I know this isnt the place for politics but I keep hearing on the news about the posibility of a government shutdown. Today I heard that if this is to happen National Parks and parks controlled by the government would be shutdown. Knowing that Steamtown is controlled by the national park service, would Steamtown in any way be affected if this possible government shutdown was to take place?

Steamtown IS a National Park, therefore if National Parks close do to a budget impass then Steamtown will be closed. I belive 3/4/11 is the magic date.

And after a short period of closure Steamtown would reopen after the politicos have flexed their muscles.

A 2 week extension is expected to pass before Friday.

Steve

When I worked at Steamtown there was at least one shut down, in Feb (?) of 1996. Since this sort of thing usually happens in the winter, there is not as much disruption as you would have in say, July....

Dave

it seems just a matter of people and pay and manning the place. Are they open all week?

Get volunteers, and be open the weekend only. Its not like the place is dissappearing.

Not exactly. Steamtown National Historic Site is just that, but it is run by the National Park Service.

Government, by and large, just simply refuses to work that way, unfortunately. There have been times when I've had to come to the sarcastic conclusion that government is a system to prevent volunteerism. After all, as the "mentality" goes, that volunteer picking up trash in the city park is depriving a union-dues-paying employee of his rightful employment....... (Seriously, I witnessed that very argument in person one day.)

On a more serious note, the problem with running a more diverse place like Steamtown or the RR Museum of Pa. with volunteers is that volunteers want to do what they wish to, at the possible/probable expense of what actually HAS to get done. If, for example, a whole bunch of Pennsy or Reading guys want to "run" the RR Museum of Pa., that leaves the Lehigh Valley RDC, the NKP Berkshire, and the D&H hopper car neglected. Or you have the old syndrome of twenty engine crew, two conductors, no brakemen, and no one selling tickets, sweeping the restrooms, guarding the library shelves, etc.

And, in extreme cases, you have the possibility of an unvetted fringe group doing things for the public that just shouldn't be--imagine, as an admittedly extreme example, volunteers from the "Westboro Baptist Church" volunteering to attend to a military cemetery............ or, less extremely, a Native American group wanting to recast a Western site like the Grand Canyon or Little Big Horn as examples of Caucasian oppression......

I believe it would be far more important long-term to improve volunteer/administration relations at such government-overseen attractions as the California State RR Museum, Griffith Park, Steamtown, etc., thus improving the core missions without increasing governmental costs. This presumes, of course, an administration (museum and government) attuned to such a goal, and not to that of maximizing expenditure.

Oddly enough it's Natives who run the Little Bighorn for the most part. When you have great grandfathers who were there the stories told have more of an impact. For my sister in law it was her great grandmother who stood on a hill and watched the battle.