Madison Grant and the Dark Side of the Conservation Movement

abstract:James B. Wheeler, a career Park Ranger/Interpreter with the National Park Service and interpreter in North Coast Redwoods State Parks, wrote a letter before retiring in 2017 to his superiors and other Parks employees about Madison Grant’s history, positive and negative. He asked for an adjustment to the stories told by the Prairie Creek memorial to Grant and the Founders Tree monument. His plea went unheard at the time, but it is central to the victory for historical truth and human decency that was achieved in more recent years. It is included here in its entirety as a necessary historical document (lightly edited for clarity and grammatical consistency).