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OLMSTED, YOSEMITE AND THE NIAGARA RESERVATION |
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OLMSTED,
YOSEMITE AND THE by
Although many people contributed to the
complex process of establishment of the Reservation at Olmsted was and is primarily known for
creating pastoral landscapes in city environments and articulating the
doctrine of the public park. His celebrated designed parks, beginning with
Central Park in Perhaps it was because Olmsted was the
best, or most successful, craftsman of his time in the art of landscape
architecture in this country that he could appreciate the value of the most
breath-taking scenery of Olmsted's opportunity to participate in
the movement to make the preservation of North America's best natural
landscapes a government concern came after President Abraham Lincoln, in 1864
during the Civil War, signed into law the first designated state park in the Inspired by his new authority, Olmsted
"had the territory surveyed and mapped in order that roads to and
through it could be planned according to his detailed instructions."
This was accomplished by Clarence King and James Gardner, employees of the
California State Geological Survey", authorized by one of the
commissioners, J. D. Whitney (Roper, 1973). Olmsted personally advanced money
to have this done (Todd, 1982) prior to the State's designation of funding.
The next thing Olmsted did was to write the preliminary report on the
management of Yosemite, the authorship of which "logically fell to
Olmsted," (Todd, 1982), perhaps because he was "the man best
qualified on the commission, and probably in the country, for this
unprecedented task" (Roper, 1973), presumably because of his earlier
association with the design and purpose of Central Park. Roper (1973) declared, in the publishing
of this document in 1952, using italics for emphasis, that with "this
single report, in short, Olmsted formulated a philosophic base for the
creation of state and national parks." It is a very interesting document
and did indeed embody philosophic principles; it did attempt to establish a
land use policy for areas of scenic grandeur for the public good. In this
document, Olmsted had "demonstrated the qualities of a conservative
social reformer with a distinctive theory about the role that public parks
ought to play in a democratic society." The report was "the first
systematic exposition in America of the individual's right to enjoy large,
impressive public reservations of natural scenery, and, also, the
government's obligation to protect him in the exercise of that right"
(Todd, 1982). The present writer has found some
difficulty in finding justification for giving this document the momentous
historic influence attributed to it, and the "landmark" role the
document is suggested to have played in the continuation of the movement to
preserve significant natural areas in the Todd (1982) suggested this was the case
when he indicated that when Olmsted was actively working to establish the
Niagara Reservation by developing a proposal and petition to impress the
Governor of New York State, Olmsted made no use of the Not only did Olmsted's report never
become generally circulated where it could do the greatest good, but he
himself returned East to continue his career while still chairman of the
commission of Yosemite. Without strong leadership, It seems less ironic, as Todd suggested,
that Olmsted's report disappeared than that Olmsted abandoned the first state
park, of the commission of which he was chairman, in order to pursue his own
career. Private exploitation, so well displayed in the evolution of Central
Park and other cultural achievements in New York City, and which continually
plague government-sponsored preserves, increased in the preserve at Yosemite
after Olmsted abandoned its leadership. According to Todd, 1982, it was the
state of Since one of the new commissions Olmsted
had received upon return to the east coast was the design of several urban
parks in the city of Perhaps it is indicative of the general
mobility of professionals in the United States in the nineteenth century that
James Gardner (later spelled Gardiner), who assisted with the surveying of
Yosemite under Olmsted and Whitney, the latter a commissioner of that park
and Gardner's superior in the California State Geological Survey, was now
director of the New York State Survey. Olmsted organized the famous petition
for establishment of the Reservation, with the help of friends Dorsheimer,
Frederick Church and Charles Eliot Norton, and supported by 700 signators:
"some of the most distinguished members of the Anglo-American community
who supported the preservation of Niagara" (Todd, 1982; for a partial
list and an excellent history of the movement to preserve Niagara and the
significance of its administration for the first twenty years of its existence
see 19 Ann Rep Comm, 1903). Alonzo B. Cornell, the Governor succeeding
Robinson, made no move to establish Blocked politically, recourse to
educating the public on the issues and involving them in the debate was made.
Olmsted and Norton employed Henry Norman, a Harvard graduate, and Jonathan B.
Harrison, who, previous to being a journalist, was a Unitarian minister
(Todd, 1982), to provide copy for newspapers in Olmsted had many New England connections
at In the creation of the Reservation at
Niagara, Olmsted showed his ability and commitment, skillfully using his
social theories, his friendships and ability to inspire as the cement holding
together a group of colleagues and professionals with a mutual interest in
preserving Grover Cleveland was next to succeed to
the governorship of New York, and perhaps it is an example of his
presidential caliber that it was his administration that established in law
the State Park at Niagara, now the oldest State Park in the United States. "At the time, no tradition of great
scenic parks existed anywhere in the world: to protect an area and conserve
it for recreational enjoyment was a policy that had never before been adopted
for the management of land from the public domain. Surprisingly, there was no
strong organized public movement in favor of such parks, and Congress did not
seem to have any special interest in the idea," (Todd, 1982). Niagara
was to provide an example of "organized public movement in favor of such
parks." The federal government recognized Olmsted's contribution in
using his achievement as the basis for awarding the Reservation its placement
in the United States Registry of National Places (Fox, 1986). For an
excellent review of the steps taken to preserve Niagara see 19 Ann Rep Comm,
1903. The establishment of Yellowstone in 1872
was the first instance of "the principle of governmental authority to
protect and preserve extraordinary phenomena in natural scenery" (19 Ann
Rep Comm, 1903) (rhetorically speaking, for Yosemite had that distinction).
In 1899 New York State Governor Roosevelt visited the Reservation (16 Ann Rep
Comm, 1900). At first reference was made to "the indifference of the
State of New York to this first far note of a coming doctrine" (19 Ann
Rep Com, 1903). The campaign to protect Niagara had required lots of public
addresses, newspaper and magazine articles, as such a concept had not been
thought of before: "the campaign of education conducted by the advocates
of the Reservation ... have done a great deal toward forming a more
intelligent public opinion on this subject, and have materially advanced the
movement for the protection of American scenery throughout the country"
(19 Ann Rep Comm, 1903). The Niagara Reservation was also an
experiment in the ability of state government to develop departments or
offices to oversee the protection of additional significant natural areas in
New York State, and their regulation, and its integration into other critical
areas of state stewardship - the management of the natural richness that is
the heritage of each of the fifty states in the Union. "There are in
this State not a few such places and objects that might with general approval
be taken by the State and made public possessions for all time. Money
expended in fostering a love for natural scenery and stimulating a popular
interest in national or local history must be regarded as money well
invested" (15 Ann Rep Comm, 1899). The eyes of the Nation, and possibly
also of Canada, would be on New York State, which had legislatively devised
much enlightened state legislation in many issues throughout its history. The
problems that would beset this Reservation would be models for problems and
their solution in future policy in the development of public lands. It was this legacy of Frederick Olmsted,
his colleagues and the Niagara Association, an organization he helped found,
that prompted the Commissioners to protest later, when the integrity of the
Reservation at Niagara was under attack by local industrial interests
competing for the natural resources the Reservation was to protect that
"it should not be forgotten that the Reservation really belongs to the
State, to the whole State and not to any portion or section of it. The organized
movement for the protection of the scenery of the Falls had its origin in the
great city at the mouth of the Hudson. The same city is assessed for more
than one half of the State taxes. Local interest in the Reservation is
entirely subordinate to the interest of the State" (15 Ann Rep Comm,
1899). The first Commissioners of the new State
Reservation at Niagara appointed by Cleveland were William Dorsheimer, M. B.
Anderson, J. Hampden Robb, Sherman S. Rogers and Andrew Haswell Green (for
list of Commissioners, Presidents, Secretaries and Treasurers, their
home-towns and terms of office till 1903 see 19 Ann Rep Comm, 1903). Thomas V. Welch was appointed first
Superintendent of the Niagara Reservation. Mr. Welch was responsible for
overseeing the implementation of policy in the new State Park. His dedication
and skill are detailed in the series of annual reports made by the
Commissioners appointed to regulate the new Reservation, and printed by and
for the State Legislature. Each report had a section written by the
Superintendent. Perhaps it is because the Commissioners
asked David Day, a botanist with the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences. to
conduct a floristic survey of the new Reservation and adjacent lands at
Niagara Falls that lead Welch to donate a series of his copies of the annual
reports to the research library of that institution, which was to become the
Buffalo Museum of Science. It is Welch's copies, signed "Compliments of
Thomas V. Welch", which were consulted for this paper. Mr. Welch served "upon many of the
most prominent committees of the [New York State] Assembly and took an active
and prominent part in a great deal of important legislative business, but the
legislation to which he devoted himself heart and soul and into which he
threw himself with an all-absorbing energy and purpose, and that with which
his name will ever be inseparably associated, was that which had to do with
the creation of the New York State Reservation...if it had not been for the
work of Mr. Welch the measure would not then have become law..." (20 Ann
Rep Comm, 1904). Mr. Welch had been clerk of the village of Niagara Falls, a
member of the board of supervisors, then chairman of the board, then member
of the New York State Assembly. He served as Superintendent from 1885 to the
year of his death in 1903.
"In
The Woods of Goat Island" BIBLIOGRAPHY Albright, H.
M. (as told to R. Cahn). 1985. The Birth of the National Park Service. Howe
Brothers, Chicago. Fox, A. M.
1986. Designated Landmarks of the Niagara Frontier. Meyer Enterprises,
Buffalo. Gardner, J.
T., Director. 1880. New York State Survey. Special report on the preservation
of the scenery of Niagara Falls, and fourth annual report on the
triangulation of the state for the year 1879. Albany: Charles Van Benthuysen
and Sons, pp. 27-31 Roper, L. W. 1973. A biography of
Fredrick Law Olmsted. Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore. Todd, J. E. 1982.
Frederick Law Olmsted. Twayne Publishers, Boston. |
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