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The history surrounding the National Parks is more complex and disturbing that what we think. In the Progressive Ere, America became increasingly urbanized. This caused much of the government to enact policies that restricted urbanization and environmental impact. Out of this wave of policies came the National Parks System (NPS). The NPS was tasked with lofty and righteous goals of protecting nature from the sprawl of man and save the delicate ecosystems the government identified as important. These newly established parks also encouraged the American public to “got back to nature,” and escape the slums and pollution caused by urbanization. However, the consequences of this system, as some historians and scholars argue, proved more harmful than good.
General themes come from the context of the National Parks System. The most obvious one is conservation and man’s place in nature. In Playing God In Yellowstone, Alston Chase argues that the mission to protect Yellowstone has actually hurt the park. With the creation of the park, the ecosystem suffered consequences that started when park rangers began hunting the predators in the park. Wolves and mountain lions were targeted because they were seen as “threats” to the ecosystem and man. In turn, this caused the elk and bison population to increase, which then caused a loss in vegetation which other animals fed off of. Also, the park became government property which evicted indians, who hunted the bison and elk, from the park. Similarly, Karl Jacoby’s Crimes Against Nature argues that the development of the NPS imposed a a view of nature upon the land. Park rangers and managers created “nature as it ought to be.” Basically, they designed the parks so people could visit them. Jacoby goes into more depth about the people who lived and survived off park lands. Rugged individuals were now seen as squatters, and indians, who hunted in the park, were now poachers. Jacoby creates this rugged dualism of the park system and the people involved in its creation.
Another theme coming from the National Parks is that of a social space. Jacoby speaks about how park managers created a space that was in nature, but not natural. Lynn Ross-Bryant’s Pilgrimage to the National Parks talks about how the visitors of the parks created meanings of the parks and how these meanings have shifted over time. She views the parks as a symbolic function that generated ideas about nature and nation. The parks also became sacred spaces for the individuals that visited them. They could forge their own experiences or reenact the visits told by an older generation.