In Spring of 2019, I decided to take a solo road trip to the east coast, to visit several states where I had not visited a National Park Service property in. This trip was a 700-mile road trip that started in Baltimore, and ended in Washington DC, with a loop through Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey and Maryland.

This part of the country has a TON of military history attached to it and documented. Just about every site that I went to was a battlefield or somehow tied to the Revolutionary or Civil Wars. Frankly, by the end of the trip, I was a bit overwhelmed with the magnitude of death, and the harshness of war. It is important however, to understand this part of our country’s history, and I would recommend these sites to anyone.

As with almost all of my trips, I went to the www.findyourpark.com website run by the National Park Service to plan my route. In Delaware, I decided to visit the First State National Historic Park.

This National Historic Park is more of a collection of areas in Delaware that are important to Delaware becoming the first state in the Union. There are several NPS properties that are set up this way, and they link sites together as one entity. I like that – it allows you to visit different parts of the area and understand how the history of the area is linked.

I visited the community of New Castle. There are several places in New Castle that are important to the history, and there are signs and pamphlets available to assist with the tour. I visited the New Castle courthouse first, which was the place where the Delaware legislature voted for independence from Great Britain. I was the only visitor, so the Rangers or volunteers that were there were more than happy to take me through the building and show me the historic artifacts that were on hand, and to give me a lesson on the history of Delaware becoming a state.

I learned that William Penn was the governor of the area that we call Delaware and Pennsylvania. They were one, until the decision to declare independence was on the table. The guys in Delaware thought that if they didn't first declare their independence from Penn and Pennsylvania first, that they would never be in control of their own destiny, so they were taking care of a lot of business in this courthouse in the 1770s!

The town lies on the shore of the Delaware River, and it is just a short walk from the courthouse down to the shore. The Delaware River lies between the Atlantic Ocean and Philadelphia and is a great spot to watch river traffic. This is a beautiful spot with a rich history that was well worth the visit!

#Delaware