ABSTRACT

Like all activities, private and government, the administration of the parks has to be paid for, financed in some way; and this problem of financing has been critically important since the time when Yellowstone was created in 1872. At that time and for several years afterward, as we have seen, it was commonly assumed that the new park would be self-supporting, that enough money could be got from concessioners to pay the expenses of protection and administration; and this assumption persisted with the establishment of Yosemite and later parks. As late as 1920 Mather still thought that the parks would finally be self-supporting.