Warren Angus Ferris visited Yellowstone in 1834 as the first tourist to experience the thermal features, and the first person known to use the Icelandic word “geyser” to describe them.
tourism
Tourists all the time
To the extent that we have all become consumers in every facet of our modern lives, we live in the touristic ethos of consumerism. All of us are tourists all of the time.
The ambivalent legacy of Horace Albright
As I continue working on the religious history of Yellowstone National Park, I have considerable ambivalence about Horace Albright. On the one hand, he is a much lauded figure in national parks history, to some degree the brains behind the establishment of the National Park Service in 1916 and an early leader of the agency […]
The spiritual experience of nature in the national parks
The National Park Service’s management of nature offers America’s wild places as contrived experiences to meet the spiritual expectations of the consumer public.
Colonizing tourists
Claims that tourism involves colonization, terrorism, dispossession, commodification are valid, but these are reasons to take tourists more seriously and study them more carefully.
The Calvinist roots of appreciating Acadia’s scenery
Visitors who delight in nature and stunning scenery at places like Acadia National Park often do not realize their aesthetic debt to Protestant reformer and theologian John Calvin.
The detourist path of karma
The detourist welcomes unanticipated changes in course, regards the derailment of one’s intentions and ambitions as a normal and agreeable opportunity.
Cars in the parks: a blessing and a curse
Cars have been both a blessing and a curse for national parks. They are how most of us get to the places we love, but they also hurt the places we love.
Are you a member of the Sunrise-From-Mount-Cadillac Club?
Those who made the effort to witness sunrise from Mt. Cadillac in Acadia National Park in the 1960s could become certified members of the “Sunrise-From-Mount-Cadillac Club.”
In search of our authentic selves
Travelers seeking the authentic in the places they visit are looking for evidence of an authentic self. They desire authentic experiences that reveal a meaningful essence inside themselves.