****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
This is a fine contribution to the rapidly growing field of scholarly histories of national parks. It includes lots of history you won't find anywhere else. Authors Rothman and Miller, both highly respected environmental historians, show how Death Valley faced many unique challenges. To begin with, in the late 19th century, when the idea of national parks was new and affixing itself to places with Alpine-like mountains with forests and waterfalls, deserts were considered ugly wastelands, undesirable as national parks or monuments. Attitudes evolved, but mining companies opposed Death Valley becoming a national monument, so they were granted the right to continue mining inside the monument. This compromise left many in the National Park Service feeling that Death Valley was not legitimate as a national monument, so Death Valley was left starved for respect, funds, and resources. This book is centered on decades of evolving National Park Service values, and policy decisions and disputes, but along the way it offers a good history of Death Valley, including Native American culture, American exploration and mining, and personal dramas such as Charles Manson living and being apprehended there. It covers issues such as private inholdings within the park, wild burros, jeep impacts, water disputes, and the shabby treatment given the Timbisha Shoshone. Rothman spent his career "just down the road" at UNLV, so he knows his material well.
