Talk:Patowmack Canal

National Park Service text

The text for the original version of this page came directly from the National Park Service page for the Patowmack Canal here http://www.nps.gov/gwmp/grfa/canal/pato.htm. This text is identical to that found here http://scienceviews.com/parks/patowmackcanal.html. On the NPS page, the link to "Disclaimer and Ownership" goes to http://www.nps.gov/disclaimer.htm which says (among other things) "Information presented on this website, unless otherwise indicated, is considered in the public domain." Since the page in question does not "otherwise indicate" ownership, I posted it to wikipedia in good faith.

It seems likely to me that the folks at scienceviews.com are claiming authorship inappropriately. I have attempted to contact them and will report back here if and when they respond. If the current situation is too uncertain for wikipedia then let me know and I will write another version of this page from scratch. If this documentation is adequate, then please reinstate the original. Thanks.

Henryhartley 16:32, Nov 29, 2004 (UTC)

I have also contacted the National Park Service. If final deletion could be held off a few days until I hear from one or the other, it would be appreciated.

Henryhartley 18:46, Nov 29, 2004 (UTC)

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I heard back from the US National Park Service today. They verified that the text in question does indeed originate with them and that we are free to use it here. Below is the entire email (less phone numbers and email addresses which I hold back for Jesse's sake) I received from Jesse Reynolds, Supervisory Park Ranger, Great Falls Park:

Thank you for your question regarding the Great Falls Park web-site and information pertaining to the Patowmack Canal.

Until your message arrived, we were unaware of the ScienceViews.com information regarding the park. Based on your question, we looked at the ScienceViews web-site information about the park and discovered they have apparently used a great deal of information (word-for-word) written by our staff and volunteers.

The text you wish to use about the Canal was written by our staff and is based on several books and other documents regarding the Patowmack Canal. We, of course, do not have any problem with you using the information from our web-site.

If you receive a response from ScienceViews regarding where they obtained the information and why they have copyrighted it, we would be interested in seeing what they had to say.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any additional questions. Thanks again for bringing this situation to our attention!

Jesse Reynolds

Supervisory Park Ranger

Great Falls Park

I believe this gives us the verifications we need to revert to the posted version of the article. I'm not sure what the procedure is here so I'm hoping that posting this here is enough. Someone please let me know if it is not. Thanks.

Henryhartley 17:41, Dec 9, 2004 (UTC)

Citation

"An average of seven deaths occur each year in the Park area." - that comes from National Park Service signs posted at the falls, I'm not sure the proper way to cite that. Kmusser 15:55, 18 April 2007 (UTC)