Seed of the Future: Yosemite and the Evolution of the National Park Idea
Although Yellowstone Park was the first large American wilderness area to receive an official national park designation, the seed for this notion of setting aside vast tracts of land for public enjoyment began in California’s Yosemite Valley.  To commemorate the 150th anniversary of Yosemite National Park’s founding, award-winning author and documentary filmmaker Duncan looks back at the beginnings of the wilderness-preservation movement and the environmentally inclined visionaries who convinced Abraham Lincoln to sign the Yosemite Grant Act in 1864.  Among the colorful historical figures Duncan profiles here are naturalist John Muir, perhaps Yosemite’s greatest champion; James Mason Hutchings, whose enthusiastic drumbeat for Yosemite tourism almost led to the park’s destruction; and Theodore Roosevelt, arguably the nation’s most conservation-minded president.  Duncan also shows how Yosemite landmarks, such as El Capitan and the sequoia-forested Mariposa Grove, became internationally famous. Illustrated with beautiful color photographs in a coffee-table format, Duncan’s work is a fitting and timely tribute both to Yosemite’s enduring natural beauty and the wisdom of America’s national park program. --Carl Hays