![]() Political pressure forced Langford’s removal in 1877. Langford did what he could without laws protecting wildlife and other natural features, and without money to build basic structures and hire law enforcement rangers. (He earned his living elsewhere.) He entered the park at least twice during five years in office-as part of the 1872 Hayden Expedition and to evict a squatter in 1874. Langford, member of the Washburn Expedition and advocate of the Yellowstone National Park Act, was appointed to the unpaid post of superintendent. The park’s promoters envisioned Yellowstone National Park would exist at no expense to the government. Despite a lack of support from the Department of the Interior or Congress, he pleaded for protection legislation. Arguments between Wyoming and Montana territories that year resulted in a decision to federalize Yellowstone.Īs Yellowstone’s second superintendent, Philetus Norris set the future course of national parks in protection, addressing visitors’ needs and interests, and science-based management. It’s entirely possible that Congress may have preferred to make Yellowstone a state park in the same fashion as Yosemite, had it not been for an accident of geography that put it within three territorial boundaries. Mount Rainier followed in 1899.Īs an older state park, Yosemite did have a strong influence on the founding of Yellowstone in 1872 because Congress actually used language in the state park act as a model. Disappointed with the results 26 years later in 1890, Congress made Yosemite one of three additional national parks, along with Sequoia and General Grant, now part of Kings Canyon. Yosemite became a park before Yellowstone, but as a state park. ![]() In 1921, an act of Congress established Hot Springs as a national park. Set aside in 1832, forty years before Yellowstone was established in 1872, it was actually the nation’s oldest national reservation, set aside to preserve and distribute a utilitarian resource (hot water), much like our present national forests. Some sources list Hot Springs in Arkansas as the first national park. The Yellowstone National Park Protection Act says “the headwaters of the Yellowstone River … is hereby reserved and withdrawn from settlement, occupancy, or sale … and dedicated and set apart as a public park or pleasuring-ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people.” In an era of expansion, the federal government had the foresight to set aside land deemed too valuable in natural wonders to develop.ĭid other national parks exist before Yellowstone? The world’s first national park was born. Grant signed the Yellowstone National Park Protection Act into law. Thanks to their reports, the United States Congress established Yellowstone National Park just six months after the Hayden Expedition. But the wonders of Yellowstone-shown through Jackson’s photographs, Moran’s paintings, and Elliot’s sketches-had captured the imagination of Congress. To permanently close to settlement an expanse of the public domain the size of Yellowstone would depart from the established policy of transferring public lands to private ownership. Langford and several of his companions promoted a bill in Washington in late 1871 and early 1872 that drew upon the precedent of the Yosemite Act of 1864, which reserved Yosemite Valley from settlement and entrusted it to the care of the state of California. Keya Morgan made it his job to not only go through the hundreds of archives, auctions, websites, and catalogs, but also private collections.The crowning achievement of the returning expeditions was helping to save Yellowstone from private development. ![]() ![]() ![]() Unfortunately in the past 130 years, many of the original photographs of General Grant ended up in private collections, never to been seen by the public again. He explored over 300 archives worldwide and went through thousands of auction catalogs dating back to the 1870s. Unlike most Grant scholars, Keya Morgan went beyond simply searching the obvious archives such as The Library of Congress, The Smithsonian and The National Archives. The book will also illustrate photographs from General Grant’s personal family album. Some of the images were obtained directly from the Grant family and once belonged to General Grant himself. He is near completion of his monumental work Grant in Photographs: Every Known Photograph, which will include dozens of unpublished and rare images, never before seen by the public. Keya Morgan has devoted over a decade to collecting and cataloging every known photograph of General Ulysses S. For the first time in history there will be a book that will document every known photograph of General Grant. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |