Book Review

Just when you think that everything possible has been written about Yellowstone National Park, yet another book is published. Mark Barringer's Selling Yellowstone: Capitalism and the Construction of Nature transforms what might seem a rather mundane subject into a fascinating narrative of commerce, culture, and nature.	1
As nature appreciation spread during the late nineteenth century, concessioners and park administrators packaged national parks as "quintessential natural places," making efforts to "shape the parks to fit collective ideas about how exactly natural landscapes should look" (p. 35). Harry W. Child created a family partnership that by 1909 acquired all interests in hotel concessions, forming the Yellowstone Park Hotel Company. Child hired architect Robert Reamer, who designed the distinctive Old Faithful Inn (1904), reflecting "a desire not to alter landscapes but to frame nature for visitors, to present it as they expected it to be" (p. 44). By 1916, Child was the main force behind the regimented style of touring Yellowstone. A new generation of tourists came seeking the Old West and the frontier spirit, and Child repackaged Yellowstone to fit these expectations.	2
Barringer clarifies why National Park Service (NPS) administrator Steven Mather wanted to consolidate concessions—at one time forty outfits operated in Glacier National Park, so mergers during the 1920s made NPS administration simpler. In the 1930s, NPS Wildlife Division biologists argued parks should emphasize nature protection, and a struggle began between "those who believed the parks should reflect popular ideals" (the concessioners) and those wishing to construct those ideals (p. 96). From the 1930s to the 1950s, the next generation of concessioners made good money, yet did not reinvest enough to prevent growing complaints about facilities, bringing conflict with the NPS that sharpened when landscape architect Conrad Wirth was appointed NPS director. MISSION 66, a ten-year facility expansion program undertaken in 1956, "fractured the traditional alliance" between the NPS and concessioners because they "no longer shared the same goals based on a common philosophy of marketing, development, and promotion" (p. 143). While tourists of the 1950s expected to find recreation in the parks, this program "to reinvent the park to fit contemporary ideals" failed (p. 150). The concessioners faced difficulties in financing their part of Wirth's ambitious schedule of improvements, and during the 1950s, park advocates came to see tourism as a liability, urging the NPS to scale back development. In 1966, the Yellowstone Park Company and the NPS came to an impasse, and Harry Child's family business was sold. Since then, conglomerates have managed concessions.	3
While we think of the parks as protected from commercial exploitation, Barringer argues "the NPS and its concessioner partners virtually owned Yellowstone, selling it piecemeal to receptive customers as if it were an inexhaustible, self-replenishing commodity" (p. 174). Readers also will want to consider Ethan Carr's point of view in Wilderness by Design: Landscape Architecture & the National Park Service (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1998), that preservation was effected through development for tourism. Readers who appreciate Barringer's artful reference to stories interpreting Yellowstone will want to consult Judith Meyer's The Spirit of Yellowstone (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 1996). The ramifications of tourism development in Yellowstone remain problematic, winter snowmobile use among them. Barringer has created a thoughtful, significant and welcome addition to the literature on Yellowstone.	4
Reviewed by James Pritchard, Iowa State University.

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