Community Refuge Inspiration Make Your Path on The Trail A place of restoration. A center of well-being. A trail of freedom. A path to enhancement. You have stepped into the hallowed grounds of Houston's beloved Memorial Park. A place where anyone belongs . . . all that's required is a spirit of camaraderie and desire to improve oneself and the world around. Finding a trail so vital and so integrated with a community is a rarity, and that's just what Memorial Park is: a rarity, treasure, and pleasure for anyone who visits. Turn the pages and follow the many footsteps on the trail--those of the fast, slow, old, and young--and learn how one city's dedication to conserving its natural beauty and resources has changed countless lives, families, and organizations. Through others' perspectives, you will -find humor and appreciation for the diverse personalities who frequent the trail; -find the inspiration to overcome difficult situations; and -find the encouragement that anyone can be active. Follow the people of Memorial Park.

Mildred Kanipe was a strong-willed woman with set ideas. Nobody told her what to do or how to do it. When they tried, she just smiled and said, "That's interesting," and went ahead and did it her way. Mildred carried a pistol-except when she was at home on the ranch. There she carried a .30-30 rifle. She never married, and except for an occasional hired hand she ran her almost 1,100 acre ranch by herself. All who knew her agree she was an unforgettable character. When she died she left her beloved ranch-the part her family had owned and farmed for over one-hundred years and that she had purchased with her own hard work-to the people of Douglas County Oregon for a park. This is the story of Mildred, the history of the land she loved, and the people who came before and after her.

Richly illustrated with rare period photographs, Houston’s Hermann Park: A Century of Community provides a vivid history of Houston’s oldest and most important urban park. Author and historian Barrie Scardino Bradley sets Hermann Park in both a local and a national context as this grand park celebrates its centennial at the culmination of a remarkable twenty-year rejuvenation. As Bradley shows, Houston’s development as a major American city may be traced in the outlines of the park’s history. During the early nineteenth century, Houston leaders were most interested in commercial development and connecting the city via water and rail to markets beyond its immediate area. They apparently felt no need to set aside public recreational space, nor was there any city-owned property that could be so developed. By 1910, however, Houston leaders were well aware that almost every major American city had an urban park patterned after New York’s Central Park. By the time the City Beautiful Movement and its overarching Progressive Movement reached the consciousness of Houstonians, Central Park’s designer, Frederick Law Olmsted, had died, but his ideals had not. Local advocates of the City Beautiful Movement, like their counterparts elsewhere, hoped to utilize political and economic power to create a beautiful, spacious, and orderly city. Subsequent planning by the renowned landscape architect and planner George Kessler envisioned a park that would anchor a system of open spaces in Houston. From that groundwork, in May 1914, George Hermann publicly announced his donation of 285 acres to the City of Houston for a municipal park. Bradley develops the events leading up to the establishment of Hermann Park, then charts how and why the park developed, including a discussion of institutions within the park such as the Houston Zoo, the Japanese Garden, and the Houston Museum of Natural Science. The book’s illustrations include plans, maps, and photographs both historic and recent that document the accomplishments of the Hermann Park Conservancy since its founding in 1992. Royalties from sales will go to the Hermann Park Conservancy for stewardship of the park on behalf of the community.

In 1926, a former two-time University of Michigan All-American football hero decided that a pastoral area of Huron Township could be transformed into a cemetery. Two years later, Michigan Memorial Park opened its gates to begin serving the needs of this growing community tucked away in a corner of the township located southwest of Detroit. Bordering on the peaceful Huron River, this former home to the Wyandott tribe and later French settlers has become a sprawling 300-acre parcel of land still surrounded by woods and farmland. It is Michigan's largest nondenominational cemetery whose ownership has remained in the same family for four generations. Thousands of trees, a plethora of sculptures and fountains, and swan-filled ponds adorn the gardenlike grounds adding to the tranquility experienced by all those who visit. Michigan Memorial Park has remained one of the pillars of the community, not only providing a resting place for many thousands who have passed away but also giving back to the community through its involvement in civic activities.

A dog describes being mistreated by a cruel master but then later being taken in by a kind family.

Winner - 2023 John Brinkerhoff Jackson Book Prize, UVA Center for Cultural Landscapes With more than eight hundred sprawling green acres in the middle of one of the world’s densest cities, Central Park is an urban masterpiece. Designed in the middle of the nineteenth century by the landscape architects Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, it is a model for city parks worldwide. But before it became Central Park, the land was the site of farms, businesses, churches, wars, and burial grounds—and home to many different kinds of New Yorkers. This book is the authoritative account of the place that would become Central Park. From the first Dutch family to settle on the land through the political crusade to create America’s first major urban park, Sara Cedar Miller chronicles two and a half centuries of history. She tells the stories of Indigenous hunters, enslaved people and enslavers, American patriots and British loyalists, the Black landowners of Seneca Village, Irish pig farmers, tavern owners, Catholic sisters, Jewish protesters, and more. Miller unveils a British fortification and camp during the Revolutionary War, a suburban retreat from the yellow fever epidemics at the turn of the nineteenth century, and the properties that a group of free Black Americans used to secure their right to vote. Tales of political chicanery, real estate speculation, cons, and scams stand alongside democratic idealism, the striving of immigrants, and powerfully human lives. Before Central Park shows how much of the history of early America is still etched upon the landscapes of Central Park today.