The Conservation Era and its’ Public Lands Advocates: Teddy Roosevelt and John Muir

In Part One of our story on Understanding Public Lands in the United States and why they matter, we looked at the early years immediately after the Louisiana Purchase of 1830, the Homesteading Era of Manifest Destiny, and together how they set the stage for Public Lands in America. Part Two of this series investigated the early explorers and influencers who recognized the rare and unmistakable value of the West through people like John Wesley Power and Ferdinand Hayden. In Part Three of our series about understanding Public Lands and Why they Matter, we explore the leaders who brought us the Conservation Era of US Politics and the West we see today.

Muir and Roosevelt overlooking Yosemite Valley
John Muir and Teddy Roosevelt overlooking Yosemite Valley.

Setting the Stage for Conservation of the US’ new Public Lands

In 1844, James K. Polk of Tennessee was elected president on a platform of westward expansion. He quickly faced off with the British over control of the Oregon Territory and oversaw a war against Mexico for the southwestern territories in 1846–1848. These victories meant that the United States now stretched continuously from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Soon thereafter, rapid westward expansion by Anglo settlers boomed thanks to the gold rushes of California, Colorado and more.

Then came the Civil War between the northern U.S. and southern Confederacy. The conflict temporarily directed the focus away from the Western territories. – though with some notable exceptions. With the conclusion of the Civil War and the completion of the Trans-Continental Railroad, tens of thousands from the eastern states resumed a mass migration westward. These pioneer explorers sought the west for its vast resources, opportunities, wealth, and lifestyles.

A painting of visitors next to a blue hot spring
The wonders of Yellowstone—shown through Jackson’s photographs, Moran’s paintings, and Elliot’s sketches—had caught the imagination of Congress. Thanks to their continued reports and the work of explorers and artists who followed, the United States Congress established Yellowstone National Park in 1872.NPS / Thomas Moran

As the wildness of west grew more tame over time, it became more approachable to a greater number of people. With more people, came more exposure; with more exposure came more awareness. Thanks to photographers, journalists, and artists; the unmistakable beauty of The West quickly rose in the public consciousness. Conservationism was there to capture the momentum of this growing awareness.

John Muir – The Preservationist Conservationist

John Muir was known as “John of the Mountains” and is still considered today to be the “Father of the National Parks.” Collectively we can all thank him for the modern favorite quote (explained in detail here) found on most anyone’s Instragram feed…

The Mountains are Calling, and I Must Go…

John Muir, Yosemite Valley – September 3rd, 1873

Born in Scotland in 1838 to a religious shopkeeper’s family, John took to exploring the natural environment around his small coastal town at a young age. Within 10 years, his family moved to the USA and settled into farm life in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. There, he would continue to show interest in the natural world – learning everything he could from what nature could teach him. As he grew older he taught himself the natural sciences like chemistry, geology and botany. Eventually though, a restlessness to explore would pull him away from home for what he called, “the University of the Wilderness.” By 1868 he had found his way to California where he soon discovered the Sierra Nevada mountains. There, Muir discovered and fell in love with the Yosemite Valley and surrounding area. His time there would end up having a profound impact on him for the rest of his life.

John Muir and the Sierra

It was in the Sierra where Muir contemplated the deep, even religious, kinship that humankind has with nature. He concluded that all forms of life are connected, have significance, and the right to exist. He also realized how fragile nature was, how people’s activities impact the land, and that nature needed preserving.

John Muir at age 73
John Muir at age 73. March 29, 1912

Recognizing the growing impacts of tourism and resource extraction, Muir became politically active – first advocating for the protection of Yosemite Valley. Through giving tours of the valley, Muir urged people to experience wild nature so they would be inspired to defend and save it. Eventually his campaigns to preserve the American Wilderness began to pay off – much to the chagrin of sheepherders and lumbermen.  With Century magazine editor Robert Underwood Johnson, Muir pushed for the creation of Yosemite National Park. Through his magazine and newspaper articles, he helped change Americans’ attitude toward the value of wilderness and wildness.

“Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine into trees.”

John Muir

Johnson’s publication of Muir’s articles sparked a bill in the U.S. Congress that proposed creating a new federally administered park surrounding the original Yosemite Grant. Yosemite National Park finally became a reality in 1890.

The last 25 years of Muir’s life were filled with travel, writing, and the creation and oversight of the original Sierra Club. He would go on to give tours of Yosemite throughout his life. When he gave President Theodore Roosevelt a tour of the park in 1903, Muir’s persuasive words touched and inspired Roosevelt. After Muir’s death in 1914, his legacy would go to to create the National Park System, unifying management of all the US’ National Parks.

Enter President Teddy Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt became President of the 26th US in 1901. His presidency started when the American “frontier” was declared closed by 1893. With his close ally George Bird Grinnell, Roosevelt was concerned by the excess waste that was taking place at the hand of unregulated market forces, primarily with logging and hunting. Several North American game species were teetering on the edge of extinction and forests were being removed at a rate faster then they could regrow. Roosevelt recognized that the laissez-faire approach of the resource utilization was too wasteful and inefficient. They knew that something must be done to secure the long term use of America’s natural resources.

To accomplish the mission, Roosevelt and Grinnell formed the Boone and Crockett Club, whose early members were some of the best minds in Conservation of the day. These conservationists, scientists, politicians, and intellectuals became Roosevelt’s closest advisers during his march to preserve wildlife and habitat across the U.S. With their help, Roosevelt quickly placed the issue of natural resource conservation high on his national agenda. Roosevelt’s conservation efforts were aimed not just at environment protection, but also at ensuring that society as a whole, rather than just select individuals or companies, benefited from the country’s natural resources for generations to come.

“Conservation means development as much as it does protection… Moreover, I believe that the natural resources must be used for the benefit of all our people, and not monopolized for the benefit of the few… Of all the questions which can come before this nation… there is none which compares in importance with the great central task of leaving this land even a better land for our descendants than it is for us…”

President Teddy Roosevelt – Speech at Osawatomie, Kansas, on August 31, 1910

Working with Gifford Pinchot and Conserving National Forests

But, Understanding Public Lands means looking beyond just National Parks and Monuments. It also means understanding National Forests and other Public Lands.

When it came to the issue of nationalizing the US’s forest resources, Gifford Pinchot became his primary advisor and strategist. At the time, Gifford was the head of the Bureau of Forestry, but Roosevelt increased Pinchot’s power over environmental issues by transferring control over National Forests from the Department of the Interior to the Bureau of Forestry. Pinchot’s agency was renamed to the United States Forest Service, and Pinchot presided over the implementation of assertive conservationist policies across many new National Forests. As you’d expect however, there were many opponents to the President’s Conservationist agenda… both those seeking less Federal oversight and those seeking more.

Roosevelt took care, however, to show that he did not pit his administration against capitalism, but only against monopolistic business practices. But despite the bitter divide between the President and the industrializing entrepreneurs of the west, Roosevelt stayed strong to his commitment to natural resource preservation. Teddy went out on a limb when he declared that the “rights of the public to national resources outweigh private rights,” and that “The forest preserves should be set apart forever for the use and benefit of our people as a whole and not scarified to the shortsighted greed of a few.”  These were innovative ideas in a rapidly evolving time.

“We have fallen heirs to the most glorious heritage a people ever received, and each one must do his part if we wish to show that the nation is worthy of its good fortune.”

Theodore Roosevelt

Their Lasting Legacy of Conserving Public Lands

National Parks

Roosevelt worked with his legislative branch to establish the following sites:

National Monuments

Roosevelt signed the Act for the Preservation of American Antiquities – also known as the Antiquities Act on June 8, 1906. The law gave the president discretion to “declare by public proclamation historic landmarks, historic and prehistoric structures, and other objects of historic and scientific interest… to be National Monuments.”

He dedicated the following sites as national monuments: