A PUBLICATION OF THE FOREST HISTORY SOCIETY SPRING 2017 VOL. 23, NO. 1 SPECIAL ISSUE NATIONAL PARK SERVICE CENTENNIAL MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT In Recognition of the Centennial of Our National Parks STEVEN ANDERSON n 1946, when the Forest History Society began, of the Cultural Resources Program for the Pacific collection and interpretation of materials West Region (2009–2013); and Nora Mitchell, I about the national parks was incidental to pre- Director of the National Park Service Conser - serving records of the forest products industry and vation Study Institute (1999–2005). Donald the federal agency tasked with ensuring a timber Stevens, Chief of History and National Register supply, the Forest Service. The Society’s focus on Programs for the Midwest Region (2013–present) working forests and forest products naturally led was instrumental in making possible the issue to a strong relationship with this agency. you are reading today. The National Park Service, on the other hand, In 1996, the Society’s journal merged with that initially presented fewer opportunities. Its mission, of the American Society of Environmental History as defined in its organic act, was “to conserve the to become Environmental History. Articles related scenery and the natural and historic objects and to national parks continued to be periodically pub- the wild life therein and to provide for the enjoy- lished, notably Rolf Diamant’s “Reflections on ment of the same in such manner…as will leave Environmental History with a Human Face: them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future Experiences from a New National Park” (2003). generations.” To interpret those “natural and historic objects” Diamant, then the superintendent of Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller for the public’s enjoyment, in 2000 I estimated the Park Service National Historical Park in Woodstock, Vermont, aimed to provoke employed some 180 historians, whereas the Forest Service, even reflection on the management of historic places and the challenge at its height in the 1970s and 1980s, never had more than five at of making them exciting, relevant centers of learning. He has con- the national office. That number dropped to only one full-time tributed a thought-provoking article to this issue as well. historian by the end of the century. The Park Service simply had National parks have also been highlighted in the Society’s mem- less need of the Forest History Society’s services. bership magazine, Forest History Today. In 2007, the magazine Although interactions evolved more slowly with the Park reprinted a column by historian Hal Rothman (the first editor of Service, the Society nevertheless has long had interest in docu- Environmental History and author of numerous Park Service– menting the national parks and the National Park Service itself. focused histories), titled “Why the Nation Needs National Parks.” In 1959, two years after launching the Forest History Newsletter, The magazine has explored other Park Service–related topics, the Society published an article about the Park Service’s archival publishing pieces on wildfire and the wildland-urban interface, collections on lumbering in the Great Smoky Mountains National the national parks and road construction, and individual parks— Park. After the newsletter became the Journal of Forest History, Grand Canyon, Great Smoky Mountains, and Haleakala. scholarly articles included “The Army and the National Parks” Since the 1950s the Forest History Society has conducted more (1966), “Mount Rainier National Park: First Years” (1966), and than 300 oral histories of workers and leaders in forestry and con- “The National Park Service and the First World War” (1978). servation, some of whom have addressed the national parks and In 1990, the aligned interests of the Park Service and the Society National Park Service administration. Our historic photograph were made explicit in a special issue of the journal, by then called collection has numerous images from the national parks, including Forest & Conservation History. The issue explored how public and the first photograph of Yosemite, taken in 1855. Ken Burns used private interests have overlapped from the earliest days of the our images in his documentary The National Parks: America’s Best national park system, including the challenge of managing con- Idea. Before-and-after images of several national parks can be cessions in the parks, a concern the Park Service continues to found in our new Repeat Photography portal, at www.repeat- grapple with today. The clash of values between protecting photography.org. scenery and managing tourist access explored in the 1990 special Photos are not the only searchable items in our online databases, issue would be a central theme in future scholarship. of course. A recent search on the phrase “national parks” yielded By that time, the Forest History Society had formalized its references to 632 books, 943 articles, 133 dissertations and theses, ongoing relationship with the Park Service by electing agency and 378 archival collections. More than 50 collections housed in professionals to its board of directors. Since 1988, there has been the Society’s archives have information related to the national parks. nearly continuous Park Service representation on the Society’s This special issue of Forest History Today is another way the board. Directors included Park Service historians Barry Forest History Society can help diverse audiences learn about the Mackintosh (1988–1991), Richard Sellars (1993–1999), and Janet national parks and our most treasured landscapes. We are proud McDonnell (2005–2006). Others who have served include John to provide this collection of articles in recognition of the National Dennis, Deputy Chief Scientist (2006–2009); David Louter, Chief Park Service’s centennial in 2016. contents spring 2017 Forest 12 35 History Today 28 A PUBLICATION OF THE FOREST HISTORY SOCIETY DURHAM, NC FEATURES Vol. 23, No. 1 3 Beyond the Campfire: A Founding Narrative for a Spring 2017 Published August 2017 Twenty-First Century National Park System ROLF DIAMANT 12 Vignettes of Primitive America: The Leopold Report and Fire Policy STEPHEN J. PYNE 19 The National Park Service Goes to the Beach JACKIE M. M. GONZALES 28 The Stoneman Meadow Riots and Law Enforcement 3 in Yosemite National Park MICHAEL CHILDERS EDITOR 35 The “National Playground Service” James G. Lewis and the Devils Hole Pupfish EDITORIAL CONSULTANTS KEVIN C. BROWN Sally Atwater and Dianne Timblin 41 Forests and Fields: Reconsidering the Rural CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Landscape in Cuyahoga Valley National Park Andrea Anderson, WILLIAM M. HUNTER Steven Anderson, Janet Askew, 50 The Maine Chance: Private-Public Partnership and Valerie Bass, Barbara Cushing, the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument Jason Howard, and Eben Lehman 19 CHAR MILLER DESIGN 57 The Trouble with Climate Change and National Parks Zubigraphics MARK CAREY Forest History Today is published by the Forest History Society to keep DEPARTMENTS readers apprised of the best forest history writing and FHS activities. 68 Biographical Portrait: Please send article proposals to 71 Frederick Law Olmsted Sr. (1822–1903) Jamie Lewis, 701 Wm. Vickers & Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. (1870–1957) Avenue, Durham, NC 27701, ALFRED RUNTE 919/682-9319 or e-mail to: [email protected]. 71 History on the Road: A National Park System Road Trip ON THE COVERS JAMES G. LEWIS Front: Yosemite National Park, 2007 76 Books of Interest Back: Mount Katahdin, Maine, 2014 JAMES G. LEWIS AND EBEN LEHMAN Photos by James G. Lewis Articles appearing in this journal are abstracted and indexed in This issue was made possible by funding from the National Park Service. The views and conclusions HISTORICAL ABSTRACTS and contained within are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as representing the opinions or AMERICA: HISTORY AND LIFE. policies of the U.S. government. EDITOR’S NOTE by James G. Lewis n 2016, it was hard to escape the news that the National Park this issue, Don and I had several conversations about what topics Service was celebrating its centennial. It seemed to be the and authors to consider. Thinking broadly about the park system, Ionly positive news during a divisive presidential election year, we agreed to include topics not explicitly about forests. Including and visiting a national park offered respite from the increasingly young scholars was a conscious choice on my part, made easy nasty campaign. I took a month-long cross-country driving trip because I found their topics fascinating. It’s merely coincidental in the weeks surrounding Election Day and escaped the campaign that the two articles not about forests per se are by them. And in part by taking walks or bike rides in the woods whenever I that’s why you’ll find Kevin Brown’s work on a tiny fish in the could. Although at the start of the year I was dismissive of the middle of the Nevada desert (“The ‘National Playground Service’ Japanese practice of “forest bathing,” by December I had become and the Devils Hole Pupfish”) and Jackie M. M. Gonzales’s piece a true believer in shinrin-yoku. Time spent about the establishment of national in the woods certainly reduced my stress seashores (“The National Park Service levels in November and after. Goes to the Beach”). Fairly soon you’ll be Enticement to do so was everywhere. able to read these scholars’ book-length Advertisements and stories touting the treatments of their topics. national parks and the centennial blanketed Of the other contributors,