SOPHIA ROOKSBERRY
Staff Writer
In the eighth chapter of Leave Only Footprints: My Acadia-to-Zion Journey Through Every National Park, Conor Knighton describes his visit to American Samoa, a Pacific island, which is “deeply rooted in a sense of community, mutual respect, and the importance of family,” according to the National Park Service.
“Borders — perceived or actual ones — come with the capacity to make us insular,” Knighton reflects at the end of the chapter. “Crossing them — at parks like Big Bend and American Samoa — helped remind me of the equally invisible threads that bind us all together.”
This visit during Knighton’s yearlong adventure is one of many that exemplify the final weekly theme of Chautauqua Institution’s Summer Season: “The Importance of Gathering: A Collaboration with the Smithsonian Folklife Festival.” However, at 10:45 a.m. today, Knighton will regale the Amphitheater with more than just stories of the United States’ most treasured realms.
“I’ll be sharing stories of the unconventional conventions, fascinating festivals and passionate subcultures and communities I’ve encountered around the country,” Knighton said. “From the ‘balloonatics’ at the World Balloon Convention to the ‘high pointers’ who gather to swap strategies for summiting every state’s peak, I’ve seen firsthand how wildly different interests have a similar power to bring people together.”
When Knighton embarked on his odyssey through the national parks to begin his On the Trail series for “CBS Sunday Morning,” he was a freelance reporter for the program. Now, as a full-time correspondent, Knighton has continued his trend of reporting from the country’s more remote locations.
“My general beat for ‘Sunday Morning’ tends to be ‘places with shoddy cellphone service,’” Knighton said. “I’m often reporting from off-the-beaten-path locations, large expanses of public land and tiny towns. But I’ve also developed a bit of a subspeciality in niche gatherings. I’ve got a collection of lanyards to prove it.”
On one such reporting endeavor, Knighton attended an annual mochitsuki gathering at the Mountain View Buddhist Temple in Oakland, California, during which hundreds of volunteers aid in the laborious creation of the popular Japanese dessert in preparation for the new year. As Curator of the Japanese American National Museum Emily Anderson explained in an interview with Knighton, this yearly tradition is more popular in the U.S. than in Japan.
“It’s certainly easier to just buy mochi in Japan, but it’s more than that,” Knighton says in a voiceover. “In the U.S., mochitsuki … is a way for a community to come together.”
While this might serve as one example from Knighton’s more recent reporting, he will also draw on his national parks road trip for inspiring stories of communities coming together.
“My year spent visiting every national park in the country was, by far, the most solitude I’ve ever experienced, but even then I felt a strong sense of community and connection with my fellow visitors,” Knighton said. “The parks are our literal common ground.”
From dining on palusami with a family in American Samoa to attending the Sopchoppy Worm Gruntin’ Festival in Florida, Knighton has been a part of countless assemblages that leave him with a good story to tell and deeper insights into this week’s theme at Chautauqua.
“While by most metrics these might not register as ‘important gatherings,’ (it’s the World Balloon Convention, not the World Economic Forum), I do think they speak to the importance of gathering,” Knighton said. “They’re very meaningful to those who attend. I’m always attending as an outsider. Over time, that means I’ve gotten to observe some common threads in the uncommon gatherings.”
