The Memorials of Acadia National Park

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'