DOCSLIB.ORG

LITERARY NONFICTION and the NATIONAL PARK MOVEMENT, 1864-PRESENT Lindsay Dunne

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
LITERARY NONFICTION and the NATIONAL PARK MOVEMENT, 1864-PRESENT Lindsay Dunne 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,
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Women's Experimental Autobiography from Counterculture Comics to Transmedia Storytelling: Staging Encounters Across Time, Space, and Medium
    Women's Experimental Autobiography from Counterculture Comics to Transmedia Storytelling: Staging Encounters Across Time, Space, and Medium Dissertation Presented in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of Ohio State University Alexandra Mary Jenkins, M.A. Graduate Program in English The Ohio State University 2014 Dissertation Committee: Jared Gardner, Advisor Sean O’Sullivan Robyn Warhol Copyright by Alexandra Mary Jenkins 2014 Abstract Feminist activism in the United States and Europe during the 1960s and 1970s harnessed radical social thought and used innovative expressive forms in order to disrupt the “grand perspective” espoused by men in every field (Adorno 206). Feminist student activists often put their own female bodies on display to disrupt the disembodied “objective” thinking that still seemed to dominate the academy. The philosopher Theodor Adorno responded to one such action, the “bared breasts incident,” carried out by his radical students in Germany in 1969, in an essay, “Marginalia to Theory and Praxis.” In that essay, he defends himself against the students’ claim that he proved his lack of relevance to contemporary students when he failed to respond to the spectacle of their liberated bodies. He acknowledged that the protest movements seemed to offer thoughtful people a way “out of their self-isolation,” but ultimately, to replace philosophy with bodily spectacle would mean to miss the “infinitely progressive aspect of the separation of theory and praxis” (259, 266). Lisa Yun Lee argues that this separation continues to animate contemporary feminist debates, and that it is worth returning to Adorno’s reasoning, if we wish to understand women’s particular modes of theoretical ii insight in conversation with “grand perspectives” on cultural theory in the twenty-first century.
    [Show full text]
  • Books Added to the Collection: July 2014
    Books Added to the Collection: July 2014 - August 2016 *To search for items, please press Ctrl + F and enter the title in the search box at the top right hand corner or at the bottom of the screen. LEGEND : BK - Book; AL - Adult Library; YPL - Children Library; AV - Audiobooks; FIC - Fiction; ANF - Adult Non-Fiction; Bio - Biography/Autobiography; ER - Early Reader; CFIC - Picture Books; CC - Chapter Books; TOD - Toddlers; COO - Cookbook; JFIC - Junior Fiction; JNF - Junior Non Fiction; POE -Children's Poetry; TRA - Travel Guide Type Location Collection Call No Title AV AL ANF CD 153.3 GIL Big magic : Creative living / Elizabeth Gilbert. AV AL ANF CD 153.3 GRA Originals : How non-conformists move the world / Adam Grant. Irrationally yours : On missing socks, pick up lines, and other existential puzzles / Dan AV AL ANF CD 153.4 ARI Ariely. Think like a freak : The authors of Freakonomics offer to retrain your brain /Steven D. AV AL ANF CD 153.43 LEV Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner. AV AL ANF CD 153.8 DWE Mindset : The new psychology of success / Carol S. Dweck. The geography of genius : A search for the world's most creative places, from Ancient AV AL ANF CD 153.98 WEI Athens to Silicon Valley / Eric Weiner. AV AL ANF CD 158 BRO Rising strong / Brene Brown. AV AL ANF CD 158 DUH Smarter faster better : The secrets of prodctivity in life and business / Charles Duhigg. AV AL ANF CD 158.1 URY Getting to yes with yourself and other worthy opponents / William Ury. 10% happier : How I tamed the voice in my head, reduced stress without losing my edge, AV AL ANF CD 158.12 HAR and found self-help that actually works - a true story / Dan Harris.
    [Show full text]
  • Mechanisms and Rate of Emplacement of the Half Dome Granodiorite
    Mechanisms and rate of emplacement of the Half Dome Granodiorite Kyle J. Krajewski Chapel Hill 2019 Approved by: Allen F. Glazner Introduction Continental crust is largely composed of high-silica intrusive rocks such as granite, and understanding the mechanisms of granitic pluton emplacement is essential for understanding the formation of continental crust. With its incredible exposure, few places are comparable to the Tuolumne Intrusive Suite (TIS) in Yosemite National Park for studying these mechanisms. The TIS is interpreted as a comagmatic assemblage of concentric intrusions (Bateman and Dodge, 1970). The silica contents of the plutons increase from the margins inwards, transitioning from tonalities to granites, through both abrupt and gradational boundaries (Bateman and Chappell, 1979; Fig. 1). The age of the TIS also has a distinct trend, with the oldest rocks cropping out at the margins and the youngest toward the center. To accommodate this time variation, the TIS is hypothesized to have formed from multiple pulses of magma (Bateman and Chappell, 1979) . Understanding the volume, timing, and interaction of these pulses with one another has led to the formation of three main hypotheses to explain the evolution of the TIS. Figure 1. Simplified geologic map of the TIS. Insets of rocks on the right illustrate petrographic variation through the suite. Bateman and Chappell (1979) hypothesized that as the suite cooled, it solidified from the margins inward. Solidification of the chamber was prolonged by additional pulses of magma. These pulses expanded the chamber through erosion of the wall rock and breaking through the overlying carapace, creating a ballooning magma chamber.
    [Show full text]
  • THE YOSEMITE by John Muir CHAPTER I The
    THE YOSEMITE By John Muir CHAPTER I The Approach to the Valley When I set out on the long excursion that finally led to California I wandered afoot and alone, from Indiana to the Gulf of Mexico, with a plant-press on my back, holding a generally southward course, like the birds when they are going from summer to winter. From the west coast of Florida I crossed the gulf to Cuba, enjoyed the rich tropical flora there for a few months, intending to go thence to the north end of South America, make my way through the woods to the headwaters of the Amazon, and float down that grand river to the ocean. But I was unable to find a ship bound for South America--fortunately perhaps, for I had incredibly little money for so long a trip and had not yet fully recovered from a fever caught in the Florida swamps. Therefore I decided to visit California for a year or two to see its wonderful flora and the famous Yosemite Valley. All the world was before me and every day was a holiday, so it did not seem important to which one of the world's wildernesses I first should wander. Arriving by the Panama steamer, I stopped one day in San Francisco and then inquired for the nearest way out of town. "But where do you want to go?" asked the man to whom I had applied for this important information. "To any place that is wild," I said. This reply startled him. He seemed to fear I might be crazy and therefore the sooner I was out of town the better, so he directed me to the Oakland ferry.
    [Show full text]
  • UC Santa Barbara UC Santa Barbara Electronic Theses and Dissertations
    UC Santa Barbara UC Santa Barbara Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Loss, Rumination, and Narrative: Chicana/o Melancholy as Generative State Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3w20960q Author Baca, Michelle Patricia Publication Date 2014 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Santa Barbara Loss, Rumination, and Narrative: Chicana/o Melancholy as Generative State A Dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Chicana and Chicano Studies by Michelle Patricia Baca Committee in Charge: Professor Francisco Lomelí, Chair Professor María Herrera-Sobek Professor Carl Gutierrez-Jones December 2014 The dissertation of Michelle Patricia Baca is approved. María Herrera-Sobek Carl Gutierrez Jones Francisco Lomelí, Chair December 2014 Loss, Rumination, and Narrative: Chicana/o Melancholy as Generative State Copyright © 2014 by Michelle Patricia Baca iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation is dedicated to the loving tribe that is comprised of my family, friends, teachers, and colleagues. Thanks to this bunch I’ve been blessed with love, support, and the complete confidence that I could do anything I set my mind to. Thank you to my parents, Mama and Dad I wouldn’t be who I am without you. I wouldn’t be where I am without you. Thank you to Joe, the best brother in the world. Thank you to my teachers, all of them ever. Thank you to my colleagues and friends. Thank you for inspiring me, challenging me, and supporting me. Thank you to Justin, my partner in life and love. Thank you for bearing with me, and being proud of me.
    [Show full text]
  • Nevada Fall Corridor
    NEVADA FALL CORRIDOR: A CULTURAL LANDSCAPE REPORT by MARTI M. GERDES A THESIS Presented to the Interdisciplinary Studies Program: Historic Preservation and the Graduate School of the University of Oregon in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science August 2004 ii "Nevada Fall Corridor: A Cultural Landscape Report," a thesis prepared by Marti M. Gerdes in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Science degree in the Interdisciplinary Studies Program: Historic Preservation. This thesis has been approved and accepted by: Robert Z. Melnick, Chair of the Examining Committee 2 Date Committee in Charge: Robert Z. Melnick, Chair Cathy Gilbert Lee Roth Fred Walters Accepted by: Dean of the Graduate School iii C 2004 Marti M. Gerdes iv An Abstract of the Thesis of Marti M. Gerdes for the degree of Master of Science in the Interdisciplinary Studies Program: Historic Preservation to be taken August 2004 Title: NEVADA FALL CORRIDOR: A CULTURAL LANDSCAPE REPORT Approved: Robert Z. Melnick This study describes existing conditions, evaluates significance and historic integrity, and recommends treatment strategies to preserve historic elements of the Nevada Fall Corridor cultural landscape in Yosemite National Park. It reports findings from field investigation that examined and inventoried landscape features such as stone retaining walls, treadway material, bridges and causeways, and water features on both current-use and abandoned trail segments. The site was examined numerous times over a three-month period, with a followup visit one year later. Libraries and other archives were consulted for written and photographic historic documentation, which were analyzed against current conditions.
    [Show full text]
  • Ley, So the Still Deeper Cañon of Lower Two Miles,That Is, Beyond Rather Than
    THE CANON OF YOSEMITE 87 As Merced Cañon forms the southeast branch of Yosemite Val- ley, so the still deeper cañon of Tenaya Creek isits northeastern arm.Here the glacial story is less plain, and on first sight, from the heights on either side, it might be overlooked.For above the cañon's lower two miles,that is, beyond the foot of Mt. Watkins,it crowds to a narrow box-cañon between that great cliff and the steep incline of Clouds Rest.This might seem to be a V-shaped, stream-cut gorge, rather than to have the broader bottom commonly left by a glacier. But alittle exploration discovers glacial footprints in the terminal moraines and the lakes and filled lake-beds,withfineconnecting waterfalls, that mark aglacier's descent from the Cathedral Peak Range, south of the Tuolumne. We Overhung at Summit of the Half Dont,-. nrart have hardly entered the cañon, in- a tulle above the Valley floor nn.l Tena-u deed, before we are reminded of (allan.El Caption Is seen in the tllatanee. El Capitan moraine and the enclosed Yosemite Lake. A similar boulder ridge, thrown across the cañon here, is traversed by the road as it carries visitors on their early morning trips to see the sunrise reflections in Mirror Lake.This lakelet evidently occupies the lowermost of the glacial steps.It is a mere reminder of its former size, the delta of Tenaya Creek having stolen a mile from its upper end.Farther up the cañon, below and above Mt. Watkins, stream sediment has already turned similar lakes into meadows.
    [Show full text]
  • True Conservative Or Enemy of the Base?
    Paul Ryan: True Conservative or Enemy of the Base? An analysis of the Relationship between the Tea Party and the GOP Elmar Frederik van Holten (s0951269) Master Thesis: North American Studies Supervisor: Dr. E.F. van de Bilt Word Count: 53.529 September January 31, 2017. 1 You created this PDF from an application that is not licensed to print to novaPDF printer (http://www.novapdf.com) Page intentionally left blank 2 You created this PDF from an application that is not licensed to print to novaPDF printer (http://www.novapdf.com) Table of Content Table of Content ………………………………………………………………………... p. 3 List of Abbreviations……………………………………………………………………. p. 5 Chapter 1: Introduction…………………………………………………………..... p. 6 Chapter 2: The Rise of the Conservative Movement……………………….. p. 16 Introduction……………………………………………………………………… p. 16 Ayn Rand, William F. Buckley and Barry Goldwater: The Reinvention of Conservatism…………………………………………….... p. 17 Nixon and the Silent Majority………………………………………………….. p. 21 Reagan’s Conservative Coalition………………………………………………. p. 22 Post-Reagan Reaganism: The Presidency of George H.W. Bush……………. p. 25 Clinton and the Gingrich Revolutionaries…………………………………….. p. 28 Chapter 3: The Early Years of a Rising Star..................................................... p. 34 Introduction……………………………………………………………………… p. 34 A Moderate District Electing a True Conservative…………………………… p. 35 Ryan’s First Year in Congress…………………………………………………. p. 38 The Rise of Compassionate Conservatism…………………………………….. p. 41 Domestic Politics under a Foreign Policy Administration……………………. p. 45 The Conservative Dream of a Tax Code Overhaul…………………………… p. 46 Privatizing Entitlements: The Fight over Welfare Reform…………………... p. 52 Leaving Office…………………………………………………………………… p. 57 Chapter 4: Understanding the Tea Party……………………………………… p. 58 Introduction……………………………………………………………………… p. 58 A three legged movement: Grassroots Tea Party organizations……………... p. 59 The Movement’s Deep Story…………………………………………………… p.
    [Show full text]
  • Yosemite Valley Visitor Center
    k e k e e r e C r Upper C n Yosemite o h y c r Fall n k A a e C e l r Yosemite Point a n C 6936ft y a Lower o 2114m i North Dome e d R t 7525ft i Yosemite n I 2294m m Fall e s ek o re Y U.S. Yosemite Valley Visitor Center C ya Court a Wilderness Center n e Museum Royal Arch T Lower Yosemite Medical Clinic Cascade Fall Trail Washington Columbia YOSEMITE Column Mirror Rock VILLAGE ROYAL Eagle Lake T ARCHES 4094ft Peak H 1248m 7779ft R The Ahwahnee Half Dome 2371m Sentinel Visitor E 8836ft Bridge Parking E North 2693m B Housekeeping Pines Camp 4 R Yosemite Camp Lower O Lodge Pines Chapel Stoneman T Bridge Middle H LeConte Brother E Memorial Road open ONLY to R Lodge pedestrians, bicycles, Ribbon S Visitor Parking and vehicles with Fall Swinging Bridge Curry Village Upper wheelchair emblem Pines Lower placards Sentinel Little Yosemite Valley El Capitan Brother Beach Trailhead for Moran 7569ft Four Mile Trail (summer only) R Point Staircase Mt Broderick i 2307m Trailhead 6706ft 6100 ft b Falls Horse Tail Parking 1859m b 2044m o Fall Trailhead for Vernal n Fall, Nevada Fall, and Glacier Point El Capitan Vernal C 7214 ft Nature Center John Muir Trail r S e e 2199 m at Happy Isles Fall Liberty Cap e n r k t 5044ft 7076ft ve i 4035ft Grizzly Emerald Ri n rced e 1230m 1538m 2157m Me l Peak Pool Silver C Northside Drive ive re Sentinel Apron Dr e North one-way Cathedral k El Capitan e Falls 0 0.5 Kilometer id To Tioga Road, Tuolumne Meadows Bridge Beach hs y ed R ut a y J and Hwy 120; and Hetch Hetchy Merc iv So -w horse trail onl o 0 0.5 Mile er
    [Show full text]
  • Inventing Yosemite Valley: National Parks and the Language of Preservation
    Inventing Yosemite Valley: National Parks and the Language of Preservation Yves Figueiredo ne of the intriguing facts about the giant sequoia has nothing to do with either its size or antiquity, but rather with its name. The species set a record for the number and variety of scientific denominations Oattributed to it by botanists around the world and it took no fewer than thir- teen different designations before Sequoiadendron giganteum was generally ac- cepted. In particular, this debate occasioned a bitter confrontation between British and American botanists. When it became clear that the existence of the tree was not another tall tale from the West, the English adopted in 1853 the term Wellingtonia gigantea to honor the memory of the Duke of Wellington. It would be a mild understatement to say that the Americans did not approve of the choice of an Old World statesman to name a New World wonder and they promptly retorted with Washingtonia gigantea. The current name was fi- nally agreed on when it became apparent that the tree was a cousin of the Coast Redwood Sequoia sempervirens.1 The sheer fact that such a heated debate could have happened over such a seemingly insignificant and rather technical matter shows that the real focus was not so much on the trees themselves as on what they stood for, and on the cultural role that they were to play in the post-Civil War United States. However, even more telling perhaps is the name by which the trees were most commonly designated by the public while the debate was raging in the higher spheres of scientific societies worldwide: sequoias were for every- body the “Big Trees” or “Mammoth Trees.” These names convey images of grandeur, of sheer size, and reveal the perception of the sequoia as above all a monument of nature.
    [Show full text]
  • Wickman Pnw-Gtr-638
    GENERAL TECHNICAL REPORT PNW-GTR-638 een, PNW K P. F. Figure 63—Forest Service Chief Colonel Greeley (far right) with entourage at the SONC Project, 1923. (Left to right) J.F. Kimball, Hal H. Ogle, A.J. Jaenicke, S.R. Black, George Cecil, Gilbert D. Brown, W.J. Rankin, J.M. Miller, E.E. Carter, Colonel William B. Greeley. I feel that I am not saying much that is new to Arizona, then another train to the south rim, horseback or all of you. From reading your News Letters during walking down to the Colorado River at Phantom Ranch, the past summer I have been greatly impressed then up the trail to Bright Angel and the north rim. Miller with the excellent manner in which you all are undertaking your various investigations. I look for- chose the latter route. He walked down to the Phantom ward to meeting you all at the conference this fall Ranch where horses awaited to ride to Bright Angel. On and to a thorough discussion of our policy for the the return trip he reversed the mode of transport. He said it future. – F.C. Craighead. was an interesting trip, but he would not care to repeat it. For the remainder of 1923, Miller was headquartered in In the fall he spent time on the SONC project with North Fork but was there only intermittently. He continued Keen and Kimball helping to smooth operational problems. his field work on the San Joaquin Project; in May he was Miller had been a football fan since his student days at on a demonstration trip to the SONC project (fig.
    [Show full text]
  • Devils Postpile and the Mammoth Lakes Sierra Devils Postpile Formation and Talus
    Nature and History on the Sierra Crest: Devils Postpile and the Mammoth Lakes Sierra Devils Postpile formation and talus. (Devils Postpile National Monument Image Collection) Nature and History on the Sierra Crest Devils Postpile and the Mammoth Lakes Sierra Christopher E. Johnson Historian, PWRO–Seattle National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior 2013 Production Project Manager Paul C. Anagnostopoulos Copyeditor Heather Miller Composition Windfall Software Photographs Credit given with each caption Printer Government Printing Office Published by the United States National Park Service, Pacific West Regional Office, Seattle, Washington. Printed on acid-free paper. Printed in the United States of America. 10987654321 As the Nation’s principal conservation agency, the Department of the Interior has responsibility for most of our nationally owned public lands and natural and cultural resources. This includes fostering sound use of our land and water resources; protecting our fish, wildlife, and biological diversity; preserving the environmental and cultural values of our national parks and historical places; and providing for the enjoyment of life through outdoor recreation. The Department assesses our energy and mineral resources and works to ensure that their development is in the best interests of all our people by encouraging stewardship and citizen participation in their care. The Department also has a major responsibility for American Indian reservation communities and for people who live in island territories under U.S. administration.
    [Show full text]