11.1 WILDERNESS PRESERVATION IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

    1860 - 1920

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    2. Rationales for Wilderness 
    • End of frontier, 1890 census; F. J. Turner.
    • Wilderness as vanishing national asset.
    • Wilderness as sublime; God's cathedrals.
    • Cities as wilderness; nature as pristine.
    • Wilderness as test zones for masculinity; middle-class life as soft; outdoor movement.
    • Wilderness as aesthetic beauty; pleasure.
    3. Frederick Law Olmsted
    • "The Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Big Trees," 1865.
    • Wilderness as therapy for the mind.
    • Relief from cares of ordinary life.
    • Public parks should be available to the poor.
    • Moral spaces.
    4. Redwood Lumbering
    • Sequoiadendron gigantea. Sierra redwood lumbering.
    5. Redwood loading dock
    • Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwoods.
    • Redwood shipping by schooner in Humboldt County.
    6. Laura White
    • 1897. Founded the California Club in S. F. in wake of abortive suffrage campaign.
    • 1900. Merged into California Federation of Women's Clubs.
    • 1900. Became alarmed over the threat to the Calaveras Big Trees.
    7. Calavaras Big Trees
    • 1900. Laura White initiates campaign to save the Big Trees.
    • Sends photos of trees named after presidents and generals to Congress; personally lobbies members of Congress.
    • Conducts nationwide petition drive: 1 1/2 million signatures.
    • 1909. Bill passed authorizing exchange of lands of equal value.
    8. Appreciation of Redwoods
    • Sequoia sempervirens; Sempervirens Club; Big Basin State Park, 1901. 
    • 1918. Save the Redwoods League formed to save north coast redwoods.
    • 1890. Sequoia National Park created.
    • 1940. King's Canyon National Park.
    • State Parks: Humboldt, Prairie Creek, Jedediah Smith, and Del Norte. Redwoods Highway: U.S. 101. 1968: Redwood National Park.
    9. Railroads and the National Parks
    • 1. Mt. Ranier: Northern Pacific.
    • 2. Glacier: Great Northern.
    • 3. Yellowstone: Union Pacific, Northern Pacific, C.B.&Q.
    • Bryce-Zion: Union Pacific.
    • 7. Grand Canyon: Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe.
    • 8. Yosemite: Southern Pacific.
    • 9. Crater Lake: Southern Pacific.
    10. Thomas Moran, Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone
    • 1869. First expedition.
    • 1870. Washburn expedition.
    • Moran accompanied 1871 USGS Yellowstone survey (Hayden Expedition) at request of Jay Cooke, financier of Northern Pacific R.R.
    • Cooke had right of way for R.R., through Montana, 40 N. of Yellowstone.
    11. Alfred Runte, Trains of Discovery
    • Yellowstone Park idea promoted by A.B. Nettleton on behalf of Jay Cooke of Northern Pacific Railroad.
    • Ferdinand Hayden, U.S. Geological Survey, pushed legislation to create Yellowstone Nat. Park, 1872.
    • 1883, Northern Pacific completes link to Yellowstone.
    • "Madonna of the Rails."
    12. Wonderland by Train, 1897
    • Northern Pacific Railroad's annual Wonderland guidebooks.
    • "Liberty" on back of the American Bald Eagle floats above Yellowstone's Grand Canyon and Lower Falls.
    • 1915: 44,477 arrive by train.
    • Tourists stayed at grand hotels built by railroads.
    13. Wonderland Guide, 1899
    • Brochures advertise bountiful harvests made possible by railroads.
    • Spectacular scenery of American West promotes tourism and settlement.
    • Parks and railroads work together: Old Faithful Inn, 1904, paid for by N. Pacific.
    • Train replaces covered wagon.
    14. The Scenic Northwest Guide
    • "Great Northern, a Dependable Railway."
    • Nature's masterpieces are basis for artwork sold in the east.
    • Ecotourism moves west.
    • Bountiful natural resources of the west await development.
    15. Yosemite National Park
    • James Savage, Mariposa Battalion, 1851; Miwok removal, 1852; first tourists, 1855; Indian land cession, 1857.
    • Yosemite Valley ceded to California, 1864; Yosemite National Park created 1890; Valley receded, 1905.
    • Cathedral rocks mirrored in Merced River; Indian woman with papoose in foreground; Miwok-Paiute culture.
    16. Yosemite Visitors
    • 1855: first tourists enter Yosemite Valley.
    • 1863: 406 visitors via steamboat and stage.
    • 1875: hotels, roads, wagons, supplies for tourists.
    • 1916: 14,251 via R.R.
    • 1918: 26,669 via automobile.
    • 1997: 4.2 million via car.
    17. Sequoia and Flatiron Building
    • Southern Pacific's 1904 adverstisement.
    • Wawona Tunnel Tree, Yosemite National Park’s Mariposa Redwood Grove, carved 1881; toppled in storm, 1969.
    • Claimed to be 400 ft, exceeding New York's Flatiron Building by 114 ft.
    18. John Muir
    • "The Hetch Hetchy Valley," American Forestry, 1910.
    • The Yosemite, 1912.
    • Hetch Hetchy as a people's cathedral.
    • "No holier temple has ever been consecrated by the heart of man."
    19. Muir Instructing the Sierra Club
    • Sierra Club founded, June 4, 1892; Muir 1st president.
    20. Hetch Hetchy Valley Before Dam
    • Kolona Rock, 2300 ft.
    • Valley was 3 1/2 miles long by 1/2 miles wide, "a landscape garden."
    • Tuolumne River.
    • Wapama Fall, 1700 ft.
    • "The sublime rocks of its walls glow with life."
    • "Birds, bees, butterflies stir the air into music."
    21. Hetch Hetchy After the Dam
    • O'Shaughnessy Dam, San Francisco Water and Power.
    22. Thomas Moran, Grand Canyon
    • Purchased by Santa Fe Railroad, 1914.
    23. Grand Canyon from Mojave Point
    • Gunnar Widforss, 1929.
    24. Grand Canyon by Train
    • Restored Grand Canyon Railway and the Old West.
    25. Questions for Discussion
    • Did railroads create the national parks?
    • Is wilderness preserved in the national parks?