This Parks property honors Nellie Bly (1867-1922), the pioneering female reporter who went undercover to investigate injustice, corruption, and crime. In 1889, she achieved international fame by circumnavigating the earth in 72 days.
Born Elizabeth Cochrane near Ford City, Pennsylvania, the young woman ventured into journalism in 1885 at Dispatch, a Pittsburgh newspaper. By the late 1880s, she secured a position writing for New York World. There, under the by-line Nellie Bly, she innovated the practice of investigative reporting. Throwing herself into the matters she investigated, this new approach to journalism brought her on an early diving expedition, a hot air balloon journey, an undercover mission in a mental asylum, and a whirlwind trip around the world.