28 May 2019 –
Hello there! Thank you for stopping by. Here it is, the post that started it all, whatever limited thing “all” might be. I don’t climb El Capitan without ropes, search for rare abyssopelagic fish, or have any other hobby in my personal life that is really worth blogging about. Still, I like an audience, and that is why I started a blog on history, science, and politics. I also don’t attempt to conceal my political views whilst doing this, as you may have gathered from the blog’s title.
This week I’ll start off with a fairly noncontroversial topic. No calls for revolution in this post. There’s plenty of time for that later. I’ll also endeavor to keep these entries from becoming long essays. Okay, that’s it for the intro. Now for the interesting stuff.
This featured first blog reflects two major interests of mine:
- Railroads
- National parks
There were many forces involved in the creation of the first national parks. One little known player in the establishment of the Parks system was the large railroad industry that held great political power in the mid-1800s. The financial motives of these railroad industries played an important role in protecting majestic areas such as Yellowstone and Yosemite, places that today are enjoyed by millions of visitors each year.
In the 19th century, the Homestead Act of 1862 gave settlers the right to claim 160 acres of land as their own in the western territories. When the first railroad lines to the west were being constructed, the railroad companies foresaw the difficulty of building routes through the properties of many different individuals. To streamline the process of building a railroad, it made sense for the rail companies to try to negotiate with as few landowners as possible. In addition, the companies saw the huge profits that could be made through having a monopoly in transporting tourists to scenic western areas.
The Northern Pacific Railroad took the first initiative in preserving the area that would eventually become Yellowstone National Park. The company financed expeditions to the Yellowstone area, and paid for the famous artist Thomas Moran to join a geological expedition in the region. The artwork created by Moran was distributed throughout the eastern states, motivating the public to petition for the protection of Yellowstone. The Northern Pacific Railroad was also highly influential in proposing the legislation that would make Yellowstone a national park. As this legislation was debated in the halls of Congress, the railroad company built its own hotels around Yellowstone, shuttling large numbers of people to see the splendor of this area.
The Northern Pacific Railroad’s connection to Yellowstone is far from the only example of a rail company that lobbied for the creation of a National Park. The Great Northern Railway pushed for the protection of the region that would become Glacier National Park, the Southern Pacific Railroad’s projects included Yosemite and Sequoia, and several other railroads in the southwest lobbied for the Grand Canyon’s status as a national park after building luxury hotels along the South Rim. The goals of railroad corporations aligned so well with those of environmentalists that the two groups forged an alliance that impelled Congress to create the National Park Service in 1916.
In an unusual turn of history, the greed of railway barons led to the preservation of many of America’s treasured national parks. Many of the original railroads with routes leading into the national parks are now managed by a company called Amtrak, but the parks themselves have endured to be appreciated by generations of nature enthusiasts.
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Green Humanist 