How Ads Paved the Way for National Parks

Abstract

National Parks are comprised of the most stunning natural features in the US. In the early 1900s, as railroads were looking to boost their profit margins, the opportunity of the scenic attraction of the West presented itself and the railroads began to heavily market national parks and the tourism potential in the West. The railroads’ publicity launched the scenic areas of the West into national cultural and political relevancy. In this paper I will examine how the railroads’ publicity efforts influenced the establishment of the National Parks Service (NPS) and how transportation and national parks are linked together. In my paper I argue that the railroads were instrumental in the foundation of the parks service. Not only did they make it logistically possible for people to visit the parks by transporting them across the continent, but they are also in large part the reason people wanted to visit the parks in the first place. I will also argue that transportation is inextricably linked to national parks due to railroad corporations’ investment and involvement in the foundation of the national parks, transportation forming a vital part of the visitor experience, and influence of automobile’s in changing the culture of Western tourism.