Abstract Title of Dissertation: DEFINING PLACES: LITERARY NONFICTION AND THE NATIONAL PARK MOVEMENT, 1864-PRESENT Lindsay Dunne Jacoby, Doctor of Philosophy, 2014 Dissertation directed by: Professor Jeanne Fahnestock and Professor Scott Wible Department of English The canon of American “Nature writing” has long been recognized for its influence on environmental policy, but the role of specific works in shaping environmental discourse and altering material circumstances has yet to be fully understood, especially from a rhetorical perspective. In response, this dissertation explores how works of Nature writing have functioned as persuasive arguments of definition within the National Park movement. It analyzes how literary nonfiction texts promoted a public understanding of specific landscapes and redefined them as worthy of preservation. The idea of rhetorical ecology underlies this analysis: rather than relying on the commonplace idea that a single author writing a single text can influence an environmental policy, the dissertation traces how a work of literary nonfiction operates within a complex system of texts, writers, readers, institutions, objects, and history. The four main case studies demonstrate how new definitions of place have emerged through works of literary nonfiction, each acting in relationship to a larger campaign that led to the preservation of an American landscape as a National Park: Yosemite, Great Smoky Mountains, Everglades, and Voyageurs. In these landmark campaigns, a prominent work of Nature writing, by a prominent author like John Muir, Horace Kephart, Marjory Stoneman Douglas, and Sigurd Olson, built upon and contributed to a definitional discourse that enabled people to see a specific landscape differently than it had been seen before. These cases also indicate that, as a landscape changes, the available means of persuasion change, too. Each chapter explores the lines of argument that can be emphasized by rhetors when the place in question defies traditional notions of beauty, grandeur, and purity. Campaigners can rely more or less on aesthetic, economic, scientific, historical, or recreational arguments, depending on the nature of the landscape itself and the rhetorical situation of the campaign. Finally, the last chapter explores the ongoing campaign for a Buffalo Commons National Park on the Great Plains. It follows a recent park debate as it evolves into a discourse of sustainability, and demonstrates how contemporary discussions about sustainable actions are inflected with the discourse of historical campaigns for preservation. DEFINING PLACES: LITERARY NONFICTION AND THE NATIONAL PARK MOVEMENT, 1864-PRESENT by Lindsay Dunne Jacoby Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2014 Advisory Committee: Professor Jeanne Fahnestock, Chair Professor Scott Wible Professor Jessica Enoch Professor Vessela Valiavitcharska © Copyright by Lindsay Dunne Jacoby 2014 ii Acknowledgements The completion of this dissertation, like each phase of my academic growth, would have been impossible without the help of the exceptional mentors on my committee. I wish to thank Professor Vessela Valiavitcharska, who has been an encouraging presence throughout my graduate schooling. I also wish to thank Professor Jessica Enoch, who has been an enthusiastic mentor for my work in the Academic Writing Program and a gracious supporter of this project in its final stages. I am also grateful to Professor Scott Wible for his co-direction of this project, especially for our ongoing conversations about my writing. Most importantly, I am indebted to Professor Jeanne Fahnestock for her mentorship over the past six years. She has read every word I have written; she has shared insights from her vast storehouse of knowledge; and she has never ceased to believe in the goodness of this work or my ability to carry it out. One of the most exciting pieces of this project, in addition to the opportunity to read beautiful works of literary nonfiction, has been delving into the archives of each park campaign. This process of discovery was greatly supported by archivists in each region I visited. I wish to thank the staff of the University of North Carolina-Asheville Special Collections and George Frizzell of Western Carolina University Special Collections, for their assistance in identifying relevant materials from the Great Smoky Mountains campaign. Nancy Korber at the David Fairchild Botanical Garden and Archive in Coral Gables, Florida, was especially knowledgeable and energetic in assisting me with materials regarding the Everglades campaign. The staff of the Minnesota Historical iii Society Library in St. Paul was superb in every aspect of their assistance with materials about Sigurd Olson and the Voyageurs National Park Association. I also wish to thank the University of Maryland Department of English for supporting my archival work with a QCB Travel Award in 2012. I am very glad to have found an intelligent and generous cohort of graduate colleagues at the University of Maryland, especially Martin Camper, Heather Lindenman, Andy Black, and Maria Gigante, who contributed to the development of this project through our writing group in the Spring and Summer of 2012. I am also grateful to my family and close friends for their prayers and enthusiasm throughout my work on this dissertation, as well as for all the National Park magnets, postcards, and pictures they have sent and the awesome ranger hat from Joyana and Dave Dvorak. I am especially grateful to my parents, Robert and Deborah Dunne, for their emotional and practical support in so many ways. They were preparing me for my chosen path long before I had identified it, with family room read-alouds, homework help, and oh yeah, that college education! Finally, and above all, I thank God every day for my husband Tobias, for his unflagging love and support, for listening to my ideas over many dinner conversations, for keeping our household running when I’m writing, and for never ceasing to affirm and encourage me. It takes a village indeed! iv Table of Contents Chapter 1 The Yosemite Valley: Preserving an Aesthetic 1 Theoretical Foundations 7 The National Parks 8 Literary Nonfiction about the Environment 15 Rhetorical Ecologies 20 Definitional Discourses 24 Defining Yosemite Valley 29 Monumental Yosemite 30 The Campaign for Yosemite National Park 40 Picturesque California 44 Muir’s Century Magazine Articles 51 Preserving Monumental Scenery 56 Rhetorical Ecologies of the National Park Movement 59 Chapter 2 The Great Smoky Mountains: Preserving a Resource 65 Defining Appalachia 70 Local Color Writing: A Strange Land and a Peculiar People 75 Margaret Morley: A Southern Appalachia 78 Horace Kephart: An American Appalachia 84 The Campaign for the Great Smoky Mountains National Park 96 A National Park in the East 97 A National Park as an Economic Resource 103 The Fate of the Mountaineers 111 The Legacy of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park Campaign 116 Chapter 3 The Everglades: Preserving an Ecosystem 119 Defining the Everglades 123 The Mysterious Godforsaken Swamp 126 Reclaiming the Swamp 132 Disruptive Definitions 136 The Emergence of the Ecological Everglades 140 v The Campaign for Everglades National Park 147 Proposing an Ecological Park 150 Re-educating the Public 157 Re-valuing the Everglades 163 The Everglades: River of Grass 170 The Rivers of America 172 The Capstone of a Discourse 175 The Legacy of the Everglades National Park Campaign 186 Chapter 4 The Boundary Waters: Preserving an Experience 193 Defining the Boundary Waters 200 Early Definitions: The Frontier Wilderness 202 The Quetico-Superior: The Nostalgic Frontier Wilderness 208 The Quetico-Superior Writers 213 Sigurd Olson: The Essential Quetico-Superior Writer 220 The Singing Wilderness: Or, the Recreational Wilderness 224 The Campaign for Voyageurs National Park 235 Preserving the Voyaguers Highway 236 The Voyageurs National Park Association 241 Promoting the Recreational Wilderness 249 The Legacy of the Voyageurs National Park Campaign 257 Chapter 5 The Buffalo Commons: Adapting the Language of Preservation 262 The Great Plains: Creating a Buffalo Commons 267 The Poppers: From Dust to Dust 271 Defining the Great Plains: The Desert and the Garden 276 Redefining the Great Plains: The Shortgrass Prairie 283 Promoting the Buffalo Commons: From Preservation to Sustainability 287 Learning from Literary Nonfiction and the National Parks 301 Appendix A: National Park System Chronology 313 Glossary of Terms Related to the National Park Movement 317 Works Cited 319 Jacoby 1 Chapter 1 The Yosemite Valley: Preserving an Aesthetic High in the Sierra Mountains of northern California lies the Yosemite Valley, carved from granite rock by the motions of ancient glaciers. Only seven miles long and just a mile across at its widest point, the Valley is nearly one mile deep and surrounded by stunning geologic formations that are now among America’s most known sights: El Capitan, Three Brothers, Cathedral Rock, Cathedral Spires, Half Dome, Royal Arches, North Dome, Glacier Point. Yosemite Falls and Bridalveil Falls spill from these geologic heights, engorged in the spring with snow melting from the Sierra peaks. The Merced River winds peacefully across the valley floor. The naturalist and writer John Muir believed that “no temple made with hands can compare with Yosemite” (Treasures 484). To him,