National Parks, Episode 3 and 4. Brief Musings.

To repeat myself, I’m continuing to enjoy this film very much.

I’m struck by a couple things this evening as I mull over tonight and
last night’s episodes.

First relates to the Great Smokies. I was truly taken aback to learn
of the outpouring of small dollar, out of not-in-the-least deep pocket
donations from local citizens in support of the land purchases that
would be
requisite for realizing the park. This was unfolding in a poor rural
area. Civic responsibility and local pride saw folks who had so little
dig deep in support of setting up a permanently established public
park.

The second stems from the quote from Robert Sterling Yard, observing
that within the confines of the park boundaries, and arising from the
sharing of experiencing the setting, that “all are Americans” who
visit and enjoy the parks. The establishment of these reserves
provided the physical space within which social class would, at least
a little, fade.

The affordability and increased ubiquity of the automobile put access
to these sites within the reach of the average folk.

It wasn’t lost on me that the environs of Acadia National Park, in my
native state of Maine, had been the exclusive province of the
hyper-wealthy old money types.

The parks, within a few short decades of their genesis, gave space and
cause for something that felt and looked worthy of the notion of
democracy.

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