On Wednesday, July 19th, Rotary Club of Fort Collins’ luncheon section welcomed Jared Orsi, a professor of history at Colorado State University, specializing in environmental and borderlands history. Jared started with the idea, variously enunciated by Ken Burns, Wallace Stegner, and/or Frederick Law Olmstead (the famous American architect in the late 1800s), that America's National Parks are America's Best Idea. Olmstead, in a report for the state of California about Yosemite, praised the American concept of parks democratically open to all the people in contrast with Europe where the parks were private estates open to only the rich and connected. He somewhat diluted the impact of this sentiment by suggesting that the native people actually living in the parks should be removed.
Dr. Orsi's first example was the Quitobaquito oasis, in Arizona near the Mexican border and now included in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. It was the homestead of Jose Juan Orazco and family (all native Americans) and, as an oasis, had been occupied for centuries. After inclusion in the Monument, the site was so efficiently razed that there was no evidence that anyone had ever lived there. So the Monument was initiated with destruction, not preservation.
This was followed by the example of Shenandoah National Park where, following the guidance of the National Park director asserting that there was insufficient demand from Blacks for widespread access, segregated facilities were set up for Blacks. Although there were numerous examples of groups of Blacks enjoying access to the park, was the lack of access to adequate facilities the effect of the cause?
Another series of examples from in and near Rocky Mountain National Park focused on the lack of any displayed discussion about removal of the native American tribes from the area as well as the ready availability of entertainment/access for whites (focusing on the Holzworth Ranch, ultimately a dude ranch established only after the Native Americans had been removed and with segregation informally enforced). Much of the early infrastructure of the park was created by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) which was rigidly segregated, with the Black groups placed only in remote locations. In the 1960s, the CCC was replaced by the Job Corps, which was fully integrated, but its use in and around Estes Park received decidedly mixed reviews.
Dr. Orsi concluded with some Colorado efforts to provide nature access for Blacks. He focused particularly on Gary Jackson, a Black carpenter for whites in the area who ultimately acquired land in the area where he built Zephyr Cabin, a facility that was open to Blacks for enjoyment of the natural area in and around Rocky Mountain National Park. He also mentioned Camp Nizhoni in the LIncoln Hills, another private outdoor recreation space for Blacks. He touted his ongoing engagement with Mary McCormac (Colorado Parks & Recreation) and Terri Bisonette (American Indian Academy of Denver) in their ongoing effort to expand recognition of and access for minorities in parks in Colorado. In discussions with minority high-school students of the area, the students have come up with numerous good ideas in that line including creating small spaces where single concepts (e.g., water) that have attracted people to that area over the years are discussed.
Thus, he is hopeful that America's Best Idea is becoming more and more possible and achievable for all Americans.
Questions:
Any ideas or recommendations for establishment of parks today? The Department of the Interior might focus on diversifying the range of parks with some attention to Black and LGBTQ interests. There ought to be some interest in blending natural and historic parks to reduce the impact of policies that, earlier, focused on dispossession, segregation, and erasure.
What might be done in the area of economic democritization -- making parks more available to the lower income strata of society? Dr. Orsi suggested that we need more funding, since funding has declined dramatically since the Clinton administration. He also suggested that we need more parks, at least in part to reduce the ecosystem impact of overuse of the parks currently in existence.