Conservation

Death Valley Lows: Tragedy, Madness & Our National Parks

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On Valentine’s Day in 1884, both the wife and mother of a young Teddy Roosevelt died of illnesses, leaving him with a two day old daughter. The young Harvard graduate and successful author resigned from the NY Assembly, and he went out west to mourn in the wilderness. His experiences would bring him through battle with his rough riders in Cuba to the White House, where he repaid his debt to nature by protecting 230 million acres of public land. Presidents Lincoln and Grant—no strangers to suffering—had already protected Yosemite and Yellowstone respectively, and in 1903 President Roosevelt camped in each park with Muir and Burroughs respectively, expanding Yosemite and changing from hunter to wildlife observer in Yellowstone. As parks or monuments Teddy signed into law Crater Lake, Grand Canyon, Lassen Volcanic, Mesa Verde, Olympic, Petrified Forest, Pinnacles and Wind Cave, plus Chaco, Devils Tower, El Morro, Gila Cliff Dwellings, Jewel Cave, Montezuma Castle, Muir Woods, Natural Bridges, Tonto, and Tumacacori.

But my hero Teddy Roosevelt is not the man I write about today. The secret behind the first NPS Director, Stephen Mather, was hidden from view until 1987 when his faithful assistant and successor revealed near the end of his own life that Mather was suicidally bipolar. A contemporary and kindred spirit of Muir and Roosevelt, Mather climbed Mt Rainier in 1905, explored Kings Canyon and Sequoia and helped found Save the Redwoods. Upset over the inconsistent and weak protection in the parks he visited, Mather lobbied Washington and got a job as Assistant Secretary of the Interior. Using his own funds, he organized an expedition and invited the head of the Appropriations Committee and the press, including the National Geographic Society editor. Mather’s enthusiasm was both manic—jumping into waterfall pools—and inspiring. As a direct result, President Wilson created the National Park Service, and Mather became its first leader.

Despite his months-long ‘Death Valley lows’ Mather was responsible for many of the decisions that converted protected public lands into the National Park experiences that we enjoy today. He pushed back the loggers, miners and ranchers who were extracting private wealth from our public lands. He lobbied to create many park units, including Indiana Dunes (postponed due to the urgency of WWI). He had iconic lodges built, like Old Faithful Inn above, and he limited development in many spectacular parks to just one dramatically scenic road. These exuberant and thrilling experiences in nature were his ‘Going to the Sun highs’, and he devoted all his energy to perfecting them. Mather was a staunch environmental defender, a visionary parks evangelist, and a brilliant marketer who wanted to share the joy of these wonderful places with everyone.

Humans have long sought solace in nature, so preserving havens in national parks is essential for humanity. People like Stephen Mather, who suffered from debilitating bouts of deep depression, desperately need nature both to recover from sadness and to be inspired into joyful action. This human bond with natural beauty and affinity with wildlife is what drove Teddy Roosevelt to rebound from his tragedies and Stephen Mather to overcome his mental illness. And as President and NPS architect, both worked tirelessly to protect our public lands for future generations.

Mather is well remembered in many NPS sites, from Mather District in Yosemite, Mather Gorge at Great Falls, Mather Parkway at Rainier, Mather Point in Grand Canyon and Mount Mather in Denali. His friends created bronze Mather plaques that can be found at over 50 park units across the country. Despite our current crazy and dangerous warming of our atmosphere, the plaques thank Mather with the following quote.

“He laid the foundation of the National Park Service, defining and establishing the policies under which its areas shall be developed and conserved unimpaired for future generations. There will never come an end to the good that he has done.”

1929 House Speech by Michigan Congressman Louis Cramton

Big Cypress National Preserve

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In the bigger, more famous neighboring park in southern Florida, the paid guide assured me that the American alligator “is a solitary creature, you never see more than one or two together”. In Big Cypress, I counted 16 alligators in one puddle and 17 in the next. Unlike most other wildlife I try to photograph, the alligators don’t run away; they look you right in the eyes and even slowly move towards you. Some are easy to spot, but while I was counting, three more were sneaking up on me.

Most of the million acres in Big Cypress and its smaller partners are actually prairie habitat for the endangered Florida panther, but there was a devastating fire recently, in our rapidly heating world. I drove the loop road instead, looking for gators in the gullies, but I often found myself looking up at the various trees to look at the air flowers hanging on to trunks and branches. In the hardwood hammocks, you might see some tree snails. And I saw a lot of birds, especially wood storks and other large wading birds.

Coming from the Naples side, I stayed in Everglades City, which is tucked in between the Ten Thousand Islands, the Everglades western estuaries and mangrove islands, and Big Cypress. Before the highway was extended to Key West, many visitors took boats to Key West from Everglades City. They’re rebuilding the hurricane damaged visitor center there in the name of Marjorie Stoneman Douglas, who wrote the book, River of Grass, that led to the protection of 2.5 million acres of lower Florida. Fortunately, large commercial efforts to farm, graze and otherwise exploit the land had all failed, so the environmental coalition won. Carbon pollution raises sea levels, so the future is uncertain. But for now, this is a good place for adventure travel out into the mangroves.

Here are my visits to all parks in Florida.

Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area (Bonus)

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California’s Golden Age architect, Edwin Neff, designed a grand ranch, above, for King Gillette of razor blade fame, in the roaring ‘20s, who sold it to Clarence Brown, who directed dozens of successful films, including National Velvet and The Yearling. Later the property had numerous colorful owners, but eventually it was saved by conservationists who won national protection for the stretch of mountains overlooking the Pacific above Malibu. The recreation area includes state and city parks, numerous film locations, horse riding trails, scenic vistas and wildlife, not far from Santa Monica and the LA basin.

This was actually the first park I visited for this blog, on the same day I picked up my EV. But I was so upset by the devastation of Paramount Ranch after the Woolsey Fire, that I neglected to take a photo. So, since I driving by on Thursday, I decided to do this redux visit to get a proper photograph or three. The visitor center is in the old Gillette Ranch carriage house, with the horse stalls and round hayloft now an exhibit space. And if you walk up the hill, you get a grand view of the Santa Monica Mountains below.

The whole recreation area is fascinating, especially if you’re a fan of scouting old TV and film locations: the Rockford Files beachfront home/ office at Paradise Cove, M*A*S*H’s camp in ‘Korea’ and Planet of the Apes, including Zuma Beach where Charlton Heston famously dropped to his knees to curse us all.

Here are my visits to all parks in California.

All Teddy Roosevelt Sites

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The park service commemorates six parks for Teddy Roosevelt, from his childhood home in NYC, to the ranch in North Dakota where he mourned, to his family home on Oyster Bay, to the room where he was sworn in after an assassination, to the DC island that celebrates his legacy and to the monument that rightly places him among our greatest presidents. The carbon crisis threatens to end the environment Teddy Roosevelt saved for us, so he would want us to switch to electric vehicles to enjoy all his parks, as I did.

At least a dozen current National Parks began with Teddy Roosevelt protecting their land, besides his namesake park above. His friendship with John Muir inspired our entire national park system. We owe a debt that we can only repay by continuing his legacy of preservation for the future.

As President, Teddy Roosevelt protected 230 million acres for us in 20+ states, including national forests, rivers, preserves and more, such as around the beautiful San Luis Valley. He’s directly responsible for all the units listed below, plus others, as well as for signing the Antiquities Act by which presidents still designate national monuments.

“The civilized people of today look back with horror at their medieval ancestors who wantonly destroyed great works of art, or sat by slothfully by while they were destroyed.
We have passed that age, but we are, as a whole, still in that low state of civilization where we do not understand that it is also vandalism wantonly to destroy or to permit the destruction of what is beautiful in nature – whether it be a cliff, a forest, or a species of mammal or bird.
Here in the United States we turn our rivers and streams into sewers and dumping-grounds.
We pollute the air, we destroy forests and exterminate fishes, birds and mammals – not to speak of vulgarizing charming landscapes with hideous advertisements.
But at last it looks as if our people were awakening.
Above all we should realize that the effort toward this end is essentially a democratic movement!
Now there is a considerable body of opinion in favor of our keeping for our children’s children, as a priceless heritage, all the delicate beauty and all the burly majesty of the mightier forms of wildlife.
Surely our people do not understand, even yet, the rich heritage that is theirs!”

Teddy Roosevelt, 1913

John Muir National Historic Site

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The view from the cupola of Muir’s father-in-law’s orchard estate upsets me. Between the palm trees, you can see smoke rising from the refineries in Martinez, and to the right across the street is a gas station. Muir never rode in cars, took horse carriages and preferred walking. In the house, there’s a print of the Muir Glacier in Alaska, now the Muir Inlet. He lived just long enough to lose the battle to prevent Hetch Hetchy Dam at Yosemite. Many of the giant sequoia groves at Sequoia have been destroyed by wildfires. And all his work with Teddy Roosevelt and the Sierra Club he helped found to protect millions of acres of wilderness is failing to protect nature from the man made climate crisis.

The battle for conservation will go on endlessly.
It is the universal warfare between right and wrong.

John Muir, 1896

At least he was happy in this house. Muir visited the owner, a Polish botanist who introduced varieties of fruit trees to the valley, and fell in love with his daughter, Louie. They married, settled here and inherited the orchards. They had children and also invited some of Muir’s siblings to join them, allowing John time to write. One of the oldest buildings in the area is the Martinez Adobe in the back of the property, which gave room for the Muir clan to stay and take care of the orchards. Influenced by Emerson, who he met later in life, Thoreau and Marsh, Muir continued traveling and became the most influential conservationist in the world, writing books, articles and letters to protect Yosemite, sequoia groves, glaciers and other natural wonders from human consumption. He would not forgive us for our fossil fuel pollution.

Here’s the link to my visits to all parks in California.