Episode Guest
Aubrey Brown, Interpretive Park Ranger
Lowell National Historical Park
Park Stats
- Location: Lowell, Massachusetts
- Date designated: June 6, 1978
- President when the monument was created: Jimmy Carter
- Park size: 137 acres
- Number of visitors (2023): 256,303
- Interesting Facts:
- Textile Mill that was built in 1821 at the beginning of the industrial era
- Dependant on the immigrants and women who were entering the workforce
- Work in the mill was dedicated to war supplies during WWII
- Primary products coming from the mill were cloth for dish towels
- Home to 30-40 employees in their boarding house
Speed Round
What is your earliest park memory?
My earliest park memory is a trip that my family took to Mammoth Cave National Park. Grew up in Ohio and mammoth Cave was right there. We were not a National Park family, like we just didn’t go to national parks, but Mammoth Cave, it’s cool. I very distinctly remember descending down into this cave. I thought we did the entire cave. No, we did maybe a mile of the 400 plus miles of mammoth cave, but for me, we did the whole cave.
What made you love the parks?
Honestly, it’s the Rangers. Because the parks do speak for themselves, whether it’s a natural park or historical park, but having the opportunity to talk to a ranger who knows some of those hidden stories, who knows how to help you connect to those places. And it’s not just the interpretive rangers that give you the tours and give you the programs. Even the maintenance workers, they have their own stories and they share their own experiences with you. And just being able to make those connections because these natural and cultural national park units, it doesn’t matter unless you have that human connection. And so the park rangers, they give you that human connection.
What is your favorite thing about Lowell National Historical Park?
Honestly, my interest is so vast and varied. But my favorite thing about Lowell National Historical Park is the fact that there is so much here. I’m never bored. I’m constantly finding new things to research, new things to take deep dives into.
If I had to give a favorite thing that a visitor can experience, I’m gonna say for me it’s the Suffolk Mill tour. Seeing the power looms operating and everything, that’s great. It’s fun, but you get to dig down deep into the guts of these mills to see exactly how ingenuity they were in manufacturing. So I’m not an engineer, but I like to know things. And so that gives me the opportunity to really wrap my head around this whole city.
What park have you yet to visit but is on your bucket list and why?
I am a social historian. I started out in archeology before switching over to history, and I am very much interested in social institutions that were created in the 19th century. Things like poor houses. I’m a specialist in poor houses, orphanages, hospitals, just these topics that are set aside because they’re a little unsavory for a lot of people. So the park that I just wanna visit is Kalaupapa in Hawaii on the island of Molokai. And that is it’s a active. Community, which is one of the few national parks that has an active community there.
But this is where from in the 19th century, even up until the 1950s people were sent to this remote location for leprosy and not really to cure leprosy, just to shove them away because there was no cure at the time. They didn’t know that it is a preventable thing. And so I would love to go to Kalaupapa to see how they first set up the community but also to learn the people who were sent there, how they survived, how they passed their days.
And even today you have people who are either were sent there for leprosy or are descendants of families that were sent there. And that’s just a part of history that I think we need to appreciate a little more.
What are three must-haves you pack for a park visit?
Water snacks, and very good walking shoes. Whether you’re hiking a mountain or walking downtown, you gotta have good footwear.
What is your favorite campfire activity?
Here at Lowell we don’t really have a campfire activity like you might get at other parks. But for me, at other parks I’ve been to that have evening programs or campfire talks, I like to learn more about learn more about the nightlife, whether it’s astronomy or animals that are native to the area and how they exist at night. Just having the opportunity to be immersed in a time where normally we’re shuttered in our homes and being able to be outside and experiencing whatever nature, natural or manmade is available.
Tent, camper, or cabin?
I love to be in a tent. I just feel like I am in a cocoon. It’s like this, I’m in nature, but I still have that nice little protective barrier. But there’s nothing like hearing the zipper in the morning when you unzip it, and instantly you’re there.
Hiking with or without trekking poles?
It depends on the terrain. If I’m just walking on fairly level surfaces, usually no trekking poles. But I do find that they are very beneficial, especially if you are walking on varied terrain, especially steep inclines up or down. They just provide a little extra stability. And I am one of those people I cannot walk without looking around and I get distracted. And so I’m very clumsy. Trekking poles do help me when I need to be paying a little more attention to my footing instead of what’s around me.
And what is your favorite trail snack?
So my favorite trail snack, I have to go with roasted chickpeas and dried fruit. It’s a good salty, sweet combination.
What is the favorite animal sighting that you’ve had?
My favorite animal sighting, this is tough. I guess your standard animal sighting would be, I saw a mountain lion when I worked at Carlsbad Caverns National Park. I was driving outta the park and this mountain lion just casually crossed the road as I was driving outta the park after a night sky program. That was pretty wild. I had to really second guess what I saw, but I could not debunk it. I asked some of some of the rangers who had been there longer said, oh yeah. Was it at mile three? Oh yeah. It was a mountain lion. Multiple people had seen the mountain lion at mile three.
I guess my favorite wild life spotting encounter experience, again, I have to go back to Carlsbad Caverns and watching the bat flight. You have thousands of hundreds of thousands of bats just billowing out of the cave. And to be able to be there and just hear it, smell it, it’s an incredible experience.
What is your favorite sound in the parks?
My favorite sound, I love when those looms turn on. I just love the rhythm. I dance to it every time. So we’ll go with the looms
What is the greatest gift the parks give to us?
Wonder. No matter where you are, they’re going to give you wonder and curiosity and just makes you step outside of your own little bubble to realize that there is much more out there. There are things that are worth protecting. Because they are not limitless. They’re finite resources that could easily disappear, whether it is the natural land or whether it is the mills. At any point in time this could all go away. And so that wonder that you’re left with it’s what makes it all worthwhile.
Transcript
We are making our way to New England to a park that was pivotal during the Industrial Revolution. Not only ushering in a new way of manufacturing, but also a wave of independence for women. Join us as we explore Lowell National Historical Park. I’m your host, Missy Rentz, and this is the Parks podcast.
Missy Rentz:
today we have Aubrey Brown, who is an interpretive park ranger at Lowell National Historical Park. Aubrey, welcome to the Parks podcast.
Aubrey Brown:
Thank you for having me. It’s a pleasure to be here.
Missy Rentz:
So we start every episode with some park stats. I’m just gonna run through them. For Lowell National Historical Park. It is located in Lowell, Massachusetts. The historical park was dedicated on June 5th, 1978 when Jimmy Carter was president of the United States. The park is 137 acres, and in 2023, there were 256,303 visitors through the park. And some interesting facts, it has a textile mill that was built in 1821 at the beginning of the industrial era. The mills were dependent on immigrants and women who were entering the workforce at the time. And the work in the mill was dedicated to war supplies during World War ii. So everything paused and it de, it was dedicated to making supplies. The primary products coming outta the mill were cloth typically used for dish cloth. And the boarding houses housed 30 to 40 employees during its heyday. This is a fun park to go to. It was so interesting to me when I toured it. I was so into it in the lifestyle of the people that worked there and the era when it was brought up.
Aubrey Brown:
It’s a fascinating park. One thing you find about urban parks, like Lowell National Historical Park, is the fact that we are so entwined within the community. So even though the park is technically 137 acres that encompasses the downtown area, our park is actually very small in terms of what the park actually owns and utilizes. So when you visit Lowell National Historical Park, you do get to experience the entire historical downtown. But you also get to have some more of those more intimate conversations when you visit the Boot Cotton Mills Museum or the Mogan Cultural Center where we have two exhibits in there. The 1840s boarding house, which does explore the life inside and outside of the mills. For those early mill girls, they did call themselves mill girls. We also have the one city mini cultures exhibit, which just is in place to help celebrate the incredibly rich cultural heritage of Lowell National Historical Park, the city itself from the very first immigrants of the Irish to more recent immigrants like the Cambodians Colombians, and in so many other groups.
Missy Rentz:
And you hit on this’cause. One of my questions was gonna be why was Lowell National Historic Park so important to be part of the National Park system? And you’ve started to mention that and the role it’s played.
Aubrey Brown:
It’s an incredible park because when we think about the National Park Service, I’m just gonna paraphrase the mission of the National Park Service these units were created to help protect and preserve the natural and cultural wonders of the United States. So a lot of times when people hear the term national parks, we have this vision in our mind of what a park is. A park is outdoors, it’s recreational but that and cultural places. And here in Lowell we have. The opportunity to explore both nature and culture and the built environment because what we consider Lowell today would not even be here if it was not for the Merrimack River and the natural environment. That was perfect for this experiment of building A city entirely dedicated to industry.
Missy Rentz:
And it was, so far the parks that I have featured on the program have been certainly the natural, but from an a historical and cultural, it’s really been. Like president’s homes or things that are way back in time. And this is the industrial revolution. And so this is a, this is more, I don’t wanna say current, but there are still people that are living, that were alive during the industrial revolution. And the mill played an important role during that time. How did it transform that region of the country?
Aubrey Brown:
So with the Industrial Revolution what really happened is after the American Revolution where we broke away from Europe created what is now the United States, we were struggling as a young country with that departure because all of a sudden we were having to support ourselves as an individual country where we didn’t have any. Large scale industry, we didn’t have a way to really make cloth beyond what can be woven in the home. There were some small factories, but nothing to be able to provide cloth for a large scale system where you have, thousands, millions of people, you need cloth, not only for linen but for clothing, for tablecloth, for draperies, cloth is a very important part to the human experience, the world over for millions of years. And so one of the biggest things that we struggled with, England had a huge tariff put on place. So if we wanted to buy cloth, we had to pay the tariff and it’s going to cost us. So with that, there was this push to find ways to minimize the cost of buying cloth that we needed for everyday life. And so this idea of stealing the technology, it’s like one of the first industrial espionage things to have happened. Because, of course England wants us to buy their cloth. So they were very secretive about the technology that they had over in England and other European countries in creating textiles, specifically in cotton textiles. And so you have so many people looking to build a new industry. And I’m just gonna speak to Lowell for a little bit here, but so the name Lowell comes from Francis Cabot. Lowell, who was one of the leading founders of what is now the city. He and his friend Paul Moody, who was an incredible engineer, they went over and they were, touring the textile mills they saw these machines and they were told that they’re welcome to visit, but they cannot write anything down. They cannot make sketches. They could just walk through. So when you pair these two together, you have an incredible duo. Paul Moody, as I mentioned. Incredible engineer, Francis Cabot. Lowell. He just has a knack for understanding and memorizing every single part of these machines. And so when they come back to the United States, they wanna see if they can recreate their own power looms and put it on a larger scale than what was done in England. So Lowell talks to his friend Moody and says, okay, here’s what I remember of these machines. And together they piece and recreate this power loom. Just throw it out. It’s wasted space. It’s too much weight, and I don’t know why you need, levers in pistons to raise and lower these parts. Be much easier if you have a belt to rotate the main gear. And so he introduced the idea of a leather belt as the main drive shaft. So they set up the mill in Waltham, Massachusetts, along the Charles River. One thing that also changed was bringing the production all under one roof. Previously you would have one mill dedicated to Cardine alone, taking that raw cotton or the wall and combing it until the fibers line up. Then you would have another mill that was dedicated specifically to the roving, the initial combining and twisting of the fiber. So it’s this loose rope. And then you have another mill for the spinning where you’re taking that loose rope that roving and dividing it into smaller and smaller threads. And that process keeps on going. Then you would have another mill that would do the actual production and the actual weaving. You would’ve another mill dedicated for the finishing, putting it all together. Time consuming, especially after travel from mill to mill. So what. Moody and Lowell did, they put all that process under one roof floor, 1, 2, 3, 4, everything there. You can vertically move pieces up and down from that building, expedited things tremendously. But it was still an experiment. They didn’t know if it would work the way they wanted it to. But it did work. And so with that experiment in Wall fan, they’re like, okay, this is great. We can produce cloth on a massive scale, but it’s not gonna be enough to clothe the entire country. So what can we do? And so they started to look around and they wanted to set themselves apart from England, especially in the way they powered their mills. So in Waltham, they were able to use the Charles River to turn the big water wheel. It was great, except the Charles River is a little sluggish, comparatively. And so to build multiple mills along the Charles River for this type of production, it wasn’t going to be feasible. And they wanted to use water power because in England they saw smoke stacks. Coal being used to power these mills. It was filthy, it was dirty. They wanted something more utopian more clean and friendly and someplace you want to go to work. And so they started looking around and they found this area that is now Lowell, it was called East Chelmsford. And so they went about testing, building a canal system where you could have multiple mills along one source because of that drop in elevation. It was to be another experiment. So they built more canals. They built more mills and then. That’s how the city of Lowell came to be. And the interesting thing even though it is called Lowell, that is dedicated to Francis Cabot. Lowell because he never got to see this dream to fruition. All of these plans were in place when he passed away. He never even got to see the first canal dug to see the mill operate. He was one of the spearheading members of this team. And so with that, you had all of these men they are known historically by historians as the Boston Associates and so they built this factory town,
Missy Rentz:
Industry.
Aubrey Brown:
whole new industry. And so when you come to Lowell, it is a lot different than traditional downtowns. But we have these big, massive manufacturing mills right in the heart of downtown. And for me, that speaks so much to. Where the city started, as well as where we’re continuing to go because we are still a, an experimental city with the engineering through the University of Massachusetts, Lowell through the cultural initiatives to bring everyone together and reutilizing, these old mill buildings,
Missy Rentz:
when you talk about mills I don’t know, it just rundown old kind of concrete buildings. These are beautiful brick. you feel like you’re on like a college campus or something when you’re walking in the area. And I think it’s interesting what you’re pointing out that in my research and learning about it, it was about the impact they had on the industrial revolution. But from what you’re sharing, there was a bit of a breeding of innovation that still lives on today, which is very cool.
Aubrey Brown:
very much and even though Lowell is not the birthplace of the American Industrial Revolution. What we are here celebrating is the first planned industrial city in the United States that really launched that industrial revolution forward. Every single mill town that came after Lowell based itself on what was happening here. And so this was used as a model for those early industries. Even today in terms of our historic revitalization, Lowell is still used as a blueprint.
Missy Rentz:
another part of the change that took place in Lowell in this area was the integration of women and immigrants and the role they played in working in the mills. How did that begin to usher and change for the country?
Aubrey Brown:
So here in Lowell, the plan from the very beginning was to use women as the main source of labor. They decided to do that for a few different reasons. One. They weren’t sure how it was going to go in the first place. So they didn’t want to pay exorbitant amounts of money to men who demanded a higher cost for their labor. But also, you have to remember, this isn’t too far removed from the American Revolution. It’s only removed by maybe a generation. And so a lot of the male workforce, they were already employed, either working as farmers, working in light industry or their own businesses. They weren’t going to leave what they were doing, where they were making good money to come populate these mills. And so when the Boston associates were putting this whole thing together, they specifically targeted the young middle girl or the young working age women of farming communities. And they did that for a few reasons. One, they realized, Hey, we are weaving. If anyone knows how to create cloth and finish it guess what? The women are typically the ones doing that in their own homes, in their own communities. So we don’t have to do as much training, we just have to train them on how to use a power loom versus a manual loom. Another reason a lot of these farmers, if they had large families and they had multiple daughters, their daughters weren’t going to be employed very easily outside of the domestic sphere, They ended up being more of an extra mouth to feed. Unless they were teaching or maybe working at a smaller manufacturing in their hometown they were just sitting around doing a few chores and just wasting space. it, Was the reality of the time, especially coming out of the industrial revolution where we are trying to build our own revenue. So we give them an opportunity to bring them out of the house. We give them a way to still support their family because a lot of these young girls, they’re probably going to send the majority of their income home to their families to help feed them or maybe send their brothers to university or college. And then, when they’re ready to get married, they’ll go home, start their own families, and then we’ll bring in a new batch. They were targeting young women typically between the ages of 15 and 35. If you want to get married, you can go get married. If you want to go work, you can go work without any extra paperwork. Remember these communities, these are rural communities for the most part. And the idea of a city versus a smaller rural community, that could be a little scary, And so it can be a little scary because I have eyes on you here at home, I can’t watch you there. know, women can’t walk around.
Missy Rentz:
And they can’t have bank accounts and they can’t live alone, but they thought about that.
Aubrey Brown:
They did think about that. And so that’s the other unique part of this city is that. In order to get their parents, to allow them to come to the city to work, they set up the boarding house system. I would compare it to a dorm room, where you have a place where you’re living, you have meals that are provided for you. Some campuses even have like house mothers or your ra, your residential assistant. They are the unofficial head of the household, and so they told. The women and they told their families that, okay, when they come to Lowell, we will make sure that they are fed. We will make sure that they have a roof over their head. we will make sure that they remain morally responsible, that they’re not going out about the town uns chaperoned they will be in bed at this time. They were going to be taken care of by a woman, the boarding housekeeper and her family. So it was like this unofficial family unit that you have in place. And that really provided an opportunity for large numbers of women to come here and gain a little bit of independence that they would not have had elsewhere.
Missy Rentz:
Okay. And then I wanna pivot a little bit because then the war, world War II happens
Aubrey Brown:
Yes.
Missy Rentz:
this the mills played an important part in it. We mentioned in the fun facts that kind of everything ceased, but this was an contributor to the war
Aubrey Brown:
Very much the industry here in the city of Lowell was set up for textile manufacturing specifically for cotton. But then as time went on, there were some deviations into other types of fibers, including silk. Nylon so much effort going to supporting the war. And again, what do your soldiers need? They need clothes They’re going to wear through their clothes very fast. So instead of making towels or drapes or flannel blankets or anything like that, it was like, okay we’re gonna start making canvas for all of their ruck sacks, their durable clothing, their hats, what have you. We’re also going to make plenty of parachute. We can make miles and miles of parachute cloth and send that on its way. With World War II and producing fabric of various types for the war effort, that helped keep Lowell relevant, it helped keep people here at home all the amenities they needed to keep them clothed and fed a roof over their head. But it wasn’t going to last after, World War ii, you have globalization taking place and that was really the end of the end.
Missy Rentz:
And it seems like for the war, they had set themselves up because they had a project that was gonna be needed. They had a labor that wasn’t dependent on the men that were going to war. And so it really did set themselves up for success during that time. The other piece I wanna touch on is because of the time that this was taking place. There was a lot of activism taking place and women’s rights, and migrant rights and, the rights of the slaves and all this stuff was taking place. And this town, Lowell, played a major role in that.
Aubrey Brown:
It really did. And I have a walking tour that I do that is called Building Independence, and it’s looking at the various institutions that. Grew up in Lowell to meet the needs of these mill girls and gave them the opportunity to build their own independence The Lowell Savings Institution allowed them to not only save their money, but slowly build interest on that. Then you had libraries that were popping up. You had places where they could write creatively or political writing even where you have the Lowell offering. It started out as just this fun little thing for the middle girls to do in the evenings after work. They started to write and share their own stories. True or fictional, write poetry. And then they came up with this idea to collect it all and. Distribute it first throughout the city, it was called the Lowell Offering. Eventually that spread to other neighboring areas. People in New York could get a subscription to the Lowell offering. These are writings by the mill girls for themselves just to express their creativity. With the Lowell offering, it was still partially sponsored by the mill owners. So ultimately, if the mill owners didn’t like what you’re writing, it’s not gonna show up. But on the opposite side of that, you have another journal called The Voice of Industry. And now the voice of industry was where you could say exactly what you wanted to say. You could have your own opinion. But with the voice of industry, it was established by the working class. For the working class, and it’s voice was heard across the country. Any topic was up for discussion, whether it was religion, war, slavery temperance. one of my favorite quotes I have found in the voice of industry. This is really snarky and I love it, but it’s if you invite me out for ice cream, don’t assume that it is because I want your company. My wish I had the full quote, but just so even small commentary like that gives you a sense of. How they valued themselves, not just as workers, but as people. And so with all of this, you have the perfect environment for things like activism to grow.
Missy Rentz:
Yes. And I think that’s evident when you visit the park, because there’s so many stories that have been captured. Not only just like written stories, but also some video stories of people. And it does such a nice job, and that really naturally leads us to planning a trip to the park and to visit. What do you recommend is the first step when somebody says, I’m coming to Lowell.
Aubrey Brown:
When you come to Lowell, I always recommend you start at the visitor center. that’s where you’re going to get directed. To anywhere from the park or anything you want to do at the park. Whether you come with just a, I have no idea why I am here to, I’m interested in this specific topic. We have answers for you. We can tell you where to go, directions on how to walk through the city to meet your needs. For me, the number one thing that I recommend for everyone to do you have to go to the Boot Cotton Mills Museum. We have a room, it’s the weaving room, and we have almost 90 looms that are set up in there and we have them operating.
Missy Rentz:
is so
Aubrey Brown:
You get to see these machines running and it is loud. And usually we only run maybe nine to 15 of the looms at a time. Not the full 90. Not the full 200 that would’ve been there. And it’s still very loud It’s a whole sensory experience. You can feel the vibrations, you hear the noise, you can smell the cotton and the leather and the oil.
Missy Rentz:
And they’re making dishcloths that you can buy.
Aubrey Brown:
Right? And one thing I forgot to mention about the Boston Associates, they’re all friends. You’re not gonna compete against your friend, right? So at the boot Cotton Mills, they specialized in cloth made for dish towels for draperies, more utilitarian type of cloth. At the Suffolk Mill, they specialized in denim in flannel at the Merrimack Mill, they’ve specialized in cord, right? Like they didn’t wanna compete against each other. And also attributing to this idea of activism is the fact that. Because they didn’t wanna compete against each other. Every single mill paid their workers the same rate, no matter their skill. And so you can’t poach the good workers. But so at the boot Cotton Mills, because it was a more utilitarian type of cloth, we do make replicas of the patterns that were used right here in the boot cotton mills. So you get to see the looms all set up and you get to see reproductions of what was actually coming out of this specific mill. If you’re lucky, you can still find boot towels out there
Missy Rentz:
That’s fun. And we, at least when I did the tour there, there was somebody who was running the machine. We were the only people in the room at that moment. he kinda stopped and talked to us and explained everything that was going on. And then you continue on and you get to the point where it is more of that traditional museum where it’s the stories and the pictures and the examples of the clothing and all of that sort of stuff. And that was such a great experience. a step back in time. And then the next stop for us on the trip was a boarding house. You actually have one of the boarding houses opened a tour.
Aubrey Brown:
There are very few boarding houses that still remain in the city, and so we are fortunate that we have one of those boarding houses that we’ve been able to recreate. I will say the exterior, The framework of the building, the foundation, the walls, it was all there, but we had to step back in time and recreate the facade because over time it had just been made unrecognizable by additions But inside you, it’s very modern, I would say. When you step in, you walk in, you go down a ramp, and it’s just like you’re in some generic hallway. There’s nothing that screams, ooh, a boarding house until you go around the corner and you enter the boarding house and you get to see a setup of what it would’ve been like, what your room would’ve been like as a young girl coming in here, Probably full-size beds crammed very close together, just enough room to walk between them and around them. A writing desk, you get to see the kitchen where the boarding housekeeper would’ve prepared the meals, and it really is, it’s a step back in time and understanding a little more intimately what it meant to leave your family to come here and find a new family in a lot of ways. And you would have two girls per bed. And not even someone, like I grew up I would share the same bed with my sisters from time to time, But to share a bed with a perfect stranger,
Missy Rentz:
yeah.
Aubrey Brown:
I dunno, in close quarters,
Missy Rentz:
so you have the mill, the visitor center, the boarding house. When you look at the map it’s a lot of property. There’s a lot of outside, there’s stuff down by the river. What can people do? Is it just a walking and exploring opportunity?
Aubrey Brown:
I would say Lowell definitely is more of a walking and exploring opportunity. So we are very fortunate to have 5.6 miles of our canals. So number wise, we have most of our canals still in existence. And we have walkways along those canals. So you can walk along the canals, you can see how the water was directed to these old mill buildings, and it is an opportunity to. Experience the city very much like the early inhabitants did. Another thing that made Lowell unique is the fact that they wanted every part of it to be an enjoyable experience for the people who came. And so part of that a lot of the Boston associates were amateur horticulturists, and they wanted to have the opportunity for people to walk and take their leisure around the canal. So you have little strips of parks available alongside of’em.
Missy Rentz:
Great green space.
Aubrey Brown:
You get to walk the waterways, you get to be surrounded by these large mill buildings, and the majority of the park is free to enjoy. Even the walking tours that I mentioned that we do, we offer walking tours. We offer trolley rides from point A to point B where you can get on a replication of a historic trolley and take it from the visitor center to the Boot Cotton Mills Museum
Missy Rentz:
it makes it accessible’cause it is very spread out and I think you made the point of it’s really immersed into the city and it really is. You almost, just unless you’re looking for it, you don’t know what’s like the city normal and what’s part Yeah. Do you think there’s a specific time of year you recommend people coming to visit?
Aubrey Brown:
So during the summer is probably the peak season for us because we have a lot more available for you to explore because the weather’s nice and it, is a very much walking outdoor type of park But in addition to that, not just typically better weather, we have our canal boat tours where you get to get on a boat, you get to go up the original Pawtucket Canal and learn with a Ranger, what that was like. Every ranger we create our own programs. You’re gonna get something different from me than you get from Ranger Claire or Ranger Nadia or Ranger Jacob. It’s, you could take the boat ride with every single ranger and still get a different experience. So for me, I take a little more in depth look at, I. The behind the scenes of this city, where, yeah, the mills, they’re important, the workers are important, but it’s a city and you have to have so many supporting players in order to maintain the city. So that’s what I do on my tours. I’m also known as the musical Ranger, so you might get a little sa and dance but you have the canal boat tours, which that, that does cost to go on the canal, boat tours. But if you wanna take a tour to the Suffolk Mill where you can see a turbine, and you get to break down the turbine and really see how the water was transformed into power, because we weren’t generating electricity with the water power. That’s where our brains today goes. Oh, water wheels and turbines, they’re making electricity to run these mills. No, it was pure kinetic energy, just that force of water, that 32 foot drop that allowed that water to move the wheels, to move the turbines, to move 4, 5, 6 floors of machinery to make these meals work. There is a small fee to go into the Boot Cotton Mills Museum as well to help us maintain our historic looms. They are old, we wanna treat them with love. You can check our website or social media for updates, but we do have a limited availability to take a boat ride on the Merrimack River. You get to go on the parks, pontoon boat and experience the river with a Ranger.
Missy Rentz:
And Lowell is not far from Boston. It’s a great opportunity and it’s in a city. So from a lodging perspective, there’s not lodging in the park. But you’re in a city and it’s a great stop if you’re in Boston and looking for something to do, just to get outside of the city and visit Lowell. I. Get excited thinking about it. I always get a Christmas ornament and for Lowell I got one of the bobbins, the long spindly bobbin Every Christmas I put it on thinking about that experience. It was just so much fun. And I think people will enjoy it. Just the cultural history, the time in American history that it took place. And the impact I think is just fascinating to see how some things, history repeats itself and, to see what have we learned, what have we not learned about history,
Aubrey Brown:
And no matter where you stand on the history platform, whether you enjoy history, you don’t enjoy history, there’s plenty here. That is not just history, it’s engineering it’s culture, it’s food, it’s everything There’s nothing you can’t find to satisfy every single person in your party.
Missy Rentz:
I agree with you. Aubrey, what else do you think are must sees when people come to visit the park?
Aubrey Brown:
even though we are predominantly an industrial history park, there are so many other things that we have to offer that’s build on top of that. So the social history of the city is very much. Defined by all the immigrant communities that came to Lowell because we have these mills and this manufacturing opportunity for them. And after the mill girls, they started their own activism and said, yeah, we’re worth more than what you’re paying us. Then all of a sudden you have empty spots to fill. So you bring in the Irish community and then the French Canadians come down to work in the mills. And then you have the Greeks who come. You have the Polish, you have the Columbian, you have the Cambodian, and all of a sudden you have this entire vibrant city with their own little communities. But they’re all melding together and it’s a beautiful thing to see. And that’s all encapsulated in the one city Mini cultures exhibit, also in the Mogan Cultural Center with the, into an 1840s boarding house exhibit. And it takes you on a journey from. The earliest days to the present. And not only that, but it shows that even though each culture is so different in many ways, the basics of humanity, they’re all the same. You get to explore the clothing, the food ways traditions that may be different, but all harken back to the same basic human desires. So that’s one thing I really enjoy.
Missy Rentz:
So we finish every episode with a speed round of questions, and the idea is just to answer the first thing that comes to What is your earliest park memory?
Aubrey Brown:
My earliest park memory is a trip that my family took to Mammoth Cave National Park. Grew up in Ohio and mammoth Cave was right there. We were not a National Park family, like we just didn’t go to national parks, but Mammoth Cave, it’s cool. I very distinctly remember descending down into this cave. I thought we did the entire cave. No, we did maybe a mile of the 400 plus miles of mammoth cave, but for me, we did the whole cave.
Missy Rentz:
What made you love the parks?
Aubrey Brown:
Honestly, it’s the Rangers because the parks do speak for themselves, whether it’s a natural park or historical park, but having the opportunity to talk to a ranger who knows some of those hidden stories, who knows how to help you connect to those places. And it’s not just the interpretive rangers that give you the tours and give you the programs. Even the maintenance workers, they have their own stories and they can share their own experiences with you. And just being able to make those connections because these natural and cultural national park units, it doesn’t matter unless you have that human connection. And so the park rangers, they give you that human connection.
Missy Rentz:
What is your favorite thing about Lowell National Historical Park?
Aubrey Brown:
Honestly, my favorite thing about Lowell National Historical Park is the fact that there is so much here. I’m never bored. I’m constantly finding new things to research, new things to take deep dives into. if I had to give a favorite thing that a visitor can experience, I’m gonna say for me it’s the Suffolk Mill tour, because seeing the power looms operating and everything, that’s great. you get to dig down deep into the guts of these mills to see exactly how ingenuity they were in manufacturing. So I’m not an engineer, but I like to know things. that gives me the opportunity to really wrap my head around this whole city.
Missy Rentz:
What park have you yet to visit, but it’s on your bucket list and why?
Aubrey Brown:
So I am a social historian. I started out in archeology before switching over to history, and I am very much interested in social institutions that were created in the 19th century. Things like poor houses. I’m a specialist in poor houses, Orphanages, hospitals just these topics that are set aside because they’re a little unsavory for a lot of people. So the park that I just wanna visit is Klau Papa in Hawaii on the island of Molokai. And that is it’s a active. Community, which is one of the few national parks that has an active community there. But this is where from in the 19th century, even up until the 1950s people were sent to this remote location for leprosy and not really to cure leprosy, just to shove them away because there was no cure at the time. They didn’t know that. Yeah, it is a preventable thing. And so I would love to go to Kalua Papa to see how they first set up the community but also to learn the people who were sent there, how they survived, how they passed their days. And even today you have people who are either were sent there for leprosy or are descendants of families that were sent there. And that’s just a part of history that I think we need to appreciate a little more. And
Missy Rentz:
What, three must haves do you pack for a park visit?
Aubrey Brown:
Water snacks, and very good walking shoes. Whether you’re hiking a mountain or walking downtown, you gotta have good footwear.
Missy Rentz:
What is your favorite campfire activity?
Aubrey Brown:
Here at Lowell we don’t really have a campfire activity like you might get at other parks. But for me at other parks I’ve been to that have evening programs or campfire talks, I like to learn more about the nightlife, whether it’s astronomy or animals that are native to the area and how they exist at night. Just having the opportunity to be immersed in. A time where normally we’re shuttered in our homes and being able to be outside and experiencing whatever nature, natural or manmade is available.
Missy Rentz:
Are you a tent, camper, or cabin person
Aubrey Brown:
I love to be in a tent. I just feel like I am in a cocoon. It’s like this, I’m in nature, but I still have that nice little protective barrier. But there’s nothing like hearing the zipper in the morning when you unzip it, the z and instantly you’re there.
Missy Rentz:
And are you hiking with or without trekking poles?
Aubrey Brown:
It depends on the terrain. If I’m just walking on fairly level surfaces, usually no trekking poles. But I do find that they are very beneficial, especially if you’re, walking on varied terrain, especially steep inclines up or down. They just provide a little extra stability. And I am one of those people I cannot walk without looking around and I get distracted. And so the trekking poles do help me when I need to be paying a little more attention to my footing instead of what’s around me.
Missy Rentz:
What is your favorite trail snack?
Aubrey Brown:
So my favorite trail snack, I have to go with roasted chickpeas and dried fruit. It’s a good salty, sweet combination.
Missy Rentz:
What is your favorite animal sighting?
Aubrey Brown:
My favorite animal siding. This is tough so I guess your standard animal sighting would be, I saw a mountain lion when I worked at Carlsbad Catherine’s National Park, I was driving outta the park and this mountain lion just casually crossed the road as I was driving outta the park after a night sky program. So that was pretty wild. I had to really second guess what I saw, but I could not debunk it. I’m like, yeah. And I asked some of the rangers who had been there longer said, oh yeah. Was it at mile three? Oh yeah. It was a mountain lion. Multiple people had seen the mountain lion at mile three. But I guess my favorite wild life encounter experience, I have to go back to Carlsbad Caverns and watching the bat flight. You have thousands of bats just billowing out of the cave. And to be able to be there and just hear it, smell it, it’s an incredible experience.
Missy Rentz:
What is your favorite sound in the park
Aubrey Brown:
Okay, this is gonna be weird but we have an electrical panel that you have to click on to open up the boarding house and it goes ping, ping. So I like the pings but I guess my favorite sound that’s not weird and random that anyone can experience. I love when those looms turn on. I just love the rhythm. I dance to it every time. So we’ll go with the looms
Missy Rentz:
what’s the greatest gifts that parks give to us?
Aubrey Brown:
wonder. No matter where you are, they’re going to give you wonder and curiosity and just makes you step outside of your own little bubble to realize that there is much more out there and that there is, there are things that are worth protecting. Because they are not limitless. There is, they’re finite resources that could easily disappear, whether it is the natural land or whether it is the mills. At any point in time this could all go away. And so that wonder that you’re left with it’s what makes it all worthwhile.
Missy Rentz:
Aubrey, thank you so much for sharing your time and your passion and the experience of Lowell. It’s a pleasure to talk. To you today.
Aubrey Brown:
It was such a pleasure to talk with you today as well, and I thank you for doing what you do because our national parks, they are for everyone. But now that I am a part of that, I can see just how much I missed. By not having that experience. And so I wish that for everyone. These parks are for everybody.
Missy Rentz:
Thank you and thanks everybody for listening. Until next time, we’ll see you in the parks.
Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed today’s episode, please be sure to like and share on your favorite podcast platform. Music for the parks podcast is performed and produced by Porter Hardy. For more information, please follow us on Instagram at the parks podcast. Or visit our website@theparkspodcast.com.