Op-Ed | Preserving America’s Best Idea: National Parks In The Fight For Democracy

Yellowstone, Yosemite, Glacier, Olympic, Mount Rainier, Grand Canyon, Rocky Mountain, Crater Lake—these and other national parks have been cherished treasures in my life for over half a century. In recent years, I have noticed how park visitors have changed. Yes, the parks are more crowded, but the crowds are a more diverse cross-section of the American public.

Wallace Stegner regarded the U.S. National Park System as “the best idea we ever had. Absolutely American, absolutely democratic, they reflect us at our best rather than our worst." As such, they are models for the American ideal of a democratic society.

Not everyone agrees on what it means to be absolutely American, absolutely democratic. However, most people acknowledge that the ideal of American democracy stems from the self-evident truths of equality for all people expressed in the Declaration of Independence. In practice, this ideal has always been aspirational. We still have a way to go, but the nation’s history has made progress toward realizing this ideal.

Likewise, national parks have been an aspirational best idea of the American people. The parks may not be absolutely democratic, but their history has evolved toward a better reflection of the nation’s people. The U.S. Congress created the first national park in 1872, Yellowstone, establishing it “for the benefit and enjoyment of the people.” Since then, more than 430 National Park Service units have been created for the benefit and enjoyment of an increasingly diverse public. In my lifetime, I have seen this changing face of Stegner’s best idea.

As National Parks Traveler has reported, the Trump administration has moved to undo this progress toward more democratic parks. Its policies and actions have caused alarm among park supporters. Visitors will experience the immediate effects, as will local economies that rely on national parks. More concerning, however, is the long-term harm to the democratic ideal of U.S. national parks. The administration's approach to national parks reverses 150 years of progress toward America’s best idea.

The president has proposed drastic cuts to the National Park Service. Without sufficient resources, the agency will not be able to fulfill its dual obligations to protect the parks and serve the public. Consequently, inadequate management will make privatizing the parks a more appealing option. Instead of models of democracy, national parks as private, profit-making enterprises will increasingly cater to an exclusive, wealthy class of leisure travelers.

This vision of private parks takes us back to the nineteenth century. The beginning of our National Park System is not what most people assume. They were not conceived as preserves of pristine wilderness. Yellowstone, in particular, was created to help sell railroad bonds. As I detail in my book on Yellowstone’s history, Jay Cooke, the banker with a controlling interest in the Northern Pacific Railroad, exerted more influence over the passage of the Yellowstone legislation than anyone else. He envisioned the new national park as an appealing destination for Gilded Age travelers. Cooke thought the prospect of wealthy tourists riding the rails to visit Yellowstone would inspire confidence to invest in his railroad company.

Although the earliest U.S. national parks attracted primarily well-to-do visitors, they evolved into more democratic destinations. In the twentieth century, they became more like Stegner’s “best idea.” Automobiles made getting to the parks easier and more affordable for many people. At the same time, prosperity after World War II gave middle-class workers more generous vacation benefits.

Besides socio-economic class differences, racial issues have plagued U.S. national parks throughout their history. From the beginning, visitors have been overwhelmingly white. Initially, this was because the first parks were products of Manifest Destiny, which proclaimed the superiority of white Christian society. Later, the eugenics movement in the early twentieth century reinforced the notion that national parks were for white people. It included some of the parks' most powerful supporters, including Progressive presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson.

In recent years, the National Park Service has made progress in addressing this history of racial exclusion. Though much work still needs to be done, their efforts to tell a more inclusive story of the nation have made the parks more welcoming for all visitors. Now more than ever before, they are closer to the democratic ideal that Stegner celebrated.

However, the current administration and its allies in the U.S. Congress are working to undo this progress. Their priorities will return the national parks to destinations for the exclusive enjoyment of the wealthy few. Through drastic staff reductions and steep budget cuts to the National Park Service, the administration is moving toward privatizing these public treasures.

Although the president's allies are threatening to undo decades of progress toward more democratic national parks, they may have miscalculated the popularity of the parks. The number of visitors suggests that U.S. national parks are far more popular than the U.S. president. Only 154 million Americans voted in the 2024 election, far fewer than the 331.9 million who visited national parks last year. With an approval rating that has sunk to below 45 percent, the president is no match for the popularity of the parks.

The numbers suggest that the politics are against any plans to privatize the parks. Nevertheless, it may take a concerted effort by national park stakeholders to make this clear to the lawmakers considering the administration's proposal to cut the National Park Service budget. However, we must preserve this best idea of our nation. It is our best model for a democratic society. 

Thomas S. Bremer is Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies at Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee, where he taught American religious history. His latest book is Sacred Wonderland: The History of Religion in Yellowstone.