Visit to the new NPS Collections Preservation Center

Last Friday, we had the pleasure of attending the National Park Service's open house for their brand new Collections Preservations Center located in Townsend, TN. The climate-controlled facility will hold 418,000 artifacts – including tools, furniture, clothing, household items, photographs – and 1.3 million archival records documenting the Great Smoky Mountains and four other National Parks in the region.

We spoke to several NPS centennial ambassadors who were eager to talk to us since, in their words, "we are the next generation of stewards to protect and preserve these parks as millennials." A couple of them offered to connect us with folks that might be interesting to talk to for the book, so we look forward to hearing from them!