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Show 498. getting into partnership with Nature in doing good, helping to feed man and beast, and making everybody and everything a little better and happier." When Muir went on Harriman's Alaska Expedition in 1899 he saw Harriman doing exactly that sort of thing for the s c i e n t i s t s on board his cruise ship. And when I worked for the Sierra Club Outings that is what we did for the predominantly professional people who came to the Base Camps. We took care of an i n t e r e s t i n g group of Americans, and we t r i ed to make these urban folk as comfortable as possible in the wilderness. We hoped we were making friends for the trees. Ah, but were we? Yes and no. The problem was similar to the problem which faces the National Parks today. The clientele would come back from year to year, and would not graduate to more rugged and s e l f - r e l i a n t outings. When we pointed this out to the Outings Committee of the Sierra Club, we saw that the Base Camps, the most luxurious of the outings, were also the most financially p r o f i t a b l e , and they had become a financial necessity, since they supported the other smaller, less profitable, and more rugged outings. Likewise, the typical visitor to Yosemite, the archetypal National Park, has learned to repeat c e r t a i n kinds of a c t i v i t i e s . He wants a short, easy, heavily-signed "Nature T r a i l , " and he expects to get i t. He wants elaborately i l l u s t r a t e d "Visitor Centers," and he has learned to expect them. He has grown accustomed to smooth high-speed roads, and i s surprised when he finds anything different. Yet he r e p r e s e n t s support for Parks. He is |
