Historic Resource Study for Muir Woods National Monument Golden Gate National Recreation Area
Auwaerter J and Sears JF. 2006. Historic Resource Study for Muir Woods National Monument Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Historic Resource Study. Boston, Massachusetts
Since first being widely discovered by hikers and tourists in the late nine- teenth century, Muir Woods National Monument has become renowned across the country and beyond for its old-growth forest of coast redwoods, Sequoia sempervirens, located in the midst of a metropolitan region just eight miles north of San Francisco. Designated the country’s tenth National Monument in 1908 by President Theodore Roosevelt, Muir Woods has a remarkable cultural history, if somewhat understandably overshadowed by its natural history. Muir Woods was the first National Monument located close to a major city, and it was the first federal or state park established in the region. The preservation of the old-growth redwood forest was due in large part to the efforts of William Kent, who gifted the property to the federal government, and together with other politically well-connected individuals, local residents, business people, and hikers, formed a remarkably strong local conservation movement. In the years after the designation of Muir Woods, this movement achieved the preservation of much of the rugged coastline north of San Francisco, today encompassed chiefly by Golden Gate National Recreation Area, Mount Tamalpais State Park, the Marin Municipal Water District, and Point Reyes National Seashore. Despite the establishment of these surrounding park areas, Muir Woods National Monument has retained its identity as a distinct unit of the National Park System, visited annually by hundreds of thousands as one of the chief tourist attractions in the San Francisco Bay Area. During the near century since its designation in 1908, boundaries have been expanded, vehicular access has switched from rail to automobile, recreational preferences have shifted, design styles have changed from romantic to modern, and methods of managing natural resources have evolved according to ecological perspectives. Yet throughout its history, management of Muir Woods National Monument has centered on caring for the redwood forest and providing public access to it.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Auwaerter, John; Sears, John
- Date of Issue
- 2006
- Units
- HIST , JODA , MUWO
- Keywords
- Conservation, Cultural Resources, ehistory, Environment, Historic, History, John Muir, Preservation, Protection, recommendation, recommendation, Research, Resources, Treatment