28 - Book of the National Parks by Robert Sterling Yard

Robert Sterling Yard was a prominent American writer, journalist, and wilderness advocate. Hailing from Haverstraw, New York, he graduated from Princeton University and dedicated the first two decades of his career to editing and publishing. In 1915, he joined forces with his friend Stephen Mather to champion the establishment of an independent national park agency. Their collaborative efforts fueled a movement that ultimately led to the creation of the National Park Service (NPS) in 1916. Yard was tireless in his mission to promote the national parks and educate the American public about their significance. He established high standards for park selection, grounded in aesthetic ideals, while vehemently opposing the commercialization and industrialization of what he affectionately termed Americas masterpieces. In 1935, he became one of the eight founding members of The Wilderness Society and served as its first president until his passing in 1945. Today, Yard is revered as a pivotal figure in the modern wilderness movement. In the preface to his book, published in 1919, he articulates, In offering the American public a carefully studied outline of its national park system, I have two principal objects. The one is to describe and differentiate the national parks in a manner which will enable the reader to appreciate their importance, scope, meaning, beauty, manifold uses and enormous value to individual and nation. The other is to use these parks, in which Nature is writing in large plain lines the story of Americas making, as examples illustrating the several kinds of scenery, and what each kind means in terms of world building; in other words, to translate the practical findings of science into unscientific phrase for the readers increased profit and pleasure, not only in his national parks but in all other scenic places great and small.