On August 25, 1916, President Woodrow Wilson signed the Organic Act, which established the National Park Service. Today, we celebrate National Park Service Founders Day to recognize the conservation and preservation efforts of the National Parks System covering more than 84 million acres and including 59 fully designated national parks.
Check out some of our books below to tide you over until you can schedule your next trip to a National Park!
Preserving Yellowstone’s Natural Conditions
JAMES A. PRITCHARD
Preserving Yellowstone’s Natural Conditions describes in fascinating detail the historical origins and development of wildlife management in Yellowstone National Park, alongside shifting understandings of nature in science and culture. James A. Pritchard traces the idea of “natural conditions” through time, from the introduction of this concept by early ecologists in the 1930s.
Framing Nature
YOLONDA YOUNGS
In Framing Nature Yolonda Youngs traces the idea of the Grand Canyon as an icon and the ways people came to know it through popular imagery and visual media. She analyzes and interprets more than fourteen hundred visual artifacts, including postcards, maps, magazine illustrations, and photographs of the Grand Canyon, supplemented with the words and ideas of writers, artists, explorers, and other media makers from 1869 to 2022.
Losing Eden
SARA DANT
Cohesive and compelling, Losing Eden recognizes the central role of the natural world in the history of the American West and provides important analysis on the continually evolving relationship between the land and its inhabitants.
Nature’s Mountain Mansion
GARY NOY
Nature’s Mountain Mansion is the first anthology on Yosemite that focuses exclusively on the nineteenth century, the critical period in which Yosemite was “discovered” by an expanding nation and transformed into one of the country’s most visited national parks.
The Power of Scenery
DENNIS DRABELLE
Published in time to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Yellowstone National Park on March 1, 2022, and the 200th birthday of Frederick Law Olmsted on April 26, 2022, The Power of Scenery tells the fascinating story of how the national park movement arose, evolved, and has spread around the world.
Theodore Roosevelt, Naturalist in the Arena
CHAR MILLER AND CLAY S. JENKINSON
Drawing on an array of approaches—biographical, ecological and environmental, literary and political, Theodore Roosevelt, Naturalist in the Arena analyzes this energetic man’s manifold encounters with the great outdoors. George Bird Grinnell, Gifford Pinchot, John Muir, and William Hornaday were among the many conservationists with whom Roosevelt corresponded, collaborated, hiked, and governed—and in turn, inspired.
Shenandoah
SUE EISENFELD
In this conflict between conservation for the benefit of a nation and private land ownership, Eisenfeld explores her own complicated personal relationship with the park—a relationship she would not have without the heartbreak of the thousands of people removed from their homes.
Almost Somewhere
SUZANNE ROBERTS
It was 1993, Suzanne Roberts had just finished college, and when her friend suggested they hike California’s John Muir Trail, the adventure sounded like the perfect distraction from a difficult home life and thoughts about the future. But she never imagined that the twenty-eight-day hike would change her life. Part memoir, part nature writing, part travelogue, Almost Somewhere is Roberts’s account of that hike. This new edition includes an afterword by the author looking back on the ways both she and the John Muir Trail have changed over the past thirty years.
Mountains of Light
R. MARK LIEBENOW
Interwoven with Liebenow’s experiences are the stories of the Native Americans who lived in the valley for thousands of years and of the early settlers who followed. Melding documentary with introspection, environmental reportage with a search for meaning, Liebenow’s work draws on the lore of geology, botany, biology, and history to show how each aspect of the environment is connected to the rest.
Yellowstone Autumn
W. D. WETHERELL
Detailed in the wise, humorous, and lyrical language that has long distinguished W. D. Wetherell’s award-winning fiction, this introspective journey merges the fascinating story of Yellowstone’s history and geography with the author’s own story—of marriage and aging, of fatherhood, and of the solace to be found in the beauty of the natural world. Most of all it’s a loving tribute to Yellowstone in autumn, the season when the park and its glories are absolutely at their peak.
For further reading, check out our America’s Public Lands series!










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