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A view of Shenandoah River State Park, one of Virginia's state parks.
During the Great Depression, Virginia became the first state in the nation to launch its own park system in 1936.
It has grown from six to 35 parks, and state parks director Joe Elton says the equivalent of Virginia's population visits them annually.
In 2010, there were 8.1 million visits, 1 million overnight visits, and roughly $189 million of economic impact," Elton says.
Elton added that hiking, camping, and nature observation are the most popular activities, along with more than 13,000 interpretive programs.
A new "75 Days of Summer" promotion will mark the anniversary, with free parking in mid-June, birthday cake at all parks June 18, and a new game from the Virginia lottery.
It will also include daily Web and social media-based contests, a photography competition, and other special events.
NPR
Decades Later And Across An Ocean, A Novel Gets Its Due
John Williams' Stoner sold just 2,000 copies when it was originally published in 1965. It's now acknowledged as a classic work, is a best-seller across Europe and the No. 1 novel in the Netherlands.NPR
Giant Renaissance Food People Descend Upon New York
Giuseppe Arcimboldo was a 16th-century artist who liked to play with his food, transforming it into the building blocks of many of his fantastical portraits. Artist Philip Haas has taken those portraits out of museums, reinterpreting them as colossal statues that interact with the natural environment.NPR
Political Takeaways: Headaches For The White House
Controversies dominated this past week's political headlines, leaving the Obama White House on the defensive, trying to contain any lasting damage. Host Rachel Martin talks with NPR's Mara Liasson.NPR
Young Kenyans Build Mobile Apps For Local Use
College students and recent graduates crammed the top floor of a tech hub in Nairobi for a competition built around the theme "Solutions for the Next Billion Mobile Users." Africa has more than 600 million mobile phone users (approximately 11 percent of the global total) – and the number is growing.Leave a Comment
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