April 19, 1775 is the day that launched America. With the first battle of what would become the War for Independence, fighting against “taxation without representation” and the power to self-govern, the Patriots of the revolution began the long and arduous journey of removing the power of the British Parliament.

 

The witness structures and landscape of “the Running Battle” are preserved and commemorated at Minute Man National Historical Park. Early in his career Kyle Zick was part of the design team for the Battle Road Trail. A 4.5 mile long trail that follows the route of the April 19, 1775 battle.  Now—some 23 years later—we are making repairs to the trail, renovating boardwalks crossing wetlands and adding new trail alignments that were not possible as part of the original construction.  Battle Road Trail was one of the first uses of stabilized stonedust trails. As technology has developed since then and the Park sees visitation of over 1 million people annually, portions of the stabilized trail have been repaired after heavy use and the newest version of stabilizer applied to the fine aggregate surfaces.

 

We have also worked with NPS staff and a graphic artist to develop a new exhibit at the Visitor Center focused on “Parker’s Revenge”. The Parker’s Revenge project is a great collaboration because park staff, NPS archeologists, GIS technology, and military tacticians to analyze and visualize the events of this otherwise unknown battle.   We are currently in the early phases of study for a new or renovated visitor center for the park. Prior to founding KZLA, Kyle also prepared a master plan for several “witness” structures along the trail corridor and managed the restoration of the North Bridge. 

 

• For more information: https://www.nps.gov/mima/learn/index.htm

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