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Public Use of the
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Chapter 7
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Public Use of the National Park System (1872-2000)
Chapter 7 |
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CHAPTER 7
Sightseeing and the National Park System
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Public use of the National Park System may be thought of as pluralistic, with different outdoor recreation activities pursued by different groups of people in different areas of the same park simultaneously. Recognizing and analyzing these different activities and user groups is important to the overall management of the National Park System. Much that is helpful has been written about some of these activities such as camping, mountain climbing, back-packing, and fishing. Comparatively little has been written, however, about the predominant visitor activity in the National Park System--sightseeing. Accordingly, we will now attempt to analyze some aspects of this important activity.
Sightseeing is the principal process through which most Americans experience at firsthand their national heritage con served for them in the National Park System. As Howard Stagner has observed, park recreation, including sightseeing, may be thought of as involving in part physical refreshment, in part mental stimulation, and in part aesthetic or historical appreciation. [35] Inadequate though the word sightseeing is to convey the full meaning of National Park System experience, this typical American activity must not be dismissed as inherently superficial and unimportant, but instead, deserves our serious study.
We begin by recognizing that sightseeing in the National Park System is to be thought of as part of a world-wide social movement which in recent decades has brought the possibility of leisure travel for the first time in history within reach of many average men around the world. We should not be misled by the fact that this movement of travel is often called tourism. Instead, let us take as our point of departure one of the conclusions of the Vatican Congress on Spiritual Values in Tourism held in Rome, Italy, April 18-21, 1967. According to Regional Director Lemuel A, Garrison who served as one of the delegates, this conference was attended by 250 representatives from 60 nations, including all the countries of western Europe, the United States, Poland, Yugoslavia, Ethiopia, Ghana, Senegal, Sudan, Tunis, Chile and Japan. The first conclusion of the conference was that "tourism, an established fact in the consciousness of present-day man, constitutes one of the most powerful forces not only from the economic and social points of view, but also from the standpoint of the cultural and spiritual values of our time." [36]
a. Evolving Concepts of the Travel Movement.
It is perhaps worth noting that use of the word "tourist" as a synonym for "traveller" appears to go back to the early decades of the 19th century, when aristocrats and wealthy persons, who for centuries had a monopoly on travelling for pleasure, saw with distaste the rising middle class also begin to travel abroad when the railroad and steamship made it possible. Someone coined the word tourist to these middle class travellers. The somewhat condescending use of the word tourist has continued to the present day. There has also been a long-standing tendency to consider "tourism" the equivalent of "the tourist trade." This happened because the first people to promote "tourism" were those who hoped to benefit financially. The result is that writings on tourism are loaded with books and articles on travel promotion, hotels and restaurants, and other aspects of the travel business.
At least 30 years ago, however, derogatory use of the words tourist and tourism was recognized as shallow and out-of-date, when the Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences published a significant article on "Tourist Traffic" by Dr. F, W. Ogilvie of England. He pointed out that the word tourist "is now used in the social sciences, without color (i.e., without prejudice), to describe any person whose movements fulfill two conditions: first, that absence from home is relatively short; and second, that money spent during absence is money derived from home and not earned in the places visited. Thus tourists may be sightseers, holiday makers, religious pilgrims, invalids in search of health, students--any travellers who, as distinct from emigrants or immigrants, intend to return home within, say, twelve months, and who, as distinct from migratory laborers, move in the capacity of consumers, not producers. Tourist traffic may be either internal, within any given country or district, or external, crossing political frontiers." [37]
There has been notable progress in the social sciences since Dr. Ogilvie's article was written. Today tourism has become respectable as a subject for study and comment by sociologists, political scientists, anthropologists, theologians and others. Comments on it may be found in such volumes of the ORRRC report as Trends in American Living and Outdoor Recreation; in publications of the United Nations, including statements by Secretary General U Thant; in publications of learned organizations, such as the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences' book, Leisure in America: Blessing or Curse?; [38] and in the reports of religious bodies, including the National Council of Churches, [39] and the Vatican Congress on Spiritual Values in Tourism mentioned above.
b. Broad Aspects of the Travel Movement.
One aspect of the broader travel movement has been the rapid growth of means of travel in modern industrial society. There has been some form of tourism since ancient times, but it was limited to the well-to-do or to special groups, such as pilgrims or students until the invention of the railroad and the steamship in the 19th century made it possible for the middle class to travel and thus inaugurate modern touring. The travel explosion only came, however, with mass production of the automobile in the United States beginning about 50 years ago, and construction of a national network of excellent highways. After World War II, growing affluence in large classes of American society, including both white and blue collar workers, and a steady increase in leisure time, combined with greater mobility to produce by the 1960's a constant movement of people around the United States in a manner completely without parallel in human history. Travel in Europe and other countries of the Western World grew only a little less rapidly. Soon air transport supplemented other methods and travel between countries and continents mounted rapidly. Behind the iron curtain, Communist countries systematically organized tours for their citizens for political and social purposes, generally using public rather than private transport. Even in the Orient, travel also increased, and the recent phenomenon of millions of young Red Guards moving across the Chinese landscape to Peking and back, can be interpreted from one point of view, as in part a phenomenon of travel in Communist China. In brief, the people of the world are today vastly more mobile than at any time in human history. [40]
A second aspect of this broad travel movement is growing recognition of the right to travel. In the United States, freedom of travel has long been an accepted right. A strong case can be made that every human being within the framework of his nation's economic policies has an inherent right to travel. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the United Nations in 1948, contains several references to travel. For example, Article 13 states that "(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state; (2) Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country." Furthermore, Article 24 states that "everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay." Last of all, Article 21 states that "Everyone has the right of equal access to public service in his country." These broad human rights, held up by the United Nations as an objective for all countries around the world, are pertinent when one begins to consider the flow and control of tourism, nationally and internationally. [41]
Thirdly, travel is widely recognized as potentially a valuable use of our growing leisure time often considered one of our major social problems in coming decades. As the Vatican Congress pointed out, tourism has the possibility of freeing the individual person for a while from the monotony of "wearing and dehumanized work," allowing him change and refreshment in new environments, where he can enjoy new experiences and at the same time come to terms with himself and with others. In the ORRRC report, Lawrence K. Frank, former Visiting Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, makes this similar observation: "Liberty in the 18th century was concerned with political freedom and escape from tyrannical governments. Today liberty is being recognized as required periodical release from the many restrictions and constraints, the continual strains and frustrations, and the severe demands imposed by the patterns of living and working according to rigid time schedules ... As one step toward the realization of liberty, we may find in outdoor recreation release from urban and industrial hazards and restrictions, with opportunities for individually selected activities carried on according to the personal needs and capacities of each one" [42] Travel is one of the outdoor recreation activities most frequently selected by individuals for their vacations.
Fourthly, travel may contribute toward improving understanding among diverse people and classes. Disraeli said "travelling teaches toleration." Travel tends to bring together in a common experience people of varied social and economic backgrounds, from widely separated geographical areas, and representing a broad range of nationality, racial and religious outlooks. In this sense, travel has the potential of widening peoples experiences, perhaps reducing prejudice, and contributing toward improving harmony among social groups. Applying this concept to all forms of outdoor recreation, Professor Lawrence K. Frank makes this comment: "Of especial significance today is that outdoor recreation permits and usually requires people to play together regardless of race, religion, political beliefs or other lines of demarcation. In the open, intent upon their chosen activity, people are less and less concerned about these distinctions and cleavages ... Thus the outdoors fosters associations based on common interests and shared needs as the frontier, then all outdoors, did in our earlier history. For an urbanized, industrial civilization we face the difficult problem of developing the kind of personality-structure required for living and working close together, as participants in a social order to which each one must contribute and share responsibility." [43] It is Professor Frank's view that outdoor recreation (of which travel is an important part) may contribute toward the development of such suitable patterns for group living. Many years ago, Associate Justice Burton of the U. S. Supreme Court, after a long visit where he saw a broad cross-section of visitors, praised Yosemite National Park as a splendid example of democracy at work.
Fifthly, family travel is an important form of family experience, allowing its members "to spend together the hours of relaxation and rest and to develop the dialogue which is at the basis of family harmony." Family vacation experience includes the period of trip planning, the trip itself, and the period of trip recollection in which snapshots, mementoes and other souvenirs preserve common recollections. Family travel to visit relatives or friends is often combined with a visit to a National Park System unit, According to Dr. William Goode's "Outdoor Recreation and the Family to the Year 2000," in Volume 22 of the ORRRC report, family vacations are likely to benefit if family members can pursue different activities in a common environment. "What is particularly needed," he states, "are multipurpose outdoor facilities, which permit family members and extended kin with different tastes, ages, and goals to enjoy being together without essentially compromising their personal wishes--some will wish to be active in sports, while others may be content with studying wildflowers and watching birds." [44] This kind of diversity is found in many units of the National Park System.
Sixthly, travel may have important educational values. Each year more and more parents take their children on trips beginning at an early age believing it is good to widen their experiences. More and more schools regularly organize trips to places of historical or natural interest for their classes, in order to awaken curiosity and broaden knowledge. Adults travel to learn more about their state or their country or about other people and customs on other continents. They may seek to be stimulated by a different landscape, architecture, language or food; they may seek to discover natural beauty, view natural wonders, identify themselves with the nation's or world's history, or experience natural wilderness. Travel contributes toward education in all these and many other ways.
Lastly, travel produces important economic benefits to communities states and the nation. The "tourist trade" is not the purpose of travel; it is a by-product. This by-product, how ever, possesses important economic value, No attempt will be made here to estimate the economic value of travel to the National Park System. It is perhaps sufficient here to recall economic studies of such parks as Great Smoky Mountains, Grand Teton, Yellowstone and Glacier, to establish the fact that such travel has major economic impact on the communities and states involved, It is also true that international travel has a significant effect on trade balances, so much so that one of the principal motives behind the "Discover America" program has been to keep more American travel dollars at home. It is also well known that travel can be a major factor in the economy of a developing country as the endless army of tourists seeks new sights and new experiences in countries thought of as "off the beaten track,"
The remarkable growth of international travel can be seen in the following table, issued by the United Nations: [45]
| Region | Tourist Arrivals (thousands) | Tourist Receipts (millions of $) | ||||||
| 1950 | 1963 | 1965 | 1966* | 1950 | 1963 | 1965 | 1966* | |
| Europe | 16,839 | 66,163 | 85,933 | 95,500 | 890 | 5,437 | 7,249 | 8,120 |
| North America | 6,180 | 16,449 | 19,394 | 20,750 | 668 | 1,483 | 1,903 | 2,130 |
| Near and Middle East | 197 | 2,090 | 2,835 | 3,290 | 26 | 164 | 297 | 340 |
| Latin America and the Caribbean | 1,305 | 3,247 | 3,579 | 4,150 | 392 | 1,253 | 1,365 | 1,502 |
| Africa | 523 | 1,299 | 2,083 | 2,250 | 88 | 225 | 296 | 325 |
| Asia and Australia | 237 | 1,616 | 1,829 | 2,050 | 36 | - | 524 | 580 |
| Total | 25,281 | 90,864 | 115,893 | 127,990 | 2,100 | 9,051 | 11,634 | 12,997 |
It will be seen that the volume of international travel has multiplied five times since 1950, and now numbers almost 128,000,000 tourist arrivals a year throughout the world. Measured either by rate of growth or total participation, travel has become a major international activity.
c. Abuses of Tourism. A long catalogue of articles deploring the evils of tourism could be prepared with little effort to offset this favorable view and would include Michael Frome's denunciation of commercialism at Gettysburg which appeared two or three years ago in Changing Times, and Walter Muir Whitehill's caustic remarks in a recent issue of the Saturday Evening Post entitled "Tourist, Stay Home!"
We are all familiar through personal experience with many obvious objections to unregulated tourism. Some objections relate to the quantity of tourist travel, and involve mounting traffic volume with concomitant increase in parking problems, highway accidents, traffic snarls and jams, bent fenders, noxious exhaust gases, honking horns, crowded accommodations, waiting in long lines, and a hundred small and large irritations and frustrations associated with automobile touring, especially at peak periods. Some of these objections relate to the quality of the touring experience and may involve views that "many persons are not mentally prepared properly to appreciate parks and historic sites;" "tourists are anonymous mass travellers;" and that the experiences most tourists have are "superficial and routine." But, as Professor Bernard Lemann of Tulane University has written about New Orleans' Vieux Carrè: "There will always be the shallow kind of historicism, the gaping, empty and bored kind of tourism, the cheap commercialized travesty of historic taste, and other false values or misguided intentions. Yet who is to judge between these and the first worthy impulse, the genuine response to some ephemeral impression, an idling glance or ruminating thought that seeks no deep penetration, nor specific historic data, yet avoids ... indifference?" [46]
Last of all, there is the commercial exploitation of genuine values. The offensive multiplication of hot dog stands, tourist traps of all kinds, fake museums, and other money making enterprises near or in areas of serious importance becomes in some cases a public disgrace. It remains true that within the boundaries of the National Park System commercialism is at a minimum and this is now and has always been, one of the System's basic objectives. The Vatican Congress warned developing countries where tourism is rapidly expanding of the necessity of protecting themselves "against the psychological and moral degradation which may arise from a mercenary tourism," and of "defending in all the sense of a personal and national dignity." This warning would be equally appropriate for developed countries, including the United States.
Serious as these problems are, we should not allow our perception of the basic values of travel to be unduly distorted by them. It is easy to throw up one's hands and denounce the whole tourism kettle of fish. We should have the perception to see that travel is a tremendously significant national and world wide social phenomenon to be guided, not fought. The need is for intelligently regulated sightseeing, This is what we seek and hope to provide in the National Park System.
d. Values of Well-Regulated Sightseeing in the National Park System.
(1) General values. One can properly claim that well-regulated sightseeing in the System contributes an important share to the general values of travel in the United States outlined above. It is also well to remember that the American people appreciate and strongly support the concept that their government is preserving the superlative natural, historical and recreational places of America for their enjoyment, and has provided carefully designed public facilities in each area so they may derive benefit from their visits. The National Park System is distinguished for its non-commercial character, and for the fact that visits to the parks are comparatively inexpensive. These public benefits are an important element in the steady growth of public use of the System.
The National Park System is indelibly identified with the great national parks of the West. Newton B. Drury testified eloquently to their general role "in lifting people out of their everyday routine, in opening to them new vistas, in revealing to them something of the majesty of this country when first viewed by the explorers and the pioneers, in teaching them through interpretive methods the story of earth-building processes through the milleniums, the evolution of plant and animal life and the relation of these to each other and to their environment." [47]
Let us touch briefly on some other values, not always noted.
(2) Civic value. In his "Life of Mather," Robert Shankland reports this conversation between Gilbert Stanley Underwood and Steve Mather about the national parks: "They belong to everybody," Mather said. "We've got to do what we can to see that nobody stays away because he can't afford it." Underwood replied: "I hear lots of complaints about the tin-canners. They dirty up the parks. Strew cans and papers all over." Mather replied: "What if they do? They own as much of the parks as anybody else ... It's a cheap way to make better citizens." [48]
(3) Value to nation. Victor Hugo had a saying about the French national theater of his day: "In the theater, the mob becomes a people." A mass of unrelated individuals go through a common experience, reflecting their nation's history and thus lose their mob character and become a people. Similarly, American tourists who have seen Yosemite Valley, Independence Hall, the Statue of Liberty, Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, or other national possessions have some thing in common that transcends regional, class, ethnic, racial, religious or economic lines. This is a valuable contribution to the unity of the nation, and in war-time is reflected in the fact that pictures of the national parks are preferred ornaments on the walls of Red Cross clubs overseas as emblems of home for everybody, even those who have never visited them. Today the need for national unity is felt perhaps more keenly than ever.
(4) Appreciation of natural beauty, The aesthetic appeal of the national parks was well described by Miss Harlean James in a discussion of the philosophy of parks and people in her excellent book, Romance of the National Parks, "One of the proverbial joys of youth comes from pleasure in physical movement and muscular well being ... But far beyond the pleasure of walking or riding horseback in the ordinary open country, indulging the eyes in pleasant prospects, feeling the welcome warmth of the sun and the revivifying breezes of the air, is the spiritual uplift which comes from the contemplation of superlative scenery. Man is indeed 'in tune with the infinite' when he scales high mountains and looks upon stupendous scenes." [49] As Senator Gaylord Nelson pointed out in May 1965 during a White House Conference (on the subject of natural beauty), natural beauty makes a common appeal to everyone and crosses all geographic, political, educational and class lines. George Trevelyan called it "the highest common denominator in the spiritual life of today." Miss James recognizes the limitations of automobile travel as a means of experiencing natural beauty and considers frequent "lookouts" and walks on nearby trails that radiate from every camp, lodge, and visitor center as an indispensable minimum. "But the automobile is not to be despised. It carries the most ardent of walkers and horseback riders to the portals of the wilderness. It makes it possible for everyone to reach the high places on the face of the earth. Sometimes only a few hundred yards from a highway, one may find lonesome-looking places and may sense in some degree the excitement of standing alone to gaze on far distant views. But, as one who stands high on a 'peak in Darien,' it is the lover of Nature who strays from the beaten path and the man-made trails who may reach the most sublime heights of emotional and spiritual climax, These are super-experiences to be remembered and treasured as long as one lives." [50]
(5) Appreciation of American history. The contribution of the National Park System to the appreciation of American history is described in the Service brochure, That the Past Shall Live. "Americans," it says, "need to view the great memorials of their historic past, and through them to understand and more thoroughly appreciate their national heritage. Today, for the people of the United States, this need is perhaps greater than at any other time. Subjected unrelentingly to the threats and tensions of an uncertain world, they are drawn in increasing numbers to reestablish contact with the nation's past ... Year by year increasing millions are finding the answers to these questions in the historic sites and shrines of the National Park System which keep fresh and alive the story of the forces and processes that combined to shape our nation and our land." [51]
We know that popular history may be abused, but we also know that historical interests have deep roots. Dr. William J. Goode, Professor of Sociology at Columbia University, comments in the ORRRC report on "the increasing interest of American families in all of their past, as well as in the grand natural environment in which some of that past was enacted. Just as the grandchildren of the immigrant no longer feel ashamed of their Italian or Yugoslavian ancestors, now that they are securely and definitely American, so do the grandchildren of the farmer gain a new perspective on the beautiful but sometimes harsh and forbidding regions in which their ancestors tried to make a hard-scrabble living. Folk songs become big business, square dancing becomes socially acceptable, regional food products are sold to the urban gourmet, and tourists as they pass through national and state parks, buy dolls, furniture, or hearth brooms for their decorative value. The European intellectual's charge that the American has no sense of history has perhaps been correct in the past, but becomes increasingly false, as Americans impress upon their children the reality of their family and regional heritage, and in their utilization of outdoor recreation facilities remind them of it by direct participation." [52]
(6) Educational values. Sightseeing in the National Park System provides the stimulation of great places of scenery and history and awakens curiosity and the desire for knowledge. For many persons, recreation, important as it is, is not enough. They want to gain at least some new knowledge and understanding of nature or science, history or art from their leisure and their travel--for themselves and for their children. The National Park System, presenting natural wonders and places of great human drama to families on tour, is an immense outdoor museum where knowledge can be gained on the very spot where questions come to mind. The interpretive program offered by the Service is an invaluable aid to sightseers in widening and deepening their knowledge of nature and history. [53]
(7) National symbol to foreign visitors. Foreign travel to the United States is steadily increasing. Travellers are interested, not only in our skyscrapers and our technology, but also in our historic, cultural and natural heritage. These are often the values to which a foreign traveller responds most readily.
Some foreign visitors have only time enough to visit eastern metropolitan areas. When this happens, they almost certainly will include in their visit the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument, and some other public park areas in Washington, D. C.; Independence Hall in Philadelphia; and at least a distant view of the Statue of Liberty in New York City. They may explore some nearby countryside, possibly the George Washington Memorial Parkway, or Shenandoah National Park. If their trip is transcontinental, many arrange to visit Grand Canyon, Yosemite, or Yellowstone, and possibly other western national parks. Travellers from South America may view El Morro in San Juan, Puerto Rico; and visitors from the Orient may see the Alaskan and Hawaiian national parks. The U, S. Travel Service is currently engaged in a major program to attract more foreign visitors to the United States. There are no totals for foreign visitors to the National Park System, but by now it must be substantial and still growing, having been often encouraged by the State Department, the Department of Commerce, and other Federal agencies which usually deliberately route foreign VIP's to one or more units of the System. The story of the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia is now available in seven languages, and a number of other parks find growing demand for bi-lingual interpretation. While foreign visitors have always sought out the national parks, the growing role of the United States in world affairs makes the value of the National Park System as a national symbol to foreign visitors more important than ever before in our history.
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