Audio clip
Dirk Kempthorne
Saying Chattanooga has a wonderful opportunity with Moccasin Bend as well as the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park, former U.S. Secretary of Interior Dirk Kempthorne told park “friends” to dream big.
“Crank up the heat,” he told the audience Monday at the third and final installment of the 2009 Moccasin Bend Lecture Series.
“After the Ken Burns series on parks, you have captured the attention of the public, so push (the envelope). If we don’t, shame on us,” he said.
Mr. Kempthorne, who served as the interior secretary from 2006 to 2009, said he has been awed since childhood by the history of the nation’s monuments and the beauty of its parks. He said children here can be captivated in the same way with Moccasin Bend’s legacy of 12,000 years of civilization and the Civil War monuments at the national military park.
“You are a gateway, a portal” to get children back outside and learning, he said. “I believe you will achieve it.”
Mr. Kempthorne was the initiator of the national parks’ Centennial Challenge, a public/private partnership to encourage visitation and to repair the nation’s parks in preparation for the 100th anniversary in 2016 of the creation of the National Park Service.
Greg Vital, who with the Friends of Moccasin Bend sponsored the lecture series, praised Mr. Kempthorne’s inspirational talk. And military park historian, Jim Ogden, said he has a new mantra.
“That idea of the gateway, entryway, portal — I’ve got a new word to add to my litany. ... We do have a great opportunity,” Mr. Ogden said.
Mr. Kempthorne began his public service in 1985 as the mayor of Boise, Idaho. He has since served in the U.S. Senate, as the governor of Idaho and as the 49th secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior.
Mr. Kempthorne’s vision and commitment for national parks helped him in 2009 obtain the largest operating budget in park history — $2.5 billion. The 2010 operating budget, passed just days ago, edged that record by totaling $2.7 billion.
Pam Sohn has been reporting or editing Chattanooga news for 25 years. A Walden’s Ridge native, she began her journalism career with a 10-year stint at the Anniston (Ala.) Star. She came to the Chattanooga Times Free Press in 1999 after working at the Chattanooga Times for 14 years. She has been a city editor, Sunday editor, wire editor, projects team leader and assistant lifestyle editor. As a reporter, she also has covered the police, ...
Is anyone really going to travel across the country to come visit a National Park that smells bad because it is next to a sewage treatment plant?
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