Lake Mead National Recreation Area: A History of America's First National Playground

by Jonathan Foster

Overview

This book examines the creation, characteristics, and tribulations of the first United States National Recreation Area. It also addresses the National Park Service’s historic role in managing reservoir-based recreation in a uniquely arid region. First named the Boulder Dam Recreation Area, this parkland was created in 1936 by a memorandum of agreement between the National Park Service and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. Over the course of its existence, the area has served as a model for a subsequent system of National Recreation Areas. The area’s extreme popularity has, in combination with changing public attitudes regarding preservation and safety, presented the National Park Service with tremendous challenges in recent decades. Jonathan Foster’s examination of these challenges and the responses to them reveal an increasingly anxious relationship between the government, the public, and special interest groups in the American West.
 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781943859153
Publisher:	University of Nevada Press
Publication date:	08/02/2016
Series:	America's National Parks
Edition description:	1
Pages:	176
Sales rank:	1,157,219
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	3 Months to 18 Years

About the Author

Jonathan Foster received his PhD in history from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. His research interests include the history of water-based recreation, the Civilian Conservation Corps, and the American conceptualization of place. Foster is currently a professor of history at Great Basin College in Elko, Nevada, where he teaches courses on U.S. history, environmental history, modern Nevada, and history of the American West. He also serves as program supervisor for the Bachelor of Arts in Social Science degree.
 

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations ix

List of Abbreviations xi

Preface xiii

Introduction Pacesetter in the Desert 3

1 Transformations: The Middle Colorado River Area to 1900 19

2 Reclamation and Recreation: The Creation of the First National Recreation Area 36

3 Defining a National Recreation Area, 1936-1966 58

4 Balancing Act: Recreation and Modern Challenges at Lake Mead National Recreation Area, 1967-2000 83

5 Navigating the Twenty-First Century 102

Conclusion: Maintaining the Pace? 127

Bibliography 133

Index 151

Editorial Reviews

"This book's effectiveness is the result of its accessible prose and compact narrative. Foster tells the history of a place used by millions of people annually, most of whom likely have little understanding of its importance. The Lake Mead National Recreation Area had a significant effect on management policy throughout the National Park System. This book provides a means by which visitors (and the simply curious) can better understand the things they are seeing and experiencing in Lake Mead National Recreation Area." —Nevada in the West


"Foster has written a well-told story that chronicles the challenges facing managers of public resources, especially a jewel such as Lake Mead. Anyone who cares about how we manage public resources will learn from this book.” —Robert Glennon, author of Unquenchable: America’s Water Crisis and What to Do about It

From the Publisher

Foster has written a well-told story that chronicles the challenges facing managers of public resources, especially a jewel such as Lake Mead. Anyone who cares about how we manage public resources will learn from this book.” — Robert Glennon, author of Unquenchable: America’s Water Crisis and What to Do about It

Robert Glennon