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UNTIL THE SECOND QUARTER of the 20th century most of the national parks and monuments were carved from the public domain. A few, however, such as Muir Woods and, indirectly, the Yellowstone, resulted from private generosity.

Also the adventure of creating scenic national parks had been confined to the West, since the East had no unclaimed public lands. Inevitably, though, the movement spread to the thickly-populated Eastern States where there was urgent need to protect outstanding scenic areas from commercialization.

The pattern was set when a group of public-spirited owners of summer homes in the vicinity of Bar Harbor, on beautiful Mount Desert Island in Maine, envisioned a public park where a few large estates then predominated. In 1916 the Government accepted lands acquired by gift and purchase, and Sieur de Monts National Monument, nucleus of the present Acadia National Park, was established.

THE MIGHTY TETONS, SEEN FROM ACROSS JACKSON LAKE, Grand Teton National Park. The rugged, towering peaks that mark the scenic climax of the Teton Range and the northern portion of historic Jackson Hole combine to form a national park of grandeur and majesty and of historic interest. The mountains were named long ago by early French adventurers who trapped, hunted, and rendezvoused in the Hole, itself a mountain valley more than a mile high. The great array of majestic peaks, mostly above timberline, culminates in the Grand Teton, altitude 13,766 feet. (Photograph copyright by Crandall.)

Then in the mid-20s, attention was directed to the Southern Appalachian Mountains, where there undoubtedly were areas worthy of national park status. An intensive study of the entire region followed. As a result, in 1926 Congress authorized the establishment of Shenandoah and Great Smoky Mountains National Parks, with the proviso that the lands to be included in those parks must first be donated to the United States. Establishment of a national park to include historic Mammoth Cave also was authorized under the same conditions. Through State appropriations and donations from the citizens of the States concerned, augmented by gifts from generous citizens elsewhere, lands for the three parks were bought and given. to the Federal Government. The largest single private donation for these parks was the $5,000,000 given by John D. Rockefeller, Jr., through the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial, toward the establishment of Great Smoky Mountains National Park, in memory of his mother.

SANTA ELENA CANYON, Big Bend National Park. View looking our from Santa Elena Canyon, in the southwest section of the park. Here the Rio Grande is shown winding between Texas and Mexico's State of Chihuahua—the great cliff to the right is in Mexico. The Republic of Mexico has expressed interest in acquiring the adjoining lands south of the border so that a national park may be established there—it and Big Bend then to be designated an international peace park similar to the Waterton Glacier International Peace Park on our northern boundary. Lands for Big Bend National Park were donated to the United States by the State of Texas, which turned over to the Federal Government the Stare park in the area and in addition appropriated $1,500,000 which it used in purchasing the remaining lands necessary for national park establishment. (Photograph by W. Ray Scott.)

Similar provisions later were included in the acts of Congress providing for the establishment of Isle Royale, Big Bend, and Everglades National Parks; Morristown and Saratoga National Historical Parks; and Blue Ridge and Natchez Trace Parkways; and certain other areas.

The George Washington Birthplace National Monument was established in. 1930 when the Wakefield National Memorial Association donated to the Federal Government the lands it had patriotically saved from exploitation. The same year Colonial National Monument (now a national historical park) was authorized under a combined donation and Federal expenditure plan, to protect and develop the sites of the first permanent English settlement in the United States and of the battle of Yorktown.

Meanwhile the desirability of preserving part of historic Jackson Hole so impressed Mr. Rockefeller that he purchased more than 32,000 acres of strategic lands there. He spent several million dollars acquiring and protecting these lands before they were included in Jackson Hole National Monument, later added to Grand Teton National Park.

In the East, other gifts preserved for the people such houses as Hampton in Maryland, one of the great 18th-century Georgian mansions in America; the Adams house in Massachusetts, home of Presidents John Adams and John Quincy Adams and other distinguished members of the Adams family; the Vanderbilt Mansion; and the Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt, at Hyde Park, New York.

A new class of area now has been set up in the East the Cape Hatteras National Seashore Recreational Area, North Carolina—under the land donation provisions of Congress. Funds donated by the Avalon and Old Dominion Foundations, matching a contribution of the State of North Carolina, have been used to buy the lands there.

Other areas of this type may be established as a result of a study made by the National Park Service along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, from Canada to Mexico, to identify areas of unspoiled seashore with outstanding recreational, historic, and biotic values.

Last Modified: Sat, Oct 5 2002 10:00:00 pm PDT
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