Special Resource Study

The NPS Takes a Fresh Look at the Blackstone River Valley

In October 2006, Congress passed legislation to reauthorize the John H. Chafee Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor Commission for an additional five years. While the Blackstone River Valley was designated a National Heritage Corridor in perpetuity by Congress, the federal management presence will only exist as long as the federally created Corridor Commission continues to operate.

The reauthorization legislation also required the Secretary of the Interior to conduct a Special Resource Study (SRS) to explore the potential for a permanent National Park Service (NPS) presence in the Blackstone Valley. A possible result of the study could be Congressional action creating a new unit of the National Park System in the Blackstone Valley. The SRS, which is being managed by staff from the NPS Northeast Regional Office, will focus on sites and landscape features that contribute to the understanding of the Blackstone Valley as the birthplace of the American Industrial Revolution. To see information about the study, including meeting notices, and view documents open for public comment, please visit the study’s Planning, Environment and Public Comment page.

To learn about the study, including the five proposed management options, please see the June 2010 Blackstone SRS Newsletter.

In February, 2008 a group of six scholars came to the Blackstone Valley to review the nationally significant resources of the region and the themes that can be best interpreted here. Each of the scholars then produced a short paper on their views of the region, and how the Blackstone Valley fits into the current scholarship on industrialization in America.

  • Alison Kim Hoagland (PDF Document)

    Professor of History & Preservation, Michigan Technological University

  • Gary Kulik (PDF Document)

    Independent Consultant

  • Gabrielle Lanier (PDF Document)

    Associate Professor of History, James Madison University

  • Walter Licht (PDF Document)

    Annenberg Professor of History, University of Pennsylvania

  • David Meyer (PDF Document)

    Professor of Sociology, Brown University

  • Jonathan Prude (PDF Document)

    Associate Professor of History, Emory University

Resources