U.S. National Park Service Hostile To Individual Freedom

Trigger

My recent visit to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon National Park (SR). This is the second of a series of blog posts about the U.S. National Park Service (first one here).

Toll Trail

Nearby are three photos I took from displays at the SR created by the National Park Service. When I read them on location I was stunned. Expressions of hostility towards individual freedom and free enterprise. The propaganda of the NPS here is that thanks to the federal government’s land grab we are now all much better off.

“Imagine if all the park trails were privately owned and every time you wanted to use them you had to pay a toll …”

Well first of all admission per vehicle to the Grand Canyon National Park is $25. Sure there are other options available like $10 lifetime pass for over 62 year old persons. However, most of us pay with our taxes for this as well whether we ever visit this park or not.

Of course Ralph Cameron had a “precarious legal” claim to the Blue Angel Trail and he dared to collect tolls for the trail all the while until finally in 1928 our savior the “National Park Service gained control”.

Unfortunately, I do not have the time to do more research into Ralph Cameron here, but this guy was among other things a U.S. Representative and a U.S. Senator from Arizona.

The above photo was taken inside the Verkamp’s Visitor Center at the South Rim at Grand Canyon Village. I believe, this used to be a private business as well until fairly recently. Perhaps, a story for another time. The official NPS story about Verkamp is here.

I believe, the “Mining For Tourist Dollars” exhibit above talks about the early days of the Grand Canyon Village. To excerpt from this chapter: “No one spent a dime on community services, however, or thought to develop sensible zoning.” This is an incredible hogwash!

The early private entrepreneurs provided a variety of community services to common people: affordable, quality lodging and meals; guided tours; jobs and other services. The NPS said about Verkamp among other things following (emphasis added): “The Verkamps built their business on service to their guests, service to their employees, and service to their community.”

To use hyperbole, because there was no “sensible zoning” the federal government was entitled to grab the land for the Grand Canyon National Park? First of all, I would assume zoning was not yet widely established anywhere in U.S., except perhaps for the Northeast, around the turn of the 20th century when the Grand Canyon began to be developed (See e.g. Village of Euclid, Ohio v. Ambler Realty Co., a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision of November 1926 regarding zoning).  I would also argue that government mandated zoning is no blessing and the disadvantages may have well outweighed the benefits (a story for another blog post). Not least it is often a severe interference with private property rights and freedom of contract.