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| HORACE M. ALBRIGHT SOURCE: NPS/YELL |
Horace Albright is among the many legendary individuals associated with the National Park Service. In fact, Albright was there at the very beginning and – alongside of his mentor and friend Stephen Mather – helped create the NPS in 1916. Albright became the first NPS superintendent of Yellowstone National Park, a position he held for ten years, and then replaced Mather to become the second director of the NPS. Albright has many accomplishments to his name including roles in establishing such national parks as Grand Canyon, Zion, Bryce Canyon, and the Great Smoky Mountains.
Then,
in 1933, Albright left the NPS to become a businessman….
Albright
retired in 1962, moved to Los Angeles – to be closer to his daughter –
and continued his interest in environmental and conservation causes. This included his membership with the Angeles Chapter of the Sierra Club. Moreover,
Albright had been elected an honorary vice-president of the Sierra Club every
year since 1937.
One
can only wonder what was on Albright’s mind as the debate raged to create a
national park in his new backyard: the Santa Monica Mountains. Conservationists and local residents had been
trying for decades to preserve the mountains, albeit for a variety of reasons. The first suggestion for a national park came
in 1920s when one local suggested creating Whitestone National Park near
Pacific Palisades. In the 1960s and 70s (and
possibly as early as the 1950s) others advocated for the creation of Toyon National Park, named for the distinctive shrub that grows in the area. (Local folklore suggests that this plant,
also known as California Holly, is the namesake for Hollywood.)
Eventually,
in 1978, the mountains were protected as a unit of the NPS and the new park was
christened Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area (SAMO). This is where Albright steps back into the
picture.
There
are stories told among the rangers at SAMO that Albright would come to their
visitor center and entertain them with tales of the early days of the NPS. While these stories have yet to be
substantiated, it is true that Albright had a close relationship with
SAMO. My first NPS supervisor, Marion
Guthrie-Kennedy, recalls meeting Albright several times. (Just think: I shook the hand that shook
Albright’s hand, who in-turn shook John Muir’s hand!) Marion also remembers driving Albright to special
park events, and attending the funeral of Albright’s wife in 1980 along with other SAMO
rangers.
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| SAMO SUPERINTENDENT BOB CHANDLER WITH ALBRIGHT SOURCE: NPS/YELL |
Albright
was presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom – the highest civilian award in
the United States – in 1980. At age 90
he wasn’t able to travel to Washington to receive his award, so the Assistant
Secretary of the Interior travelled to California and presented it to him in
Van Nuys. Pictured here with Albright at
the award ceremony are SAMO’s first superintendent Bob Chandler (standing in
the center) and SAMO ranger Bill Webb (kneeling right foreground). Also in the picture are superintendents
Townsley (Yellowstone), Omundson (Cabrillo National Monument), and Ehorn
(Channel Islands National Park).
Albright
must have continued to have a close relationship with SAMO for in 1985 a
book-signing was held at Diamond X Ranch when his book The Birth of the National
Park Service was published. (Diamond X,
of course, is the former home of singing cowboy star Rex Allen and is now one
of the many national park sites in the mountains.) In the epilogue of this book Albright mentions that he attended an environmental conference at SAMO the previous year (1984).
A
year before his death, Albright received the John Muir Award, the most prestigious
honor of the Sierra Club. “His
footprints are on the United States and the world, because all other national
park systems are modeled on the one that he built,” said Elden Hughes, head of
the Sierra Club’s Angeles chapter.
Horace
Albright passed away on March 28, 1987, and it’s fitting that his memorial
service was held at SAMO. On April 4th of
that year dignitaries from across the nation gathered at Peter Strauss Ranch in
the Santa Monica Mountains to pay their respects to Albright. The director of the NPS in 1987, William Penn
Mott, was there along with former director William Whalen and representatives from
dozens of conservation organizations. Albright’s
only grandson, John Ford, spoke for the family while Stephen Mather’s grandson,
Stephen Mather MacFierson, was there for the National Parks and Conservation
Association. There were also personal
messages from the Director-General of Tourism, Republic of China, and
Tashimiro Senge, former director of the National Parks of Japan. And uniformed rangers from California State
Parks, the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority (MRCA), and NPS were
there as well.
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| ALBRIGHT MEMORIAL SERVICE AT PETER STRAUSS RANCH, APRIL 4, 1987 SOURCE: NPS/SAMO |
My
friend Ruth Kilday, who also attended the memorial, wrote, “Peter Strauss Ranch
was the perfect site…a lovely lawn, a pretty verandah highlighting the historic
rock structure as a backdrop, and a long-distance view to the mountain
peak.” Director Mott said of Albright,
“He was one of the rare people who truly changed the nation for all times and
influenced international good will through the parks…Mather was really the
public relations and ideas person.
Albright was the one who put it together, who developed the regulations,
the programs, and the goals of the National Park Service. When he was director he carried those goals
forward.”
During
the ceremony a cenotaph was dedicated to Albright. This memorial is still at Peter Strauss
Ranch. One wonders how many people pass
by this near-forgotten plaque dedicated to one of the NPS’s founding
leaders. Perhaps some realize the
importance of this site: the location of Horace Albright’s *official* NPS
memorial.
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| ALBRIGHT MEMORIAL AT PETER STRAUSS RANCH SOURCE: NPS/SAMO/KEN LOW |
Postscript: Following the ceremony in 1987 a program was
presented to attendees so that they could “explore and enjoy the site.” Similar programs, led by NPS rangers, continue to this day,
sometimes titled “What’s at Strauss.” I
hope all those who visit Peter Strauss Ranch will take a moment to pause by the
Albright Memorial and consider its significances to NPS heritage.
Special
thanks to Darren Davis, Marion Guthrie-Kennedy, Ruth Kilday, Ken Low, and Linda Valois for providing information, stories, pictures, and support.
The Ranger Archivist by Francis S. Bawden is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
