Minute Man National Historical Park

After leaving Roger Williams National Memorial in the heart of Providence, Rhode Island we started driving north.  We knew there were quite a few National Park sites around Boston and we only had three days to see as many as we could.  Unfortunately several ended up dropping off the list for this trip and being added to a future return trip.  One that I knew for sure I wanted to see though was Minute Man National Historical Park.  We'd first thought about hitting Adams first and then driving to Minute Man, but instead we decided to head straight to Minute Man and decided that if we wanted to go to Adams we'd ride the subway there.  There was no way we could neglect to visit the site of the opening battle of the American Revolution.

At Minute Man National Historical Park the opening battle of the Revolution is brought to life as visitors explore the battlefields and structures associated with April 19, 1775, and witness the American revolutionary spirit through the writings of the Concord authors.
--from Minute Man NHP website

The parking lot is located a short walk away from the visitor center.  Also of note is the fact that the park is quite spread out with a number of sites.  You can walk along much of the path that British soldiers took in the area near the visitor center, but we sadly didn't have enough time to walk all of it.
This five mile trail connects historic sites from Meriam’s Corner in Concord to the eastern boundary of the park in Lexington. The main theme of the trail is the Battle of April 19, 1775, that launched the American Revolution. Much of the trail follows original remnants of the Battle Road; other sections leave the historic road to follow the route of the Minute Men, traversing farming fields, wetlands, and forests.
--from Minute Man NHP website

We even walked past a pool.

Before too long we came upon the visitor center and headed inside.

The lobby is full of different exhibits presenting the history of the battle in a very visual and interesting way.

As you can see from this map there is quite a bit to see in the area.  We didn't have time to do more than scratch the surface.

We did take time to watch "The Road to Revolution" which was an excellent multimedia presentation about the battle.

I ended up buying one of the blue shirts.  Later I discovered a couple holes in the shirt that looked like they came from a box cutter.  I emailed the park and the staff there ended up sending me a new shirt.

After we left the visitor center we headed down the road and stopped at the Robbins House, which technically isn't part of the park, so that is another story.  After leaving the house we headed towards the north bridge.

 This sign had a whole apparatus below it with a speaker powered by a hand crank so that they could incorporate audio without needing to run electricity.  It was quite a clever concept.

The surrounding scenery was beautiful.  Though I'm sure that April day in 1775 it felt much different to the British soldiers that were ambushed all along their way back to Boston.

But before that was the moment when the colonial Minute Men and the British soldiers faced off on the Lexington Green.
A brief but bloody skirmish on Lexington Green (5:00 a.m.) left eight Colonists dead.  At the North Bridge (9:30 a.m.), the first ordered firing by Colonists upon British troops killed two British soldiers, with a third mortally wounded.  As the British soldiers marched back towards Boston, Colonial militia companies poured in.  Fighting erupted along the "Battle Road" (12:30 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.) as nearly 4,000 Colonists unleashed "an incessant fire" upon the British Regulars.  At the end of the day, the Colonists surrounded and laid siege to Boston.  The Revolutionary War had begun.
--from exhibit signage

The monument was erected in 1836 in memory of the start of the harassment of British troops.

We were able to cross over the bridge, and the view from atop the span was so calm and peaceful.

Just on the other side of the bridge construction was taking place and so the path was blocked.  We had to get back in the car and drive a bit further down the road to the North Bridge Visitor Center.

Inside is this piece of the original North Bridge, recovered from the riverbed in 1874.  The original bridge had been dismantled in 1793.  The next bridge to span the water was erected in 1875 to celebrate the battle's centennial.

The building included a small gift shop.

There were also a number of artifacts on display like the Hancock cannon.

All in all we wished that we had had more time to explore the park as there was definitely more to see, but we had to get going to ensure that we would get to our campground on time.  All of the pictures from this post (and more) can be seen in this album.

~Matt