National Parks

This week PBS is showing special on OUR national parks and it has been great. Spending a lot of times in the parks lately makes the show really come to life. A few things that I find interesting include the fact that we are the only country with national parks. That we had such a hard time convincing congress that we needed them to protect our assets for everyone and the way it has turned out without a national plan in place. John Muir is of course the architect of our park system and I wonder where we would be today without him. He was joined in the fight by many including Teddy Roosevelt and other less known presidents. It was common back in the late 1800s and early 1900’s for the rich in the country to gobble up the best land and build huge summer homes. The rich in those days had a huge majority of the country’s assets and many had not heard of sharing. It took guys like Rockafeller II to demonstrate philanthropy and kick start the process. Much of Acadia National Park was donated from land owned by the rich or bought by them and turned over to the government. Acadia was the first national park on the east coast and saved a jewel that would have become like all the other coast on the northern eastern shore, the private summer playground of the rich. The battle started at Yosemite and Yellowstone and interesting enough, it was precipitated by greedy commercial interests that were abusing the land, selling off the natural resources, and turning the areas into profit centers. The Niagra Falls earlier in the 1800’s had gone this path and the entire area was bought by private parties and ruined with gaudy shops and money making ventures. It was the terrible legacy of Niagra Falls that was used over and over as the “what if” scenario that would play out if the land was not protected. Having visited the falls in July, I was amazed by the gross commercialism and fun park atmosphere. Catch the rest of the PBS series or replays if you can. It is amazing and will inspire you I am sure. Makes you feel good about handing down a positive legacy to the next generations.