Presenting Nature

Cover

Contents

Foreword

Acknowledgements

Overview

Stewardship

Design Ethic Origins
(1916-1927)

Design Policy & Process
(1916-1927)

Western Field Office
(1927-1932)

Park Planning

Decade of Expansion
(1933-1942)

State Parks
(1933-1942)

Appendix A

Appendix B

Bibliography

Presenting Nature: The Historic Landscape Design of the National Park Service, 1916-1942

III. A POLICY AND PROCESS FOR DESIGN, 1916 TO 1927 (continued)

A NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

As soon as the service was organized, Director Mather took up the cause of informing the public about the scientific, scenic, and historic values of the parks. As part of his "vigorous educational campaign," the service disseminated thousands of copies of the National Parks Portfolio, a pamphlet on parks called Glimpses of National Parks, and guide maps to parks. Local chambers of commerce, tourist bureaus, and civic associations set up free auto camps to encourage travelers to visit the national parks.

Automobile travel in national parks greatly increased during the 1917 season, with 22,286 entrance licenses issued in 1917 compared with 455 in 1914, 12,609 in 1915, and 15,536 in 1916. Visitation was heavier than ever before; 487,368 visitors came in 1917, greatly exceeding the 240,193 who had visited parks in 1914, 335,299 in 1915, and 358,006 in 1916. The service was concerned not only with travel within the parks, but also with park-to-park travel and highways leading into national parks. Mather sought the cooperation of automobile clubs, highway associations, and other organizations in providing signs and the help of state highway commissions in improving the roads leading to parks. [15]

Mather envisioned a park-to-park highway from Colorado to Washington State, linked to parks in Arizona and California. A National Park-to-Park Highway Association had organized in Yellowstone in 1916 to designate and promote a road system that would link the western parks. The National Park-to-Park Highway Association, located in Spokane, Washington, had designated and posted a route with signs connecting Yellowstone and Glacier with Mount Rainier and Crater Lake parks by way of the Columbia River Highway, Free automobile camps opened in each park. Camps were located in specially cleared areas provided with water, at convenient distances from supplies of fuel. Toilet facilities were provided and cooking grates installed. Shelters for cars were even constructed at Yellowstone. [16]

Among the first year's accomplishments at Yellowstone were the opening of a southern gateway at Jackson Hole, Wyoming, the construction of more than one hundred miles of trails and fire roads, and a reorganization of the concessionaires. These improvements were part of a plan to make Yellowstone an important all-summer resort where visitors could stay for several weeks at a time. Arrangements were also made with the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries to stock lakes and streams.

At Yosemite, workers made improvements to the overall road system, including the El Portal Road. The service took over the Wawona toll road and eliminated charges other than the regular park entrance fee. A new hydroelectric power plant began to furnish power for lighting hotels, camps, roads, and footpaths and for heating the buildings in Yosemite Valley, Land along the Big Oak Flat Road was acquired, through exchanges with private owners, to ensure that "splendid forest growths" would be "forever safeguarded." [17]

New concessionaires' facilities were praised for their progress in making parks accessible to various classes of visitors. Paradise Inn on the slopes of Mount Rainier and the Glacier Point Hotel on the rim of Yosemite Valley both opened. Yosemite's new hotel was highly acclaimed; Mather wrote,

It is beautifully located on the very rim of the gorge where a magnificent view may be obtained of all of the great canyons through which the Merced and its tributaries flow. Vernal and Nevada Falls are plainly visible and the panorama of the peaks of the Sierra that may be had from the hotel beggars description: The hotel itself is very attractive from every point of view. [18]

Built and photographed in 1917, the stairway at Moro Rock, Sequoia National Park, illustrates what was then the "state-of-the-art" construction for scenic overlooks. Cut lumber was arranged in rectilinear fashion to form long stairways, bridges, handrails, and platforms. For almost 15 years, this 364-foot stairway made it possible for thousands of visitors to ascend the monolithic dome to its peak at 6719 feet and experience one of the most spectacular views of the Sierra Mountains. It was replaced by a less obvious and angular, naturalistic trail of stone and concrete in 1931. (National Park Service Historic Photography Collection)

At Sequoia, improvements were made to the roads, trails, and campgrounds, and the water system was extended. In the Giant Forest, private holdings were acquired, and large areas were prepared for camping. A new stairway was built to the summit of Moro Rock, from which the entire park and surrounding mountains could be viewed. The sturdy 364-foot stairway of wood timbers, planks, and railings was a common type of trail improvement built in the 1910s and 1920s to provide safe access to precipitous and spectacular viewpoints, often across steep and rugged ground. These structures consisted of basic cut timbers joined at right angles to form ramps and stairways and led visitors upward in stages to a viewing platform on the summit. Stylistic pretension and the rustic latticework of Downing and the Adirondack Style were absent from these functional structures. Mather described the achievement at Moro Rock:

This stairway was built to afford the best possible opportunity to view the magnificent scenery of the park region and the mountains beyond. Moro Rock, 6,719 feet in altitude, is a monolith of enormous yet graceful proportions. Its summit is nearly 4,000 feet above the floor of the valley of the Middle Fork of the Kaweah below, and the huge granite mass stands apart from the canyon wall in a manner that affords one a marvelous panoramic view. The new steps to the summit were built carefully and are perfectly safe. As the top of the rock is flat, and there is no opportunity to gaze down perpendicularly, it may be enjoyed by most people without fear of dizziness. [19]

To Mather the stairway was magnificent, a fine achievement for service engineers and a demonstration of the fledgling agency's commitment to making park scenery accessible to the general public and not just seasoned mountaineers. Mather proclaimed, "The view from the top of the rock is indescribably wonderful, the panorama of the peaks of the Great Western Divide being the most thrilling scene to greet one as he mounts the summit of Moro." [20]

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