by bill-youngs | Nov 17, 2022 | Fireside Talks
Again and again in History 452, National Parks, we have seen the battle between utility and preservation. Often the battle was over whether to create new parks at all. Sometimes the battles were between park supporters and those who wanted to “invade” the...
by bill-youngs | Nov 5, 2022 | Fireside Talks
Leave it as it is. You cannot improve on it. The ages have been at work on it, and man can only mar it. (Fall 1918) This simple phrase, uttered by Theodore Roosevelt beside the Grand Canyon in 1904, has been a loadstone for our class, a constant reference point...
by bill-youngs | Oct 12, 2022 | Fireside Talks
I’m posting this “Fireside Talk” in a different way than some others; read this introduction and then click below to see the talk itself. It addresses a question that we will see a lot in our study of the parks: to what extent are they there...
by bill-youngs | Oct 6, 2022 | Fireside Talks
“What if he falls?” On June 3, 2017, Alex Honnold became the first person ever to free solo El Capitan, a vertical rock formation rising almost 3000 feet above the valley floor in Yosemite. Let’s break that down: in climbing, “free” means...
by bill-youngs | Oct 4, 2022 | Fireside Talks
Long before Alex Honnold free-soloed El Capitan, John Muir had his own climbing adventure in the Yosemite environs during a windstorm. Fortunately many (most? all?) of John Muir’s writings are available on line. I have chosen this story for what it shows us of...
