THE HISTORY OF AMERICAN NATIONAL PARKS

HUMBOLDT STATE UNIVERSITY

By

Shelly D. Slusser

A Thesis

Presented to

The Faculty of Humboldt State University

In Partial Fulfillment

Of the Requirements for the Degree

Master of Arts in History

Teaching of American History

May 2012

THE HISTORY OF AMERICAN NATIONAL PARKS

HUMBOLDT STATE UNIVERSITY

By

Shelly D. Slusser

Approved by the Master’s Committee:

Dr. Delores McBroome, Committee Chair Date

Dr. Gayle Olson Raymer, Committee Member Date

Dr. Rodney Siever, Committee Member Date

Dr. Delores McBroome, Graduate Coordinator Date

Dr. Jená Burges, Vice Provost Date

ABSTRACT

Many people think that the conservation-movement started in a more modern history of America, but contrary to that belief, it started in 1847 when George P. Marsh, a

U.S. Congressman from Vermont, called attention to the destructive impact that people were having on the land, especially in deforestation. He called for a “conservationists approach to the management of the forested land” because we were depleting our nation’s natural resources with devastating speed. By 1860 the negative exploitation of tourism and livestock grazing in the high country of Yosemite were causing rampant and irreversible damage. Ongoing poaching and park devastation in Yellowstone required

Congress to deploy the U.S. Army to build a camp at Mammoth Hot Springs to protect wildlife and natural reserves in 1886. The rookeries that provided nurseries for nesting young birds and the egrets and herons that graced the Florida landscape were being slaughtered at a rate of 5 million a year in 1886 to provide feathers for women’s hats.

Clearly, federal intervention and enforced protection would have to ensue before the integrity of the United State’s natural resources were permanently compromised and all wildlife would go the way of the passenger pigeon.

This historiography will examine the early United States conservation legislation that was introduced to Congress and became laws to protect our vanishing wilderness and wildlife. It will also investigate the Wilderness Warrior, the Progressive President

Theodore Roosevelt and how he courageously and with conviction pursued the rights of

“Citizen Bird”. This project will include nine lesson plans for the elementary and middle iii

school students that will acquaint them with the early history of American conservation and the development of the National Park System. Most important of all, the students will come away from these lesson plans with a feeling of respect and stewardship for the natural world they share this earth with.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to take this opportunity to recognize Dr. Delores McBroome. She helped me finish my thesis years after most teachers completed theirs. She was truly an

advisor in every sense of the word. She gave me great ideas and tips, as well as patiently

correcting the numerous errors I kept making. I will always be very grateful to her. Thank

you also to Gayle Olson-Raymer and Rod Sievers for the lectures and lessons that taught

me to appreciate American history even more than I already did. A big thank you to Jack

Bareilles for running around HSU this spring to get me registered. Thank you to my

mom, Arlene, my husband, Jim, and my children Jeff, Tim, Jessica and Michael for all

their interest, support and thoughtfulness. I am very thankful to Cynthia Werner for

typing and formatting this paper because without her technology expertise, this thesis

would not happen. Thank you to my best friend Martha who had to listen to me talk about

my paper for over a year, and special thanks to Melanie Kuhnel who reminded me to

finish my Masters.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT ...... iii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ...... v

TABLE OF CONTENTS ...... vi

LIST OF APPENDICES ...... viii

THE HISTORY OF AMERICAN NATIONAL PARKS ...... 1

Early Efforts to Protect America’s Natural Resources ...... 1

The Protection of Yosemite ...... 3

Yosemite Valley and the Hetch Hetchy Valley ...... 4

The Protection of Yellowstone Park ...... 7

The Protection of Florida ...... 10

Theodore Roosevelt: The Conservationist President ...... 13

CONCLUSION ...... 26

ENDNOTES ...... 30

BIBLIOGRAPHY ...... 38

LESSON PLAN: I SO DECLARE IT: THE BEGINNING OF THE NATIONAL PARK SYSTEM, THEODORE ROOSEVELT AND JOHN MUIR ...... 46

Introduction ...... 46

Objectives ...... 47

Prior Content Knowledge and Skills...... 48

Lesson Timeline ...... 49

Lesson Content...... 50

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The Early History of Yellowstone National Park ...... 62

ENDNOTES FOR LESSON PLAN ...... 66

BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR LESSON PLAN ...... 68

CALIFORNIA STANDARDS ...... 70

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LIST OF APPENDICES

APPENDIX 1 AUDUBON’S BEGINNINGS ...... 71

APPENDIX 2 PICTURE OF THE THREE BRANCHES OF GOVERNMENT ...... 76

APPENDIX 3 INFORMATION ABOUT THEODORE ROOSEVELT ...... 78

APPENDIX 4 THEODORE ROOSEVELT AT YELLOWSTONE ...... 84

APPENDIX 5 PHOTOGRAPH OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT AND OTHER MEN AT GRAND CANYON ...... 85

APPENDIX 6 PHOTOGRAPH OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT, JOHN MUIR AND OTHER MEN AROUND AN OLE GROWTH REDWOOD...... 88

APPENDIX 7 LIST OF CONSERVATIONISTS ...... 90

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THE HISTORY OF AMERICAN NATIONAL PARKS

The United States National Parks and Monuments are 84.4 million acres of protected land which include forests, mountains, canyons, rivers, oceans, estuaries, deserts, ancient cliff dwellings, historic sites, battlefields, and monuments. The "dean of western writers,” American Pulitzer prize-winning author Wallace Stegner, has written that national parks are “America's best idea,—a departure from the royal preserves that

Old World sovereigns enjoyed for themselves—inherently democratic, open to all, "they reflect us at our best, not our worst. (1) President F.D. Roosevelt said, "There is nothing so American as our national parks.... The fundamental idea behind the parks...is that the country belongs to the people that it is in process of making for the enrichment of the lives of all of us." (2) President Theodore Roosevelt insisted that “The establishment of the National Park Service is justified by considerations of good administration, of the value of natural beauty as a National asset, and of the effectiveness of outdoor life and recreation in the production of good citizenship.”(3)

Early Efforts to Protect America’s Natural Resources

As soon as the early colonists entered North America, they thought the natural resources such as timber, fisheries and wildlife would last perpetually. Freely using these resources, the early colonies grew and prospered at an astonishing rate for many reasons: excellent land for agriculture, a constant large market with England, free land to immigrants, slave labor, a common defense, literacy and opportunity to list a few.(4)

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President John Q. Adams, noticing the rapid use of hard oak trees as early as

1828, set aside more that 1,378 acres of live oaks in Pensacola Bay, not just to have

access to durable timber for war vessels, but as an early-conservation effort to preserve oak trees. (5) Running for the presidency in 1832, Andrew Jackson ridiculed Adams’s tree farm as an un-American federal land grab and an unlawful attempt to deny Floridians

timber to use as they saw fit. Jackson believed that “trees are meant to cut and birds to

eat.” (6)

It seems as though Jackson had a change of mind when in 1832 he, too, could see

the benefit for future generations of Americans by protecting a river for the public to

enjoy. It was a beautiful spring flowing in Arkansas from the south western slope of Hot

Springs Mountain. Congress proclaimed the river Hot Springs Reservation, later to

become the United States’ first and smallest National Park. (7)

As early as 1847 Congressman George P. Marsh, who is considered America’s

first environmentalist by the University of Houston’s College of Engineering, had

already been aware of America’s disappearing timber resources and went to the

Agricultural Society of Rutland County of Vermont with a plea for land use reformation

and created the birth of a 19th century term, the “conservationist-movement.” He brought attention to the destructive impact of human activity on the land especially through deforestation and advocated a conservationist approach to the management of forested land. The book he wrote in 1864, entitled Man and Nature, which was later retitled

Physical Geography and Modified by Human Action was the first American book that

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explored the extent and significance of the environmental changes shaped by man. This

book started the practice of conservation in America. (8)

The Protection of Yosemite

On May 17, 1864, something very unprecedented in human history happened:

John Conness, a senator from California, introduced to Congress a bill which proposed setting aside a large tract of natural scenery for the future enjoyment of everyone. This was not proposed as a park in a large city or a landscaped garden. Instead, it was intended to be designated as federal land that would remain undeveloped. The only condition was that it remains available to all and never be sold as private property. This land would be preserved as a place for public use, resort, and recreation. (9) During the conflict of the

Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln took time to sign Senator Conness’ bill that was entitled the Yosemite Grant of 1864. These 60 square miles of undeveloped and what was considered “worthless” federal land encompassed Yosemite and the Mariposa Grove of big trees in California. Since the United States did not have the means to protect land grants at this time because the National Park Service did not yet exist, Congress required the state of California to protect the Yosemite Valley’s natural resources and the redwood trees of the Mariposa Grove. This was considered by most historians as the beginning of our national park system. This was also four years before John Muir, considered to be the

“Father of the National Parks”, and “Wilderness Prophet”, began to lobby for federal protection of Yosemite, Mariposa Grove and nearby Hetch Hetchy Valley. John Muir

(April 21, 1838-Dec.24 1914) was a Scottish born American naturalist, author and early

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advocate for the preservation of wilderness in the United States. After arriving in the

Yosemite Valley in 1868, he dedicated his remaining 46 years to the protection of the

Western forests with a special interest and presence.

Yosemite Valley and the Hetch Hetchy Valley

By 1889, just 25 years after the Yosemite Grant had been established and started the National Park system, the grazing of livestock, especially sheep, appeared as the biggest threat to the land of the Yosemite area. With the help and support of Robert

Underwood Johnson, the associate editor of the influential Century Magazine, Muir and

Johnson were able to lobby congressmen to introduce a Congressional bill to make the

Yosemite area a national park, modeled after Yellowstone National Park. In 1890, the

U.S. Congress passed a bill that followed Muir’s recommendations, but to Muir’s

disappointment, the bill left Yosemite Valley still under state control. (10)

In early 1892 the Sierra Club was formed and John Muir was elected as its first

president. The Sierra Club immediately opposed the efforts of Congress to pass the

Caminetti Bill, H.R. 5764 that would allow restricted hydraulic mining in California and

reduce Yosemite National Park by half; and, by 1906, led a successful campaign to

transfer Yosemite National Park from state to federal control. The Sierra Club also started

the efforts to save Hetch Hetchy Valley. (11)

In 1896, John Muir and Gifford Pinchot, the country’s first professional forester

and the first director of the United States Forest Service as well as President Roosevelt’s

close friend and confidant, became associated and allied with each other in the battle to

5 protect forests against reckless exploitation of natural resources including clear cutting.

Their friendship and professional relationship became threatened in 1897 when Pinchot saw conservation as a way to manage the utilization of the nation’s natural resources for long-term sustainable commercial use, while Muir valued the forests as places for rest, inspiration and prayers that would allow no timber cutting. As tensions mounted between the two men, Pinchot released a statement to a Seattle newspaper supporting sheep grazing in the Yosemite forest reserves (national forest land). Muir had always viewed livestock grazing as the most harmful practice and he considered sheep as “hoofed locusts.” The final blow to their relationship was when Pinchot favored the damming of the Hetch Hetchy Valley to supply water and electricity to the rapidly growing California city of San Francisco. In total contrast, John Muir proclaimed, “Dam Hetch Hetchy! As well dam for water- tanks people’s cathedrals and churches, for no holier temple has ever been consecrated by the hearts of man.”(12)

These philosophical views contested by Muir and Pinchot soon expanded and split the conservation movement into two camps: the preservationist camp, led by Muir, and Gifford’s camp called the conservationists. The two men debated their positions in magazines such as “Outlook”, “Harper’s Weekly”, “Atlantic Monthly” and

“Century”.(13) The outcome of their debates continued to drive a wedge between preservationists, those who wanted places for rest, inspiration and prayer and conservationists, those that wanted to manage the timber in a sustainable way as a commercial product.

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John Muir and the Sierra Club continued to fight tirelessly for the protection of the Hetch Hetchy Valley. Muir’s concern was that this could be a watershed event in environmental history. If one National Park could be changed in the name of progress, then what would stop it from happening to another? If Hetch Hetchy was dammed, Muir believed it would cause a slippery slope that would eat up all of the wilderness area in the country. (14) When the 1906 earthquake devastated San Francisco, it made the Hetch

Hetchy Valley even more desirable to local interest groups who insisted that the state needed this recently surveyed valley as a dependable water source.

After nearly ten years of debate in Congress, widespread national news coverage and the attention of the American people in this first controversy of environmentalism,

President Woodrow Wilson ultimately signed the bill to dam the Tuolumne River into law on Dec. 19, 1913. Muir felt devastated by the loss of the Hetch Hetchy valley and wrote, “As to the loss of the Sierra Park Valley, it’s hard to bear. The destruction of the charming groves and gardens, the finest in all California, goes to my heart.”(15) John

Muir died a bitter man one year later.

The damming of the pristine Tuolumne River with the O’Shaughnessy Dam and the flooding of the Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park with 300 feet of water starting in 1913 and completed by 1923 initiated a rigorous campaign by the Sierra

Club to remove the reservoir and restore Hetch Hetchy back to its original splendor.

Because the Tuolumne River is a granite rock watershed, the sediment build up that most river restoration projects are plagued with does not occur. When aggressive

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replanting of native trees began, the environment would be restored to its natural state, with animals, insects and birds returning to the Hetch Hetchy Valley.(16)

Those that oppose the removal of the O’Shaughnessy Dam, such as Sen. Diane

Feinstein and the Bay Area Council, insist that San Francisco, which has no water rights,

would be unable to provide enough water to all Bay Area residents. Those that are

opposed are also concerned about water quality from any other water source and the

expense of a new filtration system for the Bay Area. There is a concomitant loss of

hydroelectric power so the elimination of the dam would require the building of new

fossil-fuel burning plants. Of course, the massive expense of dam removal would cost

the tax payers millions of dollars. (17) The battle over Hetch Hetchy in Yosemite

National Park is not over yet.

The Protection of Yellowstone Park

Preservationists learned a lesson when the battle for Hetch Hetchy Valley was lost

in 1913. That was to consider American national parks valuable from the tourist-industry

point of view. After 1913, Americans were being encouraged to spend their money

vacationing in our national parks instead of spending money abroad visiting the scenery

of Europe. This tourist economy gave our parks a new sort of value and wealth instead of

huge profits earned from harvesting timber, minerals and water. As far back as the

creation of Yellowstone National Park, the railroads of the West promoted park tourism

for city people to see the unspoiled wilderness of the national parks, whose purpose was

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to protect the scenery, the natural and historic objects and the wildlife therein. By 1872

Yellowstone had become a National Park but was in grave need of better protection.

As early as 11,000 years ago, Native people have lived in and around the

Yellowstone area. (18) As time went by, non-Indian people began to venture into the

area. John Colter was a trapper in 1807 who claimed to have seen fire and brimstone

which most people dismissed as delirium. In reality what he saw was the geothermal area

of the northeast side of the park. (19)

In 1871, with government sponsorship, naturalist F.V. Hayden led a large

expedition to Yellowstone to compile a comprehensive report including photographs and

paintings of its interior. Hayden believed “setting aside the area as a pleasure ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people” and warned that there were those who would come and “make merchandise of these beautiful specimens”. (20) Hayden also warned that if Yellowstone wasn’t protected soon, “the vandals, who are now waiting to enter into this wonder-land, will in a single season despoil, beyond recovery, these remarkable curiosities, which have requited all the cunning skill of nature thousands of years to prepare. (21) His report convinced the U.S. Congress to allow President U.S. Grant to sign a law creating Yellowstone National Park.

The law is called the Yellowstone National Park Act March 1, 1872 in which

over 2,000,000 acres of land over the Continental Divide would be “dedicated and set

aside as a public park or pleasuring ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people.”

The Secretary of the Interior would “set forth rules to provide for the preservation all

9 timber, mineral deposits, natural curiosities, or wonders within the park.” The Secretary of the Interior would also “provide against the destruction of the park and game found within.” Congress wanted to preserve the geysers, hot springs, and protect the herd of bison and elk that lived within the park. Congress closed this land to the Homestead Act, mining laws and other public land interests. (22)

There was considerable local opposition to Yellowstone becoming a National

Park during the early years after 1872. The locals feared their economy would suffer if there remained the strict federal laws against resource development or settlement within the park’s boundaries. Local entrepreneurs protested the size of the park (2,000,000 acres) so that mining, hunting and logging activities could be developed in the area. (23)

There were many bills introduced to Congress by Montana legislators to reduce the restriction of land use within the park.

In 1872 after Yellowstone became a National Park, providing a superintendent to protect its natural resources was vital and Nathaniel Langford was selected, however he was denied a salary, a staff and funding. Naturalist and mineralogist George Bird

Grinnell documented the poaching of buffalo, deer, elk and antelope for hides. "It is estimated that during the winter of 1874–1875, not less than 3,000 buffalo and mule deer suffer even more severely than the elk, and the antelope nearly as much.(24) The poaching and destruction of Yellowstone Park continued unabated until 1886 when the

U.S. Calvary was deployed to Mammoth Hot Springs to bring wildlife protection and built Camp Sherwin which was later renamed Fort Yellowstone. (25)

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In March 1894, a poacher was captured by Captain G.L. Scott, U.S. Army, and a

patrol of soldiers for killing bison in Yellowstone Park. At that time there were no laws

that would allow prosecution and the poacher could only be detained and removed from

the park. The event was captured on film and the photos of six bison skulls outraged the

public. The story prompted Congress to pass “an act to protect the birds and animals in

Yellowstone National Park, and to punish crimes in said park, and for other purposes”

which became the cornerstone of future law enforcement policies in the park. The Act

was called the Yellowstone Protection Act of 1894. (26)

As a result of the National Park Act of 1916, the U.S .Calvary gave up its

authority over Yellowstone to the newly formed National Parks Service within the

Department of the Interior. It gathered all fourteen existing National Parks and the

twenty-one existing National Monuments into a single system and now would manage

the system in a consistent manner. Congress adopted the preservationists’ vision of national parks by declaring the “fundamental purpose is to protect the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wild life therein and by such means leave them unimpaired.” (27)

The Protection of Florida

In the 1880s it was becoming fashionable for women in the United States, France and the United Kingdom to wear hats that were adorned with feathers, mice, little reptiles, and a variety of wild birds even jewelry made of hummingbirds.(28). Although feathers had been used to adorn men and women for centuries, both in Europe and

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indigenous tribes of the world, the gilded age took feathers to a new level of popularity

and exploitation. (29)

This fashion was not limited to women of the privileged class. Women of all

circumstances competed with each other to wear a hat decorated with the most unusual,

uncommon, exotic and unique feathers. The birds most coveted were the snowy-egret’s feathers because they epitomized wealth, elegance and high status. They were two times as valuable as California gold: $80.00 an ounce! (30) “There was no way to describe the plume trade in those years except to say that people were consumed with greed. Snowy egrets were selling for almost $100 a bird, and the demand only went up from there,” states author and historian, Harvey E. Oyer. (31)

At these prices, during the period when an unskilled worker earned only $100 for a sixty hour work-week and hat making millineries were employing 83,000 women, the fashion houses of New York and Paris demanded costly looking plumes and elegant trimmings which cost North America about 5 million birds a year. This number did not count for all the abandoned chicks and eggs which perished without their parents. (32)

Unfortunately, game laws were practically nonexistent in much of the interior west and south of the Mason-Dixon Line up until the1890s and the situation in Florida became acute. (33) This area which had once been considered worthless now provided a commodity the New York millinery industry would pay handsomely for: feathers and plumes. (34)

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Plume hunters poured into the state determined to bag the birds of high value.

Frank Chapman, the leading ornithologist of the United States, felt terrified by the likelihood that this market hunting would become the genocide of birds. He began delivering lectures entitled, “Women as the Bird Enemy” around the east coast.(35)When all hope for the survival of birds seemed to have been lost, an effort led by wealthy and fashionable women of Boston’s society who were also agitating for the right to vote, began a backlash movement to end the use of birds for exhibitionism. Prominent citizens

Harriet Hemenway and her cousin Minna Hall were outraged after they learned that the feathers and plumes they had been wearing were not collected off the ground as they had been wrongly informed, but that the plumes were plucked from birds that had been hunted at the egret rookeries in Florida. (36) These two Massachusetts socialites started informing other influential women over tea and ultimately organizing one of the first

Audubon Societies. This group became the driving force behind the beginning of bird protection legislation in America; the Massachusetts1897 Law outlawing trade in wild bird feathers and the New York State Audubon Plumage Law of 1910 which banned the sale of plumes of all native birds in that state. Then, Iowa Congressman John F. Lacey entered the drama and a new conservationism had arrived in America.(37) Lacey was more committed to the protections of birds than any other politician in America besides

Theodore Roosevelt.(38) The Lacy Act of 1900 was the first federal law protecting game, wild birds and plants. This act made it unlawful to import, export, transport, sell, receive, acquire or purchase in interstate or foreign commerce game, wild birds or plants.

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For the first time there were civil and criminal penalties for violation of illegal trade of

fish, wildlife, birds and plants. A new conservationism had come to America. You could

no longer kill a bird in Florida and sell it to Macy’s department store in New York.

People now could make a citizen’s arrest if they saw somebody illegally shoot a bird.

Even though there was no Fish and Game Department and no game wardens at this time,

at least the law of the land was on the side of the conservation movement.(39)

America has always loved its national treasures and now the government acted to

conserve its resource jewels for a new purpose. “The term "conservation," so commonly

applied to coal, iron, or other raw materials of industry, was now applied to mountains,

lakes, canyons, forests and other great and unusual works of nature, and interpreted in

terms of public recreation.” (40)

Theodore Roosevelt: The Conservationist President

President Theodore Roosevelt, the twenty-sixth U.S. president, was born in 1858 into wealth and privilege. He was a sickly child who suffered from asthma well into adulthood. (41)He was home-schooled and passionately excelled at natural history. Ralph

Waldo Emerson epitomized Roosevelt as an incurable naturalist. (42) He embraced a

strenuous life and was noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and

achievements, leadership of the Progressive Movement, and robust masculinity.(43)

Roosevelt came to the Dakota Territories to hunt bison in 1883 and fell in love with the

rugged lifestyle and the strenuous life of the West. He invested in the Maltese Cross

Ranch and the Elkhorn Ranch to find adventure, raise cattle and enjoy solitude. These

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interests in ranching and hunting were influential in Theodore Roosevelt’s pursuit of

conservation policies as President of the United States. (44)

After McKinley’s assassination, Roosevelt was elevated to the powerful position

as President of the United States where his every action would make a difference. In

1901, with confidence gained as a New York politician, he became the world’s leading

conservationist who was ready and able to challenge the most powerful men of the gilded

age. (45)

In the spring of 1902 Roosevelt was eager to create a sixth national park because

only Yellowstone, Sequoia, General Grant, Yosemite and Mt. Rainier existed as National

Parks. The Grand Canyon was President Roosevelt’s first choice, but the opposition from

mining interest against declaring it a national park was too fierce at this time and strewn

with hurdles. (46) Roosevelt looked for an easier, less controversial legacy to start with.

Turning to the Chief Forester, Gifford Pinchot for advice, Roosevelt was counseled that

Crater Lake was an ideal choice for a National Park and to save the Grand Canyon for a

battle later on when public sympathy could be stirred up. By procuring a testimony from

Gifford Pinchot about the natural beauty of Crater Lake and the fact that it was not a

forest reserve for timber production, it seemed like there would be no opposition in

Congress. However, Speaker of the House, David Henderson, was indignant that

Roosevelt who had only been president for a couple of months promoted natural resource preservation in his First Annual Message to Congress.

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Henderson was also representing western timber-mining interests and mistrusted federal interference with America’s free enterprise system. In the end, Henderson, who was supportive of Roosevelt’s military heroism and succumbed to a little pressure by the new president, reluctantly sided with Roosevelt. (47) Congressman John F. Lacey, the same Lacey for whom the Lacey Act of 1900 was named, introduced the bill to Congress and President Roosevelt signed an act whereby Crater Lake, Oregon became a National

Park on May 22, 1902.

Inspired by the preservation of Crater Lake, Roosevelt was considering his second

National Park which was Wind Cave located in the Black Hills of South Dakota with

3,000 chambers and 100 mile of tunnels. (48) Without sizeable opposition, conservationist Congressman John F. Lacey of Iowa argued that Wind Cave needed to be protected from vandals destroying it. Wind Cave provided bird watching and exploration but fishing and hunting were banned there. Both Houses of Congress approve

Roosevelt’s second National Park on Jan. 9, 1903. (49)

Roosevelt knew that for the western United States to experience population growth, it would require dams and reservoirs for irrigation projects. He introduced legislation to Congress to provide federal aid because the expense of constructing huge dams required financing from the federal government. (50) The Newland Act was passed in June 17, 1902 and this resulted in the damming of nearly every major western river in the U.S. It also led to the downside of advanced hydraulic drilling on the desert ecosystem. A young hydraulic specialist named Frederick H. Newell, who later became

16 chief engineer of the U.S. Geological Survey, initiated canal and dam construction at such a rapid pace that many projects failed due to untested soils and unfeasible transportation. Newell didn’t realize until he was near death that federal reclamation projects were unnecessary and even seriously damaging to the arid West. (51) Filled with good intentions, President Roosevelt was unable to envision how potentially harmful the dams were to the western environment he so dearly loved.(52) Reclamation projects led to agricultural booms in fruits, dates sugar beets and alfalfa but destroyed many natural wonders and bird habitats. Roosevelt did not realize that large scale irrigation projects with dams and reservoirs dramatically transformed the western economy, landscape and farming.(53) Roosevelt wanted it both ways: he saw himself as a master preservationist, but also styled himself as a master builder. Sadly, when push came to shove, economic growth took precedence over preservationist. The historian Paul Russel Cutright said that,

“The Roosevelt-Newell vision of millions of desert acres in bloom was well on its way to reality.” (54) An example was the Tule Lake area in California. President Roosevelt wanted to do something big for the white pelicans, cormorants, grebes and great blue herons in the Klamath Basin of southern Oregon. He wanted to create a national park for the entire Klamath Basin, but a serious error had been made when he had already committed a reclamation project to dredge and drain the wetlands into large scale agricultural farming. (55) This was the worst example of Roosevelt trying to reconcile agricultural utilitarianism and waterfowl preservation. (56) “With the gradual spread of population , each year the migratory flocks return to former nesting sites, only to find

17 them destroyed, and their natural food supply diminished,” stated William Finley, an

American photographer, conservationist and lobbyist who has been compared as a “John

Muir” of the early years of environmental awareness. (57) Finley prompted Roosevelt to set aside federal bird reservations at Tule Lake.(58) The Oregon Auduboners were grateful when they received an 80,000 area of lakes and marshes on Aug. 8, 1908 as the first of six wildlife refuges for the protection of all birds. Finley wrote, “I hope this marsh will defy civilization to the end.”(59)

Starting in the spring of 1903, President Roosevelt engaged in an enormous effort to protect the bird rookeries of Florida. Of all the Florida birds, the brown pelican was

Roosevelt’s favorite but they were despised by the commercial fishermen of Florida.

They were seen as competition to their livelihood and good for nothing (60) As an honorary member of the Audubon Society and the past governor of New York when the

Lacey Act was passed, Roosevelt was well aware of the Feather Wars of Florida and was ready to deal with plumers once and for all. (61) Roosevelt wanted no compromise with poachers; he wanted the Lacey Act of 1900 to be followed to the letter of the law. He believed in a “new outdoorsman who preached wildlife protection.” (62) For some time, ornithologists had been making a determined effort to protect Pelican Island from plume hunters. When all other efforts failed, they appealed directly to the president. When he asked if there was any law preventing him from declaring Pelican Island a Federal Bird

Reservation, he was told there was none. So, on March 4, 1903, the first Federal Bird

Reservation (later to be renamed the U.S .Fish and Wildlife National Wildlife Refuge

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System) was created by Theodore Roosevelt and admitted by the Bureau of Biological

Survey, USDA. Now all the birds needed in Florida were wildlife protection officers to

protect them from the opposition of the gangs of illegal plumers. Local long-time resident and member of the Audubon Society Paul Kroegel was chosen as the United States first refuge manager and Guy Bradley, as another warden, was hired.

Unfortunately, the size of the area they were being asked to protect was impossible to patrol properly without a motorized fleet and they had been shot at more than once.(63) On July 8, 1905 Bradley was killed in the line of duty, martyred by a vicious gang of outlaw plumers that he attempted to arrest.(64) Outraged, but not about to give up, Roosevelt appointed more Department of Agriculture wardens in Florida and created more federal bird reservations to protect cormorants, pelicans, egret, herons and other non-game birds.

In the early spring of 1903, when Pelican Island was being saved as a federal bird reservation, President Roosevelt was planning the longest, most elaborate cross country journey ever taken by an American president. It would be a 14,000 mile railroad journey

entitled the Great Loop to present his conservation policy to the American public in an

appealing way before the 1904 presidential election. The itinerary was to visit

Yellowstone National Park, the Grand Canyon and Yosemite Grant in California as well

as make several speeches along the way. For the first leg of his journey, T.R. brought his

old friend, naturalist John Burroughs, so that the two of them could spend time at

Yellowstone studying birds, insects and animals. Burroughs would also give the trek the

19

air of a real biological pursuit, instead of a wild game hunt.(65) Even though national

parks are protected from hunters, Roosevelt gave consideration to hunting cougars and had planned to have hunting hounds smuggled into the park. Although President

Roosevelt had a reputation as a sportsman with a blood lust, he chose not to stir up

controversy on his Great Loop excursion and abandoned his scheme to hunt cougars or

any game in Yellowstone Park. (66)He did not want bad press coverage because he

wanted to show the American public his preservationist stance and that he considered

himself a reformed sportsman and an ordinary citizen.(67) Although many would

disagree, such as John Muir and animal-activist Mark Twain, John Burroughs insisted

that T.R. was a naturalist first, a hunter second.(68)Although it often seemed contrary, at

this time, when it came to conservation, Theodore Roosevelt was the most vital man on

the continent, if not the world. (69)During speeches made around the Yellowstone

location, Roosevelt reminded the citizens to protect their beautiful park from the scars of

ore pits and mine tailings because National Parks were America’s treasures and needed to

be safeguarded from vandals and exploiters. (70)

In route to the Grand Canyon, after leaving Yellowstone, Roosevelt visited

Oskaloosa, Iowa, the hometown of Congressman John F. Lacey. Lacey had a distinguished career on behalf of wild life protection. At this time, Congressman Lacey urged Roosevelt to protect not only wildlife, but the prehistoric, time-worn ruins of the

Pajarita Plateau, Chaco Canyon and the Gila Cliff Dwellings.(71) Lacey insisted the pot

20 hunters and artifact vandals had to stop their desecration of ancient ruins before nothing was left to protect.

The president’s arrival at the Grand Canyon on May 6th would be considered one of the greatest days in environmental history. Roosevelt had suspected the Grand Canyon was the premier natural wonder in America, and now his hunch had been confirmed. (72)

It shocked him that the people of the Arizona Territory and its antigovernment governor,

Nathan OakesMurphy, who wanted to oust Arizona Indians from federal reservations so their land could be sold to white settlers and developers, were even considering mining the Canyon for zinc, copper, lead, and asbestos.(73) Roosevelt’s attitude was uncompromising. He would refuse to allow corporation exploitation to drill one inch and if he couldn’t get Congress to approve, he would declare an executive order. Meeting at the rim of the Grand Canyon, Roosevelt urged the crowd, “In your own interest and the interest of all the country, keep this great wonder of nature as it now is. Keep it for your children and your children’s children and all who come after you as one of the great sights for American’s to see.” (74) A year earlier, Roosevelt had been a new president and was cautious about declaring the Grand Canyon a National Park, but no longer. He wanted every acre in the 1,904 miles of the Grand Canyon for perpetuity. (75)

California marked the westward objective and TR’s long awaited visit of

Yosemite Valley. Roosevelt was not coming to the national park just as a political gesture, but as a naturalist; therefore Roosevelt thought John Muir would be the most important person to have at his side in the Yosemite Valley. (76) Muir had been

21 personally invited by the president to take the President not just to hotels and restaurants, but into the back country so the two naturalists could experience the strength and beauty of the Valley without interference. By now, Roosevelt dearly pined for solitude and a chance to escape the crowd and entourage that had been constantly surrounding him on his Great Loop expedition. This was the chance that Muir had been waiting for, this opportunity to be alone with the president to earn his respect and trust. Muir’s goal was to press Roosevelt to add Yosemite Valley and nearby Mariposa Grove to the federal protection of Yosemite National Park as well as save the timbered forests of Mt. Shasta.

(77)

After making it clear that he only wanted three guides to accompany them and no security, on May 15 Muir and President Roosevelt headed out to the back country to plan the future of Yosemite. There is written documentation of the next three days these two men spent in the wilderness, written by Charles Leidig, their trail guide. (78) We know the first night was spent at the Mariposa Grove under forty wool blankets, the second night was spent in the vicinity of Sentinel Dome during a spring snowstorm and the third night was at the edge of Bridalveil Meadow. Each night, President Roosevelt was Muir’s captive audience as Muir pleaded for the protection for the Yosemite Valley,

Mariposa Grove, and the Mt. Shasta wilderness. “John talked even better than he wrote”,

Roosevelt later reflected. “His greatest influence was always upon those who were brought into personal contact with him.”(79) The camping trip was a success. It developed a bond between the two men that was like a feeling of brotherhood. (80)

22

Roosevelt was buoyant upon his return to the Sentinel Hotel at a reception dinner held in his honor. He shared his adventure as “the most pleasant night of my life. It was so reviving to be so close to nature in this magnificent forest of yours.”(81) Muir was thrilled because no sooner had Roosevelt left Yosemite, while he was still in Sacramento, he sent off a telegram to Secretary of the Interior to have an extension of the forest reserves to include the Mount Shasta region and as he arrived back to Washington D.C.,

Roosevelt urged Congress to protect as many California redwoods as possible into the national park system.(82)

Clearly, Muir’s outdoor private time with the President would prove invaluable to the preservation movement. (83) Now Yosemite would be better protected by the federal government instead of state government, Mt. Shasta would be included in the forest reserves and President Roosevelt would have an enhanced understanding of Muir’s philosophy, “When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.” (84)

In 1906, President Roosevelt signed what was probably one of the most powerful acts of preservation legislation, yet it was met with hardly any opposition, was the

Antiquities Act of 1906. This law allowed the President of the United States to designate historical landmarks, historical preservation structures and other objects of scientific interest as national monuments without Congressional approval. (85) It also gave the president the power to declare the protection of archaeological, scientific and environmental value federal land.(86) There was now no need to negotiate with timber

23

and mining lobbies over sites like Devil’s Tower, Petrified Forest, and, in1908, the Grand

Canyon. At the time this act was written, Congressmen thought that the amount of land

in a national monument was going to be no more than a few hundred acres of ruins and

natural oddities. They thought that small portions of preserved land could be tolerated. In

reality, Congress had been tricked with the Antiquities Act because the president was

going to make new national monuments as big as he wanted them to be.(87) Roosevelt

could also seek “ rapid presidential action” instead of a “dilly dally” with a “tortoise paced Congress.” (88) In 1908, Arizona was still a territory and didn’t have representation in Congress and President Roosevelt looked upon its mining, timber, and real estate interests with distain and increasing distrust. Roosevelt felt mining companies would destroy wild Arizona if the federal government did not intervene. (89) By reclaiming the historic past, the Indian relics that pot hunters were stealing, volcanic mounds, hidden lakes, strands of trees, and petrified wood, Roosevelt felt he could save the pioneer spirit of America from the corrosive problem of industrialization. Therefore, with no parcel of wilderness immune from potential seizure by the federal government,

President Roosevelt declared 808,000 acres of land as the Grand Canyon National

Monument on Jan.11, 1908. It didn’t matter that Roosevelt wasn’t conforming to the

Constitution (90) because the Antiquities Act was truly only supposed to preserve

scientifically valuable sites up to 5,000 acres. President Roosevelt was no longer

concerned that the mining interest would rock blast and extract zinc, copper, lead and

asbestos out of the Canyon. He had saved the Grand Canyon, unmarred, as well as

24

Devil’s Tower, Petrified Forest, Mount Olympus, and the Canyon de Chelly as National

Monuments utilizing the new Antiquities Act of 1906. The opposition to the national

monuments, particularly among corporate cattle, sheep, lumber and mining outfits, was

fierce. Their beliefs were not groundless because the federal government had encouraged

these pioneers and investors to displace the Hualapai and Havasupai Tribes and construct

their own wagon roads, stagecoach lines, grazing lands and mining operations. By 1908,

Roosevelt had made an impressive number of political and corporate enemies, including

Standard Oil, the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, the E. H. Harriman Conglomerate,

and J. P. Morgan, among many others.(91) The corporations of the gilded age, “ spent

millions of dollars advertising, trying to smear Roosevelt’s reputation, cripple him

politically and exhaust him personally.”(92)

At the very end of Theodore Roosevelt’s presidency, from Jan. 20th, 1909 to two

days before Inauguration Day, March 4, 1909, while reporters and politicians were

concerned about cabinet positions and inaugural festivities, the final “I So Declare It”

our had arrived. Since President Roosevelt had already announced he would not run for

reelection, he was unencumbered with campaign promises and commitments. He was

free to work enthusiastically and tirelessly with ornithologists, foresters and biologists

during this time of urgency to create twenty six more bird reservations, thirty six more

National Forests, one more National Game Preserve and one more National Monument before he turned his power over to William H. Taft. (93)

25

For millions of Americans, he was already memorialized in the 18 national monuments and 5 national parks he had created by executive order. The inventory, as

Gifford Pinchot would say, included protected pinnacles, a crater lake, a rain forest, a petrified forest, a wind cave, a jewel cave, cliff dwellings, a cinder cone, sequoia stands, glacier meadows, and the grandest of all canyons.(94) In 7 years and 69 days, Roosevelt had saved more than 234 million acres of American wilderness. The long term magnitude of his achievement was immense. (95)

26

CONCLUSION

The United States National Parks were created at a time when if something had not been done soon, there would have been nothing left to save. From the time that this country had been colonized in the 18th century, Americans rapidly consumed the natural resources, prospering to a high level of international influence, dominance and command.

As villages became towns and towns became cities, industrialization seized our country’s timber, water, wildlife, habitats, and watersheds in a way that was not sustainable.

By the 19th century, Americans developed a passion for looking to nature for enjoyment and wonder. (96)The early evolution of American conservation began as the public realized that a relationship existed between man and nature. In 1860 this was exhibited in art, such as Albert Bierstadt’s and Federic Edwin Church’s western landscape paintings that showed the beauty of the frontier and its unique natural wonders.(97) The relationship of man and nature also existed in literature, such as the naturalist Henry David Thoreau’s work, Walden, or Life in the Woods, first published in

1854. Thoreau passionately articulated a need to save wilderness for wilderness’s sake.

Thoreau asked, “Why should not we have our national preserves… [and] our forests

[saved]…not for idle sport or food, but for inspiration and our own true recreation?” (98).

Other literature, such as Man and Nature written by American diplomat George P.

Marsh in 1864, was considered by most scientists to be the first book to launch the conservation movement. It was the first work to document the effects of human actions on the environment, especially the environmental degradation that deforestation has on

27

eroded soil that leads to decreased soil productivity.(99) The early conservation

movement was also successful due to the hard work by naturalist John Muir. His travels,

writings and his establishment of the Sierra Club helped Americans recognize that the

preservation of wilderness and landscapes are critical for future generations and their

continued subsistence in a healthy environment. (100). These early pioneers of

conservationism set trends in motion for the modern conservation movement of the 20th

century.

President Theodore Roosevelt and Gifford Pinchot, the U.S. Forest Service first

chief, became the progressive leaders of modern conservation at the turn of the 20th century. They shared the belief with each other and other prominent naturalists of that time, such as John Burroughs, George Bird Grinnell, and Frank Chapman, that nature had a healing power. They developed organizations and clubs such as the Boone and Crocket

Club, the Audubon Society and the Adirondack Club to not just contemplate nature preserves, but to create them.(101) To preserve for their children’s children the beauty of nature, they introduced legislation to Congress such as the Forest Reserve Act of 1891, the Yellowstone Game Protection Act of 1894, the Forest Management Act of 1897, the

Massachusetts 1897 Law, the Lacey Act of 1900, the Federal Bird Reservation Act of

1903, the Antiquities Act of 1906, the New York State Audubon Plumage Law of 1910 and the National Park Protection Act of 1916. These acts became laws and led to the formation of America’s best idea, the National Park System. America needed a champion like President Theodore Roosevelt to put the U.S. government fully on the side of bird,

28 game and forest preserves. “When the story of national government’s part in wildlife protection is finally written, it will be found that while he was president, Theodore

Roosevelt made a record in that field that is indeed enough to make a reign illustrious,”

Dr. William T. Hornaday, the director of the New York Zoological Park, wrote in Our

Vanishing Wilderness (1913). “He aided every wildlife cause that lay within the bounds of possibilities, and he gave the vanishing birds and mammals the benefit of every doubt.” (102).

President Roosevelt and Gifford Pinchot formed an alliance that would have a profound effect on the modern conservation movement. (103) Together they would promote America’s forests with firm confidence and zeal. Roosevelt knew how preservationists felt about Pinchot because he believed in regulated timber harvesting, and Roosevelt thought their criticisms unfair. Roosevelt is quoted saying, “Gifford

Pinchot is the man to whom the nation owes most for what has been accomplished as regards to the preservation of the natural resources of our country.” Roosevelt later said,

“He led, and indeed during its most vital period embodied, the fight for the preservation through use of our forests.” (104) When Roosevelt left the White House in 1909, he felt secure with Gifford Pinchot left behind in office as a watchdog to protect all the conservation progress that he had made during his presidency. (105)

For the next one hundred years, American presidents have continued to be influenced by the “Conservation President”, Theodore Roosevelt, and the early pioneers of American conservationism. They have striven to protect the United States’ natural

29 resources for future Americans. Perhaps President Franklin D. Roosevelt summed it up well when he said, “The nation that destroys its soil destroys itself.”(106)

30

ENDNOTES

1. Wallace Steger, “Famous Quotes Concerning the National Parks,” Discover History, National Park Service, (January 16, 2003). Retrieved 2011-10-24

2. Ken Burns, and Dayton Duncan, The National Parks: America’s Best Idea. (New York: Knopf Books, 2009), preface.

3. Theodore Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt: Wilderness Writings, edited by Paul Schullery. (Salt Lake City: Peregrine Smith Books, 1986), p. 142.

4. Herbert Moller, “Sex Composition and Correlated Culture Patterns of Colonial America,” William and Mary Quarterly, vol.2, no.2,( April, 1945), p. 113-153.

5. Douglas Brinkley, The Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America. (New York: HarperCollins, 2009), p.3.

6. John F. Reiger, American Sportsmen and the Origin of Conservation. (Corvallis: Oregon State University Press, 2001), p. 5-7.

7. John C. Paige and Laura W. Harrison, Out of the Vapors: A Social and Architectural History of Bathhouse Row, Hot Springs National Park. United States Department of the Interior/National Park Service, (1987), p.32.

8. William Cronon, forward to Man and Nature, by George P. Marsh. (New York: Charles Scriber, 1865), x.

9. Robert Denning, “A Fragile Machine: California Senator John Conness,” California History,(September, 2008), p.1: “An Act Authorizing a Grant to the State of California of the ‘Yo-Semite Valley’ and of the Land Embracing the Mariposa Big Tree Grove,” 13 Stat. 325; quote from Congressional Globe, 38th Cong., 1st sess., 2301.

10. Holoway R. Jones, John Muir and the Sierra Club (San Francisco: Sierra Club, 1965), p.43.

11. Stephen R. Fox, The American Conservation Movement: John Muir and His Legacy.(Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1985)

31

12. John M. Meyer, “Gifford Pinchot, John Muir, and the Boundaries of Politics in American Thought,” Polity, vol.30, no.2, (Winter 1997), p. 30, (2): pp. 267-284.

13. Meyer, pp.267-284.

14. Diane Gary, and Lawrence Hott, The Wilderness Idea: John Muir, Gifford Pinchot, and the First Great Battle for Wilderness, Florentine Films, videocassette, 1990

15. Holway R. Jones, John Muir and the Sierra Club: The Battle For Yosemite.(San Francisco: Sierra Club, 1965)

16. Sarah Null, Thesis: Water Supply Implications of Removing O’Shaughnessy Dam, University Of California, Davis,(December 2003). Retrieved 2009 2009-03-26

17. Jim Wunderman, “Ten Point Letter sent to the Department of Water Resources,” (letter presented to the San Francisco Supervisors Meeting on July, 2005)

18. Larry Lahren, Homeland: An Archaeologist's View of Yellowstone Country's Past. (Burien: Cayuse Press, 2006.), p.161.

19. Aubrey L. Haines, “The Lewis and Clark Era (1805-1814),” Yellowstone National Park: Its Exploration and Establishment, U.S. Department of the Interior (2000).

20. Marlene D. Merrill, Yellowstone and the Great West: Journals, letters, and Images from the 1871 Hayden Expedition. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska, 1999), p. 208.

21. Merrill, pp.210-211.

22. Lary M. Dissaver, America’s National Park System: The Critical Documents. (Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield, 1994), p.28.

23. Lary M. Dilsaver, and William Wyckoff, “The Political Geography of National Parks,” The Pacific Historical Review, vol. 74, no.2, (University of California Press, 2005), p.237-266.

24. Michael Punke, Last Stand: George Bird Grinnell, the Battle to Save the Buffalo and the Birth of the New West.( Washington D.C.: Smithsonian Books, 2007), p.102.

32

25. Kiki Leigh Rydell, and Mary Shivers Culpin . "The United States Army Takes Control of Yellowstone National Park 1886–1906" . A History of Administrative Development in Yellowstone National Park, 1872–1965. July 5, 2006, Yellowstone National Park. Retrieved 2007-04-01.

26. Aubrey Haines, The Yellowstone Story: A History of Our First National Park. (Niwot: University Press of Colorado, 1996), pp. 62-64. Paul Schullery, The Yellowstone Wolf: A Guide and Source Book. (Worland: High Plains Publishing, 1996), pp.225-228.

27. Alston Chase, Playing God in Yellowstone: The Destruction of America’s First National Park. (Boston: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1986).

28. Kathryn Laskey, She’s Wearing a Dead Bird on her Head! (New York: Hyperion Books, 1997), p.3.

29. Robin W. Doughty, Feathers, Fashion, and Bird Preservation. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1975), p. 3

30. Stuart B. McIver, Death in the Everglades: The Murder of Guy Bradley, America’s First Martyr to Environmentalism. (Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 2003) and Brinkley, p.10.

31. Steven Lopez, How Florida’s Baby Bird Chicks Survived the Hat Fashion, The Palm Beach Post, January 11, 2011.

32. Brinkley, p. 10-11.

33. Brinkley, p.11.

34. Erick Gill, “Pelican Island: Ten Years In the Making,” Vero Beach Magazine (February, 2003), pp.7-14.

35. Frank Graham, Jr., The Audubon Ark: A History Of the Audubon Society. (New York :Knopf, 1990),p. 18

36. Kathy S. Mason. “Out of Fashion: Harriet Hemenway and the Audubon Society.” Accessed September 22, 2002. www.accessmylibrary.com

37. Brinkley, pp.269-270.

33

38. Brinkley, p.365.

39. Doug Stuart, “How Conservation Grew From a Whisper to a Roar,” National Wildlife, (December-January 1909)

40. http:www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/kieley/kieley2.htm

41. David Grubin, and Geoffrey C. Ward, T.R.: The Story of Theodore Roosevelt, videocassette: The American Experience, 1996.

42. Brinkley, p.22.

43. Douglas Brinkley, “T.R.’s Wild Side”, American Heritage, (Fall 2009)

44. Brinkley, pp.6, 194.

45. Brinkley, pp.396-397.

46. Jay J. Wagoner, Arizona Territory 1863-1912: A Political History. (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1970), pp.362-364.

47. Author unknown, “D.B. Henderson Dies: Was Ill Nine Months,” New York Times, February 26, 1906, p.9.

48. Author unknown, “South Dakota Cave: Senator Gambel Wants To Preserve A Wonder In A Park”, New York Times, June 22, 1902, p. 23.

49. Brinkley, p.462.

50. Paul K. Cutright, Theodore Roosevelt: The Naturalist. (New York: Harper, 1956), p.167.

51. Donald J. Pasani, “A Tale of Two Commissioners: Frederick H. Newell and Floyd Dominey,” presented at History of the Bureau of Reclamation: A Symposium, Las Vegas, NV (June 18, 2001).

52. Donald Woster, Rivers of Empire: Water, Aridity, and the Growth of the American West. (New York: Pantheon, 1985), pp.169-171.

34

53. Lewis L. Gould, The Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt. (Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1992), p. 41.

54. Cutright, p. 168.

55. William Kittredge, Balancing Water: Restoring the Klamath Basin. (Berkley: University of California Press, 2000), pp. 76-79.

56. Worth Mathewson, and William L. Finley, Pioneer Wildlife Photographer. (Corvallis: Oregon State University, 1986), p. 9.

57. Roger T. Peterson, “Forward,” in Worth Mathewson, and William Finley: Pioneer in Wildlife Photographer. (Corvallis: Oregon State University Press, 1986), pp.1- 2.

58. William L. Finley, “Federal Bird Reservations,” Nature Magazine, (May 1926)

59. William L. Finley, “Hunting Birds with a Camera,” National Geographic, vol.44, no.2, (August 1923).

60. Brinkley, p. 474.

61. Brinkley, p.367,490.

62. Frank M. Chapman, Introduction in Adventures in Bird Protection. (New York: Appleton-Century, 1937)

63. Frank E. Davis, An Everglades Providence. (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2009), p. 18.

64. Michael Grunwald, The Swamp. (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2006), pp.1-80 and Graham, pp. 50-68.

65. Theodore Roosevelt in a letter to John Burroughs, (March 7, 1903).

66. Paul Schullery, Theodore Roosevelt: The Scandal of the Hunter As Nature Lover,” in Natalie A. Naylor, Douglas Brinkley, and John Allen Gable (eds.), Theodore Roosevelt: Many Sided American. (Interlaken :Heart of the Lakes, 1992).

35

67. Author unknown, “Snow in Yellowstone Park,” New York Times, March 24, 1903, p.5.

68. John Burroughs, “Camping With the President,” Atlantic Monthly, vol. 97, no. 5 May 1906)

69. Burroughs, p.585.

70. Brinkley, p.516-517.

71. C.G. Turner, Petroglyphs of the Glen Canyon Region. (Flagstaff: Museum of Northern Arizona Bulletin 1970), no. 38.

72. Theodore Roosevelt, letter to his children (May 10, 1903) Sagamore Hill Archives, Oyster Bay, New York.

73. Wagoner, pp. 362-364.

74. Author unknown, “Denver in Readiness,” Washington Post, May 4, 1903, p.3. 75. Brinkley, p.527.

76. Shirley Sargent, Yosemite’s Famous Guests, Yosemite: Flying Spur Press, 1970), pp.18-21.

77. Brinkley, p. 546-547.

78. Marvin R. Koller, “Presidential Visits To Yosemite,” vol. 38, part 2, Yosemite Nature News, National Park Service, (March 1959), pp.30-34.

79. Theodore Roosevelt, “John Muir, An Appreciation,” Outlook Magazine, vol.109, (January 16, 1915), pp.27-28.

80. John Muir, Letter to Dr. and Mrs. Hart Merriam and the Baileys, Muir papers from University of the Pacific, (January 1, 1904).

81. Brinkley, p. 546.

82. Theodore Roosevelt, telegram to Secretary of the Interior Ethan A. Hitchcock, (May 19, 1903) and Brinkley, p. 547.

36

83. Brinkley, p.543.

84. John Muir, My First Summer in the Sierras. (New York: Penguin Books, 1911), p. 110.

85. Hal Rothman, “The Antiquities Act and the National Monuments: A Progressive Conservation Legacy,” Cultural Resource Management, National Park Service, no. 4 (1999), pp. 16-18.

86. David Harmon, and Francis McManamon, and Dwight Pitcaithley. The Antiquities Act. ( Tuscon: University of Arizona Press, 2006), p.3

87. Brinkley, pp. 643-644

88. Robert W. Righter, “National Monuments to National Parks: The Use of the Antiquities Act of 1906,” Western Historical Quarterly, vol. 20, no.3 (August 1989), pp.281-301.

89. William M. Gibson, Theodore Roosevelt Among the Humorists. (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1989), p. 34.

90. Brinkley, p.757-758.

91. Ron Chernow, Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. (New York: Random House, 1998),p. 435.

92. Brinkley, p.760.

93. Brinkley, p.827-830.

94. Edmond Morris, Theodore Rex. (New York: Random House, 2001), p.554.

95. Brinkley, p.815.

96. Larry Schweikart; and Michael Allen. A Patriot’s History of the United States. (New York: Penguin, 2004), pp.378-379.

97. Jurrerra J. Heckscher, ed. “Selected Events in the Development of the American Conservation Movement: 1847-1871,” The Evolution of the Conservation Movement, 1850-1920. (Washington D.C.: Library of Congress, May 3, 2002).

37

98. Henry David Thoreau, The Maine Woods. (Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1864), p. 160.

99. George P. Marsh, Man and Nature. (New York: Charles Scribner, 1865),

100. Schweikart, pp.478-479.

101. Ken Sprague, History and Heritage Remembering 19th and 20th Century Life,” Adirondack Express (July 25, 2006), p.4.

102. William T. Hornaday, Our Vanishing Wildlife. (New York: New York Zoological Society, 1913), p. 248.

103. Elmo R. Richardson, The Politics of Conservation: Crusades and Controversies, 1897-1913. (Berkeley: University of California Publications, 1962), p. 25.

104. Theodore Roosevelt, An Autobiography. (New York: McMillan, 1913), p. 409.

105. Brinkley, p.816.

106. Stanley A. Rice, Green Planet. (Piscataway: Rutgers University Press, 2009), p.127.

38

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LESSON PLAN: I SO DECLARE IT: THE BEGINNING OF THE NATIONAL PARK SYSTEM, THEODORE ROOSEVELT AND JOHN MUIR

Introduction

The purpose of this unit is to inform 5th and 8th grade students that a conservation movement began to protect American natural resources as early as the 1860s when expeditions to Yellowstone discovered a majestic landscape. The economic stresses of the Civil War began a race to commercialize the timber, mineral deposits, wildlife, and the watershed areas of unexplored parts of the United States and its territories.

Another purpose of this unit is to teach students about three of the earliest conservationist/preservationists: President Theodore Roosevelt, naturalist John Muir and

U.S. Forester Gifford Pinchot. Students will learn about these three early conservationists and how they tried to preserve the natural wonders of America, even though they had opposition from Congressmen representing various interest groups from the California redwoods to Florida’s rookeries.

This unit is designed to teach students 9 lessons with activities in two weeks using two hours a day. Other than doing worksheets and playing games and writing poetry, students will read a trade book to learn more about Theodore Roosevelt and listen to two beautifully illustrated picture books about John Muir and Gifford Pinchot. This unit will culminate with a Microsoft Digital Story Telling to share with their classmates and post on-line on our school district webpage.

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Objectives

1. Students will become more aware of the impact humans have had on the

American environment and that our natural resources, such as timber, minerals wildlife

and water, need to be conserved and utilized in a more sustainable way.

2. Students will learn about early poaching practices that included

uncontrolled market hunting for eggs, meat, hides, and feathers and how poaching

decimated wildlife populations in the United States especially areas like Florida and the

Great Plains.

3. Students will learn about the development of National Reserves to

conserve trees from unregulated cutting.

4. Students will become acquainted with three important Americans

(Theodore Roosevelt, Gifford Pinchot, and John Muir) who dedicated their lives to

conserving/preserving our National Parks and the students will spend classroom time and

homework time reading and researching these individuals.

5. Students will learn that one person can make a difference in conservation

and that they can be that person.

6. Students will see how the 3 branches of our government work and how laws are made. This includes the types of laws that protect the conservation and preservation of wildlife like the Massachusetts 1897 Law, the Lacey Act of 1900, the

New York State Audubon Plumage Law of 1910 and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of

1918.

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7. Students will spend time learning the history of three National Parks,

Yellowstone, Yosemite and the Grand Canyon.

8. Students will pick a different National Park of their choice and complete

various assignments that will cumulate into a Microsoft Digital Story-Telling slide show

that will demonstrate a deeper understanding, respect and compassion for our National

Parks and all of the trees, wildlife and water they protect and preserve for our future.

9. Students will develop a vocabulary list that will allow them to learn words

that are unique to conservation and preservation issues.

Prior Content Knowledge and Skills

1. Students should have finished either the 5th or 8th grade United States social studies curriculum which is American history and by the end of the school year they have covered all the California Standards.

2. Students need to remember how the three branches of government work and how laws are made.

3. Students should understand the term Manifest Destiny and how it has applied to American western expansion.

4. Students should be familiar with the Progressive Era (social activism-

1890’s to 1920’s) (1) and the Gilded Age (modern industrial economy- post Civil War to

late 19th century) (2) and how these reform attitudes collided and impacted the early history of the National Park System.

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5. Students should have familiarity working with globes, maps, graphs and technology. Students need to know how to access Microsoft Word and how to type, make a folder, edit, save and retrieve typed documents. Students also need to have practiced using Microsoft Digital Story Telling 3 software for the final project.

6. Students should have an understanding of the geography of the United

States, for example, the oceans, mountain ranges, mountain peaks, deserts, and rivers that are located between the East and West coasts.

7. Students will find it very helpful if they have had experience writing essays especially the Step Up To Writing curriculum

Lesson Timeline

Day 1: The Hook: A slide show of a few of our National Parks. There will also be a few slides showing the destruction that can happen in areas that were not protected by government regulations until they became recognized as a National

Park/Monument/Refuge or Federal Reserve.

Day 2: A discussion about what caused the buffalo, heron and egret population to decline. After this lesson and discussion there will be a graphing activity and then a drawing assignment or a poetry assignment for the students to complete.

Day 3: A discussion on the beginning of the Audubon Society which was started as the first modern conservation campaign. Students will learn how public outcry can become a vehicle for change. After this lesson, students will copy the chart entitled,

“Checks and Balances.”

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Day 4: Read, discuss and make student-generated worksheets about President

Theodore Roosevelt, the president who made a big difference in the early conservation of

this country. Each student will also be responsible for writing a 5 paragraph essay after

they read a trade book entitled, “Bully For You, Theodore Roosevelt,” by Jean Fritz.(3)

Day 5: Read, discuss and make a student-generated game about Gifford Pinchot,

a conservationist and the United States’ first professional forester and John Muir, an

early American preservationist.

Day 6: An example of a Microsoft Digital Story Telling Three lesson designed by

the teacher on a National Park (Yosemite) that students will emulate during Day 9.

Day 7: Another example of a Microsoft Digital Story Telling Three lesson

designed by the teacher on a National Park (Yellowstone) for students to learn from and

get ideas for their own project.

Day 8: Another example of a National Park research project that was teacher created that students will get ideas from.

Day 9: After observing three Digital Story Telling projects that the teacher created, each student will now research a National Park of their own. Each student will prepare a Microsoft Digital Story Telling Three slide show of a national park to present to the class.

Lesson Content

Day 1: As a hook, the students will watch a slide show of just a handful of

National Parks with all their present beauty while This Land Is Your Land by Woodie

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Guthrie (4) is played in the background while the teacher is narrating. Then students will

watch images of places that had their beauty threatened and natural resources commercialized.

Slide 1: A slide of Yellowstone.

Slide 2: A slide of the Grand Canyon.

Slide 3: A slide of Yosemite.

Slide 4: A slide of Crater Lake.

Slide 5: A slide of Lassen Volcanic Park.

Slide 6: A slide of Lava Beds National Monument.

Slide 7: A slide of Redwood National Park.

Slide 8: A slide of Everglades National Park

Slide 9: A slide of Joshua Tree National Park.

Slide 10: A slide of Kings Canyon.

Slide 11: A slide of a clear cut forest.

Slide 12: A slide of another clear cut.

Slide 13: A slide of coal mining.

Slide 14: A slide of hydraulic mining in California during the nineteenth century.

Slide 15: A slide of a reservoir.

Slide 16: A slide of the Klamath River fish kill from 2002.

After the slide presentation, the class will have a chance to discuss what they saw

in the slides. They will get a chance to share what was good and what was wrong about

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the images they saw. By showing 5th and 8th grade students these images of the good part

about conserving what we have and the bad part of not protecting what we lost, students’

interest will be aroused and they will be ready to begin a unit on the importance of conservation, preservation and our National Parks system in the United States.

Day 2: Review quickly with students what they saw in the slide show yesterday.

Then discuss that if there was this much damage to the landscape from over-logging,

coastal development, coal mining and dam building, what about the wildlife? At this

time, pass out graph paper. Write this data on the board for everybody to discuss and

graph:

• Buffalo Population Across America: (5)

. 1800- 80,000,000 buffalo

. 1900- 500 buffalo

. 2008- 350,000 buffalo

Discussion: After students fill in a bar graph and fill in this data, there will be a discussion entitled, “What happened to the buffalo?” How can an animal that “darkened

the whole plains”, wrote Lewis and Clark, almost become extinct? (6)The explanation is

that during the Westward Expansion, buffalo hunting became the chief industry of the

Plains. Organized groups of hunters would kill about 250 buffalo a day for their hides and

meat. Also, the railroad companies offered customers the opportunity to shoot as many

buffalo as they wanted to as the buffalo ran along side the trains. People thought that

there would always be plenty of buffalo because they didn’t understand conservation. In

53 the 1870’s, people did not think that systematic killing of animals would lead to their permanent doom. (7) At this time, pass out more graph paper. Write this data on the board for everyone to discuss and graph:

• The Egret and Heron Population Of Florida and East Coast:

. Pre-1880’s: Millions

. 1900-herons and egrets are almost extinct due to over harvesting them for

their feathers and to a lesser degree, their meat.

Discussion: After students fill in another bar graph that shows the decimation of the heron and egret populations in Florida, there will be a classroom discussion about the fashion clothing of men and women. In the 1880’s it was very stylish in America and

France for women to wear feathers in their hats. In fact, it was recorded that you could walk down a street in New York and sees the feathers and bodies of grebes, bluebirds, woodpeckers, orioles, terns, waxwings, robins, blue jays and many more types of birds all on a woman’s hat! Of course the women didn’t think about the birds that were being hunted for their plumes or all of the rookeries that were becoming extinct or the estimated

5 million birds that died annually for this fashion statement.

After a classroom discussion, have the class divide into groups of 4 students.

Have them each decide which project they want to be responsible for:

1. Drawing a picture of a buffalo. For best results, students will draw in pencil, outline in black ink and then color with colored pencils

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2. Drawing a picture of a heron or egret rookery. For best results, students

will draw in pencil, outline in black ink and then color with colored pencils.

3. Write a haiku poem about egrets and herons. A haiku is a Japanese poem

that is about nature. It is only 3 lines long but has a form to it that the students will be

expected to follow. The first line in the poem is 5 syllables long, the second line is 7

syllables long and the 3 line is 5 syllables long. After the team has completed their

assignment, they will turn it in to the teacher and it will be hung up a bulletin board that

has been dedicated to all the projects that students do in this lesson unit of the National

Parks.

Day 3: have a discussion to briefly review yesterday’s lessons, the vocabulary words, the difficulty herons, egrets and buffalo have had surviving because there were no laws to protect them from large scale hunting for their feathers, plumes, and hides.

Today’s lesson will discuss the introduction of laws that protected wildlife for the

first time and the conception of a unique club, the Audubon Society. At this time pass

out lined paper. Pass out paper entitled Appendix 1(8) Write the following information

of the board:

1. The Massachusetts 1897 Law

2. Lacey Act of 1900

3. New York State Audubon Plumage Law 1910

4. Federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918

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Discussion: After the students write the above 4 acts of legislation down on the paper, have them read the paper entitled,” Audubon’s Beginnings” Appendix 1 orally with the teacher. Discuss with the students how ordinary people have done extraordinary things, like start a local grassroots club called the Audubon Society to protect wild birds from market hunting. Point out to the students that someday they, too, may join the

Audubon Society or the Sierra Club or another conservation-minded organization and stand up for an important issue that affects wildlife.

On a separate piece of paper, have students copy the steps of legislation that a bill has to go through to become a law using the Judicial Branch, the Executive Branch and the Legislative Branch. Even though 5th and 8th grade students have already learned this in their history books this year, it is important to review in case they forgot. Help the students visualize this by projecting Appendix 2 (9) on the board.

Day 4: Briefly review yesterday’s lesson because it affects today’s lesson which is about a person who made a tremendous difference in the early conservation movement.

Pass out a copy of Appendix 3(10) to each student. Allow them to underline important text of information as you read this together as a class President Theodore Roosevelt.

After we have read the whole article as a class, have students write down 6 facts from this article that stands out to them as something important about Theodore

Roosevelt. As a whole class, discuss those facts. Some of the facts may not seem as important to the teacher, but it is fun to discuss what young people view as important.

Next assignment is to partner the students up to make one fun worksheet for other

56 students to do using the information about Theodore Roosevelt that they have just learned. Following are some examples of what worksheets the students can generate with their partner:

A worksheet that has 20 important words from the article that we just read, such as “asthma”, “reformer”, “buffalo”, “Mount Rushmore” and request students to put these words in alphabetical order.

A worksheet that has 20 important words from the article they just read scrambled up and it is the assignment to correctly unscramble each word.

A worksheet that has a list on the left side of the paper of 20 important words from the article that we have just read for students to match up with their definitions on the other side of the paper that are in a different order.

A worksheet that has a crossword puzzle that the students are assigned to complete with 20 chosen important words from the article they have just read.

By having students generate their own worksheets for other students to do teaches them so much more than a worksheet that the teacher generates. After students have made their worksheet with their partner, have them trade their worksheet with another pair of students to do. Collect all the worksheets and staple them up on the bulletin board with the art work and haiku poems.

Project Appendix 4, 5 and 6 on the board to show students photos of President

Roosevelt visiting Yellowstone Park, the Grand Canyon and Yosemite in 1903. Share with the class how difficult a time like that was at that time period.(11)(12)(13)

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Also at this time, pass out to each student a book entitled “Bully for You,

Theodore Roosevelt”, written for young students by Jean Fritz.(14) The assignment is to read the book each day during Language Arts time with a partner and take home as a homework reading book. The book should be finished within five days.

The assignment following the completion of this book will be to make a biography box which is a large piece of white construction paper that is cut and folded into a 6 sided cube. On each side of the cube is written a sentence of information learned in the book. Also on each side of the cube is a picture about that sentence the student draws and colors.

The last assignment that goes with this lesson is to write a 5 paragraph essay about Theodore Roosevelt. Following is the outline requirement:

1. The first paragraph is the introduction and is called a Power Statement which is the topic sentence explaining what the essay is about.

2. The next three paragraphs are the body of the paragraph and each paragraph is dedicated to writing about one part of Theodore Roosevelt’s life.

3. The 5th and last paragraph is called the conclusion. It starts with a conclusion started, is followed by repeating the Power Statement, next the writer tells his/her favorite part of Mr. Roosevelt’s life and then the last sentence of the conclusion paragraph will ask the reader a question that relates to Mr. Roosevelt.

Day 5: After a quick review of all that we have covered so far in this unit, today the students will need:

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 a partner

 a computer to do a search with

 Pencil and paper

Begin today’s lesson with the question, “What is the difference between conservation and preservation?” With a partner, students will do a Google search and their answers should be something like this:

• Conservation is to use carefully and manage thoughtfully.

• Preservation is to not use at all but to save.

Have a discussion about what the students think of that. Next computer search is to ask,” Can you give me the names of conservationists that have lived in the past and in our present time?” Students should do a Google search. After a few minutes ask for volunteers that want to share names of people they have found. Then put Appendix 7 (15) on the overhead and compare their list to the teacher’s list. Are some names on both lists?

Are some names only on one list and not on the other? Discuss the different ways in which these people were/are conservationists. After that discussion, find John Muir and

Gifford Pinchot on the list. Have the students do a Google Search for information about them.

As a classroom, ask for volunteers to share the different things that these two men did during their lives. As the teacher writes these shared items down on the overhead, students will copy. After you and the students have finished the list of John Muir and

Gifford Pinchot facts, the teacher can play a game called Forest Knowledge Bee. With

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the students: make two teams and have them line up like a spelling bee. Read to the first

student in the line a fact about one of the men from the fact list you just made. If they

guess the correct man, either John Muir or Gifford Pinchot, their team gets one point, and

then it’s the other team’s turn. The teacher can even include facts from the previous day’s

lesson about Theodore Roosevelt.

After this game, the teacher will read two picture books entitled, John Muir

America’s Naturalist by Thomas Locker (16) and Midnight Forests, a book about Gifford

Pinchot by Gary Hines.(17)

A nice follow up activity if time allows is to paint water colors of Yosemite. Each

pair of students already has a computer from our earlier assignment so it would be easy to

do a Google search to find their favorite image of Yosemite Valley for painting

inspiration.

Day 6: For the next 3 days the teacher will show 3 Digital Story Telling example-

projects that each student will create on their own. These examples that the teacher shows

will make it a lot easier for the students to emulate their own, as I follow the required list

of the assignment located at Day 9 lesson.

The Early History of Yosemite National Park

1. Slide 1 of Yosemite: this slide will have my name and the name of

Yosemite National Park.

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2. Slide 2 of Yosemite: this slide will be a paragraph about the

Ahwahneechee people who inhabited Yosemite before non-Indian gold seekers entered

the valley in 1851.

3. Slide 3 of Yosemite: this slide will be a paragraph describing the state-

sanctioned Mariposa Battalion entering the valley to subdue the Mariposa Indian War.

4. Slide 4 of Yosemite: this slide will include a paragraph about the gold

seekers that caused the Mariposa Indian War.

5. Slide 5: this slide will be about the first movement to protect Yosemite from early commercial use in 1855 during the Civil War when Congress made Yosemite and Mariposa Grove the first American public preserve. At this time, the naturalist John

Muir will be introduced as the early activist who started the campaign to protect the wilderness around the park that President Lincoln had provided protection for.

6. Slide 6: this slide will include the dates of 1855, 1890 and 1903 as the dates that Congress passed legislation to enlarge and protect Yosemite from any form of commercial use.

7. Slide 7: this slide will include a map of the United States that shows the location of Yosemite National Park.

8. Slide 8, 9 and 10 will be images of the student’s choice of places in

Yosemite Park that he or she would like to visit and why.

This concludes the first example of a National Park presentation that the teacher will present to the students as preparation for their own during lesson 9.

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Day 7: For the next 2 days the teacher will show 2 more Digital Story Telling example projects that each student will create on their own. These examples that the teacher shows will make it a lot easier for the students to emulate their own, as I follow the required list of the assignment located at Day 9 lesson.

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The Early History of Yellowstone National Park

1. Slide 1 of Yellowstone: this slide is the title page that presents my name as

the creator and the title, “Yellowstone National Park”.

2. Slide 2 of Yellowstone: this slide will be a paragraph about the Native

people who inhabited Yellowstone first, the Shoshone.

3. Slide 3 of Yellowstone: this slide will be a paragraph about the Lewis and

Clark Expedition who were the first non-Native people to enter the Yellowstone region in

1805 to the north but did not spend time investigation the park.

4. Slide 4: this slide will show the concern rising about how to use

Yellowstone wisely. Trappers had by now over-hunted the beaver population, locals wanted to encourage tourism of the park, investors want to have access to the timber, and by 1874 no less that 3,000 buffalo had been killed by poachers for their hides.

5. Slide 5: this slide will show early protection. Because so many people were entering Yellowstone and poaching, Ft. Yellowstone was installed to provide better security for the park’s wildlife and natural resources.

6. Slide 6: this slide will include the date 1865 which was the beginning of the movement to protect Yellowstone.

7. Slide 7: this slide will be a map of the United States and show where

Yellowstone is located.

8. Slide 8, 9 and 10 will be images of the student’s choice within the park that the student would like to visit and why.

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This concludes the second example of a National Park presentation that the

teacher will present to the students as preparation for their own during lesson 9.

Day 8: This is the last day of showing students an example of a National Park

Project before they create their own using Microsoft Digital Story Telling. This final

example of a project will help the student understand how to start their own tomorrow.

The Early History of Grand Canyon

1. Slide 1 of Grand Canyon: this slide is the title page that presents my name as the creator and the title, “Grand Canyon National Park”.

2. Slide 2: This slide will be a paragraph about the Native American tribe that inhabited the Grand Canyon first, the Pueblo, which has been referred to as Anasazi.

Later in history the Cohonina, the Sinagua, the Hualapai, the Paiutes and lastly the

Navajo inhabitant different areas of the Grand Canyon over time.

3. Slide 3 of Grand Canyon: This slide will be about the Spanish explorer

Francisco Vasquez de Coronado. These early non-Native explorers used Hopi Native

Americans to try to find a way to the bottom of the Canyon but were not successful.

4. Slide 4: This slide will show how there was a struggle to use the Grand

Canyon wisely. There were mining, logging and grazing rights already established there.

5. Slide 5: After a tremendous amount of opposition to make the Grand

Canyon a National Park, President Theodore Roosevelt was successful in legislating it to

become a Reserve and then a U.S. Monument in 1908.

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6. Slide 6: The Grand Canyon protection struggle lasted 11 more years in

Congress until it was declared a National Park in 1925 by President Woodrow Wilson.

7. Slide 7: This slide will be a map of the U.S. and will show the location of the Grand Canyon.

8. Slide 8: Slide 8, 9 and 10 will be images of the student’s choice within the park that the student would like to visit and why.

Day 9: Now that students have had the example from the teacher on how to research and study the history of 3 popular National Parks, they are now prepared to pick their own National Park or National Monument and research with limited amount of the teacher’s help. Following is a list of the requirements each student must complete for this project.

List of Research Choices:

• Download 10 different images of the places you want to visit in the

National Park of your choice for slide show presentation using Microsoft Digital Story

Telling 3 software.

• Have the first slide be the title slide that includes the name of your chosen

National Park and you name.

• Type the history of the early Native American tribe that populated that area before it was a National Park.1full paragraph of 5 sentences is required on a slide that shows the Native people of the area.

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• The history of the first non-Indian people that entered that area. 1 full paragraph of 5 sentences is required on a slide that shows those early settlers.

• The history of how the natural resources of that area were consumed before it became a National Park. For example, was there a rookery there that was market-hunted by poachers for plumes or feathers? Was there logging for timber done without restoration for future generations? 1 full paragraph of 5 sentences is required on a slide that shows the natural resource in demand.

• Who were the people that labored to make this place a National Park or

Monument? Discuss the struggle they endured to protect this place. 1 paragraph of 5 sentences required on a slide of your choice.

• When did this place become a National Park or Monument?

• Include a map as a slide that shows the location of your National Park or

Monument.

• The remaining required slides will be images of the student’s choice of the places they want to visit within their park and why they want to go there.

• Be sure there is music playing in the background and your voice narration the work is loud enough to hear above the music.

• Be prepared to play your project for the class.

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ENDNOTES FOR LESSON PLAN

1. John D. Buenker, John C. Burnham, and Robert M. Crunden, Progressivism. Rochester: Schenkman Books, 1986

2. Edward C. Kirkland. Industry Comes of Age: Business, Labor, and Public Policy, 1860-1897. Austin: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1961.

3. Jean Fritz. Bully For You, Teddy Roosevelt! New York: Putnum Publishers, 1991

4. Woodie Guthrie. This Land Is Your Land. NY: Ludlow Music/ The Richmond Organization, 1951

5. “Bison by the Number,” National Park Service, last accessed April 20, 2012. http://www.nps.gov//Bison%20by%20the%20the%20Number

6. Meriweather Lewis, William Clark, and editor Gary E. Moulton . The Lewis and Clark Journals. Lincoln:University of Nebraska Press/Bison Books, second edition 2004.

7. Brian Bergman, “Bison Back from Extinction,” Maclean’s, February 16, 2004

8. “Audubon’s Beginnings,” Audubon Society, accessed April 20, 2012 http://www.audubon.org/documents/AudubonBeginnings.pdf

9. “Graphic Organizer of the Three Branches of Government: Checks and Balances,” The Social Studies Help Center, accessed April 20, 2012. http://www.socialstudieshelp.com/images/ChksBalnces.gif&imgrefurl

10. “About Theodore Roosevelt, A Biography,” The Theodore Roosevelt Center, accessed April 20, 2012, http://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.com/Kids/index.asp

11. “Photograph of Theodore Roosevelt in Yellowstone,” Historical Stock Photos, accessed April 20, 2012. http://www.historicalstockphotos.com/image/xsmall/459_roosevelt_at_ yellowstone_park.jpg

12. “Photograph of Theodore Roosevelt at the Grand Canyon,” Grand Canyon National Park Examiner.com, accessed April 20, 2012. http://www.examinerc.com.images/blog/EXID12879/images/TRooseveltGr.Cajpg

67

13. “Photograph of Theodore and John Muir at Yosemite,” Historical Stock Photos, assessed April 20, 2012, http://www.historicalstockphotos.com/details/photo/449_theodore_roosevelt_and _john_muir.html

14. Jean Fritz. Bully For You, Teddy Roosevelt! New York: Putnam Publishers, 1991

15. “The Free Encyclopedia: List of Conservationists,” Wikipedia Encyclopedia, last modified April 13, 2012. http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_conservationists.

16. Thomas Locker. John Muir, America’s Naturalist. Golden: Fulcrum Publishers, 2010

17. Gary Hines. Midnight Forests. Honesdale: Boyds Mills Press, 2000

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BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR LESSON PLAN

Bergman, Brian. “Bison Back from Extinction,” Maclean’s, February .16, 2004.

Buenker, John C., and Robert M. Crunden. Progressivism. Rochester: Schenkman

Books, 1986.

Fritz, Jean. Bully for You, Teddy Roosevelt! New York: Putnam Publishers, 1991

Guthrie, Woodie. This Land Is Your Land. Ludlow Music/ The Richmond Organization,

1951

Hines, Gary. Midnight Forests. Honesdale: Boyds Mills Press, 2000

Kirkland, Edward C. Industry Comes of Age: Business, Labor, and Public Policy, 1860-

1897. Austin: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1961.

Lewis, Meriweather; and William Clark, editor Gary E. Moulton. The Lewis and Clark

Journals. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press/Bison Books, second edition,

2004

Locker, Thomas. John Muir, America’s Naturalist. Golden: Fulcrum Publishers, 2010

Web Sites for Lesson Plans:

Audubon Society. “Audubon’s Beginnings.” Accessed April 20,2012.

http://www.audubon.org/documents/AudubonBeginnings.pdf

Grand Canyon National Park. “Photograph of Theodore Roosevelt at the Grand Canyon.”

Accessed April 20, 2012. http://www.examiner.com/images/blog/EXID12879/images/TRooseveltGr.Cajpg

69

Historical Stock Photo. “Photo of Theodore Roosevelt and John Muir.” Accessed April

20, 2012.

http://www.historicalstockphotos.com/details/photo449_theodore_roosevelt_and_

john muir.html

Historical Stock Photo. “Photo of Theodore Roosevelt at Yellowstone.” Accessed

April20, 2012. http://www.historicalstockphotos.com/image/xsmall/459_roosevelt_at_yellowstone_park.

jpg

National Park Service. “Bison by the Number.” Accessed April 20, 2012.

http://www.nps.gov//Bison%20by%20the%20Number%20Lesson

The Roosevelt Center. “About Theodore Roosevelt (Biography).” Accessed April 20,

2012 http://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.com/Kids/index.asp

Social Studies Help Center. “Graphic organizer of the three branches of Government.”

Accessed April 20, 2012.

http://www.socialstudieshelp.com/images/ChksBalnces.gif&imgrefurl

Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. “List of Conservationists.” Last modified April 13,

2012. http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_conservationists

70

CALIFORNIA STANDARDS

5.7 Students describe the people and events associated with the development of the

U.S. Constitution and analyze the Constitution’s significance as the foundation of

the American republic.

1. Know the songs that express American ideals (e.g., “America the Beautiful,”

“The Star Spangled Banner”).

5.8 Students trace the colonization, immigration, and settlement patterns of the

American people from 1789 to the mid-1800s, with emphasis on the role of

economic incentives, effects of the physical and political geography, and

transportation systems.

1. Name the states and territories that existed in 1850 and identify their locations and major geographical features (e.g., mountain ranges, principal rivers, dominant plant regions).

8.6 Students analyze the divergent paths of the American people from 1800 to the

mid-1800s and the challenges they faced, with emphasis on the Northeast.

1. Discuss the influence of industrialization and technological developments on the

region, including human modification of the landscape and how physical geography

shaped human actions (e.g., growth of cities, deforestation, farming, and mineral

extraction).

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APPENDIX 1 AUDUBON’S BEGINNINGS

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In the late 1890’s outraged Americans in state after state founded Audubon

Societies to combat the feather trade and advocate bird protection. They waged the first

truly modern conservation campaign.

Part of the Audubon Society’s beginnings dates to 1886 when George Bird

Grinnell, editor of Forest and Stream, announced the formation of “an association for the protection of wild birds and their eggs… These shall be to prevent, so far as possible (1) the killing of any wild birds not used for food; (2) the destructions of nests or eggs of any wild bird, and (3) the wearing of feathers as ornaments or trimming for dress…”

Additionally, in Boston in 1896, Audubon was gaining ground when Mrs.

Augustus Hemenway read a description of the bloody hunts at the egret rookeries and immediately called her cousin Ms. Minna Hall. Harriet Hemenway and her husband were pillars of Boston society and had left their name on the Hemenway Gymnasium at

Harvard. After combing through the Boston society register, she and Hall invited the city's fashionable ladies to a series of afternoon teas, at which many of the women pledged to boycott the bird hats. Nearly 1,000 women joined. Hemenway and Hall also convened a formal meeting of prominent Boston women and men, who formed the

Massachusetts Audubon Society. Then, during one week in the spring of 1897, nature author Florence Merriam claimed to have seen 2,600 robins for sale in one market stall in

Washington alone.

The movement to protect wild birds from market hunting and the millinery trade evolved into a collection of independent “Audubon Societies” in many places. Some

73 were state based others were smaller. In 1905, many of these local organizations joined together as the “National Association of Audubon Societies for the Protection of Wild

Birds and Animals.”

This was a very loose confederation of independent entities, something which is important to our history. As time went by, the need for greater organization became clear, and in 1940 became simply the National Audubon Society. Several state Audubon societies remained independent. Audubon today is supported by over 500,000 members with state offices, programs and chapters across the country.

More detail on Audubon’s Beginnings

In the late 1890s the American Ornithologists' Union estimated that five million birds were killed annually for the fashion market. In the final quarter of the 19th century, plumes, and even whole birds, decorated the hair, hats, and dresses of women.

In 1886 Frank Chapman, who would later found the first version of Audubon magazine, was a talented birder. He identified the wings, heads, tails, or entire bodies of 3 bluebirds, 2 red-headed woodpeckers, 9 Baltimore orioles, 5 blue jays, 21 common terns, a sawwhet owl, and a prairie hen. In two afternoon trips he counted 174 birds and 40 species in all.

America's hat craze was in full swing. In the 1880s trendy bonnets were piled high with feathers, birds, fruit, flowers, furs, even mice and small reptiles. Birds were by far the most popular accessory: Women sported egret plumes, owl heads, sparrow wings, and whole hummingbirds; a single hat could feature all that, plus four or five warblers.

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The booming feather trade was decimating the gull, tern, heron, and egret rookeries up

and down the Atlantic Coast, and especially the Great Egret in southern Florida.

During the 19th century, industrialization and the explosive growth of cities had

wrought the destruction of forests and wildlife from coast to coast. Amid a groundswell

of concern, women's hats emerged as the most potent symbol of the devastation—and

provoked the first national grassroots call to action.

In the late 1890s outraged Americans in state after state founded Audubon

Societies to combat the feather trade and advocate bird protection. They waged the first

truly modern conservation campaign. Yet in the annals of the conservation movement,

this battle often appears more as a quaint footnote, while the better-known battles in the

early 1900s that John Muir, Theodore Roosevelt, and others fought for wilderness and

national parks have endured.

But public opinion soon turned on the fashion industry. Bolstered by the support

of Boston socialite Harriet Hemenway, ornithologist/naturalist Florence Merriam Bailey,

and hunter/naturalist President Theodore Roosevelt, who was an avowed Audubon

Society sympathizer, and a widespread letter-writing campaign driven by church associations, many of whom distributed the Audubon message in their various

newsletters, the plume trade was ultimately eradicated by such laws as the Massachusetts

1897 law outlawing trade in wild bird feathers and the New York State Audubon

Plumage Law (1910), which banned the sales of plumes of all native birds in the state.

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The movement spread rapidly, and like minds formed Audubon Societies from

New York and Connecticut to Tennessee, Iowa, Texas, and California. In nearly all of the states, women founded the clubs, and then asked male scientists and civic leaders to join the leadership.

In 1918, the National Audubon Society actively lobbied for the Federal Migratory

Bird Treaty Act. In the 1920s, the organization also played a vital role in convincing the

U.S. government to protect vital wildlife areas by including them in a National Wildlife

Refuge system. The Society also purchased critical areas itself and, to this day, continues to maintain an extensive sanctuary system. The largest is the 26,000-acre (110 km2) Paul

J. Rainey Wildlife Sanctuary in Louisiana, acquired in 1924. After nearly three-quarters of a century, the National Wildlife Refuge Campaign remains a key component of overall

National Audubon Society policy.

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APPENDIX 2 PICTURE OF THE THREE BRANCHES OF GOVERNMENT

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78

APPENDIX 3 INFORMATION ABOUT THEODORE ROOSEVELT

79 About Theodore Roosevelt Kid's Corral Home (Biography)

About Theodore Biographical Sketch by Clay Jenkinson

Roosevelt In a sense Theodore Roosevelt never really grew up. He was one of the most remarkable men of American history, and a great President, but he 10 Facts about TR somehow managed to retain his boyish enthusiasm through his whole life. His wife Edith called him her seventh child! 10 Letters to his Roosevelt loved adventure as much as he loved power. He was a big game hunter who traveled all over Children the world in search of trophies. Late in his life he explored one of the last uncharted rivers in South America. That almost cost him his life. He loved to ride 10 Things to horses—in polo matches, fox hunting, steeple chasing, and on the open plains of the American West. Even as Ponder President, Roosevelt spent time every day playing hard with his children in the White House. Sometimes the wrestling matches or pillow fights were so strenuous that TR Quotes the President had to change his clothes before joining his important guests for dinner.

Roosevelt was born on October 27, 1858 in New Did You Know York City. He had one brother and two sisters: Elliott, Anna (known as Bamie), and Corinne. His father Theodore Roosevelt, sr., was a stern but generous and Frequent Questions loving man who was independently wealthy. He was one of New York City’s leading philanthropists. Roosevelt later said his father was the greatest man he ever knew Books for Young and the only man he ever feared. His mother Mittie was a florid southerner who sided with the South in the Civil War. She loved adventure stories and the romance of People life. Theodore tried all of his life to be worthy of his father’s respect, and he never lost his mother’s love of a good story. TR Center Home As a child Roosevelt suffered from crippling asthma. There were times when he could barely breathe. He had terrible eyesight, which was not discovered by his family until relatively late in his childhood. He could not attend schools, even private ones, with his brothers and sisters. He was privately tutored. His illnesses were so severe that they disrupted Roosevelt family life. Finally, after a very difficult summer, his father challenged him to overcome his problems. Roosevelt was eleven years old. “You have the mind but not the body,” his father said. “You must make your body.” To this Theodore replied, “I will, papa. I will make my body.” And that’s just what he did. Theodore undertook a strenuous exercise program with barbells and boxing gloves, hikes and campouts, on foot and horseback, until he began to get the best of the severe asthma.

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Roosevelt attended Harvard University. He was a gifted if somewhat rambunctious student. He interrupted classroom lectures so often with questions and insights that finally one of his professors burst out, “See here, Roosevelt, I am the one teaching this course.” At first he intended to become a naturalist—a scientist with a special focus on wild animals and plants. In the end, he took a more general degree, graduating magna cum laude (with high honors) in 1880. That same year he married a beautiful young woman named Alice Hathaway Lee of Boston. Roosevelt was head over heels in love with her. He campaigned for her heart, and even threatened to fight a duel with rivals for her affection.

Their marriage was a very short one. Alice gave birth to her first child on February 12, 1884. Two days later she died from complications from her pregnancy. She died of Bright’s Disease. The child, also named Alice, lived (until 1980). But on the same day his wife died, Roosevelt’s mother Mittie died (at 49) in the same house. It was the darkest day of Roosevelt’s life. “The light has gone out of my life,” he wrote.

Eventually Roosevelt remarried. His second wife Edith Carow had been his childhood sweetheart. They fell in love sometime in 1885 and were married on December 2, 1886 in London, England. Edith was a strong, intelligent, resourceful woman, equal to Theodore in mind and a better judge of character. Being the wife of so energetic and impulsive a man could not have been easy. Once she said to him, “You are fortunate. You only have to be married to me, but I have to be married to YOU.” This was said in affection, but there is no doubt that Roosevelt was a source of considerable chaos in Edith’s life. Together they had five children: Theodore, jr. (1887), Kermit (1889), Ethel (1891), Archibald (1894), and Quentin (1897). Alice lived with them too, including in the White House, and proved to be a very rebellious and colorful child.

In 1883 Roosevelt ventured west to the Dakota badlands to hunt a buffalo. After a very difficult hunt in the remotest region of the stark countryside near the Montana border, he got his buffalo. Meanwhile he fell in love with the badlands and impulsively sank a fair amount of his inheritance into first one, and then a second ranch in what is now western North Dakota. He thought he was recreating in his own life the adventures of such American heroes as Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone, and George Rogers Clark. He loved riding the Dakota plains in a buckskin shirt at breakneck speed. Still grieving from the death of his wife and mother, he said, “Black care rarely sits behind a rider whose pace is fast enough.” He killed all sorts of big game during his western years, including a grizzly bear, and he had wild western adventures, such as punching out an abusive gunslinger in a bar, or chasing down the three thieves who stole his boat and marching them overland, under almost impossible spring blizzard conditions, to the nearest sheriff. He had encounters with American Indians that he regarded as potentially hostile. He took long lonely rides in the broken country along the Little Missouri River Valley. He participated in roundups and brandings and he tried unsuccessfully to join a group of vigilantes who were pursuing horse thieves.

He also wrote parts of several books during his badlands years.

Later, visiting Medora, North Dakota, on the campaign trail in 1901, he said, “It was here that the romance of my life began.” Roosevelt regarded his adventure in the Dakota badlands as the formative moment of his life. He later said that he would never have become the President of the United States were it not for these experiences. We may doubt his claim, but he didn’t.

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All of this is interesting, and important, to an understanding of Roosevelt, but it was not his main work in life. He defined himself principally as a public, not a private, man. When the Spanish-American war broke out in April 1898, he resigned as Assistant Secretary of the Navy and cobbled together what he called a “harum scarum group of Rough Riders” and led that voluntary cavalry brigade in the Cuban campaign that culminated on July 1, 1898, in the famous assault on Kettle and San Juan Hills overlooking Santiago. Roosevelt was dashing, resourceful, grimly happy, and reckless. He was lucky not to be killed by Spanish sniper fire. A newspaper reporter said, alone on horseback, Roosevelt was the most conspicuous target in the battle. After the successful assault on what he called “my crowded hour,” and “the great day of my life,” Roosevelt became an instant national hero. This enabled him to advance rapidly in the political arena. He was soon nominated as a reform Governor of New York, but everyone knew that his eye was now on the Presidency.

All of his life Roosevelt was a politician and a reformer. The list of offices he held is long and distinguished. He served three terms as a New York State assemblyman. He was a U.S. Civil Service Commissioner for six years. He was a police commissioner of New York City. He was the Assistant Secretary of the Navy in the first McKinley administration. He was the Governor of New York. Then he became the Vice President of the United States in McKinley’s second administration. When President McKinley was assassinated in September 1901, just months into his second term, Vice President Roosevelt became the 26th President of the United States, and the youngest too. He was just 42 years old when he was inaugurated in an emergency ceremony at the home of a private friend in Buffalo, New York, the city where McKinley had died.

Roosevelt regarded himself as an “accidental President,” because he had not actually been elected to the office. So he campaigned with all of his heart in 1904, although without making public appearances, and he was thrilled to be elected on November 8, 1904, by the largest plurality of votes in American history.

Roosevelt’s Presidency helped to define America’s role in the world in the 20th century. He is sometimes called a “trust buster” for his work to break up huge holding corporations that tended to monopolize business in key American industries. But he was in fact a rather cautious reformer. He pushed for, and signed into law, landmark American legislation: the creation of the Commerce Department; the Newlands Reclamation Act, which permitted the federal government to finance public water storage and irrigation projects in the American West; the Pure Food and Drug Act, which permitted the federal government to regulate the nation’s industrially produced food supply; the National Monuments and Antiquities Act, which enabled President Roosevelt to set aside and protect places of great natural or cultural importance in the American West, like Devil’s Tower and the Grand Canyon.

Roosevelt believed that in an age of urban, industrial capitalism, it was essential that the government of the United States involve itself in protecting natural resources and the least powerful people of America so that everyone in the country got what he called a “square deal.” He believed that if the government did not regulate and reform the business community, the country would become so unfair to average Americans that there might be a socialist revolution here, as there was in Russia in 1905 (and again in 1917).

Roosevelt also played the key role in America’s creation of the Panama Canal. He later said, “I took Panama. . . I built the canal,” but in fact he just took maximum advantage of

82 events that were unfolding before him. Probably there would have been a Panama Canal even if he had never been President, but it might not have come so soon. He was so proud of his achievement—the greatest American event after the Louisiana Purchase and the Annexation of Texas, he said—that he became the first President to leave the United States while in office in order to see the canal’s progress in Panama.

All of his adult life, Roosevelt had been an advocate of a big American military, particularly a big navy. During his Presidency, America’s navy grew from being the fifth largest in the world to the second largest, and it was on its way to being grander even that that of Great Britain. At the end of his tenure, without consulting with Congress, Roosevelt dispatched the entire U.S. Navy on a round-the-world cruise. He called it the Great White Fleet. It was a triumph of naval logistics (keeping coal and other necessary provisions in all of those boats across the entire planet) and of diplomacy, but it was also America’s announcement that it had now become one of the great powers in the world arena. Congressional critics howled and said Roosevelt had no authority to order the fleet on so expensive and risky a circumnavigation. Roosevelt absorbed the criticism and gloried in his achievement. He was on hand in Hampton Roads in the lower Chesapeake in February 1909, to welcome the fleet home, just days before he left the Presidency.

Roosevelt might have been elected to a third term in 1908. There was then no constitutional prohibition on third terms. But he kept a two-term-only pledge he had made on election night 1904 and retired voluntarily from the Presidency in March, 1909. His successor was a friend and trusted lieutenant, William Howard Taft. Roosevelt knew that Taft would have a hard time establishing his own style in the shadow of so vital and popular a President as he had been. So to give him a chance, Roosevelt determined to go on a yearlong safari in Africa with his son Kermit immediately after Taft’s inauguration. They had a bully time, and they killed so many large animals that even Roosevelt was a little sheepish.

When he returned to the United States in 1910, Roosevelt realized that Taft had proved to be a weak successor and that he was jeopardizing many of the reforms that Roosevelt had spent decades working towards. Fueled by admiring friends and reformers, and his own giant ambition and ego, Roosevelt let himself be talked into challenging Taft for the Republican nomination in 1912. It was one of the great mistakes of his life. When Taft won the nomination after all, Roosevelt bolted the Republican Party, which he accused of corruption and desertion of its core principles, and helped to form the Progressive or Bull Moose Party. Taft lost the general election, thanks to Roosevelt, but Roosevelt did not win, though he received the largest third party vote in American history. The Republican schism insured that Woodrow Wilson (the Democrat) won the Presidency in 1912. Roosevelt was denounced as a self-serving and reckless man, who cared more about himself than about the future of the Republican Party.

To nurse his wounds, he decided to go on a lecture tour of South America. While he was there, in late 1913, he was persuaded to join an exploration party whose mission was to chart the River of Doubt, a newly discovered tributary of a tributary of the Amazon River. “It’s my last chance to be a boy!” Roosevelt said, and off he went, portly, unfit, and too old for so difficult an undertaking. His son Kermit went along. The exploration party had one crisis after another. A man drowned. A pet dog was shot full of arrows by Amazonian Indians. There was a mutiny. Everyone got sick. Their boats shattered in the rapids and falls, and their food supply disappeared. Eventually Roosevelt believed he was dying of fever and an infection in his leg caused by a boat accident. He asked Colonel Rhondon, the expedition leader, and his

83 son Kermit to leave him to die beside the river. He could only slow them down, he said, and if they waited for him they might all perish in the wilderness. Kermit positively refused to abandon his father, so somehow Roosevelt found the energy to get himself out of the jungle. But his health never fully recovered. All biographers assume that this last great adventure greatly shortened Roosevelt’s life.

In his last years Roosevelt wrote books on many subjects, and public newspaper columns that badgered President Woodrow Wilson and abused him for not preparing the country for what Roosevelt regarded as its inevitable entry into World War I. When the United States finally entered the war, Roosevelt asked President Wilson to send him with a regiment of Rough Riders to the front in France. Probably Roosevelt wanted to die in battle exhibiting the same indomitable character he had begun to create back when he was eleven years old. President Wilson refused to indulge his old rival. He rightly said that war was now a professional undertaking. Roosevelt was too old and infirm for such a posting. And his celebrity might bring danger to the troops who served with him.

Roosevelt was bitterly disappointed. Still, all four of his sons fought in the Great War. Quentin, the youngest and Roosevelt’s favorite, was shot down in an aerial dogfight in July 1918. He was one of the first American military aviators. Roosevelt took the news stoically, but his spirit was shattered, and he died in bed just a few months later, on January 6, 1919.

Roosevelt was a larger-than-life figure in American history. It would be hard to think of any American historical figure who lived more energetically than he did, sought more risks than he did, wrote more, read more, moved more rapidly or with more decisiveness, than he did. He rightly belongs on Mount Rushmore because it would be impossible to capture his life spirit without employing a mountain as a canvas.

When he left the Presidency in 1909, Roosevelt said, “I don’t think any President ever enjoyed himself more than I did.” To which he added, “I don’t think that any family has ever enjoyed the White House more than we have.”

Probably no person ever enjoyed an American life or made more of sixty hectic years than Theodore Roosevelt, who is buried in the family plot at Oyster Bay, on Long Island, in New York State.

Clay Jenkinson

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APPENDIX 4 THEODORE ROOSEVELT AT YELLOWSTONE

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APPENDIX 5 PHOTOGRAPH OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT AND OTHER MEN AT GRAND CANYON

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APPENDIX 6 PHOTOGRAPH OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT, JOHN MUIR AND OTHER MEN AROUND AN OLE GROWTH REDWOOD

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90

APPENDIX 7 LIST OF CONSERVATIONISTS

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is a list of people who are, or have been, prominent conservationists.

• Edward Abbey - writer and wilderness activist

• Ansel Adams - wilderness and landscape photographer

• Roald Amundsen - Norwegian explorer of polar regions

• Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 10th Earl of Shaftesbury – former president of Sir David Attenborough's British Butterfly Conservation Society

• David Attenborough - host of many BBC Natural History documentaries, naturalist, educator

• Vijaypal Baghel - Environmentalist and Founder president of Paryawaran Sachetak Samiti.

• Frances Beinecke - President of the Natural Resources Defense Council

• Tom Bell — Founder of the Wyoming Outdoor Council and decorated World War II veteran

• Daniel Boone - famous wilderness explorer

• Barbara Boxer - U.S. Senator from the State of California; vocal advocate for environmental issues

• Harvey Broome - wilderness activist

• David Brower - mid-20th century leader of the Sierra Club

• Tom Brown – naturalist

• Ernest Callenbach – environmental writer

• Maria Cantwell - United States Senator from Washington; an environmental senator who was instrumental in the effort to block drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska

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• Arthur Carhart - U.S. Forest Service official who inspired wilderness protection in the United States

• Archie Carr - zoology professor and herpetologist, sea turtle conservationist

• Rachel Carson - scientist who advanced the global environmental movement

• Jimmy Carter - signed the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act in 1980, which protected more land than any single piece of legislation ever passed by Congress

• Jessica Hobby Catto - environmentalist, conservationist, political columnist,who founded the annual American Land Conservation Award and with her husband, Henry E. Catto, founded the Fellowship for a Sustainable Future through the Aspen Institute

• Frank Church - great environmental U.S. Senator; Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness in Idaho, the largest wilderness area in the contiguous 48 states, is named after him

• Frederic Edwin Church - American landscape painter, famous for Twilight in the Wilderness

• Bill Clinton - signed the Roadless area conservation rule just before he left office

• Jeff Corwin - naturalist, Animal Planet host, herpetologist

• Jacques Cousteau - oceanographer, marine biologist

• William O. Douglas - U.S. Supreme Court Justice who was an ardent conservationist

• Gerald Durrell - naturalist, zookeeper, conservationist, writer, television presenter, founder of the Jersey Wildlife Conservation Trust and the Jersey Zoo (now renamed Durrell Wildlife).

• Dwight D. Eisenhower - the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge became a federally protected wilderness area during his administration

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• Dian Fossey - primatologist known for studying gorillas, author, founder of the Digit Fund today known as the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International, was murdered presumably by poachers because of her cause

• Bernard Frank (wilderness activist) - one of the founders of The Wilderness Society

• Birtue Galdikas - primatologist known for studying orangutans, author, founder of Orangutan Foundation International

• Jane Goodall - primatologist known for studying chimpanzees, author, founder of the Jane Goodall Institute

• George Bird Grinnell - prominent early American conservationist

• William Haast - Founder of the Miami Serpentarium, handled venemous snakes and extracted their venom. Lived to age 100 doing this.

• Denis Hayes - leading environmental activist

• Tom K. Houston Founding President & CEO, International SeaKeepers Society, Co-Author California's Prop 65 "the Toxics Initiative", Former President Los Angeles Environmental Quality Board.

• Hubert Humphrey - U.S. Senator from Minnesota in 1956 who presentedthe first draft of the Federal Wilderness Preservation System Bill to Congress

• Celia Hunter - former president of The Wilderness Society

• Steve Irwin - Australian zookeeper, documentary film maker and activist

• Lyndon Baines Johnson - signed the Wilderness Act on September 3, 1964, which permanently guaranteed millions of acres of wild land for future generations of Americans

• Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. - environmental lawyer, Natural Resources Defense Council Senior Attorney

• Aldo Leopold – ecologist, forester and environmentalist; author of A Sand County Almanac

• A. Starker Leopold - son of Aldo Leopold, zoologist and ecologist, writer of the Leopold Report

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• Lewis and Clark - famous wilderness expedition

• Wangari Maathai - Nobel Peace Prize recipient, founder of the Green Belt Movement, political activist

• Benton MacKaye - wilderness activist, founder of the Appalachian Trail

• Bob Marshall (wilderness activist) - principal founder of The Wilderness Society (United States)

• Louis B. Marshall - constitutional lawyer who was instrumental in passing "forever wild" legislation of N.Y.S. Constitution, which permanently protected wilderness in Adirondack and Catskill Forest Preserves

• Bill Mason - wilderness author and canoeist

• Stephen T. Mather - Founder of the National Park Service

• William H. Meadows - current president of The Wilderness Society

• John Muir - author and preservationist, founder of the Sierra Club

• Margaret Murie - "Grandmother of the Conservation Movement"

• Olaus Murie - wilderness activist

• Abi Kusno Nachran - Indonesian rainforest preservation activist

• Roderick Nash - author of "Wilderness and the American Mind"

• Gaylord Nelson - principal founder of Earth Day

• Lone Drøscher Nielsen - working, with Borneo Orangutan Survival for conservation of Bornean orangutans and orangutan habitat.

• Ric O'Barry - former dolphin trainer for the TV show Flipper turned dolphin activist and conservationist, featured in the documentary The Cove

• Ernest Oberholtzer - one of the eight founders of The Wilderness Society

• Sigurd F. Olson–author and environmentalist

• Gifford Pinchot - conservationist, first Chief of the United States Forest Service

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• Ian Player–international conservationist

• Carl Pope - executive director of the Sierra Club

• Alan Rabinowitz - President and CEO of Panthera Corporation, a conservation organization devoted to protecting the world's 36 cat species

• Robert Redford - environmental activist, principal spokesperson for the Natural Resources Defense Council

2 • Theodore Roosevelt - set aside 194,000,000 acres (790,000 km ) of federal land for national parks and nature preserves. He was also instrumental in establishing the United States Forest Service.

• John P. Saylor - Republican member of U.S. House of Representatives who was dedicated to a number of environmental causes, including the Wilderness Act

• Peter Scott - (1909–1989) Founder of the World Wildlife Fund and Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust and the first conservationist to be knighted (in 1973).

• William H. Seward - United States Secretary of State who acquired Alaska from Russia for two cents per acre. Seward's Folly is the largest remaining wilderness in North America

• Charles Alexander Sheldon - the "Father of Denali National Park"

• Willie Smits - working, with Borneo Orangutan Survival for conservation of Bornean orangutans and orangutan habitat

• Gary Snyder –poet and environmentalist

• David J. Soltvedt - wilderness explorer and advocate for selective management and conservation of wildlife populations

• Kieran Suckling – co-founder of the Center for Biological Diversity

• David Suzuki – science broadcaster and environmentalist

• Henry David Thoreau – author, naturalist and development critic

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• Doug Tompkins and Kristine Tompkins - entrepreneurs turned conservationists; together have protected 2,200,000 acres (8,900 km2) in Chile and Argentina.

• Stewart Udall - United States Secretary of the Interior when the Wilderness Act was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964

• Marlice van Vuuren - Conservationist and broadcaster

• Paul Watson - Founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, a co- founder of Greenpeace, and the star of the television show Whale Wars on Animal Planet that documents his organization's yearly trip to the southern ocean to disrupt the illegal activities of Japanese Whalers/ ICR.

• Rob Mies and Kim Williams - bat activists, and founders of the Organization for Bat Conservation

• Robert Sterling Yard - a founding member of The Wilderness Society

• Howard Zahniser - leader of The Wilderness Society, drafted the Wilderness Act

• Clem Coetzee - (c. 1939 – 7 September 2006) was a Zimbabwean conservationist. He developed new methods of big game conservation.