Tastes and fashions change. I started reading newspapers when I was 8 years old. Today kids could care less about the traditional newspaper. One by one these dinosaurs are dying out, the web having changed the way we get information forever. It will never go back to the days of newsprint no matter what the publishers try to do to change it. National parks used to be a much more popular destination for many people in the American middle-class. That is changing as well. Today you see many more foreign visitors and specialized tour groups visiting the parks with less and less visits from the traditional nuclear families of the past. Why? Well for one thing there are many more options from which to choose from in the area of leisure activities and the "traditional" nuclear family has undergone changes as well. The days of Ward and June taking Wally and the Beaver to Yellowstone are waning fast. You can hardly find a rubber tomahawk anymore in West Yellowstone, Cooke City or even Gatlinburg for that matter.

The traditional sports leagues are finding that younger people like the new "X" sports like skateboarding, snowboarding and trick bike riding over baseball and football. There's not much that they can do about it either, so they instead are trying to focus on keeping the fans they already have and hope that they pass on their interest to their progeny. Tastes change, new things come into fashion. I personally don't think that so called "people of color" are all that interested in going to national parks. There are other activities and recreations that they find more to their liking. This is how the free market works. Different strokes for different folks. Trying to convert these folks to enjoy white middle-class outdoor recreation smacks of a smarmy form of paternalism. The appreciation of nature and history are cultural traits that are acquired after a certain level of financial and social comfort has been reached. National parks were created only after the raw wilderness had been conquered and tamed and in the same way the enjoyment of the great outdoors is something most people enjoy from the comfort of a middle-class perspective.

There are far more pressing issues facing the parks than what color the faces of the visitors are. I'd say give that a rest and focus on how these places are being run and by whom. Is the Executive Branch of the U.S. government the best container for our "crown jewels"? Is the reckless and unaccountable outfit that is currently spending $12 billion a month to wage war on the Muslim world the right group to be overseeing these special places? To me that is much more worthy discussion. The visitors will come, there's no need to sort them by color.

beamis: while i usually appreciate your perspective, i don't think trying to share the values of the experience of a national park smacks of paternalism. people love nature, period. i've lead "colored" urban youth (many that didn't speak english and weren't born in this country), "lily white" gray hairs and international visitors on various tours in various outside locations year round. in my experience, if you do it right and let them figure it out, they all get stoked, without exception. you can see it in their eyes, their faces...

But no one has yet said what the National Parks should do? Put in more exhibits about other cultures and races? Fine. Historical accuracy is always best. But does anyone have any evidence that this would increase minority park visitation? As I said, even when an entire park like Mesa Verde is entirely devoted to Native American history, the number of Native visitors is low. There is an exhibit on the buffalo soldiers at Ft. Davis National Historic Site in Ft. Davis, Texas, but I don't think they get many black park visitors. I think it's more than a little stereotypical to say that races are only interested in exhibits about their own ethnicity. In fact, in some instances, historical accuracy has been abandoned so as not to offend blacks. The fact of slavery seems to be played down at Jamestown National Historic Site. Colonial Williamsburg took out the slave market sites so as not to offend.

The fallacy that increasing minority exhibits in the parks would increase minority attendance is shown by the numbers of Asians who visit the parks. I can't think of a single major park that has any exhibits on Asian contributions. None in Yosemite. None in Sequoia. Yet, the study shows that Asians visit the parks in high numbers.

So I ask again, to those who think this is a great problem, what exactly should the NPS be doing?

Anon---I agree with you about sharing the parks with a wide variety of people. That is the nature and essence of my business. It's fine for each of us to share what we are passionate about to those who may be new to the experience. That is not the thread I am picking up from the previous commentary. I'm getting the impression that there is some concrete program or intiative that should spring up to address this problem.

I agree with kath: what is it that should be done? I say nothing. What say those who find this to be a pressing issue?

By the way, good thread Kurt. I hope this is what you and Jeremy were looking to accomplish with your new website. A job well done!

Here's some more grist for the mill:

I teach an Undergraduate course on parks and publics lands at a major university close to a large urban area. I have an array of faces that seems to represent the distribution of "race" in the general population. One thing I have found teaching this class is that many of the African-American and Latino students have trouble seeing themselves represented in National Parks. Parks are outside of thier cultural millieu. Furthermore, these students usually point many of the injustices inherent in the creation of the Park system long before I talk about them. For these students, National Parks do not necessarily represent their American experience.

Discrimination based on ethnicity, religion, sex, education, etc is a problem that has long plagued these United States of America. It is a discussion that should be at every table where folks congregate.
Great thread!

I spent some time working for the USFS is California (Region 5), which, for many years in the 90s and early 00s was operating under the court-ordered Hispanic Settlement Agreement (HSA) to try to increase hispanic representation in the R5 employees. I didn't really care about it, it never got in my way, but at one point my supervisor (Asian with 30 years in the USFS) applied for a promotion that he was very qualified for but the job was closed and re-advertised because there wasn't enough minority representation.

So its not just about being a minority - its about being the right minority!

I am disappointed that several people commenting here talk about this issue in terms of what the federal government response should be to the issue of racial diversity, as though that's the only relevant consideration. Don't we matter in this discussion? Isn't it more helpful to talk about what our role is in this reality both in terms of what it is and what should be done?

Racism had a part in creating the national parks; they have a part in the reality today. This isn't simply about adding more of a certain kind of visitor or having more of a certain kind of employee; it's understanding how the realities of today are connected with the realities of yesterday. It's understanding where each of us fit into that story and seeing whether we can be part of changing the dynamic. That calls far less for a federal response than it does for honest conversation and for recognizing ways racism is still evident. As I mentioned much earlier, you can look at just this site's VC and see that we miss out on diversity. That's hardly a judgment on the quality of the site; it's part of a reality, though, that we cannot deny that we play a role in. The parks, too, are part of that reality, and I think we are foolish to ignore it or scapegoat either so called "free markets" or governments. It's that and much more and is ultimately quite personal in nature. I am really thankful for all of you who have shared your own personal accounts on these things. Now, where does this go from here?

And, class, and other injustices...what is it all saying, and do we have the courage to accept the consequences of a lot of unsettling conclusions? I guess we'll see.

Jim Macdonald
The Magic of Yellowstone
Yellowstone Newspaper
Jim's Eclectic World