Joseph Jarvis might be overstating things — but only slightly.
Jarvis, director of the National Park Service, recently referred to President Abraham Lincoln’s action 150 years ago as a “remarkable message of hope for a nation embroiled in a bloody Civil War, assuring the nation of better times ahead, as if he knew that Americans would need places where they could go and find peace in the perfection of the natural world.”
The action? On June 30, 1864 — 150 years ago Monday — Lincoln signed into law the Yosemite Land Grant bill. The act preserved the Mariposa Grove and Yosemite Valley areas of California “for public use, resort, and recreation … inalienable for all time,” paving the way for what would later become Yosemite National Park. The bill, which marked the first instance of the federal government setting aside scenic wilderness for public use and preservation, also paved the way for the national park system.
Perhaps most importantly, Lincoln’s action codified an ethos that has helped define the western United States for the past century-and-a-half. Residents of Washington, Oregon, and California long have embraced environmental efforts, understanding the precious nature of our resources and the importance of preserving the beauty that is a hallmark of this part of the world. Without the Yosemite Land Grant, Oregon today likely would not have its beaches reserved for public use, and Washington likely would not have such a stunning Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area.
Today, the national park system encompasses more than 80 million acres of land throughout the country, preserving part of America’s wondrous landscape in a near-pristine state and protecting that land from development. In the case of Yosemite, one of the nation’s most famous and most popular national parks, about 3.7 million visitors each year are drawn to its 747,956 acres of granite cliffs, waterfalls, clear streams, and Giant Sequoia groves.
