Some Dayton National Park sites open during shutdown
The partial U.S. government shutdown has impacted Dayton’s national park, but some units remain open because they are operated by other entities.
Dayton History, a private, non-profit entity recognized as the official historical organization for Montgomery County, owns and operates two units of the Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park. They include the John W. Berry, Sr. Wright Brothers National Museum at Carillon Historical Park and Hawthorn Hill, Orville Wright’s Oakwood mansion. Both remain open.
Dayton History unveiled the museum last year as a completely re-imagined and federally designated version of its Wright Brothers center, displaying more Wright family artifacts than any other place in the world. Its centerpiece is the original, 1905 Wright Flyer III, the only airplane designated a National Historic Landmark. Despite the museum’s congressional designation as a national museum and its inclusion in the national park, the facility receives no ongoing federal support, so the government shutdown doesn’t affect it. Located at 1000 Carillon Boulevard in Dayton, the site is open 360 days per year from Monday through Saturday from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from noon yo 5 p.m. Admission is $10.00 per adult (18-59), $9.00 per senior citizen (60+) and $7.00 per child (3-17) are in effect. Children under 3, as well as Dayton History members, receive free admission.
Hawthorn Hill provides visitors with a glimpse into the mind of the world’s first pilot. Orville planned the house as a home befitting the inventors of the airplane and a place to receive dignitaries from around the world. His brother Wilbur died before the house was finished in 1914, but Orville lived out his life there. Dayton History conducts tours of the house year-round on Wednesdays and Saturdays at 10 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. via shuttle from Carillon Historical Park. Advance, prepaid reservations are required. Admission is $12 per person and $10 per Dayton History member.
The Huffman Prairie Flying Field, another national park unit, is open because it’s an Air Force-owned site on Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. The Air Force is one of several agencies not included in the government shutdown. The flying field is accessible via Gate 16A off Ohio 444. (The National Museum of the U.S. Air Force is an Air Force facility and not a national park unit; it’s also open as usual, daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.)
The situation is more complicated for other units of Dayton’s national park. Overlooking the flying field from across Ohio 444, the Huffman Prairie Flying Field Interpretive Center is closed. The Air Force also owns the interpretive center, but it’s staffed by national park rangers who are now furloughed. (The adjacent Wright Memorial Park is also an Air Force property and, like the flying field, it remains open.)
Another park unit, the Paul Laurence Dunbar House Historic Site, is owned by the Ohio History Connection and managed by Dayton History, but it’s closed because it’s staffed by National Park Service rangers who are now furloughed. The house is the preserved home of America’s first internationally recognized African American poet.
The Aviation Trail Parachute Museum is owned and managed by Aviation Trail Inc., a private nonprofit organization, but the museum is housed within the national park’s main facility, the Wright-Dunbar Interpretive Center at 16 S. Williams St. Operated by the national park, that facility is also closed.
