The national park system ranks among our most magnificentachievements and the story of its creation reveals how the Americanlandscape shaped our history and character and continues to do soalmost 175 years after painter George Catlin first proposed “anation’s Park.” In these lavishly illustrated pages, award-winning author KimHeacox chronicles our changing visions of wildness from the 17thcentury, when the first settlers built towns around shared commons,to 1916, when the National Park Service initiated a new kind ofcommon–unspoiled parkland held in trust for Americanseverywhere. Here are explorers like Daniel Boone, Kit Carson, and John WesleyPowell, who reported wonders so amazing they were met withdisbelief. Here too are farsighted leaders like Thomas Jefferson,Theodore Roosevelt, and other sponsors of such parks as Yosemiteand Yellowstone. In spectacular counterpoint, 100 illustrations unveil a pristinenew world that awed the artists and photographers from EadweardMuybridge to Ansel Adams. An
