The Scout Report -- Volume 24, Number 16

The U.S. national parks have been lauded as "America's Best Idea." However, as journalist, historian, and English scholar Philip Burnham points out, the establishment of the National Park Service (NPS) depended on the displacement of Native American communities from their land. In this 2016 episode of "Your Call," a broadcast of San Francisco's KALW, Rose Aguilar interviews Burnham, the author of Indian Country, God's Country: Native Americans and National Parks, about the oft-overlooked history of Native Americans and national parks. During the interview, Burnham addresses the histories of Yellowstone, Death Valley, and Yosemite and examines the Antiquities Act: the 1906 law that allows the U.S. president to proclaim certain sites to be national lands and monuments. As Burnham notes, the establishment of early national parks rested on the myth that those lands were "worthless" and essentially untouched by previous communities. In reality, Native communities had shaped and preserved those lands for years. In addition, Burnham and Aguilar discuss how U.S. national parks have historically addressed or ignored this aspect of history and how indigenous communities have organized to raise awareness about these issues. [MMB]

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Although it was Woodrow Wilson who signed into law the 1916 act that created the National Park Service, Theodore Roosevelt is the U.S. president that most associate with the creation of the national parks. During his presidential tenure, Roosevelt passed the 1906 Antiquities Act and oversaw the creation of Crater Lake, Wind Cave, and Mesa Verde National Parks, in addition to Sullys Hill National Game Preserve and Platt National Park (now the Chickasaw National Recreation Area). The Theodore Roosevelt Center at Dickinson State University is dedicated to "preserving the legacy of America's 26th president" through a number of projects, including the creation of a digital library. As of this write-up, the Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library hosts dozens of materials related to national parks and reserves, including maps, photographs, correspondence, speeches, and more. Visitors may conduct a text search of this extensive collection in the advanced search section of the website. In addition, visitors interested in learning more about Theodore Roosevelt and national parks may want to check out the conservation section in the TR Encyclopedia. [MMB]

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In 2009, PBS broadcasted Ken Burns's six-part documentary series National Parks: America's Best Idea. Almost a decade later, PBS's companion website continues to host a wealth of materials about the history of U.S. national parks, including this searchable collection of over 800 multimedia documents. This collection includes newspaper articles, historic photographs, correspondence, and clips from the documentary (which can be viewed with Adobe Flash). Visitors are invited to browse these images by park (from Arcadia to Zion), by era, or by person (featuring photographer Ansel Adams, artist Chiura Obata, reporter Juanita Greene, and many others). As a whole, this collection offers a wealth of material for teaching and learning about the history of national parks in the United States. [MMB]

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In the 1960s, Warren Furutani and Victor Shibata decided to travel to Manzanar: a former internment camp in Owen Valley, California where 110,000 Japanese-American citizens had been incarcerated during World War II. Furutani's parents had been incarcerated at an internment camp and the pair were hoping to learn more about a chapter of U.S. history that had been missing from their textbooks. To their disappointment, they were unable to learn much about the realities of Japanese-American internment at the site. In December 1969, the pair led 150 individuals on a pilgrimage to Manzanar. Also leading the trip was Sue Kunitomi Embrey, who had spent part of her childhood in Manzanar. Together, Furutani, Shibata, and Embrey formed the Manzanar Committee and campaigned for the former internment camp to be designated as a national historic site. When the U.S. government granted this distinction to the camp in 1992, the committee's intentions for Manzanar were to preserve the realities of the camp so that present-day visitors could learn about this chapter of U.S. history. In this episode of the podcast 99% Invisible, producer Emmett Fitzgerald interviews Furutani about his work to ensure that the injustice of Japanese-American internment not be erased from public memory. Fitzgerald also speaks with Bruce Embrey, son of the late Sue Kunitomi Embrey, and to Alisa Lynch, a historic interpreter at Manzanar. This powerful episode demonstrates the important role that national parks and historic sites play in honoring and preserving U.S. history, including the history of injustice. [MMB]

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More Than Just Parks is a multimedia project started by brothers and filmmakers Will and Jim Pattiz, who travel the United States photographing and recording the natural wonders of U.S. National Parks. The brothers have a distinct goal for their project: "...To share the wonders of our national parks with as many people as we can, thereby ensuring their continued protection and enjoyment for generations to come." For those who cannot make the trip to the parks in person, this stunning visual experience provides a vivid digital exploration of twelve of America's national parks. Each park contains a three to four-minute video of time-lapsed images, a photo gallery, filming locations within the park, and a list of film equipment and outdoor gear utilized by the film crew. Each national park takes several weeks to traverse and film, often encompassing hundreds of miles of exploration. Visiting the page for Voyageurs National Park in northern Minnesota allows the viewer to experience, "a land blanketed in pristine lakes, ablaze with kaleidoscopic fall foliage, and the most spectacular displays of the northern lights on the planet." More Than Just Parks provides a beautiful and memorable connection to our natural lands - possibly inspiring some of us to pack a backpack and head out to create our own adventure. More Than Just Parks is a continuously-evolving project, so stay tuned. [JLB]

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In late 2016, the Curt Teich Postcard Archives Collection (CTPAC) was transferred to the Newberry Library in Chicago from the Lake County Discovery Museum in Wauconda, Illinois where it had been housed since 1982. When CTPAC arrived at the Newberry Library it was estimated at 2.5 million items and over 500,000 unique postcard images. While the physical postcards and records of the Curt Teich Company reside at the Newberry, the largest digital version is in CARLI digital collections - the digital repository for the Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois. Using CARLI, it's possible to browse the 7,000 + views of national parks featured on Curt Teich postcards, such as a 1960s view of a car on Route 66 in the Painted Desert. 7,000 images are a lot to browse, so, fortunately, other limiters are available. One can perform a keyword search within results to retrieve all the images with the word "Yellowstone," for example. Searches can also be limited by state. Most Curt Teich postcards printed before 1964 are no longer copyrighted and the image metadata supplies complete usage information. Images can be downloaded but are generally rather small since they were based on postcard originals. Another fun detour in the CTPAC is the Postcard Road Trip, which features some national parks in the U.S. [DS]

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While many artists and photographs aim to get up close-up images of the national parks, NASA is able to offer a unique perspective by capturing national parks from space. In honor of the recent centennial of the U.S. National Park Service, NASA's Earth Observatory compiled this collection of "NASA's best images of national parks and other federal lands, along with stories of earth science in those parks." When visitors select an image, they can view a short essay and links that provide context for the Image of the Day. For example, one image in this collection features a photograph of Crater Lake taken by an International Space Station (ISS) astronaut, accompanied by an essay with a number of embedded links to resources from the U.S. Geological Survey that provide insight into Crater Lake and Wizard Island. Another image portrays North Cascades National Park as captured by Operational Land Imager (OLI) on the Landsat 8 satellite. This satellite image is accompanied by a number of photographs of, as well as information about, the North Cascades. [MMB]

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In 2017, the National Park Service announced that photographer Jarob Ortiz would be the staff photographer for the Heritage Documentation Programs. When the NPS announced that they would be hiring a staff photographer in 2015, they compared the position to the one that Ansel Adams held in 1941 when he began photographing national parks for the Department of the Interior. Of the 4,000 applicants, Milwaukee-native Ortiz impressed the NPS with his experience using large-format cameras, a skill he had learned at Milwaukee Area Technical College (MATC) and had honed during his work as a freelance architecture photographer. In this episode of the Milwaukee Public Television show 10thirtysix, viewers can learn more about Ortiz's craft and his new role at the NPS. Ortiz also describes his journey to what he describes as his "dream job." After serving in the Air Force for six years, Ortiz attended the photography program at MATC, drawn to the opportunity to learn how to use a view camera (as Ortiz notes, many of the other photography programs he looked at did not offer this opportunity) Here, he quickly impressed photography instructor John Gamblin, who is interviewed in the episode. For photography fans, this episode incorporates a number of Ortiz's photographs, along with a few historic photographs of national parks. [MMB]

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The U.S. National Park Service boasts an extensive, well-designed website that features resources for educators, nature lovers, history enthusiasts, and anyone interested in learning more about the many U.S. national parks and sites. One feature of this website that may especially appeal to U.S.- based readers is the Find a Park page, which allows visitors to quickly locate parks and historic sites of interest. On the site's interactive map, visitors can find parks by state and view a variety of statistics about park visitors and land area in each state. Visitors can also conduct a text search to find a particular park. This page also features a few thematic collections. One such collection is Remembering World War I, which highlights three different sites that have a connection to the first world war: Fort McHenry National Monument; Fort Vancouver National Historic Site; and Keweenaw National Historical Park. Visitors may also want to scroll to the bottom of the page to check out a list of fee-free days at national parks. [MMB]

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The Library of Congress offers this digital collection of 173 maps that either document U.S. national parks or document regions that would later be designated as national parks. More specifically, the collection documents depictions of four parks (Yellowstone, Acadia, the Grand Canyon, and the Great Smoky Mountains) and includes items dating from the seventeenth century through the present. This collection showcases maps that were created for a variety of purposes and features seventeenth-century maps by European explorers, eighteenth-century property maps, U.S. Geological Survey maps, and more. Visitors may browse these maps by date, location, contributor, or subject. In addition, visitors may want to check out the articles & essays section, which includes five essays that provide additional insight into these maps. In one such essay, Library of Congress cartographer Patricia Molen van Ee traces the history of mapping the coast of Maine (and Acadia National Park) from 1856 through the 1990s. Her essay is accompanied by a number of maps in the collection. [MMB]

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In 2016, the Pusey Library at Harvard University created an exhibit of historic maps in honor of the centennial of the National Park Service. The exhibit, entitled "The Land Remains: A Century of Conservation in America's National Parks" featured maps from the impressive Harvard Map Collection (which features approximately 400,000 items). Betsy Mason of National Geographic visited this exhibition and wrote this article highlighting some of her favorite pieces in the collection. Maps featured in this article include Bradford Washburn's gorgeous 1978 topographic map "Heart of the Grand Canyon"; an 1872 Hayden survey map of Yellowstone; and an 1885 Hawaiian government survey map of Hawaii. [MMB]

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National Park Maps is an independently-run national park mapping website that provides an array of different types of maps and documentation for national parks and historic sites in the U.S. This site is especially handy for anyone who may be planning a trip to a national park and wants to explore by hiking (on designated trails or in the backcountry) and camping. Visitors to the site can explore maps by navigating to the tabs labeled "Parks by state" or "All parks." The latter tab also contains maps for national monuments; recreation areas; historic sites; other park units (such as Alcatraz Island and Pearl Harbor); and national seashores, lakeshores, and rivers. Each individual map section contains maps of specific trails or other areas of the park - most include topographical information about the area and details that include whether there are camping grounds, groceries, gas stations, and other markers. In the Death Valley Maps section, visitors have the option to view the entire park (including an interactive map of the park), but also maps of Furnace Creek, Desolation Canyon trail, Little Bridge Canyon trail, a Las Vegas to Death Valley roadmap, and much more. National Park Maps is a useful resource for anyone planning a trip to a national park or historic site, but may also be of interest to anyone interested in cartography or mapping technology. [JLB]

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The BBC's Travel website allows visitors to view all BBC articles that address national parks in one location, providing individuals with the opportunity to learn more about national parks located around the globe. As of this write-up, the most recently authored article highlights India's Loktak Lake, which is covered by floating islands called phumdis. Collectively, the Loktak Lake phumdis have the distinction of being the only floating national park in the world. Another recent article highlights China's Huangshan National Park, a mountain range that is often covered in hard rime ice, a kind of frost. Yet another article discusses Hossa, which Finland has just recently declared a national park. Hossa is home to the Varikallio rock wall, which is decorated with paintings believed to be up to 4,500 years old. [MMB]

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Today, there are a number of new national parks and reserves in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Chile. Collectively, these parks mark an effort to preserve wildlife in one of the most biodiverse regions of the world. This recent article by The New York Times, written by JoAnna Klein, examines Peru's Yaguas National Park, which was established this past February. In this article, Klein describes how the park was established with leadership from Peru's indigenous community. Klein also discusses the rich variety of species that can be found in this rainforest, including approximately 300 species of fish and over 100 amphibious species. The article features gorgeous pictures of just a handful of these species, including a parrot snake (also known as the Amazonian palm viper), a Diaethria candrena butterfly, and an Enyalioides woodlizard. [MMB]

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The history of national parks in Mongolia dates all the way back to 1778, giving the country the distinction of having the first national park in the world. Today, Mongolia is home to a number of national parks and national land reserves. This recent article in bioGraphic, authored by freelance reporter Dene-Hern Chen addresses the complexities of the debate surrounding just one of these national parks. The Tengis-Shishged National Park is 3,400 square mile taiga in northern Siberia. This region is also home to the Dukhas, an indigenous community of nomadic reindeer herders. As the Mongolian government has increased the number of protected areas in the country (hoping to reverse damage caused by mining and hunting), these new laws have also impacted the Dukha and have lead to disagreements between the Dukha community and park rangers. This article explores the issues at stake at Tenis-Shishged National Park and an adjacent protected wilderness area, Ulaan Taiga. The article is accompanied by a number of photographs of the region, captured by photojournalist Taylor Weidman. [MMB]

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We featured this new initiative from the National Parks Service, Clemson University, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services in September 2017. Today, this exciting collection features over 240,000 items.

From the National Park Service, Clemson University, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services comes the Open Parks Network - an extensive digital repository of images related to the U.S. national parks of past and present. This impressive collection, which includes over 200,000 images, can be explored by park and by collection. As of this write-up, the Open Parks Network features 19 national parks. Each of these parks contains multiple specific collections, ranging from Civil War Newspaper Illustrations (part of the Fort Sumter National Monument); Jimmy Carter Memorabilia (from the Jimmy Carter National Historic Site) and items from the National Prisoner of War Museum (from the Andersonville National Historic Site). Of course, this collection also includes a number of striking images taken of the parks themselves throughout history, revealing how the national parks have changed over time.

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Originally featured in our 05-12-2017 issue, we are excited to revisit this Google Arts & Culture page that allows visitors to take virtual tours of five national parks

This spectacular Google Arts and Culture page was recently awarded the 2017 Webby Award for Best Educational website. Developed in collaboration with the National Park Service, this website allows visitors to experience the wonder of five different national parks in the United States: Kenai Fjords National Park, Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park, Carlsbad Caverns National Park, Bryce Canyon National Park, and Dry Tortugas National Park. After selecting a park of interest, visitors can take a virtual tour of each park headed by an expert park ranger. These interactive tours include three-dimensional video and camera footage, interactive visuals, historical footage, and more. For example, visitors can observe the rate of glacial melting between 2004 and 2016 in the Kenai Fjords, or use the night sky feature to locate and learn about constellations and stars above Bryce Canyon.

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