Statue of Liberty National Monument
Episode Guest
Matt Housch – Archivist
Park Stats
Location: New York & New Jersey
Park designation date: October 15, 1924
President when the park was created: Calvin Coolidge
Park size: 12.7 acres (Liberty Island)
Number of Visitors in 2023 – 3,739,605
Fun Facts:
-
- The statue was a gift from France, though the pedestal was paid for and designed by US and was dedicated October 28, 1886
- Moved under the national parks in 1933
- Lady Liberty is 151 feet tall, but including the 154 feet pedestal, she stands approximately 305 feet tall
- 354 steps to reach the crown
- The Monument is also home to Ellis Island and was incorporated into the Monument in 1965. President Lyndon B Johnson was in office.
Speed Round
What is your earliest park memory?
I was born in Chattanooga and the park nearby was Chickamauga Chattanooga National Military Park. And my earliest memories of my grandparents taking me down to a place called Snodgrass Hill and watching the deer come out of the woods as the sun started to set…and I’ve loved deer ever since.
What made you love the parks?
My dad. My dad made me love the parks. He believed that they were important and it wasn’t just about the stories. He thought that the idea was important. He thought the idea, and he was always, he was always the guy who was picking up other people’s garbage in the park. And I love that.
One of the guys I work with here, our public affairs officer, he walks around and whenever you’re walking with him, he will pause to walk down and pick up garbage. I love this about him because it’s what my dad did when I was a kid. And he talked about that. This is an important space for all Americans.
What is your favorite thing about Statue of Liberty National Monument?
What the Statue of Liberty represents, and still represents today. The same thing that Abraham Lincoln talked about, there is unfinished work. Democracy is never finished. Liberty is never finished. There is a hope and a promise but it is something that we have to keep working at.
What is your favorite thing to do at Statue of Liberty National Monument?
Eat french fries, because we don’t have french fries on Ellis Island.
And then be in the crown of the Statue of Liberty. My favorite thing as a park ranger was to be in the crown of the Statue of Liberty.
What park have you yet to visit but is on your bucket list and why?
I don’t have a single park, any park on the West Coast. I haven’t gone there.
I have never been to California. I am an Eastern United States guy. I am entrenched in my little apartment in Brooklyn and need to get out there to those parks in California and the West Coast.
What are three must-haves you pack for a park visit?
- A journal
- A camera that is not my cell phone, because I do like to take some pictures
- A water filtration device
What is your favorite campfire activity?
I grew up in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and there are like 13 different ghost tour companies. I love a good ghost story around a campfire.
Tent, camper, or cabin?
Tent
Hiking with or without trekking poles?
Walking stick.
And what is your favorite trail snack?
Cashews
What is the best animal sighting that you’ve had?
Wind Cave National Park elk. Yeah, elk and the way that you would see them just at a great distance and they never let you get too close.
What is your favorite sound in the parks?
The bell buoys. So in New York Harbor you have buoys and early in the morning before visitors arrive you can stand out at the front of the Statue of Liberty and you just hear the waves hitting Liberty Island and the slight clinking of the bell buoys out on the water.
What is the greatest gift the parks give to us?
I think the greatest gift that the National Parks gives to us are the parks themselves. And I know there is a sort of cheating corniness about that answer, but the National Parks and everything they represent are a gift. And I hope that we return that favor by continuing to preserve and protect them.