Concord, MA: Minuteman Park

One of the first historical sites we visited after we moved here was Minuteman Park. This huge park in the city of Concord encompasses a handful of sites important to the beginning of the American Revolution. People usually bring their bikes to navigate their way through the various sites, but that does not work quite as well for us. A great place to start is the Visitor's Center. There is a one-room museum and a well-made multimedia presentation on the events of April 19 1775. The trail that connects the various historical sites was the same trail that Paul Revere rode.

On Saturday, we drove out to the Old North Bridge in Concord. BTW, they pronounce it "conkerd" around here. Concord has a quaint town square with some of the best ice cream I have ever tasted. You have to go down an alley to get to it, but it was worth wandering off the path. We happened to pass a cemetery called "Sleepy Hollow" and wondered if that was related to the "Legend of Sleepy Hollow." We followed the signs and the cars toward the parking lot for the Old North Bridge.

If you remember the story, the British Regulars were marching toward Concord because the Rebels had previously stashed a large quantity of arms and a cannon in a farm house across the bridge in Concord. The militia men were expecting the British and marched in front of them to the bridge. The Rebels crossed the bridge and waited on a small hill that afforded them a view of the troops near the bridge and the town. It is fairly impossible to imagine the view that they had because of the thick trees. Apparently in 1775, there were few trees as the land all around had been cleared for farming.

It was interesting to stand in the place where people stood up to tyranny. There are monuments and plaques all over the park. In addition, there are great trees for climbing and gardens for playing hide and seek. A visitor's center sits on the hill where the Rebels waited. There was a large centennial celebration at that spot, and they erected a tall monument. Emerson wrote a song that I think is called the Hymn of Concord. The famous phrase "the shot heard round the world" originates from this poem, although the first actual shot fired would have been in Lexington earlier that morning. Another interesting quote was a marker to the British troops who died in the battle at Concord. The plaque says that they travelled 3000 miles to "keep the past upon it's throne."

The most influential authors of the 1800s lived near the cradle of liberty: Emerson, Thoreau, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Luisa May Alcott. It is interesting to note that their ideas were inspired by the revolution. Something else I noticed in the movie was that the people were quoted as saying they wanted the right to govern themselves. That is what freedom and liberty meant to them: not the absence of rules but the rules that they themselves choose.