Parks, Forests, and Public Land Policy in the McKinley Administration

Abstract

This chapter takes a look at public land developments during the administration of President William McKinley. During this time, Congress and the executive continued to wrestle with what to allow in reserves. A good illustration came with the establishment of Mount Rainier National Park in 1899, the only national park established during the McKinley administration. The Mount Rainier park legislation was the first example of layering reservations or designations of public land on top of one another, a technique that became more and more common over the years. Designations proliferated to include things such as national monuments, wildlife refuges, recreation areas, conservation areas, and wilderness areas. Labels could be cumulative; for example, a forest reserve could become a national park and then a wilderness area. As a result of such actions, many areas of public lands have a complex history, and several layers of management guidance, with new layers usually (though not always) providing additional legal protections, accreting over time like geological strata. When a forest reserve was made a national park, for example, sport hunting was prohibited.