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ALTHOUGH IN THE final analysis full responsibility for all services in the national parks devolves upon the National Park Service, the providing of accommodations for visitors falls into two groups. Roads, trails, public automobile campgrounds, trailer camps, utilities, sanitation and museums and other interpretive devices are the responsibility of the National Park Service.

In general, other facilities are the responsibility of private capital operating under Government franchise and supervision. Under their contracts concessioners finance, erect, maintain, and operate hotels, lodges, housekeeping and other cabins, coffee shops, cafeterias, stores, and service stations. So also with the furnishing of transportation, whether by bus, boat, or horseback. The location of buildings and their design must have the approval of the park administration, based upon recommendations of the architectural, landscaping, engineering, and other experts of the Service, which also approves rates and supervises standards of accommodation.

Furnishing facilities to add to the comfort and enjoyment of visitors is not the only public service the concessioners render. They also contribute to the Federal and State treasuries through their franchise fees and the various taxes levied upon them.

In a few instances, where facilities have come under Federal government ownership in connection with land acquisition, operation is by a competent concessioner. An example of a well-functioning hotel and allied services operation that came full-blown to the National Park Service in this way is the development at Mammoth Cave National Park. National Park Concessions, Inc., organized to operate these facilities, has extended its services to several other areas.

The broad concession policy is based upon 1872 legislation. Congress, in establishing our first national park, realistically laid the guidelines for supplying accommodations essential to public enjoyment of the park when it included, in the Yellowstone Act, authority for the Secretary of the Interior to grant long-term leases for the purpose of furnishing public accommodations. Similar provisions were contained in later acts establishing other national parks and also in legislation creating the National Park Service.

The concession system has sometimes been under fire; yet unless Federal funds are made available to undertake these business enterprises, private capital must be relied upon to care for the visitor. And private capital needs assurance that its investment will be protected.

In fact, it has not always been easy to interest private business in developing dependable tourist facilities in the park, because of the short operating season and the isolation from supply and employment centers. In the past this sometimes was done by appealing to businessmen of nearby communities to develop accommodations as a matter of civic pride, without prospect of immediate financial return. In other instances the business has grown with the increase in park attendance. Several trans-continental railroads have given financial backing.

Back in the early days, when there was no unified control of national park operations, many small concessioners competed in a single park. The result was so chaotic that, after some years, the Department of the Interior was convinced that the competitive system in national parks was unsatisfactory, to visitor, concessioner, and Federal government alike. Visitors on short stays were not interested in shopping around to secure the lowest rates; nor did they like being besieged by agents of various competing transportation operators for their patronage as soon as they stepped off the train. By the time the national parks office under an assistant to the Secretary was set up in Washington, it had become apparent that in the long run one well-financed concessioner in a park, especially in the same line of service, operating under a long-term contract, would best meet the visitors' needs. Effecting this was one of the major problems facing the young National Park Service.

For some 15 years beginning with World War II—the same period that the National Park Service was trying to function on greatly curtailed financial and manpower rations—there were, with few exceptions, no substantial investments in improving or expanding park facilities. During the latter part of that period the Department undertook a critical study of concession policies, which still further delayed the making of heavy investments. The result of all this, taken in conjunction with the tremendous increase in travel, was a serious delay in providing new and improving existing accommodations.

With the concessioners, as with Federal activities not related to the urgent situation, times of national emergency result in curtailment of development. Once the emergency is over, it takes time to get under way again. Now both the National Park Service and the concessioners are off and running.

One more word about concession accommodations. A fundamental policy of the Department of the Interior is to permit only those concessions within the parks that are actually necessary for public convenience and enjoyment. If, as is the case at Great Smoky Mountains National Park, neighboring cities and towns are equipped to handle visitors, the Service does not permit competition to their housing and related accommodations.

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