Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
The majority of Americans saw the land as an object to be conquered and made
productive. The first reservations for the preservation of scenery therefore tended to be
established in areas that were judged to be wastelands that had no economic value in
terms of agriculture, grazing, lumbering or mining. The aesthetic value of wilderness was
upheld by national parks and reserves which were intended to protect national scenic
monuments that expressed the cultural independence of America in addition to providing
for the development of the area through the tourist dollar. Monumentalism was
characterised by the belief that natural sites, such as Niagara Falls or the Rockies, were
grand, noble and elevated in idea and had something of the enduring, stable and timeless
nature of the great architecture of Europe, and proved a significant theme in the
establishment of American parks (Runte 1979).
Although the national parks in Australia, Canada and New Zealand did not assume the
same importance as national monuments, their development nevertheless parallels that of
the American park system. The themes of aesthetic romanticism, recreation and the
development of 'worthless' or 'waste' lands through tourism characterised the creation of
the first national parks in Australia, Canada and New Zealand. Banff National Park in
Canada was developed by the Canadian Pacific Railroad as a tourist spa (Marsh 1985).
New
Table 7.1:
The development of the wilderness
concept in the United States, Canada, New Zealand
and Australia
Date
United States
Canada
New Zealand
Australia
Pre-
1860
Major romantic influence on
American art and literature
A 'New Britannia'
1832 Joseph Catlin calls for the
creation of a'nation's Park'
Aesthetic and utilitarian
visions of the Australian
1832 Arkansas Hot Springs
reserved
landscape
1851 Transcendentalism—
Thoreau's Walking proclaims
that 'in Wildness is the
preservation of the World'
Development of a
romantic
perception of the
Canadian
landscape
Rapid clearfelling of land
for agriculture and mining
1860 Romantic Monumentalism
1864 George Perkins Marsh's
Man
and Nature
is published,
heralds the start of 'economic
conservation'; Yosemite State
Park established
Marsh's topic well
received in Australia
1866 Jenolan Caves
reserved
1870 Wilderness perceived as
'worthless land'
The need to conserve
forests argued by Clarke,
1872 Yellowstone National Park
established; John Muir begins
writing and campaigning for
wilderness preservation
1878 T.Potts
publishes
National
Domains
1881
Thermal Springs
Goyder and von Mueller
'Scientific Vision' 1879
Royal National Park
established in New South
Wales
