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Wild by Design the Technological Construction of Authenticity, Wilderness, and Nature in America's National Parks, 1860-1945

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Wild by Design the Technological Construction of Authenticity, Wilderness, and Nature in America's National Parks, 1860-1945 Wild by Design The Technological Construction of Authenticity, Wilderness, and Nature in America's National Parks, 1860-1945 By Jonathan M. Shafer A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Auburn University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Auburn, Alabama August 3, 2019 Keywords: national parks, leisure, park paradigm, technology, travel, environment Copyright 2019 by Jonathan M. Shafer Approved by David Lucsko, Chair, Associate Professor of History Alan Meyer, Associate Professor of History Sarah Hamilton, Assistant Professor of History Keith Hebert, Assistant Professor of History Michael Robinson, Professor of Architecture and Landscape Architecture Abstract This dissertation explores the origins of American national park experiences. It explores how several social groups attempted to make the national parks conform to their expectations and desires using political power, financial investments, and democratic advocacy by profiling tourists, government policymakers, business owners who wanted to profit from parks, nature enthusiasts, park rangers, and parks’ former residents. It argues that these groups collectively contributed to a paradigm that defined national parks as unique, wild, natural, unpeopled, profitable, legible, and easily accessible. The dissertation features case studies on Shenandoah and Death Valley National Parks that show the paradigm’s portability. Even though neither of those places was like the national parks created before them, those sites’ supporters succeeded at adding them to the National Park System by physically and rhetorically changing them to fit the park paradigm. The dissertation focuses on these parks because they both entered the national park system in the 1930s, because their staff’s consciously shaped them to be like preexisting national parks, and because both entered the system to accomplish objectives unrelated to natural conservation. This dissertation features archival materials from both parks’ internal archives, the US National Archives and Records Administration, and the auto tourism collection at the Benson Ford Research Center. The evidence shows how a constellation of actors and contemporary circumstances aligned to shape the American National Park System. ii Acknowledgements A friend of mine often jokes that “only graduate students read the acknowledgements.” Nevertheless, I’m grateful for the time and effort Auburn’s history department faculty invested in me, for the encouragement of many friends, and for the support of my girlfriend and family. I owe all of you a beer. I’m especially thankful for the input I received from members of my committee. Your criticism was sometimes hard to read, but it was good for me. If it wasn’t for your willingness to share your honest feedback, I would not have been able to complete this project. Any errors in the pages that follow are mine alone, but I’m happy to share the credit for completing this dissertation with all of you. Jonathan Shafer – Washington, DC May 2019 iii Table of Contents Abstract ......................................................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................................................... iii Table of Contents ......................................................................................................................................... iv Maps .......................................................................................................................................................... viii Map 1. The National Park System .......................................................................................................... viii Map 2. Shenandoah National Park .......................................................................................................... ix Map 3. Death Valley National Park ........................................................................................................... x Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 1 Section 1 - Profiles of groups that shaped the National Park Paradigm ..................................................... 22 1.1 Federal Parks - National Parks as instruments of the State ........................................................ 33 The Perpetual Frontier – National Parks as islands of land that resembled pre-settlement America and as tools to accomplish federal policy objectives .......................................................................... 37 Conserving Creativity - The Federal Writers Project ........................................................................... 43 Federal Influence – Summarizing the federal government’s contribution to the park paradigm ...... 46 1.2 - Selling Scenery - Businesspeople in National Parks .................................................................. 47 A Business Proposition – Businesspeople using parks to promote their financial interests .............. 48 Beyond the Myth –Business’s alliance with the National Park Service, nature enthusiasts, and the Federal Government ........................................................................................................................... 52 Railroads lead the way – Attracting the wealthy to make the people’s parks pay ............................ 56 Consuming Nature – Businesses use parks to sell products ............................................................... 60 Appliances for the Wilderness – Businesspeople and travel authors sell to consumers in the wild.. 65 Conclusion – Still a business proposition ............................................................................................ 70 1.3 - Call of Nature – The Nature Enthusiasts of the Conservation Community in National Parks ........ 72 Historical Precedents – Discovering value in nature’s order .............................................................. 73 The Conservation versus Preservation Debate –Managing parks for production or protection ....... 81 Protecting the Scenery – Interests that nature enthusiasts shared with other groups who influenced the park paradigm ............................................................................................................................... 86 1.4 - Following the Holiday Road – Tourists in the National Parks ......................................................... 90 Manufacturing Opportunities for Leisure – The Early History of National Parks ............................... 92 iv Traveling in Nature - Tourist Transportation ...................................................................................... 97 Parks As the Other – Framing national parks as different from urban spaces ................................... 99 Mechanical Detours – Auto Maintenance and Wilderness Experiences .......................................... 103 Leisure and Conspicuous Consumption – Attraction based travel and the national park paradigm109 Driving Home - Assessing the Effects of Automobility on the Park Paradigm .................................. 111 1.5 - Not Just another Government Bureau – The National Park Service ............................................ 113 Products of Precedent – Ideas and people that shaped the National Park Service ......................... 116 Picking up the cans – Inspiring active and enthusiastic citizenship using the idea of American exceptionalism .................................................................................................................................. 119 Send a Ranger – Staffing the National Park Service .......................................................................... 124 Paid in sunsets – Professional enthusiasm, National Park Service culture, and the park paradigm 129 1.6 - Home on the Range ...................................................................................................................... 135 Park Natives – American Indian dispossession from the parks ........................................................ 137 The Gospel of Development – Euroamerican Residents .................................................................. 140 Using Beauty – Aesthetics, Fertility, and Prosperity ......................................................................... 143 Perspectives on preservation – Residents approach to the scarcity of nature .................................... 148 1.7 – Conclusion: One Best Way ........................................................................................................... 152 Section 2 – An Eastern Park in the Western Tradition – Reshaping Shenandoah to fit the park paradigm .................................................................................................................................................................. 154 Yodeling in the Mountains - George Freeman Pollock’s Skyland Resort .......................................... 155 Mountain Home – Residents effect on Shenandoah’s identity ........................................................ 162 Selling Shenandoah – George Pollock and the park paradigm ......................................................... 167 “The Single Greatest Feature” – Making Shenandoah monumental................................................ 173
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