Maudlin and fantastic by modern standards, the ideas in Seton’s piece—about a West that was rapidly losing its wildness, about man’s duty to be a good steward of God’s creation—nevertheless captured the nation’s imagination and helped popularize the feeling that the country’s natural endowment, and the wonders of the West in particular, were treasures to be savored and protected.
“Maudlin and fantastic by modern standards, the ideas in Seton’s piece—about a West that was rapidly losing its wildness, about man’s duty to be a good steward of God’s creation—nevertheless captured the nation’s imagination and helped popularize the feeling that the country’s natural endowment, and the wonders of the West in particular, were treasures to be savored and protected.”
