Southwestern National Monuments: Frank Pinkley and the Rise of the National Park System

"In the early years of the National Park Service, national monuments were often viewed as an after-thought, taking a back seat to the scenic "wonderlands" of the more famous National Parks. Even today, the stories of these special places are often overlooked by popular Park Service histories. Southwestern National Monuments is structured around the stories of individual monuments, beginning with Frank Pinkley's first assignment at Casa Grande Ruins, the very first federally protected archeological site in America. But the monument stories are linked by at least three important themes: Pinkley's struggle for financial and staff resources, followed by the bounty of New Deal programs; Pinkley's pioneering work in visitor education and park interpretation, leading to museums, signage, and ranger programs taken for granted today; and perhaps most importantly, Pinkley's leadership in developing a new generation of professional rangers, loyal to the "Boss" and setting a standard for the National Park Service"--