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“Yosemite: the Story of an Idea” (1948) by Hans Huth

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“Yosemite: the Story of an Idea” (1948) by Hans Huth “Yosemite: The Story of an Idea” (1948) by Hans Huth A - Art Online Discussion Home FAQ Muir Weather Maps Lodging About Search Tweet Like 0 Z Prints Library Forum Online Library: Title Author California Geology History Indians Muir Mountaineering Nature Management Yosemite > Library > Story of an Idea > CalHotels.US Lowest Hotel Rates Guaranteed. Click Here For Yours! Hotel photos, maps, reviews, & discount rates. U.S. Hotels in California (Yosemite, L. A., San Francisco ), AL, AK, AR, AS, AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, DE, FL, FM, GA, GU, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NJ, NY, OK, NV, MH, MP, NM, NC, ND, OH, OR, PA, PR, PW, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, VI WA, WV, WI, WY “Yosemite: The Story of an Idea” (1948) by Hans Huth Foreword, by Carl P. Russell; signed by David R. Brower 1. Introduction 2. The American and Nature 3. Origin of the Park Idea 4. The Idea Grows References About the Author, Hans Huth Hans Huth and His Story “YOSEMITE: THE STORY OF AN IDEA” is one of the most important contributions to the history of the national park idea that has been made in recent years. For one thing, Dr. Huth, in reiterating that Yosemite, not Yellowstone, was the first park of national importance, has made it imperative that future historians abandon the common assumption that the national park idea was born at a campfire in Yellowstone in 1870. Six years before that campfire, Congressional action had already been taken to set aside Yosemite Valley, that it might be enjoyed in perpetuity as a scenic resource for all the people. The proper place of Yosemite in national park chronology is pointed out by Dr. Carl Russell in One Hundred Years in Yosemite. It is of major importance here that Huth traces the course of man’s interest in nature in this country and demonstrates that no other chronology was possible. He shows the importance of Yosemite not only as a birthplace of an idea, but also as a place where the idea could grow. Perhaps Hans Huth’s insight with respect to our national parks is due to his not having grown up among them. He obtained his Ph.D. in Berlin in 1922 and by 1936 had been a curator in the museums of Munich and Berlin and the former Royal Palaces and Gardens in Prussia. He came to this country in 1938, having been invited to lecture at New York University and collaborate in history with the National Park Service, by which he was later appointed consultant. Now Associate Curator of the Art Institute of Chicago, he has published books on decorative arts, sculpture, and gardens, and has contributed to historical and art periodicals here and abroad. Germany has respected cultural objects for generations and has interpreted historic relics for students and the average citizens in an organized way. Huth could see readily enough the practicability of using historic objects as teaching materials in the United States; they could also serve as a type of documentary evidence against which the written word could be checked. He has been instrumental in initiating this method in this country. At the same time, he has http://www.yosemite.ca.us/library/yosemite_story_of_an_idea.html[4/30/2013 12:52:59 PM] “Yosemite: The Story of an Idea” (1948) by Hans Huth manifested great interest in nature protection. He has combined his several interests in “Yosemite: The Story of an Idea.” It is important that the results of his objective study of a park he has never seen be published now, when too many others who have not seen our scenic resources are opposing the concepts and attempting to negate the action of the men of vision of whom he writes. —DAVID R. BROWER Yosemite: The Story of an Idea BY HANS HUTH I. INTRODUCTION THEODORE ROOSEVELT gave status to conservation as national policy by creating, in 1908, the National Conservation Commission. The importance of what he had done did not really engage the public mind until the Dust Bowl catastrophe of the early ’thirties. Only then did the nation learn what it means to have the heavy topsoil of the plains, no longer protected by the original vegetation, carried away by the Mississippi and poured into the Gulf of Mexico. The dramatization in the Dust Bowl of what might be termed a cumulative calamity served to advance the conservation of the nation’s natural resources and the preservation of the educational and recreational values inherent in state and federal parks. The preservation of these values had been initiated at the now famous Conference of Governors in 1908 through the leadership of J. Horace McFarland, at that time President of the American Civic Association. He was the only representative who was farsighted enough to recommend guarding the national domain for its scenic value, which he felt represented “a distinctly important natural resource.” From this time on, the American Civic Association became active in arousing sentiment in favor of establishing a bureau of national parks. Appropriate legislation was finally drafted and passed by Congress in 1916. In the course of the growth of the National Park System it has been frequently stated that with the establishment of Yellowstone National Park in 1874, the idea of national parks was born. More specifically, it has been said that members of the Washburn-Doane Expedition of 1870, in a campfire discussion in Yellowstone, laid the foundation for the national park pattern, and that from there on, like apostles, they carried the new gospel to the people. If things really had happened this way, it would indeed have been something of a miracle. It would have meant that public opinion had been prepared for this supposedly new and unique idea in little more than a year, and that Congress was ready to act favorably “to set apart the vast territory of Yellowstone as a public park or pleasuring ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people.” Ideas of such far-reaching consequence do not ripen overnight; they develop slowly. Any attempt to elucidate the evolution of the national park idea must start by exploring two different processes. One is the legal procedure used for transforming an area into a park for public use, as exemplified in the history of the setting up of Yosemite or Yellowstone as segregated areas under state or federal authority. The other is a process which seems more important and has been given little attention—the shaping of public opinion so that it will either demand or suffer conservation measures. Contrary to the usual assumption, it was not the establishment of Yellowstone but rather the setting apart of Yosemite which was preeminent in the basic conditioning of opinion. Yosemite is the point of departure from which a new idea began to gain momentum. Where the idea will lead can hardly be envisaged, but we do know that the manner in which the entire park system developed in this country is specifically American; the system is an institution admirably suited to fill the needs of the people. II. THE AMERICAN AND NATURE http://www.yosemite.ca.us/library/yosemite_story_of_an_idea.html[4/30/2013 12:52:59 PM] “Yosemite: The Story of an Idea” (1948) by Hans Huth WHAT WAS the attitude of the colonials toward nature, and how did it develop later? To find the answer to this question we could make a detailed study of the treatment of nature in early colonial literature; but it should suffice here to pick out a few significant opinions. Of course we need not stop to inquire about the pioneers’ point of view. They blazed the way and were forced to be uncompromising; they consequently rejected in nature that which was not of immediate and practical use—a philosophy borne out in a little poem published in 1692: In such a wilderness . When we began to clear the Land . Then with the Ax, with Might and Strength, The trees so thick and strong . We laid them all along . [These] we with Fire, most furiously To Ashes did confound. 1 We might also mention one Reverend Johannes Megapolensis, who visited the Cohoes Falls in 1644. Taking no delight in the extraordinary sight of nature, he noticed nothing save the obvious consequences brought about by the descending mass of water. To him, the boiling and dashing water made only a horrible noise and the trees looked as if they were standing in the rain. 2 To traveler and settler alike, nature seemed uncouth in the extreme, and they felt that they were in a “most howling wilderness amidst wild men and beasts.” 3 Toward the beginning of the eighteenth century there were occasional changes in this attitude, even in the core of Puritan stock. For example, Jonathan Edwards, the Connecticut minister, who was dismissed from his pulpit for his too strict adherence to the Puritan dogma, rather freely expressed his deep love for the beauties of nature which he considered an emanation of the Son of God. “We behold the fragrant rose and lily . the easiness and naturalness of trees and rivers are shadows of His beauty . the golden edges of an evening cloud . the blue sky . the ragged rocks . and the brows of mountains.” 4 While such sentiments apparently were admitted in disguised form, a New Englander ordinarily would have frowned on the enjoyment of nature as a pastime, since it would have been neither “useful ” nor “innocent,” but plain wasteful, and therefore vicious and leading to excess and sin.
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