The Evolution of Search and Rescue in Yosemite National Park
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations 1-1-2007 Wilderness handrails: The evolution of search and rescue in Yosemite National Park Christopher Edward Johnson University of Nevada, Las Vegas Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/rtds Repository Citation Johnson, Christopher Edward, "Wilderness handrails: The evolution of search and rescue in Yosemite National Park" (2007). UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations. 2174. http://dx.doi.org/10.25669/jqpk-bhrs This Thesis is protected by copyright and/or related rights. It has been brought to you by Digital Scholarship@UNLV with permission from the rights-holder(s). You are free to use this Thesis in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s) directly, unless additional rights are indicated by a Creative Commons license in the record and/ or on the work itself. This Thesis has been accepted for inclusion in UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Digital Scholarship@UNLV. For more information, please contact [email protected]. WILDERNESS HANDRAILS: THE EVOLUTION OF SEARCH AND RESCUE IN YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK by Christopher Edward Johnson Bachelor of Arts California State University, Sacramento 2003 A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Arts in History Department of History College of Liberal Arts Graduate College University of Nevada, Las Vegas August 2007 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UMI Number: 1448406 Copyright 2007 by Johnson, Christopher Edward All rights reserved. INFORMATION TO USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleed-through, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. UMI UMI Microform 1448406 Copyright 2007 by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest Information and Learning Company 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Copyright by Christopher Edward Johnson 2007 All Rights Reserved Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Thesis Approval The Graduate College University of Nevada, Las Vegas June 29, 20^^ The Thesis prepared by Christopher E. Johnson Entitled Wilderness Handrails: The Evolution of Search and Rescue In Yosemite National Park is approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in History Examination Committee Chair Dean of the Graduate College xamination Committee Member Examination CommitJree Memie\ raduâiê (tmege Faculty Representative PR/1017-53/1-00 11 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ABSTRACT Wilderness Handrails: The Evolution of Search and Rescue in Yosemite National Park by Christopher Edward Johnson Dr. Andrew Kirk, Examination Committee Chair Professor of History University of Nevada, Las Vegas The evolution of seareh and reseue in Yosemite after World War II highlighted the ways in whieh park users and administrators negotiated the contentious discourses of teehnology, tourism, and wilderness in the modem national parks movement. The establishment of a teehnologieally sophistieated seareh and rescue force provided free by the federal government blurred the lines between preservation and use in national park policy by allowing administrators to resist development and support wilderness while still providing a safe environment for recreation. The co-evolution of rock climbing and rescue also illuminated the resulting tensions between individual freedom, social responsibility, and class in environmental culture. Drawing from incident reports, administrative correspondence, and climbing literature, this thesis demonstrates that the professionalization of search and rescue enabled the Park Service to accommodate visitors seeking to both preserve nature and consume it through rock climbing and other wilderness activities in the nation’s premier national park. Ill Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This project could not have been completed without the dedication, advice, and patience of others. I am especially grateful to my wife Tomoko who supported me through the long nights and numerous ups and downs of the past two years. The constant encouragement of my mother, my father, and my sister Erin also carried me through the difficult process of researching and writing this thesis. I discovered the often overlooked story of search and rescue in Yosemite in June 2006 while conducting research in the park for a forthcoming administrative history. I am indebted to Andrew Kirk, the chair of my advisory committee at UNLV, for giving me the opportunity to work on this project. I am also grateful to Dr. Kirk for his many close readings of my work and for our frequent discussions of the complicated intersections between technology, consumer culture, and environmentalism in the history of rock climbing and recreation in the national parks. I am extremely thankful for the dedication of my advisory committee members Elizabeth White Nelson, Sue Fawn Chung, and Timothy Famham in guiding me through the ins and outs of undertaking a Masters thesis. My fellow graduate students have also been with me every step of the way. I want to thank Leisl Childers, Christian Harrison, Amy Miller, Susan Becker, and all my classmates at UNLV who contributed thoughtful criticisms as this project developed. Thank you especially to Mike Childers who read numerous drafts and delighted in critiquing them with brutal honesty. Many of the IV Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. arguments in this thesis in fact grew out conversations with Mike as we traversed the Yosemite region on tortuous twenty-mile day hikes. I want to thank Linda Bade at the Yosemite library and Paul Rogers at the archives in El Portal for their invaluable assistance in locating source materials. I also appreciate the efforts of Nikki Nichols and Charles Palmer who offered advice and supervised my work on the Yosemite administrative history. Thank you to Butch Farabee whose tireless research and personal insight helped me to understand the complicated political and legal issues facing rescuers in the national parks today. I am especially grateful to John Dill at YOSAR who allowed me access to long-hidden source material and shared his unequaled knowledge of the history of search and rescue in the park. Finally, I dedicate this thesis to Hal Rothman, my advisor at UNLV through the first year and a half of my graduate education. His insight and uncanny ability to pick out the critical ideas in my writing shaped my understanding of environmental history and the significance of the national parks in twentieth and twenty first century American history. Hal’s unbounded enthusiasm for his work, for his students, and for life in general has been a constant source of inspiration in completing this project and will continue to inspire me as I move forward in my graduate school career. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT.............................................................................................................................iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS....................................................................................................iv INTRODUCTION....................................................................................................................1 CHAPTER 1 THE ORIGINS OF VISITOR PROTECTION.........................................24 CHAPTER 2 ROCK CLIMBING AND RESCUE........................................................ 55 CHAPTER 3 CAMP 4 AND SAR CULTURE.............................................................. 94 CHAPTER 4 WHO PAYS?............................................................................................ 138 CONCLUSION.....................................................................................................................181 BIBLIOGRAPHY.................................................................................................................193 VITA..................................................................................................................................... 205 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. INTRODUCTION Let them take risks, for Godsake, let them get lost, sunburnt, stranded, drowned, eaten by bears, buried alive under avalanches - that is the right and privilege of any free American. Edward Abbey, Desert Solitaire, 1968 Today rescue in America is pragmatic. It is a classic