Remarks as Prepared for Delivery by
the Honorable Dirk Kempthorne, Secretary of the Interior
for
the 90th Anniversary Celebration of the National Park Service
Celebration Held at Yellowstone National Park
Friday, August 25
One of Yellowstone’s first explorers in 1869 described the place he saw as: "pretty, beautiful, picturesque, magnificent, grand, sublime, awful, terrible."
Another early pioneer visiting Yellowstone said:
"A grander scene than the lower cataract of the Yellowstone was never witnessed by mortal eyes."
The splendor of Yellowstone described by early explorers who saw it was so great that President Grant signed a law to protect it, and made Yellowstone America’s first national park in 1872.
By 1916, 40 national parks and monuments existed, but they had no clear or consistent management. So President Woodrow Wilson established the National Park Service to protect and manage these magnificent parks.
Today, we celebrate the day 90 years ago when President Wilson established the National Park Service.
At Yellowstone and Yosemite, Denali and Dinosaur, Grand Canyon and Grand Teton, Shiloh, Shenandoah and other parks, the National Park Service each year welcomes 270 million visitors as they discover America the beautiful, the historical, the cultural.
America’s national parks were the first in the world to set aside large-scale landscapes. National parks preserve majestic natural wonders. They keep watch over battlefields hallowed by red badges of courage. They keep culture alive at sites dedicated to the performing arts, poetry and music. Parks offer recreation and discovery through spectacular backcountry hiking and climbing. They honor great leaders like Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, Chief Joseph, John Muir, Eleanor Roosevelt and Martin Luther King, Jr.
As havens of enjoyment, recreation, learning and personal renewal, national parks must endure.
There is no better place to celebrate than here, at Yellowstone, perhaps the grandest natural cathedral on earth.
The dazzling sunlit colors visitors find here are not on windows painted by the hands of man, but in emerald, sapphire, and golden pools touched by the hand of God.
The spires stretching high into the sky are not tall towers of steel and stone standing motionless in the air, but plumes of water and steam bursting to the heavens, producing rainbows in the mist.
The unmatched beauty and wonder that fascinated early explorers still take our breath away today. People still check their watches about every 94 minutes to see Old Faithful erupt. This beloved place retains the marvels that have always been here and, if we are good conservationists, will always be here.
The challenge facing the National Park Service – at Yellowstone and all our parks – is to conserve what is timeless while keeping pace with the modern needs and expectations of the American people. The new Canyon Visitor Education Center meets this challenge. This building behind me will provide a state-of-the-art learning center where hundreds of thousands of awe-struck visitors a year can learn about the wonders of Yellowstone.
Visitors can research the largest and most violent volcanoes on earth, learn about geysers and hot springs, and drink in the incredible and diverse ecosystem this geology supports. And they can do these things using the most current technology and scientific research.
I want to point out that many of the buildings we see here, to my right and behind you, were built during ‘Mission 66”. Mission 66 was a decade-long effort by President Eisenhower to construct and modernize park facilities for the 50th anniversary of the National Park Service in 1966.
Today, as we celebrate this Visitor Education Center and the 90th anniversary of the National Park Service, we also prepare for the 100th anniversary. We still have much work to do – important, noble work.
The President of the United States has issued a challenge to prepare national parks for another century of conservation, preservation, and enjoyment.
President Bush sent a message with his vision for the parks. I’d like to read part of it.
“I call on all Americans to help in these efforts and to enhance our parks as we get ready for the National Park Services’ centennial celebration. Through continuing cooperation and partnership, our national parks can endure for the next 100 years and beyond.
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This message affirms the President’s commitment to national parks, a passion he shares with the First Lady, Laura Bush, who has visited many national parks.
But the President did NOT just send a message.
The President sent me a formal written directive about the future of national parks.
He directed me to establish specific performance goals that, when achieved, will make sure our parks continue to be places where children and families can learn about our nation’s great history, enjoy quality time together and have fun outdoors.
He directed me to identify signature projects and programs that reflect and highlight these goals. The President wants these projects to continue, and I quote: “the National Park Service legacy of leveraging philanthropic, partnership, and government investments for the benefit of national parks and their visitors.”
Within hours of receiving the President’s directive, I spoke to Fran Mainella, the Director of the National Park Service. We agreed this was a great opportunity to think big, to act boldly on behalf of national parks, to develop a 10-year plan to prepare national parks for the future. This is what the President has directed us to do.
We are calling this effort the National Park Centennial Challenge. In his directive, President Bush said:
“I encourage you to invite and receive suggestions from those who desire to preserve the scenic, cultural, historical, geological, and recreational values of our national parks.”
This should not be thought of as a budget exercise. This is a time for a thoughtful review of what needs to be done over the next decade, to write goals, to determine the right mix of public and private partnerships, to agree on how to measure results, and then budget accordingly.
This is a time for great creativity and imagination.
How do we get millions of visitors to think not just about how parks enrich their lives, but what they can do to preserve parks for future generations? How do we double, maybe even triple, the 114,000 volunteers helping out in national parks?
How do we make the best use of 10 years of government investment in national parks?
What programs and projects will attract large donors to give generously, knowing they are giving to projects that are not just government’s responsibility?
What workforce does the National Park Service need for the next century?
Can we make better use of the Internet to bring classrooms closer to the stories national parks tell of our history and culture?
What partnerships can we knit together to build centers of learning like the one we dedicate today at Yellowstone?
Over the past 5 years, the National Park Service has built a strong foundation of improving parks, with 6,000 park improvements completed or underway. This is important because our national parks are America’s greatest gifts to the world.
The goal of our Centennial Challenge is not to gear up to begin projects in 10 years, but to start today so that we can celebrate victory 10 years from today.
Yellowstone and all our parks are wonders where people can find the stillness of nature and kinship with the wild, witness the awesome power of the Earth, or tap into the rich heritage of this country.
They are places where children and families can learn about our nation’s great history, get exercise, and spend quality time together.
Today, I commend all of you here at America’s first national park – rangers, park employees, volunteers, and contributors – who help them do that, and in so doing, make millions of people’s lives better.
I commend Senator Craig Thomas, a great friend of the parks and a great friend of mine. Senator Thomas has been a champion of our parks as chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on National Parks for the past decade. Thank you for being here today, Senator.
The hands of many raised the building that now stands before you. Those hands got the job done under the outstanding leadership of Suzanne Lewis, the dynamic and dedicated superintendent of Yellowstone.
The park’s employees are personified by a man some of you may know – Frank Walker, who after 39 ½ years of service will retire today. It was more than just service – it was love, passion and commitment. With these words, I believe I have just described not only Frank, but all National Park Service employees.
I congratulate all of you for this beautiful facility.
And, I thank you.
This new Center was funded in part by each and every one of you. $8.6 million of the $10.5 million used to fund the project came from entrance fees collected from moms and dads and families -- 20 million people who visited the park between 1997 and 2005.
To put it a different way, each visitor contributed 43 cents. It’s amazing what pocket change can do!
Generous partners, from the Yellowstone Association, to the University of Utah, to the United States Geological Survey, to the Buffalo Bill Historical Center, to Canon U.S.A, and others too numerous to mention also contributed their time, their enthusiasm, and their dollars.
Your work serves as an example to enlighten and inform the work of the coming decade. This Center now holds a special place in history as the site where a President who cares about national parks launched a decade of work to, and I quote:
“Further enhance our national parks during the decade leading up to the 2016 centennial celebration…to continue the cooperation necessary for our vibrant national parks to endure for the next 100 years and beyond.”
Ladies and Gentlemen, here we are where it all began – Yellowstone National Park. Here we are to celebrate this building, this park, all our national parks – and all of the efforts that have made our parks the most special places in the world.
But we cannot be satisfied. Today we dedicate ourselves to continuing this noble work for future generations.
Thank you.
It is now my honor to introduce Fran Mainella, the Director of the National Park Service. Those who know Fran know that she is the best cheerleader and advocate that national parks have ever had. Fran, thank you for all that you do for the national parks.
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U.S. Department of the Interior