Stephen Mather - Founder and First Director of the National Park Service

This July I had the chance to celebrate my birthday with my family in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming. It was my 10th visit to this wonderful and exciting park. In addition to enjoying the spectacular scenery and magnificent wildlife, I thought I'd take some time to seek out the Mather memorial.

Mather

This memorial commemorates Stephen Tyng Mather, the first director of the National Park Service, the federal bureau under which America's national parks are managed. Mather was born in San Francisco, California in 1867 and graduated from the University of California in 1887 with a bachelor degree in literature. His first job was with The Sun, a New York City daily newspaper later famous for its 1897 editorial "Is there a Santa Claus?" In 1893 he married Jane Thacker Floy of Elizabeth, New Jersey. That same year Mather left the newspaper business and entered the borax manufacturing business, in which he became a millionaire. He used his wealth to acquire scenic lands, which he donated to the U.S. Government. In 1914 Mather was asked by Department of Interior Secretary Franklin K. Lane for help in managing the country's parks. He accepted and in 1915 became Lane's assistant secretary. Mather successfully lobbied Congress to support legislation to create the National Park Service and in 1916 the NPS came into being under President Woodrow Wilson. Mather was appointed its first director in 1917, a position he held until 1929. Mather died the following year in a Brookline, Massachusetts hospital following a stroke. He and Jane are buried in the Mather Cemetery in Darien, Connecticut.

According to the NPS, "Mather recognized magnificent scenery as the primary criterion for establishment of national parks. He was very careful to evaluate choices for parks, wishing the parks to stand as a collection of unique monuments. He felt those areas which were duplicates might best be managed by others." The beauty and uniqueness of each of the national parks clearly attest to that ambition.

Mather Memorial Dedication - Yellowstone NP 1932
NPS Historic Photo Collection

Bronze bas relief memorials to Mather, like the one I sought in Yellowstone NP, were installed in many national parks soon after his death. The memorial in Yellowstone was installed in 1932 and is located at Madison Junction.

Mather Memorial - Yellowstone NP July 2012

Mather Memorial - Acadia National Park

Acadia National Park in Maine has a Mather memorial, also installed in 1932, on the summit of Cadillac Mountain.

Mather Memorial - Big Bend National Park

In 2010, upon returning from a trip to Australia, I located another Mather memorial in the Chisos Basin of Big Bend National Park, Texas.











Stephen Tyng Mather
NPS photo

All the memorials are identical. They state:
STEPHEN TYNG MATHER
JULY.4.1867 JAN.22.1930
HE LAID THE FOUNDATION
OF THE NATIONAL PARK
SERVICE DEFINING AND ESTABLISHING
THE POLICIES
UNDER WHICH ITS AREAS
SHALL BE DEVELOPED AND
CONSERVED UNIMPAIRED
FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS.
THERE WILL NEVER COME AN END TO THE GOOD THAT
HE HAS DONE.


It is my goal to find the Mather memorials in the national parks I visit and pause to remember the "Father" of the U.S. National Park Service and appreciate the good that he has done for us. Perhaps you will now also engage in this interesting quest.

GPS coordinates:
Mather memorial in Acadia NP:  N44° 21.148'  W068° 13.454'
Mather memorial in Yellowstone NP: N44° 38.538'  W110° 51.741'

Acadia Mountain - a Memorial Gift to Acadia National Park

Many people love to hike the moderately strenuous Acadia Mountain in Acadia National Park, but perhaps they don't know how it came into Park hands. On the east side of Acadia Mountain, in an almost inaccessible location just above the high-tide line of Somes Sound, is a bronze memorial plaque that explains it:

ACADIA MOUNTAIN
GIVEN TO THE PUBLIC
IN MEMORY OF
REV. CORNELIUS SMITH
AND HIS WIFE
MARY WHEELER
WHO WERE PIONEERS OF
THE SUMMER COLONY AT
NORTHEAST HARBOR 1886--1913

The plaque commemorates the donation of Acadia Mountain to then-named Lafayette National Park in 1919 by Lincoln and Mabel S. Cromwell in memory of Mabel’s parents, Cornelius and Mary. Reverend Dr. Cornelius Bishop Smith was born in Connecticut in 1834 and married New Yorker Mary Wheeler (1842-1914). The rector of St. James Episcopal Church in Manhattan from 1867 to 1895, he first came to Mount Desert Island about 1883. In 1891 he hired local architect Fred L. Savage to build a shingle-style summer cottage, which they called Rosserne, off Manchester Rd. on Somes Sound in Northeast Harbor. It is still impressive today. He also built the beautiful, stone St. James Church, north of Northeast Harbor on the corner of Rte. 198 and Giant Slide Rd. It is now a private home. Cornelius died in1913 at Rosserne. A year after his death, Mary died tragically in a Manhattan apartment house elevator accident.

If you hike Acadia Mountain and wish to make a loop of it, you'll descend its steep south side to the Man-O-War Brook. At the trail junction, you can turn left to where the brook flows over a ledge and splashes into Somes Sound. The Man-O-War Brook name dates from the Revolutionary War, as a site where warships would replenish their water supply.* You can return to your start in the parking lot on Rte. 102 via the Man-O-War Brook fire road, a loop of 2.8 miles. Or you can follow the steep trail up St. Sauveur Mountain back to the parking lot, a loop of 3.7 miles. When deciding which route to take, look around for ruins because you're near the location of the Robinson homestead. Acadia Mountain and Man-O-War Brook fire road were earlier named Robinson Mountain and Robinson Road respectively. In this area too is Gold Diggers Glen, rumored in the 1800s to be the site of gold and pirates' treasure.

If you decide to take the trail up St. Sauveur Mountain, you'll have beautiful views of the entrance to Somes Sound and the islands and ocean beyond. The mountain was named to honor the first European settlement on Mount Desert Island in 1613. About three months after the French Jesuits and their ship-borne compatriots had landed on the site and named it San Sauveur, a British warship arrived, destroyed it and caused the loss of French lives. The unmarked location of San Sauveur is on the field of Fernald Point, a short distance south of St. Sauveur Mountain. A beautiful memorial depicting the landing and commemorating the Jesuit Settlement is outside St. Ignatius Church in Northeast Harbor. The settlement's 400th anniversary will occur next summer.

* At this point you are well south of the memorial plaque's location, but near where you could descend to the water's edge at low tide to begin the difficult scramble to see the plaque.

Note: With regard to descending the steep south side of Acadia Mountain, exercise caution especially if the granite is wet. There have been several injuries there this season.

Helpful GPS coordinates:
Acadia Mt. summit GPS location: N44° 19.386'  W068° 19.359'
Acadia Mt./Smith-Wheeler memorial GPS location: N44° 19.280'  W068° 18.728'
Man-O-War Brook/Robinson homestead/Gold Diggers Glen GPS area: N44° 19.091'  W068° 19.008'
St. Sauveur summit GPS location: N44° 18.611'  W068° 19.381'
San Sauveur Settlement on Fernald Point field GPS area: N44° 17.941'  W068° 18.651'
Jesuit Settlement memorial at St. Ignatius Church GPS location: N44° 17.643'  W068° 17.619'