| North Cascades |
|
REFLECTIONS
In closing, there should be some mention of my approach to the research and writing of this study. The nature of doing "recent" history has changed markedly over the years. The advent of electronic mail, for example, has greatly reduced the amount of written material available to historians. For this reason, I have relied on conversations and interviews with current and former park staff as well as published reports to fill in the gaps in the historical narrative. Nevertheless, the narrative trajectory collapses the closer one moves to the present, and I tried to compensate for this by organizing the park's history into eras. All of this is not to say that there are no good documentary source materials relating to North Cascades. The history of the park's establishment and its early management have drawn extensively on the collections of Henry M. Jackson, Warren G. Magnuson, Lloyd Meeds, the North Cascades Conservation Council, and other politicians and environmental groups who have figured prominently in the fight for and management of the national park. There remains, I believe, more to be done with the environmental movement and the preservation of landscapes like North Cascades. The Kennedy-Johnson era was a fruitful one for environmental legislation, and parks such as North Cascades were part of the growing concern for wilderness preservation expressed by the postwar generation.
Furthermore, North Cascades is a relatively young park compared to the other Washington parks of Rainier and Olympic, but its issues are as complex as the bureaucratic name "Park Service Complex" implies. And it was not long before I realized what Stephanie and Gretchen faced when they started the project. There are really three separate parks, often with their own separate issues, under one administration. While they all shared the common bond of legislation and geography, the park and two recreation areas could have had their own separate histories. And at times, it felt as though I was writing three different studies. This is especially true for Lake Chelan NRA. I have often thought that if North Cascades were a ship, it would list toward Stehekin at the head of Lake Chelan. The volume of documents generated over its management alone supports this statement and warrants a history focused on events in Stehekin, particularly regarding land policies and resource consumption. But Stehekin is not alone in generating controversy. Ross Lake NRA has seen its own share of high profile issues surrounding the hydroelectric power facilities owned by Seattle City Light. Here, too, a separate study would document in greater detail the relationship between the Park Service and City Light than I have been able to in this report. North Cascades National Park proper could also have its own management history written, especially about the evolution of wilderness management in such a dramatic yet fragile setting. My approach, however, was to write about the park complex as it is administered by the National Park Service. I have attempted to place its management issues within the larger context of the park complex. It is as a "complex," not as a park or recreation areas, that North Cascades has been administered.
http://www.nps.gov/noca/adhi-reflect.htm