examples of redesignation
In rare cases, a community, group or other organization proposes adding an area that is not currently managed by the National Park Service to the system, but this and is different from the more common process of changing the formal designation of a property already within the system.
For instance, Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore became in 2019. That same year, White Sands National Monument in New Mexico became . And in 2020, New River Gorge National River in West Virginia became .
Why redesignations make a difference
My analysis of the of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial in St. Louis to in 2018 found that it was not done to offer additional protection to this site of national importance. Rather, the move was meant to take advantage of the and thereby attract more tourists and tourism revenue to the local economy.
The effort to make it a national park was part of a , revitalize the park grounds and increase tourism. But the included no additional funding, resources or protections for the Gateway Arch.
Changing the designation contradicted the park service’s own declaration that the term “national park” should be used for an area that “ and encompasses large land or water areas to help provide adequate protection of the resources.”
During congressional hearings, the deputy director of the National Park Service, Robert Vogel, recommended the site not be labeled a national park but rather a national monument, because the site “ in the range of resources the site protects and interprets to be called a national park.”
Gateway Arch National Park is now the smallest-area park in the U.S., at less than 200 acres, and is home to a – a courthouse where was heard, along with other civil rights cases. It does not have the wildlife viewing, spectacular geologic features, outdoor recreation opportunities and sense of wilderness that .
The park’s website admits “” and describes the park as adjacent to the “.”
What actually would change for Ocmulgee Mounds?
The redesignation effort for Ocmulgee Mounds has two primary aspects. First, it would declare the area a national park.
Second, it would add additional land to this protected area, designating that portion as a national preserve. The distinction matters: Public hunting, including traditional Indigenous hunting, is not allowed in national parks, but it is allowed in national preserves. And while national parks are managed by the National Park Service under the Department of Interior, national preserves can be with other groups, including local Indigenous people with cultural ties to the land.
The changes for Ocmulgee Mounds are supported by members of . And the redesignation does not appear to have triggered , who in other places have objected for several reasons, including fear of increased tourism and desire to that would be banned if it were to become a national park.
There are redesignation efforts underway seeking to make national parks in other locations as well, including the in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, in Arizona, in Arkansas, and in Wisconsin.
The only real changes in these places, though, would be in marketing – the signs, and merchandise sold in gift shops. But these changes would have an important effect: The tagline of “new national park” and is believed to to the site. But it won’t actually protect these landscapes any better than they already are under the stewardship of the National Park Service.
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