Stephen Tyng Mather - Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado - Citizen Memorials on Waymarking.com

My Commentary:
This metal plaque is located on the eastern wall of the entrance to the Chapin Mesa Archeological Museum. The plaque honors Stephen Tyng Mather - an American industrialist of the early to mid 20th century and the first director of the National Park Service. Mather is credited with making the National Park Service the respected institution it is today.

Text of Plaque:
Stephen Tyng Mather
July 4, 1867         Jan. 22, 1930

(relief profile picture of Mather with mountain and forest scene)

He laid the foundation of the National Park Service, defining and establishing the policies under which its area shall be developed and conserved unimpaired for future generations. There will never come an end to the good that he has done.

(relief picture of a pine branch and pine cone)

Information on Stephen Tyng Mather:

Stephen Tyng Mather (July 4, 1867 – January 22, 1930) was an American industrialist and conservationist who was the first director of the National Park Service. As president and owner of Thorkildsen-Mather Borax Company he became a millionaire. With his friend the journalist Robert Sterling Yard, Mather led a publicity campaign to promote the creation of a unified federal agency to oversee National Parks administration, which was established in 1916. In 1917, Mather was appointed to lead the NPS, the new agency created within the Department of the Interior. He served until 1929, during which time Mather created a professional civil service organization, increased the numbers of parks and national monuments, and established systematic criteria for adding new properties to the federal system.

In 1916, the National Park Service was authorized by Congress and approved by President Wilson. Mather agreed to stay on, and with Albright, helped establish the new federal agency to protect and manage the national parks, together with a new appreciation for their wonders. In addition, he professionalized management of the parks, creating a cadre of career civil service people who were specialists in a variety of disciplines, to operate and manage the parks while preserving their natural character.

In 1917, Mather was appointed Assistant Secretary of Interior and head of the National Park Service. Due to his success in working with leaders of various groups and the Congress, he served until 1929. He believed that magnificent scenery should be the first criterion in establishing a national park, and made efforts to have new parks established before the lands were developed for other purposes.

He introduced concessions to the national parks. Among the services they sold were basic amenities and necessities to park visitors, plus aids for studying nature. Mather promoted the creation of the National Park to Park Highway. He also encouraged cooperation with the railroads to increase visitation to normally remote units of the National Park System. He believed that once more of the public had visited the parks and enjoyed a comfortable stay in concessionaire facilities then they would become supporters for the fledgling agency and its holdings. By the time he left his position, the park system included 20 national parks and 32 national monuments. Mather also had created the criteria for identifying and adopting new parks and monuments.

Periodically disabled by bipolar disorder (manic-depression), Mather had to take some leaves from work and Albright continued in their mutual understanding of the task. Over time they convinced Congress of the wisdom of extending the national park concept into the East, and in 1926 Shenandoah and Great Smoky Mountains national parks were authorized. In January 1929 Mather suffered a stroke and had to leave office. He died a year later.

- Wikipedia Page on Stephen Tyng Mather

Information on Chapin Mesa Archeological Museum:

The Chapin Mesa Archeological Museum is one of the oldest in the National Park Service. Constructed between 1922-25, it replaced a log cabin that had displayed park artifacts since 1917. Today, the Museum is part of the Mesa Verde Administrative District, a National Historic Landmark. It was built using Cliff House Sandstone, the same type of rock used by the Ancestral Pueblo people to construct their dwellings. Its Modified Pueblo Revival Architecture, also used in the rest of the National Historic District, reflects the architecture of descendent communities and was well integrated into the natural landscape.

Location
The museum is located on Chapin Mesa, 20 miles from the park entrance.

Exhibits
The museum displays dioramas illustrating Ancestral Pueblo life. There are also many exhibits of prehistoric artifacts, a chronology of Ancestral Pueblo culture, and other items related to the park.

Special Programs
A 25-minute orientation film is shown on the hour and half-hour. This film offers an excellent overview of the history of Mesa Verde.

Other Available Facilities
Bookstore, water, restrooms, snack bar, gift shop, and post office are located near the museum.
View Spruce Tree House, the third-largest and best preserved cliff dwelling, from overlooks nearby.

Museum Hours
January to mid April, 9:00 am to 4:30 pm*
Mid April to late September, 8:00 am to 6:30 pm
Late Sepember to mid October, 8:00 am to 5:00 pm
Mid October to late December, 9:00 am to 4:30 pm*

*The museum is closed on Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas, and New Year's Day.

- Mesa Verde Chapin Mesa Archeology Museum Website

Information on Mesa Verde National Park:

Mesa Verde National Park is an American national park and UNESCO World Heritage Site located in Montezuma County, Colorado. The park protects some of the best-preserved Ancestral Puebloan archaeological sites in the United States.

Established by Congress and President Theodore Roosevelt in 1906, the park occupies 52,485 acres (21,240 ha) near the Four Corners region of the American Southwest. With more than 5,000 sites, including 600 cliff dwellings, it is the largest archaeological preserve in the United States. Mesa Verde (Spanish for "green table") is best known for structures such as Cliff Palace, thought to be the largest cliff dwelling in North America.

Starting c.?7500 BC Mesa Verde was seasonally inhabited by a group of nomadic Paleo-Indians known as the Foothills Mountain Complex. The variety of projectile points found in the region indicates they were influenced by surrounding areas, including the Great Basin, the San Juan Basin, and the Rio Grande Valley. Later, Archaic people established semi-permanent rock shelters in and around the mesa. By 1000 BC, the Basketmaker culture emerged from the local Archaic population, and by 750 AD the Ancestral Puebloans had developed from the Basketmaker culture.

The Mesa Verdeans survived using a combination of hunting, gathering, and subsistence farming of crops such as corn, beans, and squash. They built the mesa's first pueblos sometime after 650, and by the end of the 12th century, they began to construct the massive cliff dwellings for which the park is best known. By 1285, following a period of social and environmental instability driven by a series of severe and prolonged droughts, they abandoned the area and moved south to locations in Arizona and New Mexico, including Rio Chama, Pajarito Plateau, and Santa Fe.

- Wikipedia page for Mesa Verde National Park

Website with more information on either the memorial or the person(s) it is dedicated to: [Web Link] Location: Mesa Verde National Park

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