Reshaping Our National Parks and Their Guardians: The Legacy of George B. Hartzog Jr.

2: The National Park Service

23 In October 1946, at age twenty-six, George Hartzog joined the National Park Service—an agency only slightly older than he was. Despite its youth, the Park Service already possessed a strong sense of mission and a body of rich traditions. Although officially established in the Department of the Interior in 1916, its roots lay in the government’s much earlier role in setting aside parcels of the public domain as national parks. Americans did not come easily to the idea of their government managing lands set aside for enjoyment and edification rather than economic exploitation. Only because the remote Yellowstone highlands seemed to have little economic potential did Congress in 1872 bow to the appeals to declare it a national park. Yellowstone set the precedent, and other national parks followed: Yosemite (1890), Sequoia (1890), Mount Rainier (1899), and Crater Lake (1902).1 These first parks showcased the country’s natural wonders, but interest started to grow in protecting prehistoric Indian ruins. Looting of invaluable cultural artifacts from the cliff dwellings of southwestern Colorado led to the establishment of Mesa Verde National Park in 1906. That same year, Congress passed the Antiquities Act, which gave the president executive authority to set aside as national monuments sites on the public domain containing scientific, historic, and scenic treasures. In the remaining three years of his administration, President Theodore Roosevelt, a staunch outdoorsman and conservationist, exercised this power to proclaim eighteen national monuments.2 CHAPTER TWO The National Park Service 24 chapter two By 1915 thirteen national parks and eighteen national monuments had been established. Most fell under the jurisdiction of the Department of the Interior, but some fell to the Forest Service in the Department of Agriculture and to the War Department. Regardless of administering agency, all lacked consistent and uniform management. On behalf of Interior, the U.S. Army guarded big national parks like Yellowstone, Yosemite, Sequoia, and General Grant. Civilian appointees of the Interior Department, rarely more than political hacks, held responsibility for others like Mount Rainier and Crater Lake. Funding was always inadequate and almost nonexistent for the national monuments. Early in the twentieth century, the compelling need for management consistency gave birth to a movement to create a separate bureau to care for national parks and monuments. Franklin K. Lane, secretary of the interior in the Woodrow Wilson administration (1913–1921), recognized the need and sought a strong proponent to bring the idea to fruition. He turned to Stephen T. Mather, a self-made borax millionaire interested in national parks and deeply concerned for their future. Mather agreed to serve as Lane’s assistant and to take charge of the department’s responsibility for parks and to promote a parks bureau. Horace M. Albright, a newly recruited young lawyer from California, agreed to serve as Mather’s assistant. An instant chemistry and symbiotic relationship developed between the twenty-four-year-old Albright and Stephen Mather, a man twice his age.3 Mather and Albright—these were the founding fathers of the National Park Service. As Albright accurately noted, Mather was “an experienced public relations man, created instant rapport with strangers, had a personality that radiated poise, friendliness and charm, could talk easily with anyone he met, confidently instilling perfect strangers with his enthusiasm.” Albright described himself as “knowledgeable about Washington, the Interior Department , and the Congress,” as being “quite good at detail and administrative work, which he [Mather] obviously hated,” as able to “help with legal problems,” and as, above all, “loyal and conscientious.” Both would leave a powerful legacy; it was this heritage that made the National Park Service so appealing to George Hartzog.4 A talented promoter, Mather felt that success in establishing a parks bureau lay in making people aware of the parks and encouraging as many as possible to visit them. Drawing on his own fortune, he launched a massive publicity campaign and turned his charm on key members of Congress. One of his promotional strategies included hosting “mountain parties” in the Sierra Nevada for influential congressmen, publishers, businessmen, the national park service 25 writers, and conservationists. Not a minimalist by nature, Mather treated his guests to luxuries not associated with wilderness camping experiences. “Roughing it was not a term used for our dining,” admitted Albright. “As it was every night on our trip, the table was set with snowy white linen tablecloths and napkins, silverware and china.” A chef accompanied...