• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content

PFMA

Petrified Forest Museum Association

  • Home
  • Store
    • Apparel
      • Accessories
      • Hats
      • Youth
      • T-Shirts
    • Audio
    • BARK Ranger
    • Books
      • Archaeology
      • Biology
      • Geology
      • Human History
      • Children
      • Native American
      • Paleontology
      • Route 66/Railroad
    • Crafts
    • Fine Arts
    • Hike Safely
    • Games & Collectibles
      • Collectibles
      • Kids Games
      • Ornaments
      • Puzzles & Playing Cards
      • Stickers
      • Tokens & Medallions
      • Variety
    • Junior Ranger
    • Maps & Posters
    • Pins & Patches
    • Postcards & Magnets
      • Bookmarks
      • Magnets
      • Postcards & Notecards
    • View Cart
  • Membership
    • Membership Info
    • Join PFMA
  • Park Info
    • Archaeology
    • Biology
    • Event Calendar
    • Geology
    • Human History
    • Kids Stuff
    • National Park Links
    • Paleontology
    • Route 66
    • The Railroad
    • Webcam – Painted Desert Inn
  • Field Institute
  • Contact
  • About
    • About PFMA
    • Employment Opportunities
    • Help & FAQs
    • Privacy Policy
  • Show Search
Hide Search
Home/Books/Mission 66: Modernism and the National Park Dilemma
Mission 66: Modernism and the National Park Dilemma

Mission 66: Modernism and the National Park Dilemma

$40.00

In the years following World War II, Americans visited the national parks in unprecedented numbers, yet Congress held funding at prewar levels and park conditions steadily declined. Elimination of the Civilian Conservation Corps and other New Deal programs further reduced the ability of the federal government to keep pace with the wear and tear on park facilities.

To address the problem, in 1956 a ten-year, billion-dollar initiative titled “Mission 66” was launched, timed to be completed in 1966, the fiftieth anniversary of the National Park Service. The program covered more than one hundred visitor centers (a building type invented by Mission 66 planners), expanded campgrounds, innumerable comfort stations and other public facilities, new and wider roads, parking lots, maintenance buildings, and hundreds of employee residences. During this transformation, the park system also acquired new seashores, recreation areas, and historical parks, agency uniforms were modernized, and the arrowhead logo became a ubiquitous symbol. To a significant degree, the national park system and the National Park Service as we know them today are products of the Mission 66 era.

Mission 66 was controversial at the time, and it continues to incite debate over the policies it represented. Hastening the advent of the modern environmental movement, it transformed the Sierra Club from a regional mountaineering club into a national advocacy organization. But Mission 66 was also the last system-wide, planned development campaign to accommodate increased numbers of automotive tourists. Whatever our judgment of Mission 66, we still use the roads, visitor centers, and other facilities the program built.

Ethan Carr’s book examines the significance of the Mission 66 program and explores the influence of mid-century modernism on landscape design and park planning. Environmental and park historians, architectural and landscape historians, and all who care about our national parks will enjoy this copiously illustrated history of a critical period in the development of the national park system.

Published in association with Library of American Landscape History: http://lalh.org/

Out of stock

SKU: 10009540 Categories: Books, Human History, Route 66/Railroad
  • Description
  • Additional information

Description

Author: Ethan Carr

Binding: Hardcover

Pages: 424

Additional information

Dimensions10.3 × 10.1 × 1.3 in

Related products

  • Navajo and Photography: A Critical History of the Representation of an American People

    Navajo and Photography: A Critical History of the Representation of an American People

    $24.95
    Add to cart
  • A Century of Research at Petrified Forest National Park: Geology and Paleontology

    A Century of Research at Petrified Forest National Park: Geology and Paleontology

    $14.95
    Add to cart
  • "A Century of Research" Combo Pack

    A Century of Research Combo Pack

    $19.95
    Add to cart

Explore more

Online Shop Membership Field Institute

Footer

Petrified Forest Museum Association

1 Park Road
PO Box 2277
Petrified Forest, Arizona 86028

Copyright © 2012–2023 Petrified Forest Museum Association · All Rights Reserved · Log in

Keep In Touch

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Help & FAQs
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Employment
  • Sitemap