Editor’s Notice: This text was written by Colin simply earlier than the latest unprecedented flooding in Yellowstone, our nation’s first nationwide park. As we replicate on the importance of the upcoming July 4th Anniversary – and the concept that the nationwide parks are the Declaration of Independence utilized to the land – the injury and closings that resulted from this catastrophe make us all admire the enduring treasures of our nationwide parks greater than ever.
There have been no nationwide parks inside the vary of my touring capabilities once I was rising up. I didn’t actually know what a nationwide park was. The phrases didn’t evoke any sort of picture inside my expertise. I by no means visited one till I used to be an grownup. It took me a very long time to study to understand what an amazing factor the nationwide parks are.
I’ve to credit score the Ken Burns-Dayton Duncan movie “The Nationwide Parks: America’s Greatest Concept” for opening my eyes to the total magnitude of that concept. I used to be just about satisfied of the reality of their thesis, that the Nationwide Parks actually is likely to be “America’s Greatest Concept,” after the founding of the nation and the formulation of democracy itself.
In an interview, Duncan mentioned, “I’ll make the argument that the nationwide parks is our greatest concept. And the reason being as a result of it’s truly an expression of the Declaration of Independence utilized to the panorama, which is that probably the most lovely, most majestic, and, I might say, sacred locations in our nation ought to be put aside not for royalty or the wealthy or the effectively linked, because it had been in all recorded historical past, however for everybody and all the time.”
Right this moment the concept has been picked up all around the world. The Worldwide Union for Conservation of Nature counts greater than 4,000 nationwide parks. And that’s good for the entire world. It implies that lots of the most lovely locations will probably be preserved for the good thing about all folks. It’s a worthy aspiration towards a better degree of society than one which simply lets exploiters run roughshod over all the pieces.
The movie grew out of Dayton Duncan’s deep ardour for the nationwide parks since his childhood. Duncan has labored with Ken Burns on nearly each movie, both as a guide, author or producer, going again to The Civil Warfare. However it appears clear to me, from watching interviews with him, that the movie in regards to the nationwide parks was a particular favourite for him, and an intensely private imaginative and prescient.
The nationwide parks have been one of the profound passions of his life. The movie was an opportunity for him to place that zeal right into a cinematic expression. His love for the parks is infectious. The movie collection gained two Emmy awards, however much more importantly, I believe, its extensive viewership when it got here out in 2009 was adopted by a surge of attendance on the Nationwide Parks.
I suppose the collection influenced many others the best way it did me. I used to be actually taken by the concept that the nationwide parks are the precept of democracy expressed within the panorama itself.
Duncan mentioned that the concept got here from author and historian Wallace Stegner, who wrote an article in 1983 referred to as “The Greatest Concept We Ever Had: An Overview.” In it he wrote, “Nationwide parks are one of the best concept we ever had. Completely American, completely democratic, they replicate us at our greatest reasonably than our worst.”
Stegner himself credit James Bryce, a British Ambassador, with coining the phrase. And there could also be different professional claims to being the primary to articulate the concept. However, as with so many issues, discovering the “first” might be unimaginable. Beginnings are likely to fade into the mist of the previous. However that speaks to the universality of the concept.
In a 1990 article during which Stegner credit Bryce for the phrase, he additionally acknowledges that “The tracing of concepts is a guessing sport. We will’t inform who first had an concept; we will solely inform who first had it influentially….”
The concept behind the nationwide parks appears to have come from the inhabitants itself, a spontaneously arising motion to guard probably the most lovely locations from exploitative destruction. That too speaks to it as an expression of democracy. The concept appears to have labored its method as much as the governmental companies that might enact legal guidelines to codify it.
It emerged out of a rising consciousness that these lovely locations out west would quickly be overrun and doubtless desecrated. It’s an encouraging instance of how individuals who imagine passionately in one thing can truly make a distinction, even within the face of highly effective forces in opposition to them.
The origin of the nationwide parks themselves can also be not simple to pinpoint. The web site of the Nationwide Park Service says, “Artist George Catlin, throughout an 1832 journey to the Dakotas, was maybe the primary to counsel a novel answer to this fast-approaching actuality.”
Indian civilization, wildlife, and wilderness had been all in peril, wrote Catlin, except they might be preserved “by some nice defending coverage of presidency… in an impressive park… A nation’s Park, containing man and beast, in all of the wild[ness] and freshness of their nature’s magnificence!”
Presidents Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant and Teddy Roosevelt had been all instrumental within the improvement of a nationwide park system. It’s an extended and sophisticated historical past. We’re fortunate that the concept has managed to outlive the political system and to progress in addition to it has
Once I traveled to a few of the nice nationwide parks of the American West, I bought the sensation that the concept underlying the parks is shared usually by the individuals who attend the park. Certainly, they haven’t all seen the Ken Burns movie. However in some way there gave the impression to be an unstated sharing of the beliefs.
It struck me notably once I was in Zion Nationwide Park, however the identical was true of all of the parks I visited. Folks appear to share a sort of reverence for the place, for the atmosphere.
The identify Zion refers to a hill within the metropolis of Jerusalem, however it is usually outlined extra typically as “holy place” or “kingdom of heaven.” As soon as I skilled Zion, I understood why it was referred to as that. It’s an astonishingly lovely place, with colossal mountains and steep cliffs, plentiful operating water flowing in crystal clear streams. I bought a robust sense among the many folks visiting that they appreciated that transcendent magnificence and honored the world as a sort of holy place – a secular spirituality that creates a standard floor for folks of various religions to fulfill on.
I used to be extraordinarily moved by the spirit of camaraderie I felt and noticed there amongst individuals who had been clearly from many various states and nations and ethnic backgrounds. However the attractive panorama, and a shared reverence towards it united everybody in an unstated pact.
The way in which folks handled others, with kindness and respect, was a revelation. It was as if the reverence for the pure magnificence infused {our relationships} with one another. It did really feel like a holy place. And it felt good.
May which have existed with out the creation of the nationwide parks? I doubt it. There needed to be an official proclamation that put aside this land to guard it from those that wouldn’t honor its magnificence and see it as a sacred place.
One other factor the movie made clear was that it was all the time a battle. The safety of these locations in order that they’ve survived in good condition as much as the time once we might take pleasure in them is a good blessing. It’s not one thing I take with no consideration.
However I’m method behind. I’ve visited nationwide parks in Africa, Australia, Scotland, Jordan and different locations. And but there are such a lot of in my very own nation that I’ve not seen. I have to attempt to make up for that clean area in my life story.
Your humble reporter,
Colin Treadwell
