Historic Roads in the National Park System: Special History Study

Soulliére, Laura

The development of road systems in national parks involved interrelated political and economic issues. Although based in the idealism of the Organic Act that established the National Park Service, park development relied on appropriations that were linked to visitation. During the late 'teens and 'twenties the National Park Service pushed for funding for the construction of park roads, urged the development of access roads to national parks, and supported the road network known as the National Park-to-Park Highway. When Robert B. Marshall was detailed temporarily from his position as chief geographer of the U.S. Geological Survey to the general superintendent of the national parks in 1916, he wrote of three functions of national parks: stimulating national patriotism; furthering knowledge and health; and diverting tourist travel to scenic areas of the United States. [1] Later annual reports of the director of the National Park Service and other documents for that time period showed clear motivation. Although many records chronicled the scenic and inspirational qualities of national parks, a recurrent theme throughout the literature involved increasing the economic strength of the nation through tourism, thereby providing a practical justification for parks. Allowing automobile access to national parks was the answer. At the same time that these efforts were underway, the number of automobiles in the United States increased dramatically — from 8,000 in 1900 to 23 million in 1930. [2] This prompted a major change in how parks operated. Initially most visitors had arrived at parks via train. The railroads made most of their park-related money from the sale of passenger tickets, and they made very little if any from concessions operations. with which they were connected within park boundaries. Thus, their greatest profits came from outside the parks. Following the dramatic increase in autotourism by the 1930s, as environmental historian Alfred Runte pointed out, the profit-taking from visitors' pockets shifted from outside park boundaries to inside the boundaries as visitors spent money on hotel accommodations, meals, and souvenirs. [3] Coincident with the early physical development of national parks was the evolution of a design ethic that emphasized an organic approach to architecture and landscape. This evolution, the roots of which lay in the 19th century work of horticulturist Andrew Jackson Downing and Landscape Architect Frederick Law Olmsted, stressed design in harmony with nature. Following this ethic, nature was the most important element of design, and all design decisions subordinated the built environment to the natural environmental. National Park Service (NPS) designers during the 1920s tended to perceive roads and buildings as necessary evils, and they incorporated a variety of means in their designs to achieve harmony with the surrounding environment. The use of onsite, natural materials, sensitive siting that responded to nature, and curvilinear road alignments that hugged the topography were characteristic of this type of rustic design. Because this ethic permeated all aspects of park design, national parks began to develop a distinctive, identifiable look and feeling.

Historic Roads in the National Park System: Special History Study

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