Under pressure from the Trump administration, the National Park Service (NPS) removed historical context from signage that explained the role women played in the creation of the Muir Woods National Monument and highlighted the racist ideologies of some of the men associated with the site.
A ranger for the monument confirmed that the information removed last week originated from an initiative by NPS officials called “History Under Construction” that filled in gaps in the timeline of the park to offer a more comprehensive history of the monument in Marin County, California, which is known for its old-growth redwood trees.
An article on the National Park Service (NPS) website explains what new information park officials had added to the interpretive signs in 2021. This had included highlighting the work of a women’s club, called The California Club, which launched the first campaign to save what was then known as Sequoia Canyon.
The updated text also detailed the racist backgrounds of otherwise celebrated men associated with creating the monument. For example, it added the political views of William Kent, who was credited with buying and later donating the land that would become the national monument to President Theodore Roosevelt. The additions referenced that he worked on anti-Asian policies during his time in Congress, which laid the groundwork for Japanese mass internment during World War II.
It also pointed out that important conservation figures of that time like Gifford Pinchot, who was appointed chief of what is now the U.S. Forest Service in 1898, was also a eugenicist who believed the human race could be improved by “selective breeding.” He served a 10-year term on an advisory council of the American Eugenics Society.
The additional text also highlighted the original caretakers of the land, the Coast Miwok and Southern Pomo tribes, as well as pointing out that their lands were stripped from them and later became places like the national monument.
All of the additions associated with the initiative have been removed.
NPS did not respond to a request for comment by The 19th as of press time.
The monument’s ranger office confirmed that the language was taken down at the direction of the NPS’s Washington, D.C., office following a secretarial order issued by the Department of Interior (DOI).
The order outlined how the agency would implement the Trump administration’s executive order titled Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History, that stated the federal government would take action to ensure that any monuments, memorials, statues or markers managed by DOI do not contain “descriptions, depictions, or other content that inappropriately disparage Americans past or living.” Instead it stated the agency should focus “on the greatness of the achievements and progress of the American people or, with respect to natural features, the beauty, abundance, and grandeur of the American landscape.”
In a March press release, Alan Spears, senior director of cultural resources at the National Parks Conservation Association, a nonprofit that advocates for the park system said, “The president’s executive order could jeopardize the Park Service’s mission to protect and interpret American history.” He continued, “Every American who cares about our country’s history should be worried about what people, places, and themes disappear next.”
A separate follow up order issued in June by the DOI asks land managers to report any language that was added after 2020 that could potentially violate the executive order. It also required land agencies to post notices that would allow members of the public to report any language via a QR code.
Prior to the executive orders, the Trump administration was already taking action to revise information on park websites that did not align with its priorities. For example, NPS removed references to transgender people from the Stonewall National Monument’s webpage in February. The monument, in New York City, was created to honor the LGBTQ+ civil rights movement.
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