Can you name a unit of the California State Park System that does not have a cultural or historical component? I didn’t think so. Virtually every state park, regardless of its formal designation or its primary function, contains some vestige of the past. Mono Lake, for example, renowned for its great natural beauty and diversity, is a California Point of Historical Interest. The North Coast redwood parks have an interesting and important history, recounted in several important books on the environment. Even our beautiful beach units have long been locations of cultural and historical interest and events.
Would you like to know more about historic preservation and California State Parks? Read on.
For most of our country’s history, historic preservation has been the purview of private citizens and organizations, largely created and consecrated for commemorative purposes. One of the earliest groups in the U.S. is the Mt. Vernon Ladies Association, founded in the 1850s to restore and protect the home of the nation’s first president. They successfully rescued Washington’s property from speculators, carnies and moneygrubbers, while demonstrating great skill as fundraisers and operators of a national organization that is still in existence.
In California preservation groups gathered loosely around similar movements, either to celebrate themselves and their relatives, to mark and preserve gold rush sites, and to preserve important documents. The Native Sons of the Golden West purchased a plot of land at Coloma, on the South Fork of the American River, for the purpose of creating a monument to James Marshall, popularly considered the discoverer of gold in California. The State Legislature accepted the gift of land, and authorized funds for the erection of a bronze statue of Marshall that became the state’s first historical monument. In 1891 the legislature accepted yet another gift of property from the Native Sons, this time the land in Sacramento where Sutter’s Fort once stood. The fort was restored and rebuilt, and overseen by a board of commissioners who also superintended the Marshall monument. These early beginnings point to a successful private-public partnership between the state and private organizations for the preservation of important cultural and historic sites, a relationship that becomes increasingly more important as the years go on.
California Redwood Park
In 1900 photographer and painter Andrew P. Hill organized a group known as the Sempervirens Club for the preservation of coastal redwoods. Hill was a resident of San Jose, and in the central part of the state the big trees had been logged since the late 18th century. Hill led the effort, along with luminaries Phoebe Apperson Hearst, Josephine Clifford McCracken, Carrie Stevens Walter and others, who wrote articles in national magazines, led field trips to Big Basin, and conducted trips to Sacramento to lobby legislators and the governor to pass legislation in 1901 for the acquisition of the California Redwood Park. This was at a time long before women had the right to vote, but they made their presence known, and their influence and contributions were immeasurable to the success of the campaign. Arthur Taylor, author of the book California Redwood Park (1912) wrote of Big Basin, “This forest is an aggregation of arboreal wonders. It is moreover a cathedral, a university, a sanatorium, a source of solace to the soul, an inspiration to the intellect, a tonic to the body.” Such sentiments had great appeal to Progressive Era reformers like Mrs. Hearst, who perceived in the private funding of kindergartens, parks, museums, and universities, the betterment of the public at large. She also was the major source of financial support for the Sempervirens Club.
The acquisition of this grove of redwoods could in fact be viewed as historic preservation, because they were concerned for the preservation of a stand of old growth trees that were several hundred years old. It is an important historical event because of what was preserved in the face of overwhelming pressure to utilize those resources. There is also no doubt that Hill, Hearst, and others drew some inspiration, at least in part, from John Muir and the Sierra Club, who had already carried out a successful campaign for the establishment of Yosemite, Sequoia, and General Grant National Parks in California.
Historic Preservation, National Parks, and State Parks
The federal government’s entry into the historic preservation movement came with the passage of the Antiquities Act of 1906, which forbade the unlicensed excavation of ancient Indian ruins and other archaeological sites on federal lands, and authorized the creation of national monuments by presidential proclamation. Natural sites in California, such as Pinnacles, Mt. Lassen, Death Valley, and Joshua Tree (the latter three now national parks), which also include important cultural and historical resources, received protection under the act.
By 1910 there was a nationwide movement to establish a branch of the federal government dedicated to running the national parks. Such an agency was created in the Interior Department in 1916, with the energetic Stephen Mather as the first director, and Horace Albright as his able assistant. They made a dynamic team for the next thirteen years, greatly expanding the size of the park service and establishing it as a bureau that Americans uniformly support. The example set by Mather and Albright was soon followed by states everywhere, California being no exception. Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. conducted a survey in 1928 to recommend suitable sites for state parks, and while he emphasized natural sites, he did include a number of historic sites as well. He recommended that the state-owned sites of Sutter’s Fort and Fort Ross be added to the new State Park System, and that other representative samples of the state’s history be preserved, most notably the mining towns of Columbia and Shasta, Mariano Vallejo’s home in Sonoma, and a representative sample of Santa Barbara adobes. According to California State University, Sacramento History Professor Kenneth Owens, “California committed itself to a program of historical site acquisition, preservation, restoration, and public interpretation far earlier than other western states.” Today there are more than 40 state historic parks; keep in mind, however, that many of our state parks, beaches, reserves, and recreation areas, as well as State Vehicular Recreation Areas (such as Oceano Dunes SVRA), also contain cultural and historical resources.
State Historic Landmarks
The legislation that created the State Historical Landmarks program came about as a promotional campaign conducted by the State Chamber of Commerce, local chambers, and newspapers that emphasized the state’s history. A bill passed in 1931 authorized the director of the Department of Natural Resources, upon consent of the property owner, to designate both private and public properties as state landmarks. A statewide register would be established, as a “suitable numbered placard” placed to commemorate the person, place, or event. The first registered landmark was the Customs House in Monterey (1932). The landmarks program continued as a private-public program until 1951, by which time 499 landmarks had been approved and listed. In 1952 Governor Earl Warren created the Historical Landmarks Advisory Committee, which continued the work that the State Chamber of Commerce had done up until that time. The present day State Historical Resources Commission continues this work, approving and forwarding nominations to the National Register, designating State Historic Landmarks and Points of Historical Interest.
The Great Depression and the War Years
The advent of the Great Depression was bad news for just about everyone, but it proved to be a boon for parks and historic sites. Within hours of assuming office on March 4, 1993, President Franklin Roosevelt sketched out a preliminary administrative plan for a “civilian conservation corps,” which he presented to his cabinet within days. By the end of the month, the President had signed a bill calling for the enrollment of men who would be employed on “public works projects and conservation tasks.” One of the best examples of the work of the CCC in California is the reconstruction of Mission La Purisima, near Lompoc. Work began in 1934 and was completed seven years later at a cost of more than one million dollars. Following the dedication on December 7, 1941, the mission was deeded to the state park system, and became known as “the most expensive, carefully researched, and well-planned [historical] restoration in the West.”
The CCC was also responsible for much of the development of the first state parks in California, constructing water supply lines, campground furniture, restrooms, the summit building on Mt. Diablo, even the amphitheater on Mt. Tamalpais. Morro Bay State Park contains several distinctive features built during the Great Depression. Many of these remaining structures have achieved historic status in their own right.
The war years were a slow period for State Parks, for obvious reasons. During that time, the State Park Commission was busy planning for the gold rush centennial (1948-49). One offshoot of this planning effort was the acquisition and restoration of Columbia SHP. Following the war several important parks were added to the system: Will Rogers SHP, Hearst San Simeon SHM, and Jack London SHP. You might notice that many of these historic sites honor rich white dead males; this would change in the 1960s-70s with the rise of social history and the acquisition of units like Colonel Allensworth SHP, the only town in California to be founded, financed and governed by Black Americans, and Weaverville Joss House, honoring the Chinese in California. If there is one park unit that could be said to celebrate the contributions and accomplishments of women, it is Asilomar, added to the system in 1956. Long an encampment of the YWCA, the original buildings were designed by Julia Morgan, architect.
A popular historic park was added in the 1960s: Bodie SHP, a true ghost town in a state of “arrested decay,” that is unique and unusual in that its restoration is not a goal. Bodie reflects not only the rugged conditions of its location and times, but also another aspect of the wide range of preservation philosophies that exist.
Professionalization and the Rise of the Environmental Movement
The 1960s were an important time for another reason, and that is the increasing professionalization of the preservation movement. Increasingly, historians and archaeologists would take the lead in identifying, evaluating, and making recommendations regarding potential state historic parks and historical landmarks, and take on larger roles in the preservation, restoration, and reconstruction of historic properties.
Passage of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 was truly a landmark, as it gave both state governments and the federal government huge new roles in historic preservation. The purpose of the act was to “expand and accelerate their historic preservation programs and activities.” Among other things, the act created a National Register of Historic Places, recognizing “districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects significant in American history, architecture, archaeology, and culture.” The federal Advisory Council on Historic Preservation and the state offices of historic preservation were also mandated by this act; Milford Wayne Donaldson, FAIA is California’s State Historic Preservation Officer, or “SHPO.”
In the 1960s and 1970s there was a growing interest and concern for the environment. Rampant destruction of historic properties (often the result of public works projects, or in the case of older cities, “urban renewal”), the Vietnam War, Love Canal, the Santa Barbara oil spill of 1969, and the manned flight program into outer space gave Americans a new perspective on their communities, their country, their planet, and their role in its ultimate preservation or destruction. Several new laws, designed to foster and maintain a viable living environment for all Americans, were passed with overwhelming public support. Several of those laws, including the National Environmental Policy Act and the California Environmental Quality Act, recognized the role that history and cultural resource preservation plays in our everyday lives. Historic preservation was no longer the sole interest of a small handful of antiquarians, but an issue for countless citizens across the country. That interest and concern continues today.
Conclusion
California’s rich history is all around us. It can be found, not only in our historical sites and monuments, but also in every park in the system. Natural and cultural resource preservation has developed in tandem, and we are the recipients and the protectors of those resources. Even the creation and development of “natural” parks, such as Anza Borrego, Big Basin, Calaveras Big Trees, Ano Nuevo, Montana de Oro—are historical events, human constructs that may prove unique in their time and place, thereby becoming “historic” in their own right. A concern for the natural environment lends itself to recognition and protection of cultural resources. It is this legacy that is ours to guard, for present and future generations, as the Best of California—forever.
