Credit: US National Park Service
Media type: photograph
Museum Number:
Annotation: In 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt went on a three-day wilderness trip with the Yosemite wilderness naturalist John Muir. As Roosevelt looked out at this view from Glacier Point in Yosemite National Park, he proclaimed, "I wouldn't miss this for anything...this is bully!" During the trip, Muir made a convincing plea to Roosevelt for the preservation of Yosemite wilderness and for protection of other forested areas in the United States. Several years later, in June 1906, President Roosevelt signed the Yosemite Recession Bill. This Joint Resolution withdrew the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias from state protection and placed them under federal protection, incorporating them as part of Yosemite National Park. "There can be nothing in the world more beautiful than the Yosemite, the groves of the giant sequoias...our people should see to it that they are preserved for their children and their children's children forever, with their majestic beauty all unmarred," said Theodore Roosevelt. While president, Roosevelt helped establish and preserve 5 national parks, 18 national monuments, 55 national bird sanctuaries and wildlife refuges, and 150 national forests.
Year: 1903