One of my favorite park experiences was witnessing the swearing in of our nephew as a Junior Ranger at the Charles Young Buffalo Soldiers National Monument.
You too can create an awesome experience at this intimate National Monument. Here, you will learn about the life and service of Colonel Charles Young, one of the first African-American Westpoint graduates. You will also get to explore the history of the Buffalo Soldiers, African-American army units composed of the 9th and 10th Cavalry and the 24th and 25th Infantry.
Visiting the Charles Young Buffalo Soldiers National Monument
Not far from our Central Ohio home is one of the newer National Park Units, the Charles Young Buffalo Soldiers National Monument. This park is located in Xenia, Ohio near Wilberforce University, an Historically Black University. This is where the famous Coloner, Charles Young, lived and taught.
During our summer visit, the weather was nice – a perfect time of year to visit. We decided to spend the day exploring Youngsholm, a nickname of this National Monument. There were also other areas of interest in Xenia, Ohio that were close by. You will want to call ahead to ensure that the park will be open and offering tours as this is a smaller site and may experience limited availability.
Exploring Youngsholm
As a newer and smaller National Monument, the site didn’t have a ton of traffic. In fact, we were the only visitors that were present for the duration of our visit. This meant that we had lots of attention from our tour guide.
Learn About Colonel Young’s Life
After watching the informative park video, our guide took us through the rooms of Youngsholm. Here, we saw pictures and historical interpretations about Colonel Young’s life. We were introduced to his military service and background, as well as the struggles that he underwent to become only the third black Westpoint Military Academy graduate. Of particular interest were personal stories about the home as a space where students were invited and welcome. It was neat to learn about Colonel Young’s service, not only as a military leader, but also as an educator. He taught at Wilberforce alongside other distinguished African-American leaders like W.E.B. DuBois (the first African-American to earn a degree from Harvard).
Additionally, Coloner Young was the first African-American Superintendent in the National Park Service. He served at Sequoia National Park.
Engaging Our Junior Ranger
Our guide was great! Along the way, she would tell a story, then pause, and ask our nephew a question. For example, she told us about Charles Young’s famous 497 mile ride that he made from Ohio to Washington DC. He accomplished this on his horse, Blacksmith, to prove that he was fit enough to lead troops during the first World War.
Our guide quizzed our nephew to make sure that he was paying attention, and empowered him to get each of the questions correct. She took the time to make sure that he understood the stories. This made for a great learning experience!
Learning About the Buffalo Soldiers
After learning about Colonel Young, we explored a room dedicated to introducing visitors to the Buffalo Soldiers. The Buffalo Soldiers were African-American troops that were of service primarily in the American West. The Buffalo Soldiers were also pivotal in caring for National Park Units out west.
Witnessing the Junior Ranger Pledge
The pledge that our nephew took at his swearing in ceremony was both simple and profound. In the foyer of Youngsholm, with right hand respectfully raised, he responsibly said that he would 1) teach others what he learned at the park, 2) explore other parks and 3) protect the parks so that others could enjoy them the way that he did for years to come.
In recognition of all of his learning about Charles Young and the Buffalo Soldiers, and for reciting the Junior Ranger oath, our nephew earned his third Junior Ranger badge. Needless to say, we were so proud, but most of all, he was pleased with his accomplishment too!
Concluding Remarks
Now, I am a huge fan of the Junior Ranger program, and am so happy that I was able to share such an awesome experience with my nephew. I highly encourage anyone with kids, nieces/nephews, or grandkids to seek out the Junior Ranger program when they visit one of our awesome National Parks!
Find some more experiences like this that you can recreate!
This post was originally written for the #NatureWritingChallenge and has since been updated. Check out the challenge here.
