I. Intellectual Origins of Conservation
a. "Easterners"--Henry David Thoreau, George Perkins Marsh
b. "Westerners"--John Wesley Powell, John Muir
c. the political rise of conservation: "Progressives" and Pres. Theodore Roosevelt
II. The state of the Western environment, 19th century-- "development"
a. George Catlin's proposals
b. Great Plains buffalo, from 100 million-500 million before 1800
i. as late as 1850s, "a sea of brown"--Jim Baker in 1858 near Savery saw thousands
ii. "Buffalo Bill"--feeding railroad construction crews--relatively small "harvest"
iii. Cody's record: 250 killed per day, 120 in less than 45 minutes
iv. Sir George Gore and other "hunters"
c. forests: rapid disappearance for railroad construction, housing
d. rivers and streams: pollution from mining activities
III. The movement for national parks-- "preservation"
a. America's first national park, Yellowstone (1872)
i. John Colter (1806-7); Osborne Russell (1830s); Capt. W. F. Raynolds (1868)
ii. first homestead in Yellowstone, 1868
iii. expeditions through area: Folsom, Henry, Washburn, Hayden
iv. Hayden expedition--Thomas Moran and William Henry Jackson
v. Nathaniel Langford, Northern Pacific Railroad
b. protecting the resource: the army's duty as Yellowstone guardian
c. National Park Service established (1916)
IV. The movement for national forests-- "conservation"
a. George Perkins Marsh theories of forest destruction
b. "scientific forestry" & forest reserves: Yellowstone Forest Reserve (1892)
c. Gifford Pinchot and the Forest Service
d. Theodore Roosevelt as American conservationist
V. National monuments
a. Theodore Roosevelt signs Antiquities Act (1906)
b. Devils Tower National Monument, America's first (1906)
VI. The California controversy over Hetch-Hetchy dam: clash of progressives
a. Muir: "keep Yosemite free of reservoirs"
b. Pinchot, et al: "San Francisco needs public power/water"
c. the result and the compromise
VII. The Case of Grand Teton National Park
a. John D. Rockefeller, Jr. as promoter for national park in Tetons
b. Horace Albright and Stephen Mather in the controversy
c. expansion attempts: the Snake River Land Company
d. local opposition in Jackson Hole; local support in Jackson Hole
e. Franklin D. Roosevelt's proclamation for "Jackson Hole National Monument"
f. the 1952 compromise: Wyoming exempted from presidential monument designations
Additional Names and Terms
Antiquities Act (1906) Devils Tower National Monument Grand Teton National Park (1929)
Gifford Pinchot John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Jackson Hole National Monument (1943)
National Park Service Struthers Burt Clifford P. Hansen Frank Barrett
U. S. Forest Service The Grand Teton Joseph C. O'Mahoney Horace Albright