VOA常速英语:国家公园遗址保存美国早期战争中的人工制品

One of the first stops where national parks traveler Mikah Meyer on his journey through the southeastern US was a famous fort near Charleston, South Carolina.

“This is Fort Sumter right in front of me, the spot where the first shot of the Civil War was fired,and also where the first casualty of the Civil War.”

After a decade of cultural and economic tension between the North and South,it was here, in Charleston Harbor on April 12, 1861,where the southern army opened fire, marking it as the day that Civil War began.

“This is a tonnage mortar, this type again for our deep first shot at the war.”

“See across that bridge, Charleston, South Carolina, it was under siege at one point for 17 months.There were cannons that could fire from where I’m standing on the fort all the way to the old town.”

At the Charles Pinckney National Historic Site, also in South Carolina,Mikah learned about Pinckney, a principal author and signer of the United States Constitution.

“Some people call him our forgotten founding father,but he was a political figure of early America who helped shape what our eventual Constitution ended up looking like.”

The National Park Service helps preserve what remains of the former plantation,and exhibits help tell the stories of 18th century plantation life for free and enslaved people.

While in South Carolina, Mikah also had a chance to visit Reconstruction Era National Monument,a site President Obama had just designated as a new National Park site,which tells us a story of post-Civil War America.

“So all within the Charleston, South Carolina area,you have these three sites now that are really related to either America becoming America, or America figuring out who America is.”

Driving south into Georgia, Mikah stopped at Fort Pulaski National Monument.Built in 1861, the fort is considered one of the most technologically advanced fortifications of its time.

“It had a moat, with water that circled the whole fort,which after seeing a number of forts that don’t have moats,just that one little feature it’s amazing how much more exciting that can make it!”

An hour south at Fort Frederica on St. Simons Island, Mikah walked among the ruins of this once flourishing 18th century settlement.

And at the Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve in Jacksonville, Florida,Mikah learned that an abundance of oysters provided a steady supply of protein for the Native Americans who lived there,and provided materials for their dwellings, that are still intact today.

“And it’s all of these little huts that were built out of a kind of paste of oyster shells and other minerals that when mixed together form, you know, sort of a brick-like substance.”

Mikah also squeezed in a quick visit to Castillo de San Marcos National Monument,where he got to watch a re-enactment, and the much smaller Fort Matanzas.

The young traveler said visiting these historic sites, whether large or small,made him appreciate the efforts of the National Park Service in preserving these national treasures for all to enjoy and learn from.

Julie Taboh, VOA news, Washington.