A Matter of Life or Death

Pain and suffering. Healing. Recovery. Death. We all experience these things sometime. In national parks, we find surprising stories about emerging medical practices that made a difference and the places where people had these experiences. Healers used medicinal plants for generations. Hospitals began emerging in the United States after the War of 1812. From field hospitals on Civil War battlefields to temporary wartime hospitals, we can explore the stories of early medicine protected in our parks.