It was a little more than a year ago when Interior Secretary Doug Burgum asked the public to help him identify interpretive materials in the National Park System that disparaged Americans past or living or which contained content that detracts from viewpoints of scenic grandeur.
Well, it appears that the public didn’t share his concerns.
Recent Freedom of Information Act requests have turned up nearly 36,000 comments in response to Secretary Burgum’s mission "to restore Federal sites dedicated to history, including parks and museums, to solemn and uplifting public monuments that remind Americans of our extraordinary heritage, consistent progress toward becoming a more perfect Union, and unmatched record of advancing liberty, prosperity, and human flourishing."
The folks at the Center for Western Priorities recently filtered through the nearly 36,000 comments that were received by Interior, and found that just 47 – that’s right, only 47 comments – called for a sign to be removed or supported Burgum’s request to tidy up history. Our guests today are Kate Groetzinger and Lilly Bock-Brownstein from the Center for Western Priorities, and they’ll explain how they filtered those comments and what they found.
0:02 National Parks Traveler introduction
0:12 Episode Intro with Kurt Repanshek
1:08 Sieur De Monts - Nature’s Symphony - The Sounds of Acadia
1:44 Friends Alliance
2:08 Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation
2:33 Episode 377 - Don't Erase History So Fast
20:27 Escalante - Tim Heintz - The Sounds of Peaks, Plateaus & Canyons
20:47 Friends of Acadia
21:12 Grand Canyon Conservancy
21:34 Washington National Park Foundation
21:57 NPT Promo
22:12 Episode 377 Continues
45:11 Whispering Winds - Grant Geissman - Sounds of the Caribbean
45:46 Episode Closing
46:05 Orange Tree Productions
46:37 Splitbeard Productions
46:49 National Parks Traveler footer
- By Jess Repanshek - June 14th, 2026 5:00am
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