The Power of Scenery: Frederick Law Olmsted and the Origin of National Parks

Featured in the Wall Street Journal's 2021 Holiday Gift Books Guide2021 Marfield Prize Finalist Wallace Stegner called national parks "the best idea we ever had." But where did the idea originate?Before Yellowstone, with nothing to put up against Europe's cultural pearls-its cathedrals, castles, and museums-Americans came to realize that their plenitude of natural wonders might compensate for the dearth of manmade attractions.That insight guided the great landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted as he organized his thoughts on how to manage the wilderness park centered on Yosemite Valley, at first a state-owned precursor to the national park model of Yellowstone.Haunting his thoughts were the cluttered and carnival-like banks of Niagara Falls, which served as an oft-cited example of what should not happen to a spectacular natural phenomenon. Olmsted saw city parks as vital to the pursuit of happiness and wanted them to be established for all to enjoy.When he wrote down his philosophy