What a decades-long conservation effort teaches us about America
Our National Park Service celebrated its 100th birthday last month. Unfortunately, the party may have been overshadowed by politics.
In an election year that has seen widespread hostilities rising to dangerous levels, our 84 million acres of national parkland offer us more than just temporary escape from the madness. We may find another kind of inspiration as well.
Take the creation story of Grand Teton National Park. A little more than a month after becoming director of the National Park Service in 1929, Horace Albright saw something finally come to fruition that he had fought 12 years for: a bill signed by President Calvin Coolidge that created the 96,000-acre park.
There was just one problem. Albright and a group of local ranchers whose support it took years to garner were not satisfied. While the mountains and lakes were protected, the park did not include the neighboring valley. Thus the area’s ecosystem still was at risk.
Fortunately, Albright and the ranchers had a secret plan underway. Two years earlier, Albright had convinced oil tycoon and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller to begin purchasing land in order to protect the valley from commercialization, over-development, and the inevitable harm to the environment.
The covert conservation mission took the form of the Snake River Land Company, which, unbeknownst to the sellers, bought the land on Rockefeller’s behalf in order to avoid an instant “gold rush” of inflated real estate prices.
In 1930, after more than 35,000 acres had been purchased, Albright and Rockefeller announced the plan to dedicate the land as an extension of the newly created park. The announcement was met with unforeseen backlash. A new wildfire of controversy ignited with anti-government voices crying foul and former landowners launching charges of wrongdoing against the Snake River Land Company.
Through Senate committee hearings, the company was cleared of any illegal activities. However, the matter of the park extension became stuck in a quagmire of public outrage and political gridlock.
That changed in 1943, when Rockefeller wrote a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Having sat on the land for more than 15 years, Rockefeller was now threatening to sell (although his son, Lawrence, would later admit the threat was merely a tactic to get the extension deal done, finally).
Whatever the case may be, the letter worked. A month later, Roosevelt used the power of presidential proclamation to decree 221,000 acres of federal land (including Rockefeller’s property) as the Jackson Hole National Monument, thus effectively protecting the land. In doing so, Roosevelt expended a considerable amount of political clout, vetoing efforts by Congress and the Wyoming delegation to undo the proclamation.
Later, after a series of notable compromises, President Harry S. Truman signed a bill that combined the original 1929 park with Roosevelt’s 1943 monument, thus creating the Grand Teton National Park as we know it today: an attraction that most area residents—including the descendants of those who initially opposed the measure—would likely consider a godsend to both the local economy and the ecology.
A 2001 report by the National Park System Advisory Board, came to the conclusion that “the creation of a national park is an expression of faith in our future.”
As we reflect on 100 years of National Parks, we should delight in the beauty of our American landscape. And, in instances such as Grand Teton National Park, we should also see the beauty in what can be achieved when unlikely allies—the visionaries, concerned citizens, public servants and the so-called 1 percent—work together to accomplish something for the benefit and enjoyment of us all.
To find out more about our National Park Service, including how to download your personal copy of the National Parks Owner’s Guide, research travel and hiking suggestions, and make a donation, go to nationalparks.org.
