Rebecca Conard

TheNationalConferenceon StateParks: Reflectionson OrganizationalGenealogy

n the morning ofMonday,January l 0, in the capacious rooms of the splendid Fort Des Moines Hotel, at 11 o'clock, [a] far- '' 0 fetched assembly, representing twenty-five states ... got down to business and made history with definite and precisioned step." Edgar R. Harlan, curator of the Iowa State Historical Department, wrote these words to mark what he intuitively understood was a historic occa- sion: the organizational meeting of what would become the National Confer- ence on State Parks, convened in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1921. Harlan also was secretary of the Iowa Board of Conservation and, in this capacity, served as Iowa's point-person for organizing the meeting. In the decade following that initial In 1974, the National Conference meeting of minds, the National Con- on State Parks ceased to exist by that ference on State Parks (NCSP) name, but two organizations claim its emerged as the most important forum legacy. One is the National Associa- for debating ideological as well as tion of State Park Directors, orga- administrative issues of park devel- nized within the NCSP in 1962. The opment and management. It pro- other is the National Society for Park vided a broader framework for dis- Resources, which functions as a sec- cussio n than other organizations tion of the National Recreation and concerned with park development Park Association (NRP A), a non- and management at the time, notably profit consortium organized in 1965 the American Institute of Park Ex- and dedicated to advancing parks for ecutives, the American Society of human leisure. The significance of Landscape Architects, and the Play- this bifurcation is as subtle as it is ground and Recreation Association complex. Reflecting on the motives of America. However, during the thatbroughtapproximately two hun- late 1930s a process of institutional dred people together in January of transmigration began, a process that 19 21 and that animated debate would lead the NCSP into a com- within the NCSP during the next plexly linked set of organizations, the decade illuminates the issues and very nature of which reflected con- concerns that still bind as well as dis- tinuing ambivalence in society about tinguish those who influence the the purpose and functions ofparks. management of public lands. THEFIRSTNATIONALPARK CONFERENCE OF THE WORLD

Banquet atthe Hotel FortDes Moines, January 11, 1921 DesMoinesIowa

Two hundred men and women as- ments of conservation or state park sembled in Des Moines, but this boards; municipal park administra- overstates the magnitude of the 1921 tors; prominent natural scientists and conference since more than half of landscape architects; and representa- those in attendance were Iowans, tives from the Sierra Club, the Na- even through the invitation list num- tional Municipal League, the Ameri- bered more than 1,500 people drawn can Scenic and Historic Preservation from all forty-eight states, plus Society, the General Federation of Washington, D.C., and Canada. Women's Clubs, the Garden Club of Moreover, the Des Moines gathering America, the U.S. Bureau of Biologi- was billed as the first National Con- cal Survey, the Federal Highway ference on Parks, not the first national Council, and the National Park to conference on state parks. This dis- Park Highway Association. Delegates crepancy caused no little confusion also included a wide range of local for about two years. Nonetheless, the and state organizations: birding first conference drew an eclectic clubs, historical societies, farm and group, and this was the source of its garden associations, wildflower pres- strength as a forum for debate. The ervation societies, commercial clubs, crowd included representatives from civic leagues, nature study groups, a handful of existing state depart- and the like. In addition, there were a few publishers of outdoor magazines, State Parks would take during the although press coverage of the event 1920s. Mather's reason for promot- was minimal. ing a state park organization was fairly The assembly of 1921 was, as transparent. The Park Service was Harlan claimed, a historic occasion, inundated with requests for creating but the history as it unfolded was not national parks in areas that he and his exactly made with the same "definite staff felt were "more oflocal interest." and precisioned step" that apparently National park designation was to be brought conferees to Des Moines. reserved for areas of "supreme and The first few years of the NCSP went distinctive quality" or containing by more like a high school marching "some natural feature so unique as to band, each row marching to its own be of national importance." Mather beat and the whole unified only by thus saw state parks as a medium for forward momentum. As a case in protecting and preserving places that point, Harlan captured something of were less than "supreme" in their the early confusion in a letter to for- scenic quality or rarity. mer Secretary of the Interior John Mather's purpose gave rise to the Barton Payne, who served as the first perception ofstate parks as simply the NCSP president and chairman of the second tier of a nationwide park sys- board. "[N]otwithstanding the im- tem. However, in Iowa, NCSP's measurable benefits I have received birthplace, the creators of the state from the two meetings with which I park system neither intended it to be a have been connected," Harlan wrote, smaller-scale model of the national referring to the 1921 and 1922 con- system, nor did they entirely appre- ferences, "I have never yet caught the ciate the trying fundamental purpose nor the source to impose standards and guidelines or inspiration of the enterprise." To for the development and administra- another correspondent Harlan wrote: tion of state parks. An important goal "I do not quite gather the source of of those who framed Iowa's 1917 the influences that are, or were be- State Park Act was to use state parks hind the meeting, nor the objects and as a vehicle for creating a central state purposes. I feel that it is almost agency that could address interrelated wholly the creature of Mr. Mather of resource conservation problems: re- the National Park Service, and that forestation, lake preservation, water that service is intended to be benefi- quality, soil conservation, wildlife cial." protection, the preservation of rare Stephen Mather, the ambitious plant species and unusual geologic first director of the National Park formations, and the preservation of Service, was indeed the instigator, historic and prehistoric sites. Recre- although he either never tried or was ational use was considered one func- unable to dictate completely the di- tion of state parks, but not the reason rection the National Conference on for being. For that matter, the 1916 legislation creating the National Park construed as "conservation parks." Service did not mention recreation. But beyond distinguishing "conser- Mather, however, being a pragmatist, vation parks" from baseball parks and cultivated public support for the new auto parks, Macbride, like others, federal park system by emphasizing resorted to vague language when he tourism. Texans thought in a similar tried to define his terms. The mode. Governor Pat Neff and D. E. difficulty that state park advocates had Colp, the long-time chairman of the in defining their territory was Texas State Parks Board (1923- underscored when the NCSP 1935), unabashedly promoted state committee charged with drafting a parks adjacent to principal highways uniform state park law reported at the as a means to increase automobile second annual conference that, after a tourism within the state and thereby year of study, it did not think the task stimulate the state economy. Like- possible. wise, Governor Arthur Hyde of Mis- If an agreed-upon definition of souri, envisioned a "chain of parks" "state park" remained elusive, there that would attract tourists to drive were still concrete issues to deal with. Missouri's new highway system. One issue agitating many people was In retrospect, there seems to have "the transportation question," a eu- been no common mission among phemism for the weekend "nature those who participated in the Na- lovers" who stripped park roads of tional Conference on State Parks, their wildflowers while motoring which had formally adopted that through and the automobile campers name by the 1922 conference. In- who found state parks a convenient stead offostering a common mission, place to gather firewood and leave NCSP provided a venue for seeking their trash. On this issue, common "common ground" as state park ad- ground was hard to find, yet E. R. ministrators and activists grappled Harlan, for one, considered the with a host of issues that came transportation question "vital" to any wrapped up in the designation of serious discussion ofstate parks. "state parks." At one extreme, J. Ho- As the first secretary of the NCSP, race McFarland, president of the Harlan corresponded with many American Civic Association, saw people. Therefore, he was in a posi- state parks as a recreational "square tion to know how eager commercial deal"-outdoor playgrounds for interests were to be central figures in families who did not have the means the state park movement. Among to travel to far-away national parks. those attending the Des Moines con- At the other extreme was Thomas ference was Charles Hatfield, general Macbride, the source of inspiration manager of the St. Louis Convention, for Iowa's state parks. Macbride, a Publicity and Tourist Bureau; also botanist at the University of Iowa, ar- president of the Associated Advertis- gued that "real" state parks should be ing Clubs, president of the National Association of Convention Bureaus, moters, boys' and girls' clubs, and and an officer in the national Cham- other privately sponsored groups. A ber of Commerce. Several months month later, the second gathering of after the Des Moines gathering, Hat- the National Conference on State field proposed that St. Louis host the Parks met separately at Bear Moun- second conference, and that he and tain Inn, located in New York's Pal- his staff of sixteen stage the event. By isades Interstate Park. From that this time Harlan was growing weary point on, there was greater distance of trying to find the means to clear up between those who were concerned a stack of unpaid bills from the 1921 with the purposes, development, and meeting and to publish the confer- administration of state parks, per se, ence proceedings-which never were and those who were more focused on published in their entirety, only in promoting recreation and automo- abstract form in Iowa Conservation, a bile tourism in general. short-lived quarterly published by the Despite this sifting of what might Iowa Conservation Association. be loosely termed public and private Nevertheless, an exchange of letters interests, the genius of the state park between Harlan and Hatfield indi- movement is that it attracted, and cates that Harlan, even though he was managed to hold, remarkably diverse anxious to have someone with ad- interests. One powerful constituency ministrative talent take charge of the considered outdoor recreation to be fledgling organization, was politely the primary function of state parks. In skeptical of Hatfield's motives. large part this view was shaped not Presumably, others shared Har- only to the increasing affordabilty of lan's skepticism, since Hatfield issued automobiles, but to the increasing a "special bulletin" that went out with availability of leisure time ·among a invitations to attend the first meeting growing middle class. At the 1921 of the National Federation of Out- meeting, William G. Howard, assis- door Clubs, which was held in St. tant superintendent of New York's Louis in April 1922. Hatfield's bul- state forest, noted that the Adiron- letin emphatically stated that this new dack and Catskill state parks were federation was not being organized in "within twelve hours' journey of opposition to the National Park Ser- twenty million people.... From this vice. At the same time, the invitation point of view, they are accordingly itself made it clear that no federal or the most important vacation grounds state officials were welcome. The in the United States." proposed National Federation of Others saw in state parks a way to Outdoor Clubs was to be a meeting of link natural resource conservation park and playground associations, with social reform. President rod and gun clubs, garden clubs, flo- laid the ral protective societies, wildlife pro- groundwork for this linkage at the tective associations, good roads pro- 1908 National Conservation Con- gress, when he advocated a federal pearing natural resources-plant public health program for the species, wildlife species, and land- "conservation of human health." form types-motivated a third com- Contemporary writers thereafter be- ponent, which included many natural gan to speak of "human conserva- scientists. Landscape architect Jens tion," an idea that struck a responsive Jensen of Chicago made an eloquent chord in women especially. plea for state parks as preserves of Women became willing campaigners natural areas at the 1921 conference. for state parks as a means to address Like others who were driven by multiple social concerns. By promot- preservationist motives, Jensen at- ing parks and conservation, women tached moral, even spiritual, value to felt they were promoting better public state parks. "Their value," in his health, especially among children, words, "isn't the matter of play or and instilling in youth, through such sport, it is not the matter of just activities as nature education, a love camping and having some fun with of country. In this way, state parks your friends. It is something deeper. became part and parcel of the grand It means building up the character of experiments in social engineering as- the people.... Because the one who sociated with the progressive era. understands the message of the way- The quest for human conserva- side flower and the one who feels the tion, however, did not belong exclu- beauty of whatever is left of the flow- sively to women. The con- ers that once covered the prairies of tingent appealed to the 1921 assem- Iowa and the bluffs of Illinois, that bly to think of state parks as "social one learns tolerance and love." safety valves on the seething and Conservation and park advocates strained boilers of humanity .... " also tended to conceive of natural Richard Lieber, the first director of history and cultural history as two the Indiana Department of Conser- sides of the same coin. If coming gen- vation, who also served as both the erations were to understand and ap- president and chair of the NCSP preciate their heritage, the legacy board for many years in the 1930s must encompass a tangible, cultural and 1940s, believed firmly that hu- history as well as a natural history. man conservation was the primary From this perspective, state parks function of parks. W. O.Filley of the were another means to preserve State Park Commission of Connecti- "places of historic interest," although cut also extolled the restorative value that term must be understood within of parks at the 1921 meeting. After the context of the time. Prehistoric quoting a bit from the 22nd Psalm, he sites, such as Indian mounds, repre- announced his belief that restoring sented cultures past, so everyone the "soul of man is the fundamental agreed on their significance. Beyond principle of all park work." that, definitions of "historic place" The preservation of rare or disap tended to fuse with a desire to foster nationalism, or at least a distinctive pra1ne, forest, lake, river, and national identity. mountain scenery; Since historic sites came to be • The preservation of wildlife, with- considered afterthoughts of most state out and within parks, was one of parks systems as the years rolled by, it the great duties of the current gen- is worth remembering that the cre- eration; ation of historical parks actually pre- • Either as public parks or monu- dated the setting aside of public land ments, important historic sites and for scenic, scientific, and recreational trails should be preserved, purposes. New York established the marked, and maintained for in- first state historical park in 1849, struction and inspiration; when it purchased the site in New- • Public parks should be within easy burgh where George Washington access of all people; and had headquartered during the Revo- • A great system of inter-city, inter- lutionary War. After the Civil War, state, and national park highways states began to acquire battlefield was desirable, lined oneither side sites. Sites associated with the Indian with characteristic trees and wild- Wars followed. When the NCSP flowers "to serve as memorials of published its first survey of state parks the past." in 1922, ten states reported a total of thirty-four state parks established for Conspicuously missing from the the principal purpose of preserving a resolutions was the transportation historic site. Most of the state parks in question E. R. Harlan raised in his North Dakota, Illinois, Pennsylvania, 1922 letter to John Barton Payne. and Texas were, in fact, historic The omission suggests how deeply sites. divided park advocates were on this The long list of resolutions passed subject. Stephen Mather, however, at the close of the 1921 conference was not so conflicted. In his formal reflected the range of concerns and is- address to the Des Moines assembly, sues that energized those in atten- Mather extolled the virtues of camp- dance. Among other things, the dele- grounds in state parks to aid the gates professed a common belief that: "development of motor tourist travel." A year later he introduced • Public parks were necessary for the goal of establishing a state park the best development of patrio- every hundred miles from coast to tism, of efficient manhood and coast, an idea that soon became the womanhood, and of business and NCSP slogan. civic life in the United States; By the third conference, held at • Parks should include not only in Indiana in ample and organized provision for 1923, there was frank disagreement recreation, but also preserve areas about the fundamental purposes of embracing the varied types of state parks. Barrington Moore, speaking on behalf of the Ecological We must work together .... With your Society of America, forerunner of forestry you get recreation as a part of The Nature Conservancy, observed it. If you drop out forestry you make that, by this time, "the primary incen- recreation the sole thing .... " Ulti- tive" for creating state parks seemed mately, the differences of opinion that to be "outdoor recreation, to supply might have factionalized the state public playgrounds for the congested park movement seem to have been populations of the cities; often ... smoothed over in three ways: {l) by scenic features are unimportant." allowing the definition of a state park Lengthy discussion that year over to remain fluid and expansive; (2) by the wording of Article II of the pro- elevating "scenic quality" to the status posed Constitution underscored of "natural resource"; and (3) by Moore's point. As initially drafted, urging that the threats posed by out- Article II began: "The objects [of the door recreational use be curbed NCSP] shall be to urge upon our through educational campaigns and governments, local, county, state and programs. national, the acquisition of sites suit- For the remainder of the decade, able for recreation and preservation state park directors, boards, and of wild life .... " However, after three commissions increasingly turned sessions of debate that focused, in their attention to discussing adminis- large part, on the relationship be- trative matters and spent relatively tween forest reserves and parks, the less time debating potentially divisive delegates finally accepted a much issues. In this regard, A State Park broader statement that read: "The Anthology, a collection of conference objects shall be to urge upon our gov- addresses and articles from the ernments, local, county, state and na- 1920s, is revealing because it pro- tional, the acquisition of land and vides a bird's-eye view of how the in- water areas suitable for recreation, ner circle conceived the mission of and preservation of wild life, as a state parks at the end of the decade- form of the conservation of our na- just a few years before federal conser- tional resources, until eventually vation and work relief programs there shall be public parks, forests, would vastly alter the landscape of and preserves within easy access of all state parks. Biologist Stanley Coulter the people of our Nation .... " of Purdue University, who chaired Richard Lieber, among others, ar- the Indiana Conservation Commis- gued forcefully in favor of keeping sion for a time in the 1920s, defined park work and forestry separate. In scenery as a "natural resource" in an the end, however, Barrington Moore article of the same title. In words that persuaded his colleagues to adopt the evoked the sentimentality of Jens broader perspective. "[W]e are Jensen, he claimed that the "creative pulling apart," he noted, "and that is silences" and the "vastness" of nature why we have not gotten any further. gave "new values to life." "We long to push back horizons," he wrote, "to of the 'major sports' of California"; escape from the littlenesses which (2) the acquisition of private vacation have starved our souls .... Scenery is a cabins; and (3) the frequenting of natural resource beyond compare, if commercially operated hotels, re- through its vastnesses it touches our sorts, camps, and restaurants. Olm- souls and makes them more eager for sted was no sentimentalist. As he saw greater and better work." it, scenic and recreational lands were Defining "scenery" as a natural re- "the final things which economic source did two things. It offered a prosperity enable[ d] people to buy." democratically broad concept that In his no-nonsense view, states had a captured everything from spectacular dual role to play in conserving scenic redwood forests to generically pic- and recreational resources for public turesque topography. Nature may not use. One of these was public educa- have distributed superlative land- tion-to teach the public how to use scapes equally or evenly across the scenic and recreational areas. The land, but every state could claim second responsibility, in his estima- "natural scenery." It also sidestepped tion, was to take direct measures to the overtones of academic elitism in- prevent the unwarranted destruction herent in assertions that state parks and exploitation of resources, either should be "used" to preserve unique, by proprietary control-i.e., acquir- rare, and threatened resources-be ing parks and other public landhold- they plant, animal, geologic, or cul- ings-or by regulation under the po- tural-for their scientific and educa- lice power. tional value alone. During the latter 1920s, the Na- Preserving natural scenery and tional Conference became increas- providing for outdoor recreation thus ingly pragmatic, although at the fifth became the agreed-upon twin func- annual conference, held at Skyland in tions of state parks during the latter Virginia, landscape architect Jam es 1920s. By the end of the decade, this Greenleaf was still trying to stifle the rationale was so widely accepted that energy of outdoor recreation boosters landscape architect Frederick Law and automobile enthusiasts. In Olmsted,Jr., son of the more famous pointed remarks aimed at Texas landscape architect who designed Governor Pat Neff, he warned against Central Park and the Biltmore Estate the "vulgarizing" of state parks, and gardens, created a typology ofways in suggested replacing the slogan "A which people expressed "the intrinsic state park every hundred miles" with value they placed on natural scenery "A State Park wherever Nature and outdoor recreation," as if state smiles: a motor camp every hundred parks were simply the inevitable re- miles." Nevertheless, by the late sult of commonly shared values. His 1920s the debate over defining the typology included: (1) automobile term "state park" had given way to tourism, which Olmsted called "one prescriptive guidelines for selecting lands that were suitable for state parks, national forests, and scenic parks. Geologist Wilbur Nelson, who highways. also was a member of the NCSP • Fourth, state parks "should be ge- board of directors, was among those ographically distributed with a who offered a list of "fundamental" view to securing a wide and repre- criteria. In Nelson's opinion, the sentative variety of types for the three most essential factors to con- State as a whole." sider in the selection of state park land were: {l) a population without space Prescriptions for developing state to play; (2) an unpopulated area; and parks went hand-in-hand with guide- (3) transportation facilities between lines for selecting state parks. Here, them. "Without a large population," too, the balance was delicate, but Nelson flatly stated, "there would be public demand for recreational uses no use for State Parks." was often the controlling factor. Al- Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. was bert M. Turner, who undertook one less blunt in his 1929 recommenda- of the first state park surveys in the tions to the state of California, but no United States for the Connecticut less pragmatic. Olmsted offered four Park and Forest Commission, offered "chief criteria for determining what common sense as the rule-of-thumb. areas should be included in an To the question of "How far shall we 'ultimate, comprehensive State park develop a State Park?", Turner an- system'." swered: 'just so far as its anticipated use in the immediate future seems to • First, " [ t]hey should be sufficiently demand; and if any doubt exists distinctive and notable to interest about the anticipated use, wait and people from comparatively distant see." Continuing, he reported that parts of the State ... , not merely "[i]n Connecticut ... we like to start good enough to attract people with the best natural features we can from the region in which they are get title to, and keep such work as situated." must be done in harmony with the • Second, "[t]heyshould be charac- picture. There are no rules for such terized by scenic and recreational work; it is an art." resources of kinds which are un- During the 1930s, the art and arti- likely to be ... conserved and made fice of state park development be- available for enjoyment under pri- came much more standardized. Fed- vate ownership." eral aid through various New Deal • Third, according to Olmsted, state agencies-especially the Civilian parks "should be as nearly as pos- Conservation Corps-stimulated an sible just sufficient in number and unprecedented level of park devel· extent and kind" to fill public de- opment throughout the United States. mand that could not be supplied Thirty-seven states acquired new through local parks, national lands and expanded their park sys- terns. The CCC program prompted cies thought their park systems should another eight states to establish their function like national parks. That as- firststateparks. New Deal work-re- sessment awaits additional studies of lief and conservation programs state park administration. brought state park agencies into much In any case, NCSP became much closer cooperation with the National less visible after 1935, when it be- Park Service. Most certainly, the net- came loosely federated with the work of contacts established by the American Civic Association, the Na- National Conference facilitated co- tional Conference on City Planning, operation. Additionally, the NCSP's the American Institute of Park Ex- executive secretary, Herbert Evison, ecutives, and the American Park So- moved to the National Park Service, ciety. At the same time, NCSP where he coordinated work with state maintained its strong ties with the park agencies. National Park Service. NCSP became New Deal programs also firmly the pipeline for gathering statistical established the National Park Service data on state parks, published annu- as the arbiter of park design at all lev- ally by NPS under the general title of els: national, state, and local. As a re- State Park Statistics. More structure sult, state parks began to look much was added to the relationship in more like national parks because rus- 1956, when NCSP and NPS imple- tic-style buildings constructed of na- mented a program known as Park tive materials and sited in naturalistic Practice, which resulted in a series of settings became the park aesthetic. publications: Design; Grist; Guide- And most of that new construction lines; and Trends. was designed to accommodate, en- A new wave of demand for out- hance, and stimulate outdoor recre- door recreation in the 1950s and ation. 1960s, together with new federal Iflowa's history is any guide, New funding initiatives designed to meet Deal funds for park development also that demand-especially the 1964 generated an undercurrent of resent- Land and Water Conservation Fund ment. This was because federal aid Act-caused members of NCSP to vastly expanded the recreational po- re-examine the organization's rela- tential of state parks and, in the pro- tionship with the National Park Ser- cess, undermined the resource pro- vice as well as its goals in relation to tection goals that had been an impor- other professional organizations. tant component of Iowa's state park State park directors, in particular, ex- management in the 1920s. Thus, pressed concern that NPS and other while state parks may have looked federal agencies were beginning to more like smaller-scale national parks dominate the organization and that, when the New Deal came to an end as NCSP affiliated with other park on the eve of World War II, it is not and conservation groups, the organi- clear just how many state park agen- zation's long-standing focus on state parks was beginning to fade. As a re- opment and management issues as sult, state park directors formed the they pertained specifically to state National Association of State Park parks, while the National Society for Directors in 1962 as an independent Park Resources continued to advance organization but still affiliated with support for providing recreation in NCSP. state as well as national and local With state park directors semi-de- parks. In this sense, NSPR carried on tached from NCSP, the organization the mission of those who, like quickly moved into closer alliance Richard Lieber, J. Horace McFar- with other organizations and with the land, and W. O.Filley, emphasized National Park Service. In 1965, the restorative value of parks. While NCSP joined with three other orga- their modern counterparts prefer the nizations-the National Recreation term "human leisure" to "human Association, the American Recre- conservation," the underlying con- ation Society, and the American cern remains essentially the same: to Institute of Park Executives-to form improve society by encouraging in- the core of the National Recreation dividuals to make constructive use of and Park Association. The fiftieth leisure time in outdoor activities. anniversary of NCSP, celebrated by Organizational evolution under- reconvening in Des Moines in 1971, scores the enduring nature of funda- marked another turning point. By that mental and sometimes conflictive is- time, the emphasis on state parks no sues in park development and man- longer reflected the organization's agement, although they may be mani- "breadth of mission, especially in fest in modern forms. As trends in light of the new national emphasis on outdoor recreation change, for in- conservation and the environ- stance, the debate over appropriate ment." Consequently, in 1974 park development continues. At one NCSP abandoned its long-standing time, children's playgrounds gener- name in favor of the National Society ally were considered inappropriate in for Park Resources-NSPR). Today, state parks; today, many state parks NSPR functions as one of eleven affil- provide not only playgrounds but iates of the National Recreation and swimming pools and other recre- Park Association. Their common ational facilities designed specifically goal is to promote recreation and for youth or for families with young leisure services in park and recreation children. During the early years, agencies at all levels. some administrators grudgingly ad- The broad forum for debate con- mitted golf courses into their state structed in the 1920s thus dissolved parks. Today, that same apprehen- in the 1960s and early 1970s. The sion may be directed at equestrians National Association of State Park demanding miles of riding trails and Directors preserved NCSP's com- horse camps. The transportation prehensive focus on the mix of

Endnotes

0 [George Bennett], "The National Park Conference at Des Moines, lowa,January 10-11- 12, 1921," Iowa Conservation 5 Oanuary-March 1921), 14. The American Institute of Park Executives was founded in 1898 as the New England Association of Park Superintendents. The American Society of Landscape Architects organized in 1899. The Playground and Recreation Association of America, founded in 1906, became the National Recreation Association in 1930. Harlan to Payne, 29 November 1922, Harlan Papers, State Historical Society oflowa, Des Moines. Harlan to Mrs. H.S. Vincent, 27 July 1922, Harlan Papers. Stephen T. Mather, "The National State Park Corference," undated announcement of the 1922 NCSP, Palisades Interstate Park, 1922;Harlan to Dr. H. R. Francis and Major W.A. Welch, 1September 1922, Harlan Papers; Alfred Runte, National Parks: The American Experience, 2nd edition (Lincoln: Univ. Nebraska Press, 1987), 217; Robert Shankland, Steve Mather ofthe National Parks, 3rd edition (New York: Knopf, 1970), Chapter 14. Rebecca Conard, Places of Quiet Beauty: Parks, Preserves, and Environmentalism (Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1997), esp. Ch. 2, 39-70. Alfred Runte explores this theme thoroughly in National Parks: The American Experience; see also Runte, Trains of Discovery: Western Railroads and the National Parks (Flagstaff, AZ: Northland Press, 1984). James Wright Steely, excerpts of Parks for Texas (University of Texas Press, forthcoming 1998) to author, 11August1996. Susan Flader, "Evolution of the System," in Flader, et al., Exploring Missouri's Legacy: State Parks and Historic Sites (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1992), 4. Proceedings of the Second National Conference on State Parks (Washington, D.C.: NCSP, 1923), 56-57. 10 Thomas H. Macbride, "Parks and Parks,'' Bulletin:Iowa State Parks 2 (1922), 13-14. II Proceedings ofthe Second National Conference on State Parks, 14 7. 12 Harlan to Payne, 19 November 1922. Hatfield to Harlan, 20 September 1921; Harlan to Hatfield, 3 October 1921; Hatfield to Harlan, 31December1921; Harlan to Hatfield, 31 December 1921; Arthur Carhart to Harlan, 11 March 1922; Charles F. Hatfield, "Special Bulletin from Organization Committee, National Federation of Outdoor Clubs, St. Louis, Mo.,'' n.d.; "An Invitation to attend the first meeting of the National Federation of Outdoor Clubs, April 24-27 [1922], Harlan Papers. 14 [Bennett], "The National Park Conference,'' 20. 15 Samuel P. Hays, Conservation and the Gospel of Efficiency: The Progressive Conservation Movement, 1890-1920 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1959), 176; see, for instance, Charles R. Van Hise, The Conservation ofNatural Resources in the United States (New York: Macmillan, 1910); Richard T. Ely, et al., The Foundations of National Prosperity: Studies in the Conservation of Permanent Natural Resources (New York: Macmillan, 1917). The National Conservation Congress even made "the conservation ofhuman life" its theme in 1913. 16 Although the number of women delegates to the 1921 conference was relatively small, their influence was significant. Mrs. Charles Hutchinson of Chicago, Mrs. Wm. H. MacDonald ofWisconsin-both of them representing the Garden Club of America-and Mrs. Cora Call Whitley of Iowa-representing the General Federation of Women's Clubs-called for a "National Conservation Day" as a means of promoting outdoor nature study for youth. Their suggestion became one of the resolutions passed at the end of the conference. 17 [Bennett], "National Park Conference," 22. 18 Ibid. 19 At this point,Jensen slipped over into hyperbole. Without missing a beat, he continued, "[I]fwe can get love and tolerance into every American, we shall have no more war and we shall have no more criminals." In Bennett, "The National Park Conference," 18. 20 Proceedings ofthe Second NCSP, passim. See also Raymond H. Torrey, State Parks and Recreational Uses of State Forests in the United States (Washington, D.C.: National Conference on State Parks, 1926), 21-24, 94-96, 235-36; Beatrice Ward Nelson, State Recreation: Parks, Forests and Game Reservations (Washington, D.C.: National Conference on State Parks, 1928), 205-208. 21 [Bennett], "National Park Conference," 24. 22 Stephen T. Mather, "The United States of America and Its Parks," Iowa Conservation 5 (1921), 13. Stephen T. Mather, "State Parks-Their Relation to the National Park System," Proceedings ofthe Second NCSP, 83. 24 As quoted in L. H. Pammel's report on "The Third Conference on State Parks, Turkey Run State Park, Indiana," Harlan Papers. 25 Proceedings of the Third National Conference on State Parks (Washington, D.C.: NCSP, 1923), 20, 24-27, 30-35. 26 Proceedings of the Third NCSP, 34-35. 27 Stanley Coulter, "Scenery-A Natural Resource," in Herbert Evison, ed., A State Park Anthology (Washington, D.C.: National Conference on State Parks, 1930), 14. 28 Frederick Law Olmsted, [Jr.], "Present-Day Outdoor Recreation and the Relation of State Parks to It," (from California Park Survey, 1929), in A State Park Anthology, 18- 22; Olmsted is erroneously identified as his father. 29 James L. Greenleaf, "The Study and Selection of Sites for State Parks," in A State Park Anthology, 75-76.JimSteelyadds: "This bears much more debate, but [Neff] sincerely wanted the populace to benefit from nature, and saw the automobile as the democratic way for most people to access nature. Colp was much more motivated by commercial benefits of automobile services, but he, too, loved the outdoors and hoped to present it to the public." Steely to author, 19 May 1997. 30 Wilbur A. Nelson, "What Lands are Suitable for State Parks?" in A State Park Anthology, 83-84. 31 Frederick Law Olmsted, [Jr.],"Bases for the Selection of State Parks," in A State Park Anthology, 67-69. 32 Albert M. Turner, "How Far Shall We 'Develop' State Parks?" in A State Park Anthology, 117-118. 33 Colorado, Mississippi, , New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia; see Linda Flint McClelland, Presenting Nature: The Historic Landscape Design of the National Park Service, 1916 to 1942 (Washington, D.C.: National Park Service, 1993), 252-253. 34 Maxwell Ramsey, "The National Society for Park Resources, What's in a Name? 75 Years Toward a National Cause," Trends 33:2 (1996), 5. 35 Ramsey, 6. Design, Grist, and Trends are now jointly produced by the National Recreation and Park Association and the National Park Service. 36 Ramsey, 6-7. 37 Ramsey, 7.

Rebecca Conard, Department of History, Wichita State University, Wichita, Kansas 67260-0045