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Presenting Nature
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Design Ethic Origins
(1916-1927)
Design Policy & Process
(1916-1927)
Western Field Office
(1927-1932)
Decade of Expansion
(1933-1942)
State Parks
(1933-1942)
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Presenting Nature:
The Historic Landscape Design of the National Park Service, 1916-1942 |
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II. ORIGINS OF A DESIGN ETHIC FOR NATURAL PARKS (continued)
THE AMERICAN PARK MOVEMENT (continued)
DEVELOPMENT OF STATE AND NATIONAL PARKS
While the concept of urban parks expanded to take in parkways and outlying reservations, a movement was beginning to set aside outstanding natural features and scenic areas, such as Niagara Falls and Yosemite Valley, for public enjoyment. This movement began with an act of Congress of June 30, 1864, when the United States government granted Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove of Big Trees to California for the purpose of public use and recreation. Shortly thereafter, a commission was appointed to make recommendations for opening up the land for public use. Although this was the first park set aside by Congress for scenic purposes, it remained under state control until 1906, when it was added to the Yosemite National Park established in 1890.
As a member of Yosemite's Board of Commissioners, Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr., prepared a preliminary report on the development of Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove. Although intended for presentation to the California legislature, the report never passed beyond the commission and was lost for many years. Olmsted's report set forth a philosophical and practical framework for the development of natural areas for the use and enjoyment of the public. [55]
In the early 1860s, only a forty-mile trail in poor condition led into the valley. and a twenty-mile trail led to the Mariposa Grove. Better roads and arrangements for guides and horses to transport visitors were needed, Olmsted argued, so that the strenuous three- or four-day journey into the valley could be reduced to a one-day trip that many people could afford and enjoy. The roads would also make it possible to transport timber, food, and other supplies necessary for accommodating visitors, thereby making the destruction of native groves or the cultivation of parkland unnecessary. Areas for camping and other provisions could be supplied in the valley.
Olmsted envisioned a circular or loop road around the Mariposa Grove that would also serve as a protective barrier against the fires common in the surrounding country. For the valley. he proposed a circuit drive leading off the approach road from the west, encircling the wide portions of the valley, crossing the meadows at certain points, and "reaching all the finer points of view." The drive would be a double trail, wide enough for one vehicle. Carriages would travel "up one side and down the other side of the valley. suitable resting places and turnouts for passing being provided at frequent intervals." Olmsted explained,
The object of this arrangement is to reduce the necessity for artificial construction within the narrowest practical limits, destroying as it must the natural conditions of the ground and presenting an unpleasant object to the eye in the midst of the scenery. The trail or narrow road could also be kept more in the shade, could take a more picturesque course, would be less dusty, could be much more cheaply in repair. From this trail a few paths would also need to be formed, leading to points of view which would only be accessible to persons on foot. Several small bridges would also be required. [56]
Olmsted's report established a basis for protecting natural features and scenery while at the same time making them accessible for the enjoyment of the public. It extended his respect of natural character, which was apparent in his plan for Central Park, to areas of outstanding scenic value and extensive wilderness. It defined the concept of circulation systems for natural areas that included approach roads, circuit drives, resting places, turnouts, paths leading to points of interest and scenic views, and, where necessary, bridges. While these features would be incorporated in Olmsted's urban parks, it was clearly the relationship of these features to wild, unspoiled land and vistas of supreme beauty that made the Yosemite recommendations relevant to the development of natural areas.
Olmsted's recommendations were based on a firm belief that although roads and facilities were needed, they must be located and designed in such a way that scenic character and timber were preserved as much as possible. The report reflected ideas that Olmsted practiced on a smaller scale at Franklin Park and elsewhere: roads and trails were fundamental to park planning; they should be laid out to connect sequential points of scenic interest; and, by their design, they should engage the traveler in a pleasurable experience. The report, furthermore, reflected the philosophy that development must serve the public and minimally affect natural scenery, which Olmsted would espouse in other conservation matters, including his efforts to save Niagara Falls.
Set aside in 1872 as a "pleasuring-ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people," Yellowstone became the first national park. Others followed. Sequoia and General Grant were established in 1890, the same year as Yosemite, and Mount Rainier (1899) and Crater Lake (1902) roughly a decade later. Between 1902 and 1906, Wind Cave, Sully's Hill, Platt, and Mesa Verde were made parks. The Antiquities Act of 1906 enabled a number of national monuments to be added to the list; these included missions, ruins of prehistoric cultures, and unusual natural features such as Devil's Tower and Petrified Forest. Glacier was added to the list of parks in 1910, followed by Rocky Mountain in 1915, Hawaii and Lassen in 1916, and Grand Canyon, Acadia (originally called Lafayette), and Zion in 1919. By the time the National Park Service took charge in 1917, there were seventeen national parks and twenty-two national monuments covering an area greater than 9,800 square miles. [57]
Although the idea of setting aside scenic reservations for public enjoyment emerged in the mid-nineteenth century. it did not gain widespread momentum until the early twentieth century. Efforts to save Niagara Falls began in the 1860s, but it was not until 1885 that the reservation was finally established as New York's first state park. New York created the 800,000-acre Adirondack Forest Preserve the same year and, in 1894, designated a park encompassing much of the region's public and private land and having protective restrictions. In 1891, Minnesota founded Itasca State Park, setting aside the headwaters of the Mississippi River as the state's first scenic park. In 1897, New York prohibited the cutting of timber in the Adirondack forest preserve and two years later set aside a similar reserve in the Catskills. In 1895, the Palisades Interstate Park in New York and New Jersey was established in an effort to save the scenic palisades that extended many miles up the Hudson River from quarrying and other forms of destruction. A system of state parks took form in New York as parks such as Watkins Glen (1906) and Letchworth (1907) were created and separate regional commissions were established. Connecticut established its first park in 1887 and created a state park commission in 1912.
At the turn of the century. Minnesota and Wisconsin set aside parks on opposite shores of the Saint Croix River, and Massachusetts established the Mount Tom and Mount Greylock reservations. Shortly thereafter, Ohio began to set aside land around public reservoirs as public parks. Wisconsin established a state parks board in 1907 and soon after hired landscape architect John Nolen to conduct a state park survey with the purpose of founding new state parks. Idaho set aside its first park, Payette Lake, in 1909, and Illinois established its first natural park, Starved Rock, in 1911. In 1915, North Carolina set aside Mount Mitchell as its first park, and in 1916 Indiana established its first parks, McCormick's Creek and Turkey Run. In 1918, Iowa established its first state park, Backbone. California established the 10,000-acre Redwoods State Park in 1918, and in 1920, the state's legislature created a state park system. The years 1919 and 1920 saw the establishment of South Dakota's first park, Custer State Park; the addition of Clifty Falls to Indiana's parks, Old Salem to Illinois's parks, and Enfield to New York's parks; and the creation of a state park system in Iowa. [58]
By 1920, the movement to create state parks and park systems had taken hold nationwide. The movement was spurred by a number of regional organizations founded to identify significant areas of scenic or historic interest and to urge state legislatures to preserve them. The first such organization was the American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society. founded in 1895 in New York. Others included the Save-the-Redwoods League, founded in California in 1918, and the Friends of Our Native Landscape, founded in Illinois in 1913. Landscape architects were among the conservation-minded individuals who founded and fostered these organizations.
The state park to gain the most attention for the development of recreational facilities was the Palisades Interstate Park, particularly the area surrounding Bear Mountain on the west shore of the Hudson forty miles north of New York City. Here development was concentrated at the base of the mountain near Fort Montgomery in an area that had been extensively quarried and was formerly intended as the site for a prison. This area was developed in the early twentieth century under the direction of Major William Welch, a civil engineer and the interstate park's general manager. It is an important link between the nineteenth-century urban parks, such as Franklin Park, and the scenic and recreational state parks of the twentieth century.
By the end of 1916, Bear Mountain was a center for year-round recreation and the gateway to extensive tracts of wilderness that lay to the west and contained heavily wooded and well-watered mountains abounding in deciduous forests, streams, and lakes. It attracted throngs of visitors, who arrived by boat, ferry, and rail. On the riverfront were several docks for the steamers that daily carried visitors from the city. a railroad station, a swimming beach with bathhouses, and trails and ramps leading to the highland. One hundred and sixty-five feet above the Hudson lay Hessian Lake, a forty-acre spring-fed lake at the center of a large recreational area or "playground." The lake provided pleasure boating and fishing. Playing fields, tennis courts, a track, a children's play area, and other areas for sports were developed nearby. On the shores of the lake were picnic groves, a boat house, a dancing pavilion, and a large rustic inn. Camping took place at the far end of the lake. The wooded and mountainous land west of Bear Mountain was minimally developed with hiking trails and, as early as 1913, rustic camps for youth groups and other social organizations. In 1916, over 2 million conifers had been planted in the region, adding greatly to its beauty and undisturbed character. [59]
Bear Mountain Inn could accommodate more than three thousand diners at one time. The first story was built of moss-covered boulders taken from the old stone fences on the property. The second story was built of huge chestnut logs from surrounding forests. The building, with its massive stone fireplaces and chimneys and broad sloping and overhanging roof supported on massive log brackets, echoed the Swiss-influenced lodges of the Adirondacks. Its size, bold use of moss-covered boulders, rusticated arched entrances, and gabled roof, however, clearly reflected the Playstead Shelter in Franklin Park. Although it lacked the grandeur of the great inns that were being built at the same time in the national parks, such as Old Faithful Inn at Yellowstone and the lodges and inns the Great Northern Railway was building at Glacier, it very much reflected the rustic tradition. For more than two decades, it remained the only rustic hotel in a state or national park in the eastern United States.
The state park movement experienced rapid growth during the 1920s, through the efforts of many individuals and organizations, including the director of the National Park Service, Stephen Mather. During the 1920s, many states, including Arkansas, Kansas, Maine, Missouri, Nebraska, Oregon, Texas, Utah, and Washington, acquired their first state parks. In 1923, Texas appointed a state park board, and by 1927, it had established twenty-four parks, most of which were waysides along state roads. Other states either had no state parks or had designated only historical areas as state parks but had an extensive system of national forests available for recreational use. One of these was Pennsylvania, which by 1928 had over 1 million acres of land in state forests. [60]
Existing state park systems also expanded rapidly during the 1920s. By 1928, Iowa's park system included thirty-nine parks and 7,413 acres. In 1924, New York's regional commissions were consolidated in a centralized state agency. and by 1928, New York had fifty-six parks and over 2 million acres of parkland. In 1927, the California legislature established a state park commission, created a bond issue of $6 million for the acquisition of state parks, and hired Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., to conduct a survey for new parklands. Olmsted's survey. known as the California State Parks Survey, was completed in 1929 and identified seventy-nine areas for acquisition. It also set out criteria for the selection and management of state parks and is recognized as a pivotal document in the history of state parks in the United States. [61]
One major catalyst for the movement was the founding of the National Conference on State Parks. The organization was formed at a meeting organized by Iowa's governor and Stephen Mather and held at Des Moines in 1921. The organization's purpose was to urge governments—local, county. state, and national—to acquire additional land and water areas for the study of natural history and its scientific aspects, for the preservation of wildlife, and for recreation. Its goal was to put public parks, forests, and preserves within reach of all citizens. The national conference also aimed to educate the public about the values and uses of recreational areas and encouraged private individuals "to acquire, maintain, and dedicate" similar areas for public pleasure.
Although focused on state parks, the national conference was the meeting ground for officials and interested professionals from all levels of government and from forests as well as parks. Common concerns and solutions were shared; principles and practices of park development were exchanged. The organization met annually and charted the progress being made nationwide in state legislation for state parks and the organization of statewide park systems. Mather followed the conference's progress and included it in his annual reports. Conferences were held in various state and national parks. From 1922 to 1927, the conference met at the Palisades Interstate Park in New York, Turkey Run State Park in Indiana, Gettysburg National Military Park, the proposed Shenandoah National Park, and Hot Springs National Park. During this time, regional conferences also formed in the Ohio River Valley and the Southwest.
Bear Mountain quickly became the model for state park development and Welch a leading spokesperson. In introducing Welch at the fourth national parks conference, Enos Mills recalled Robert B. Marshall's advice that the parks be developed for all people and that the buildings be attractive and fit harmoniously into the surroundings. Mills highly commended Welch's work at the Palisades Interstate Park and particularly at Bear Mountain as fitting these requirements. A civil engineer by training, Welch was successful in establishing the systems for roads, water, power, and other utilities that supported the park's operation. By the early 1920s, his engineering work gained attention nationwide when he carved the Storm King Highway into the precipitous cliffs above the Hudson several miles north of Bear Mountain. He maintained close ties with the National Park Service and, in 1921, made an extensive tour of national parks, visiting Rocky Mountain, Mesa Verde, Grand Canyon, Sequoia, Yosemite, Mount Rainier, Glacier, and Yellowstone. in each park he offered park superintendents suggestions for practical improvements, particularly related to road and camp problems and water supply. Welch spoke at the 1917 national parks conference, numerous meetings of the National Conference on State Parks, and the National Conference on Outdoor Recreation in 1925. In 1924, Welch's designs for the Bear Mountain complex and the Storm King Highway were the only state park works featured in American Landscape Architecture, a portfolio of premier works of landscape design selected by a committee consisting of Olmsted, Jr., Charles Lowrie, and Noel Chamberlin. [62]
The second annual meeting of the National Conference on State Parks held in 1922 at Bear Mountain enabled visiting officials to view firsthand a model recreational park and Welch's engineering achievement on Storm King. The conference also visited the Bronx River Parkway, the nation's first limited access parkway, being constructed nearby under the direction of Jay Downer and Gilmore Clarke. The seventh annual conference of 1927 was also held at Bear Mountain, where new development included additional facilities for winter sports and a naturalistic swimming pool that had been created by damming a stream and filling a rocky ravine.
Several aspects of the Palisades Interstate Park would strongly influence the development of other state parks and the National Park Service's policies on recreational development. First was the program of organized camping that began in 1913, when the state built a camp for the Boys Scouts of America in the heavily wooded and mountainous area west of Bear Mountain. This program grew quickly. and the park became known for introducing urban youth to the experience of the woods. Organizational camping would be institutionalized by the National Park Service and the Resettlement Administration in the development of recreation demonstration areas in the 1930s. Second were the park's educational programs, including nature centers within the organization camps, hiking trails, and later a centralized museum and nature trail. Third were its pioneering facilities for winter sports, including skiing, skating, and tobogganing, which gained popularity in national and state parks in the early 1930s. Bear Mountain and the Cook County Forest Preserve, outside Chicago, were leaders in the development of facilities for winter sports by the end of the 1920s.
In May 1925, President Calvin Coolidge convened a National Conference on Outdoor Recreation, which covered diverse aspects of public recreation and few individuals from many national organizations. Committees were formed to examine seventeen topics ranging from educational programs to waterway Hution and drainage and including federal land policy and policies dealing with state and county parks and forests. Among the speakers were many longtime friends and advocates of the national parks, including the executive secretary of the National Parks Association, Robert Sterling Yard, and Henry Hubbard. Hubbard spoke on the national provision for the enjoyment of scenic resources. William Welch spoke on the place of state and interstate parks in a national recreational policy, and Barrington Moore of the Council on National Parks, Forests and Wildlife outlined a national outdoor recreational policy based on the role of federal agencies. While this meeting embraced many groups and professions, it brought together for the first time those involved in the municipal playground movement and those involved in the preservation of scenic and natural areas. Furthermore, it laid the groundwork for a federal recreational policy that would take form in the 1930s. [63]
In 1926, the National Conference on State Parks published State Parks and Recreational Uses of State Forests, a study requested by the conference on outdoor recreation the previous year. By this time, forty-three states possessed state parks, state forests, or similar areas for outdoor recreation, covering more than 6.5 million acres. It was the first of a series of publications to appear in the next five years charting the progress of the state parks movement. State Recreation: Parks, Forests and Game Preserves of 1928 analyzed the various approaches and methods state governments were using to acquire parks and administer them. It was a reference book that contained state-by-state essays and, in the form of a chart, provided a comprehensive list of the recreational areas in each state and information about their founding, location, size, special characteristics, and recreational facilities. A State Park Anthology of 1930 was a compendium of papers given at the annual meetings, reports by members, and articles written by specialists. [64]
During these years, several state and local park officials gained prominence for their leadership, sound management, and noteworthy practices and designs. In addition to Major William Welch of the Palisades Interstate Park, these included Colonel Richard Lieber of Indiana; Charles Sauer, a designer of Indiana parks and later the superintendent for the Cook County Forest Preserve District; Albert M. Turner of Connecticut; and Herbert S. Wagner of the Akron metropolitan parks.
Several members of the landscape profession played a major role in the state park movement. Warren Manning and Henry Hubbard were the ASLA's official representatives to the 1925 National Conference on Outdoor Recreation; James Greenleaf and several others also attended, and John Nolen was appointed to the permanent executive council. Manning, Nolen, and Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., conducted surveys and developed master plans for several state parks and park systems. Harold Caparn in 1917 wrote "Some Reasons for a General System of State Parks" in Landscape Architecture. The National Conference on State Parks' A State Park Anthology of 1930 included articles by Harold Caparn, James Greenleaf, S. Herbert Hare, Emerson Knight, Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., and many park officials. The following year, the ASLA's journal, Landscape Architecture, devoted an entire issue to the subject of state park acquisition and development and carried articles drawn from papers given by Wagner, Hare, Laurie D. Cox, and P. H. Elwood at that year's national conference meeting in St. Louis. [65]
In their stewardship role, landscape architects were concerned with selecting parks on the one hand and planning for their development on the other. It is likely through members of the landscape profession that the distinctions between recreational development and scenery preservation in state park design were raised and became a matter of serious consideration and policymaking. Speaking on the basic principles of state park selection and design at the 1931 meeting of the national conference, Laurie D. Cox called for a new type of park design that could reconcile the differences between the national park or the scenic reservation envisioned by Charles Eliot and the country park or city playground that was better suited for recreational use. Such a task was difficult but, he believed, achievable through the careful consideration of questions such as how much public use or human service is possible or desirable and what kinds of recreation should be provided. [66]
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