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| NPS preliminary survey party, Great Smoky Mountains, 1931 |
The Independent
On Wednesday, June 17, the Zion Canyon Field Institute will offer a free lecture from Dr. Dwight Pitcaithley, former Chief Historian of the National Park Service, entitled “The National Park Service after 100 Years: A Historian Reflects” as part of the Fern and J.L. Crawford Lecture Series. The lecture will take place at 7:30 p.m. in the Canyon Community Center, located at 126 Lion Blvd. in Springdale.
Previous to 1916, national parks and monuments in the United States were managed by the Department of the Interior. However, largely as the result of a movement started by conservationists Stephen Mather and J. Horace McFarland, the National Park Service was created, and on August 25, 1916, President Woodrow Wilson signed a bill that mandated the National Park Service “to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and wildlife therein, and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.” On Wednesday, Dr. Pitcaithley will look at the Park Service’s first 100 years and speculate as to what lies ahead for “America’s Best Idea.”
Dr. Pitcaithley retired from the National Park Service in June 2005 after serving as Chief Historian for ten years. During his thirty-year career with the NPS, he served in Santa Fe, Boston, and Washington, D.C. where he focused on issues relating to historic preservation and the interpretation of historic sites. He holds a Ph.D. in history from Texas Tech University and has served as president of the National Council on Public History and the George Wright Society. His most recent publications include a co-editorship of “The Antiquities Act: A Century of American Archaeology, Historic Preservation, and Nature Conservation,” and contributor to “Becoming Historians,” “Slavery and Public History: The Tough Stuff of American Memory,” “Preserving Western History,” and “Public History and the Environment.”
The Zion Canyon Field Institute’s Fern and J. L. Crawford Lecture Series is a collaborative presentation of ZCFI and the Division of Resource Management in Zion National Park. For more information please call (435) 772-3264. Lectures are free and open to the public. Zion Canyon Field Institute is the educational arm of Zion Natural History Association, the park’s non-profit partner.
