Gateway Arch National Park

Visit our park website http://ow.ly/SLx650ECqTW, then print this month’s virtual visitor stamp and add it to your National Park Passport book. You may want to visit other park websites and see how many virtual stamps you can collect. #FindYourPark

#BuddyBison is fitting right at park partner Jefferson National Parks Association's office! He says, I could get used to this view!

Transformation Tuesday Sod House This exhibit in the old Museum of Wetward Expansion depicted a sod house or soddy an alternative to the log cabin during the settlement of the Great Plains of the United States. These homes were constructed either due to lack of building materials or the settlers lacked the money to purchase supplies to build traditional homes. Creole House This a replica Creole House resides in the Colonial St. Louis gallery in the Museum at Gateway Arch Nati...onal Park. The house is built in the French Creole style of architecture where the logs are placed vertically in the ground, in contrast to the American log cabin style of using notched logs that were placed horizontally on top of one another during construction. Come on by and have a look. NPS Photo #TransformationTuesday #FindYourPark See more

May is Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders Month

Let’s assure our nation’s teachers are celebrated for what they do each and every day. Thank you, educators, for showing up day in and day out for our students and teaching them about history, environmental issues, math, science, reading, technology and so many other important subjects. #ThankaTeacher

We are just six days away from the first Gateway to the Stars program of 2021. Programs will consist of an online educational astronomy or National Park related talk followed by Virtual Stargazing at the Gateway Arch. At 8 pm on May 8, Dr. Connie Walker, scientist at the National Science Foundation's NOIRLab will present "The Globe at Night." This program will describe how you, as citizen scientists, can measure your sky's level of light pollution, using only a smartphone or tablet. This will be followed by a guided tour of May's night skies by our Sky Ranger and then live or recorded images submitted by members of the St. Louis Astronomical Society. The program will streamed via Facebook Live at St Louis Astronomical Society. Additional programs will be held on Jun. 19, Jul. 17, Aug. 14, Sept. 18 & Oct. 16.

Did you know that the Gateway Arch has a counterpart in the sky? Check out our Sky Ranger's new monthly blog, "The Arch of Spring" to learn how to find it. In addition, there is information about how to find our Solar System's two innermost planets and some fascinating sky lore. See the blog here: https://www.nps.gov/jeff/blogs/may-2021-2.htm

Visit our park website https://www.nps.gov/jeff/index.htm, then print the January virtual visitor stamp and add it to your National Park Passport book. You may want to visit other park websites and see how many virtual stamps you can collect. #FindYourPark

Riverfront Era Panorama Come walk through the Museum galleries at Gateway Arch National Park. This Riverfront Era gallery is one of six. There are a variety of displays, including a pilot’s wheel that was used to steer a riverboat, a covered wagon and storefronts from the 1838-1860 era. There’s much much more to see, come down for yourself and check it out. NPS Photo/Sue Ford #MuseumMonday #FindYourPark #RecreateResponsibly

What are your outdoor goals for 2021? Do you have any National Parks on your list for this year?

New Year’s Resolution It’s time to get outside yes, I know it’s cold out. Bundle up, you don’t have to spend the whole day outside. Physical activity in a green space can improve short and long-term memory. Kids who walk at least 20 minutes in a park concentrate in school longer and improve classroom participation. Exercising outside in nature leads to greater health benefits than performing the same activities inside. Plot your path it will make you happier and healthier! Here’s a suggestion, walk a few laps around the Arch grounds. NPS/Photo Sue Ford #PlotYourPath #RecreateResponsibly #HealthyParksHealthyPeople #FindYourPark

Our Sky Ranger's January blog entry is out this morning, featuring a changing of the guard in our night skies. See it here: https://www.nps.gov/jeff/blogs/january-2021.htm

Before I agree to 2021, I need to see some terms and conditions... and some salmon. Here’s hoping the new year is a bit more bearable. Image: A brown bear star...ing intently while resting on a log at Katmai National Park & Preserve NPS/ J. Ehrlenbach #HappyNewYear

Visit our park website https://www.nps.gov/jeff/index.htm, then print the November virtual visitor stamp and add it to your National Park Passport book. You may want to visit other park websites and see how many virtual stamps you can collect. #FindYourPark

From the desk of the Sky Ranger... A nice grouping of the waning crescent Moon, the planets Venus & Mercury, and a bright star awaits early rising stargazers the next two mornings. Face east-southeast about 5:45 am St. Louis time. As can be seen in the Sky & Telescope image, the moon will appear above brilliant Venus on Thursday and below it on Friday morning. Sunshine reflects off the Earth and will faintly light up the dark portion of the Moon, especially as seen in bin...oculars. Look for Mercury and the star Spica below Venus in the positions shown. You will need an open view to the horizon to spot Mercury, and binoculars can help a bit if the morning is not that clear. This is an unusually good chance to see the solar system's innermost planet. The extremely thin crescent shown for Saturday morning, the 14th, will be a real challenge requiring very clear skies and binoculars. See more

The Gateway Arch will be open until 8 pm Dec. 27-30 and Jan. 2-3. Our Sky Ranger captured this twilight view about 5:30 this evening, through the windows at the Top. You can even just make out Jupiter and Saturn, still closely paired, to the upper left if you view this cellphone picture full size.

From nearly the inception of the National Park Service the military and its veterans have left an indelible mark on the protection of our public lands. We thank them for their service. #VeteransDay #FindYourPark

Veterans Day The National Park Service invites all visitors to remember our veterans by visiting any National Park Service site for free on Veterans Day (November 11). Join us at Gateway Arch National Park, where the $3.00 entrance fee will be waived in honor of Veterans Day 2020. Enjoy your visit! #findyourpark #veteransday #recreateresponsibly

November is Native American Heritage Month Celebrate the original inhabitants of this great country, Native Americans, Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiians represent wonderfully diverse histories and cultures. We should all be proud to share their history, http://ow.ly/zGZv50CgynT Here’s a bit of local native knowledge, Missouri’s name comes from the Missouri Indian Tribe. Missouri means Town of the large canoes. Following is a list of Native American tribes that lived in ...Missouri, Caddo, Dakota, Delaware, Fox, Illinois, Iowa, Kickapoo, Missouri, Omaha, Osage, Oto, Quapaw, Sauk, Shawnee and Sac White River Band = Chickamauga Cherokee Nation. Some may simply be variant spellings for the same tribe. #NativeAmericanHeritageMonth #IndigenousHeritageMonth #findyourpark Photo/Elaine Peterson See more

Check out the beautiful fall colors while they last here at Gateway Arch National Park. NPS Photo/Al Bilger #findyourpark #recreateresponsibly

Bison have roamed North America since prehistoric times, but by the late 1800s, they were close to extinction. Fewer than 1,000 wild bison remained. Their near ...extinction greatly impacted the ecological health of the prairie lands, and also the Native American tribes who used them for food, clothes, and other material goods. In 1872, the U.S. Department of the Interior began to protect and preserve the herd of two dozen bison living in Yellowstone National Park. Today, there are approximately 10,000 bison on DOI lands and around 500,000 across the nation. In 2016, the bison officially became the national mammal of the United States. Which parks can you observe bison? Find out at https://www.nps.gov/subjects/bison/visit.htm #NationalBisonDay

Peek-a-boo! Enjoy the beautiful weather this weekend with a walk on the Gateway Arch grounds or enjoy the views of the Old Courthouse from #KienerPlaza #downtownstl #stl #findyourpark #fallfoliage #fallcolors

#ThrowbackThursday Gateway Arch construction worker photobomb! September, 1964. #stl #gatewayarch #downtownstl #findyourpark #nps #construction

Although our Gateway to the Stars program is complete until next May, our Sky Ranger will continue his monthly blog, along with occasional posts on special sky events here. The November edition of the blog is out, featuring a chance to see all five bright planets in this month's skies. The blog entry is here: https://www.nps.gov/jeff/blogs/november-2020.htm

Rangers Doug, John and Frank, along with several dedicated volunteers, recreate a St. Louis polling place in the 1850s. My, how voting has changed! For an audio described version of this video, please click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NkuLIPM-mI Shot on location at Ulysses S. Grant NHS. Our thanks to our neighboring park for loaning us their facility.

Welcome to the newest unit of the National Park Service, Ste. Genevieve National Historic Park!

Model Arch and Tulip Chair Both on display in Building the Arch, one of six galleries showcasing Colonial to Mid-20th Century American history. Construction on the Arch began in 1963 and was ultimately completed in October 1965. The Arch model built to scale was one of many used by Architect, Eero Saarinen and his design team as they worked out the exact shape of the structure between 1956 and 1961. The Tulip Chair is one of the most famous furniture designs by Eero Saarinen. When you ride to the top of the Arch look closely, the tram car seats are similar to the tulip chair design Saarinen in 1956. #museummonday #findyourpark #gatewayarch

UPDATE MONDAY: With the change to standard time, the moon, still almost full, will rise at 6:23 pm St. Louis time tonight, so you can still catch the reddening at the horizon and the "Moon illusion" this evening. ORIGINAL POST, October 31: If you are outside tonight, celebrating Halloween or otherwise, notice the spooky Full Moon rising in the east. It clears the horizon around 6:22 pm St. Louis time, but it might be awhile after that before it gets above any cloud banks, ...houses, trees, etc.. Since this is the second full Moon during October, some will call it a Blue Moon, and there won't be another one on Halloween until 2039. If you can find an open enough horizon to see the Moon soon after it rises, it will probably look not blue, but orange! This is due to the scattering of blue light by Earth's atmosphere close to the horizon, leaving the red and orange. This can be seen in the pictures taken of the Moon rising next to the North Leg last night, above our new Visitor Center entrance. You may also notice the "Moon Illusion"- it may seem unusually large when seen very low in the sky. The illusion is not actually fully understood, but is believed to be caused by people's minds unconsciously bringing the Moon in closer when seen next to foreground objects like houses and trees near the horizon. To shatter the Moon illusion, look at the Moon through a paper towel tube, or turn your back to the Moon, bend over at the waist, and look at it through your legs. Actually, this Full Moon is smaller than most, as the Moon is near apogee, its farthest point from Earth. Also notice Mars, only slightly faded from its peak of a few weeks ago, to the upper right of the Moon, and Jupiter and Saturn, still shining close together in the south to southwest.

Rangers Matt and Frank debate the pros and cons of allowing 16-year-olds the right to vote in U.S. elections. Which side are you on? For an audio-described version of this video, please click here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbWR-EOpQkc