Boott Cotton Mills Museum

Today is the 99^th birthday of the National Park Service and is the beginning of a year-long celebration leading to the centennial celebration in 2016. As part of this anniversary observation, the National Park Service asks people to discover their parks, not only official National Parks but also urban parks, cultural treasures, and historical places that fall within the National Park System. Lowell is a particularly appropriate place to do that because, as the saying goes, “In Lowell, the park is the city and the city is the park.”

Throughout the coming year, the National Park Service asks visitors to post photos of the parks they find on social media, and to tag them #findyourpark. (If you’re posting a photo from Lowell, you might as well tag it with #Lowell, too). The NPS has established a website, findyourpark.com to help with the celebration  and Lowell National Historical Park’s website always contains interesting information.

Finally, as part of today’s birthday celebration, admission is free to all National Parks today. So if you find yourself in downtown Lowell today, please wander over to the Boott Cotton Mills Museum and take a quick walk through. While you’re there, check out the new exhibit, Lure of the Spindle, a look at Portuguese immigrants in Lowell.