The Power of Scenery Quotes

“In Domestic Manners, Fanny Trollope gave an exaggerated account of a cheesy stunt: sending derelict boats over the falls to see how they would fare. She put the number of vessels sacrificed at three, but in fact there had been only one, the Michigan, cruelly loaded with circus animals. The Michigan disappointed an estimated ten thousand spectators by breaking up before it reached the falls, with some of the animals swimming safely to shore.”
― Dennis Drabelle, The Power of Scenery: Frederick Law Olmsted and the Origin of National Parks

“But they can hardly have missed the part of Olmsted’s document that teaches a stirring civics lesson: “It is the main duty of government, if it is not the sole duty of government, to provide means of protection for all its citizens in the pursuit of happiness against the obstacles, otherwise insurmountable, which the selfishness of individuals or combinations of individuals is liable to interpose to that pursuit.”1 As Olmsted sees it, Yosemite has the potential to close out the era in which the prize manifestations of nature’s beauty have been reserved for the wealthy.”
― Dennis Drabelle, The Power of Scenery: Frederick Law Olmsted and the Origin of National Parks