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Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of I

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Speaker 1: Heart Radio, Hello and Welcome to This Day in History Class,

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Speaker 1: a show that explores the past one day at a time.

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Speaker 1: I'm Gabe Louzier, and in this episode, we're looking at

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Speaker 1: the day when America's most scenic and historic places were

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Speaker 1: finally placed under the management of a single, dedicated agency.

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Speaker 1: The day was August nineteen sixteen. President Woodrow Wilson signed

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Speaker 1: the Organic Act, which established the National Park Service and

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Speaker 1: placed all existing parks under its protection. Prior to that legislation,

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Speaker 1: the country's fourteen National parks and twenty one National monuments

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Speaker 1: were all managed separately and by drastically different agencies. For example,

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Speaker 1: bull the first National park, Yellowstone, was actually administered by

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Speaker 1: the U. S. Army. This scattered approach to park management

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Speaker 1: was incredibly inefficient, especially since the funding available for the

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Speaker 1: park's operation and upkeep varied greatly from one agency to

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Speaker 1: the next. The Organic Act put an end to that

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Speaker 1: disjointedness and laid out the basic mission, philosophy, and policies

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Speaker 1: that have guided the National Park Service ever since. The

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Speaker 1: concept of a national park originated in the United States

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Speaker 1: during a conservation movement in the nineteenth century. Until then,

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Speaker 1: the federal government hadn't been too concerned with preserving land

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Speaker 1: for public use. After all, it was far more lucrative

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Speaker 1: to sell that land to private owners for the purposes

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Speaker 1: of settlement and development. That somewhat mercenary approach to the

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Speaker 1: nation's wilderness was called into question as more and more

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Speaker 1: Americans moved moved westward and experienced the beauty of those

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Speaker 1: areas firsthand. The accounts of those settlers, along with those

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Speaker 1: of writers and artists, stoked the public's interest in the

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Speaker 1: natural wonders of their homeland. Thanks in large part to

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Speaker 1: the advocacy of naturalists like John Muir, that awareness was

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Speaker 1: channeled into a nationwide call to preserve wild spaces, a

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Speaker 1: call that was finally heated in eighteen seventy two when

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Speaker 1: yellow Stone was designated as the first National park, not

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Speaker 1: only in the United States but in the whole world.

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Speaker 1: Over the next half century, new parks and monuments were

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Speaker 1: created gradually, but there was still no unified service to

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Speaker 1: manage them. Some were administered directly by the Department of

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Speaker 1: the Interior, while other areas were overseen by everything from

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Speaker 1: the War Department to the Department of agriculture. As a result,

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Speaker 1: some federal park lands were managed much differently and less

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Speaker 1: effect of lee than others, a fact that many private

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Speaker 1: interests exploited for personal gain. For example, in the early

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Speaker 1: nineteen hundreds, Congress began toying with the idea of building

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Speaker 1: a dam in the hetch Hetchy Valley. Doing so would

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Speaker 1: provide a reliable source of drinking water to the up

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Speaker 1: and coming city of San Francisco. However, the reservoir they

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Speaker 1: sought to tap was well within the boundaries of Yosemite

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Speaker 1: National Park. The resulting backlash from John muiror and his

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Speaker 1: fellow preservationists launched one of the first national debates over

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Speaker 1: how to balance environmental concerns with economic development. In the end,

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Speaker 1: the park's allies lost the fight, and Congress approved the

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Speaker 1: dam's construction in nine thirteen. However, the hetch Hetchy controversy

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Speaker 1: was not forgotten. Soon after, John muir Sierra Club began

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Speaker 1: petitioning the government for stronger protections for national park land.

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Speaker 1: They argued that if there was a single federal service

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Speaker 1: in charge of all the parks, it would have enough

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Speaker 1: clout to fend off those who would exploit the parks

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Speaker 1: natural resources. That was a valid concern, as it wasn't

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Speaker 1: just freshwater supplies being targeted. Hunters were killing off the

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Speaker 1: park's wildlife, ranchers were feeding their livestock on park grasslands,

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Speaker 1: and timber companies were felling trees at an alarming rate.

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Speaker 1: It was too much for a divided park management system

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Speaker 1: to handle, but under unified leadership, the parks could have

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Speaker 1: a fighting chance. The Sierra Club wasn't alone in the effort.

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Speaker 1: The National Geographic Society also lent support to the cause,

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Speaker 1: as did other environmental groups, journalists, and even some park officials.

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Speaker 1: In response, Congress passed an Act to establish a National

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Speaker 1: Park Service, and on August n sixteen, President Woodrow Wilson

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Speaker 1: signed it into law. The so called Organic Act created

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Speaker 1: a new federal bureau within the Department of the Interior

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Speaker 1: and placed all existing national parks and monuments, as well

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Speaker 1: as those yet to be established, under its jurisdiction. The

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Speaker 1: new agency's mission, as described in the Act, was to quote,

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Speaker 1: promote and regulate the use of the federal areas known

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Speaker 1: as National parks, monuments, and reservations by such means and

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Speaker 1: measures as conformed to their fundamental purpose, which is to

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Speaker 1: conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects, and

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Speaker 1: the wildlife therein, and to provide for the enjoyment of

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Speaker 1: the same in such manner and by such means as

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Speaker 1: will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.

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Speaker 1: The following year, American industrialist Stephen Mather was appointed the

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Speaker 1: first director of the National Park Service. The owner of

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Speaker 1: a borax mining company may sound like a cynical choice

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Speaker 1: for a parks director, but Mather had already served as

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Speaker 1: assist than Secretary of the Interior, and he firmly believed

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Speaker 1: that wild areas should be preserved and made available for

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Speaker 1: the public good. He had publicly lobbied for the new

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Speaker 1: agency's creation, and as its first leader, he helped make

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Speaker 1: national parks and monuments more accessible than ever. He added

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Speaker 1: on site concession operations so that tourists could buy food

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Speaker 1: and other essentials without leaving the park. Concessions also provided

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Speaker 1: a new revenue stream for parks and monuments that had

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Speaker 1: been severely under financed in previous years. Mather also worked

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Speaker 1: with railroads to increase attendance to the more remote parks,

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Speaker 1: and he promoted the creation of a national highway system

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Speaker 1: believing it would encourage family road trips to the national parks, which,

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Speaker 1: of course did. The National Park System grew substantially during

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Speaker 1: Mather's twelve year tenure. On his watch, the Grand Canyon, Acadia,

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Speaker 1: Bryce Zion, Lassen, Hawaii, and Mount McKinley National Parks were

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Speaker 1: all established. In addition, Mather developed the criteria for identifying

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Speaker 1: and adopting future parks and monuments, including ones that involved

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Speaker 1: purchasing land from private owners. That last part was especially

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Speaker 1: important as it allowed the park system to expand to

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Speaker 1: the Eastern United States, where much of the striking scenery

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Speaker 1: and places like the Great Smoky Mountains and Shannandoah was

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Speaker 1: already privately owned. Mather was helped in all of these

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Speaker 1: matters by his assistant and future successor, Horace Albright. He

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Speaker 1: and Mather were both members of the Sierra Club and

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Speaker 1: were equally committed to the task of managing the parks

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Speaker 1: more efficiently while still preserving their natural character. In nine

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Speaker 1: Mather had to retire from his post due to illness,

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Speaker 1: but Albright was able to step in as the new

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Speaker 1: director and carry on the work they began together. In

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Speaker 1: a little more than two decades, Mather and Albright were

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Speaker 1: able to transform a mismanaged, underfunded collection of parks and

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Speaker 1: monuments into one of the most esteemed federal agencies in

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Speaker 1: US history, Thanks in large part to the strong foundation

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Speaker 1: they laid, the National Park Service continued to grow and

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Speaker 1: expand throughout the twentieth century and into the next one.

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Speaker 1: As of twenty two, America's National Park system now consists

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Speaker 1: of sixty three National parks, one hundred and twenty nine

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Speaker 1: National monuments, and more than two hundred other protected sites

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Speaker 1: under various designations. Altogether, the areas under NPS management account

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Speaker 1: for more than eighty five million acres spread through all

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Speaker 1: fifty states, plus the District of Columbia and several US territories. Thankfully,

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Speaker 1: while the concept of national parks may have begun in

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Speaker 1: the US, countries all around the world have since embraced

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Speaker 1: the notion. Today, more than a hundred different countries have

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Speaker 1: lands classify it as National parks or some kind of equivalent.

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Speaker 1: At the time of recording, there are now over four

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Speaker 1: thousand of them worldwide. That means that if you're lucky

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Speaker 1: enough to have already visited all the U S parks,

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Speaker 1: there's still plenty more to see in the global national

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Speaker 1: park systems. So happy travels. I'm Gabe Lousier and hopefully

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Speaker 1: you now know a little more about history today than

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Speaker 1: you did yesterday. If you have a second and you're

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Speaker 1: send your feedback directly to me by writing to This

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Speaker 1: Day at I heart media dot com. Thanks, as always

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Speaker 1: the Chandler Mays for producing the show, and thank you

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Speaker 1: for listening. I'll see you back here again tomorrow for

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Speaker 1: another Day in History class. The Fat of Pin