ABSTRACT
Wild nature had changed almost as much as the North American imagination of that physical world. Settlers had struggled to overcome such ‘barbarism’ but, as its vanquish advanced, so nature came to be perceived as conferring a common, yet distinctive, identity upon those self-same communities. It became a preoccupation of an urban middle-class (Schmitt, 1969, pxv and pp3–4). Whereas North Americans had seemed largely indifferent, Mabel Williams rejoiced, in her book Guardians of the Wild published in the mid-1930s, at the pressure coming from all quarters for more national parks. Publicity and educational material had played a part, but Canadians themselves had come to recognize the potential of national parks in their lives. As expressed by historian Donald Swain, it was in ‘the Jazz Age’ that America began its love affair with national parks, to the extent of demanding a more equitable distribution across the continent (Swain, 1972, p313). As car ownership widened, more people discovered the ‘great wild areas maintained for their pleasure and benefit’. The parks might be chosen for popular recreation, but Mabel Williams wrote of how they were also ‘happy examples of the most interesting wild country in each province’ (Williams, 1936, p134).
