David Swerdloff

Rock Creek Park A to Z David Swerdloff

Illustrated with more than 250 images, Rock Creek Park A to Z entertains as it answers questions that arise with every twist and turn of the valley and every entry from A to Z: How did the rocks get into Rock Creek? In whose famous footsteps might you be walking each time you visit? What can be done to preserve the Park in in the face of major threats to its environment? Where was Abe Lincoln nearly shot down by a Confederate sniper? When is the best time to observe songbirds migrating into the Park? Why was Rock Creek Valley the 19th century equivalent of a high-tech corridor for DC industry?

The alphabetical account begins with A is for Animals...from the newly-arrived coyotes to non-native black squirrels introduced more than a century ago.
Along the way, F is for Fords...where horses--and until 1994, autos--would splash through the creek.
N is for Neighbor...describing how the Park and the population around it affect each other for better and for worse.
Q is for Quotations...what naturalists, poets, politicians and songwriters have to say about Rock Creek Park.
U is for US Presidents...including hiking, rock-climbing, skinny-dipping and trespassing Teddy Roosevelt.
Y is for You Gotta Be Kidding...a rundown of serious proposals that, happily, were never enacted--like damming the creek to turn the valley into a vast reservoir.
And anyone who has visited Washington's lions and tigers and (panda) bears--oh my!--knows that Z is for Zoo.
Get the most out of one of America's pioneering urban parks--established in 1890, at a time when America had only two other National Parks. Learn about it from A to Z.
Rock Creek Park...it's where Washington insiders go when they go outside!