National Service Park

A National Service Park in Plainview, MN (near Rochester, MN) will serve to educate, inspire, create awareness, and elevate all forms of national service and their complementary strengths to maximize the critical needs of our nation and the world in pursuit of peace.

• The park is designed to include recognition of service by Peace Corps, Americorps, military, and other national volunteer service.  

• It will be a first-of-its-kind public symbol of collaboration between different forms of national service. Presently, no other park like this exists in America.

• As an interactive park, it will encourage youth to recognize, honor and aspire to volunteer for national public service.

• Collaborating with different volunteer organizations towards a common goal demonstrates an ability to build and share skills and work across the spectrum of differences for the public good.

Location of the National Service Park

in America's Heartland

Unique local historical precedents for this location 

• This small Midwestern town and area was the home of four pioneer Returned Peace Corps Volunteers from 1962-64 when the Peace Corps was first established, and the community has provided a dozen RPCVs over 50 years.

• One hundred years earlier, in 1862, another contingent of local young men joined the Union Army in 1864, and they played a significant role in the decisive battle that ended the Civil War to preserve the Union.

• The area is the boyhood home of former Secretary of State Frank B. Kellogg, author of the famous Kellogg-Briand Peace Pact to end all wars.  He is a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.

• Plainview represents a typical rural American town similar to the small villages worldwide where many Peace Corps Volunteers served.

• Minnesota Senator Hubert Humphrey was the first to propose the idea of a "peace corps" in 1957.

Geographical support of this location 

• Plainview is an exurb of Rochester, MN, which resides half-way between the East and West Coasts.

• Rochester is home of the world-renowned Mayo Clinic and is spending $5 billion to increase its profile as a global health and wellness hub.

• Rochester attracts over three million visitors a year from all 50 states and many foreign countries.

• One of the outcomes of this investment will be the completion of a state bike trail from central Rochester to the National Service Park.