By Jeff Pfeiffer
Last night’s fourth episode of The National Parks: America’s Best Idea was “Going Home (1920-1933).”
The automobile is now an omnipresent feature in our national parks. How many families have packed up the old car and driven into these places over the decades? But as we see in this episode, the automobile was not welcomed by everyone in the early days. As we enter these years, talk begins about whether or not to allow the cars into the parks, an early example of our country’s ongoing love/hate relationship with the auto in relation to our environment. Many park supporters are opposed to this. However, director Stephen Mather and his assistant Horace Albright believe allowing in cars will increase the amount of visitors, and increasing the amount of visitors will lead to the creation of further parks.
Boy, are they right. By 1918, tourists arriving in autos outnumber those by train seven to one. By the end of 1920, the number of people visiting the parks exceeds one million a year for the first time, and “auto camping” becomes a craze. In 1925, Mather has his park superintendents form car caravans to travel on the new park-to-park highway for increased publicity, and at the end of that year park attendance hits 2 million.
A memorable “car” story is told in this episode, and it’s one of the more touching of the personal tales told in this miniseries. We are introduced to Margaret and Edward Gehrke, and are treated to readings from diaries that she kept for almost 30 years as the couple took a series of cars around the country to see as many parks as they could. Beginning in 1915, they joined the many Americans who were — and continue — to “collect” national parks by visiting new ones via road trips. We see Edward’s photos, and hear Margaret’s beautiful, exhilarated words from her writings about their travels. These are just two average people, but their experiences and reactions to the national parks are probably representative of those that many others have also had.
But as the episode, and their journeys over the years, proceed, Margaret does notice the change occurring in the parks due to the advent of cars, and the increasing number of admittedly dramatic and beautiful roads that Mather is building. On their first trip to the Grand Canyon in 1915, for example, the Gehrkes were there with about 300,000 people. On a second trip in the 1930s, that number is 10 times as much. Some people believe that Mather is going too far with his ideas for the parks, and that he has lost his original focus, so a secondary movement calling for more “primitive” parks, with less concentration on entertainment and tourism, begins.
Tourists don’t seem to mind, though. The episode also shows how, in order to help better inform the growing number of visitors to the parks, the concept of the professional park ranger is solidified. It is during this time that we start seeing the people in the familiar flat-rimmed ranger hats, guiding visitors on tours and answering all sorts of questions. Mather himself takes to wearing a ranger uniform when he tours the parks. Albright specifies that these rangers should be “men between the ages of 21 and 40, of good character, sound physique and tactful in handling people.” In 1917, 18-year-old Clare Marie Hodges becomes the first woman national park ranger.
One of my favorite parts of the miniseries is in this episode, with the discussion about how the Great Smoky Mountains National Park came about. I still have fond memories of that place — the first national park I had ever been too, on a wonderful family vacation when I was a child. So I was particularly interested when we start hearing about the story of Horace Kephart. Kephart, a very intelligent man, encounters a crisis early in his life when, after turning to heavy drinking and losing his job, his wife leaves, taking their six children with her. Determined to start over, Kephart decides to lose himself in the wilderness of North Carolina and Tennessee. He falls in love with the place, and writes a number of popular camping books while there. But he becomes increasingly worried about the impact of logging on the area. Also concerned is George Masa, a Japanese immigrant and photographer. The two become close friends and take up the cause of making the Smoky Mountains a national park. Through Kephart’s persuasive writing, and Masa’s lovely photographs of the area, they help convince others. However, it is put in the hands of the residents to come up with the $10 million necessary to purchase the lands. In an amazing display of solidarity, people from all over the region — then one of the poorest parts of the country — save every nickel and dime they can. They come up with $5 million, and John D. Rockefeller Jr. again saves the day by kicking in the other $5 million after seeing Masa’s photographs. The park is now underway, but unfortunately, before he can officially see the Smokies become a national park, Kephart is killed in a car crash. Masa himself dies a few years later of illness. But their efforts are forever commemorated within the park — a peak bears the name Mount Kephart, and another one is called Masa Knob.
We return to the Grand Canyon in this episode for a few more stories. Unfortunately, notable jackass Ralph Henry Cameron is back in the picture. After losing his fight to stop the creation of Grand Canyon National Park, and refusing to remove his buildings from there, Cameron is now a U.S. senator and tries to use his political power to prevent any action against himself. He proposes two dams and a platinum mine within the park, and Mather and Albright fight to stop this. They garner enough public support to stop the projects, and Arizona voters eventually refuse to return Cameron to office in the election of 1926. Finally, Cameron’s tenuous grasp on parts of the canyon is over.
We also hear the tragic story of honeymooning couple Bessie and Glen Hyde. The adventurous pair decide to take a boat through the Grand Canyon on the Colorado River (Bessie would be the first woman ever to attempt this). Sadly, after a few stops, and a final entry in Bessie’s diary dated Nov. 30, a little over a month after they started the trip, they disappear. Their scow is found floating in an eddy, with everything on deck untouched. Another example of not underestimating the potential danger that can come along with the beauty of the parks.
The episode ends on some bittersweet notes. Stephen Mather dies in 1930, and in the last minutes of the show we catch up with the Gehrkes’ trips in later years. Margaret’s writings become a little more wistful, and almost tinged with sadness, perhaps partly due to looking back at life and the couple’s previous, youthful trips from the perspective of her now advancing age, and partly because of the changes she’s seen in the parks. But she and Edward continue on, and make another visit to her favorite place, Rocky Mountain National Park, and a favorite cabin they have there. Margaret writes fondly of the trip, and wonders if they will ever return there. She does, but it sadly is without Edward, who dies in 1939. Margaret cuts back on her travels, but in 1948, at age 65, she does return to that Rocky Mountain cabin — but takes the train, without having Edward to drive her. It’s a bit melancholy to hear her words at this time, the wanderlust seemingly taken away from her by time and the loss of Edward. But the Gehrkes’ decades-long adventures in the parks serve as a good example of how these areas can inspire, and bring joy to, people. Margaret’s annual planning of their trips has probably been duplicated among countless couples, families and single travelers over the years. The sights she saw inspired wonderful photos and writings in the couple’s albums and journals, much like many others have likely captured their awestruck moments at the parks in similar ways. Following the rush of a visit a national park, it can be easy to agree with Margaret’s words, written after a tough climb down — and up — the Grand Canyon on her and Edward’s second trip there: “What is life but to dream and do?”
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John White: Credit Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks
George Masa: Credit George Ellison
Grand Canyon: Credit Craig Mellish
