National Park Week, 1999

___________________________________________________________________

Title 3--
The President

Proclamation 7184 of April 15, 1999

National Park Week, 1999

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

America's national parks are truly America's national
treasures. Within their borders lie much of what is
most precious to us: the breathtaking beauty of
mountains, rivers, forests, and valleys; the
extraordinary richness and variety of plants and
animals; the places and artifacts of the special people
and events that have shaped both our history and our
destiny.

This week we remember with gratitude one of those
special people who played a pivotal role in the
creation of our country's National Park System.
Conservationist John Muir emigrated to the United
States as a child 150 years ago this year. As a young
man, he experienced for the first time the high country
of California's Sierra Nevada and Yosemite, and for the
rest of his life he championed America's wild places.
``Everybody needs beauty as well as bread,'' he wrote,
``places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal
and cheer and give strength to body and soul alike.''
He became the driving force behind the creation of such
national parks as Yosemite, Sequoia, Mount Rainier,
Petrified Forest, and Grand Canyon, and was an early
advocate of an agency to manage them in a consistent
manner. Although he died two years before the
establishment of the National Park Service in 1916,
many still regard John Muir as the ``Father of our
National Park System.''

Visitors to our Nation's wondrous national treasures
can still experience the scenic grandeur that so
inspired John Muir. In Washington State's Mount Rainier
National Park, glaciers radiate from the summit and
slopes of an ancient volcano, rising above dense green
forests and brilliantly flowered meadows. This year, we
celebrate the centennial anniversary of this cherished
national park, preserved because of the vision and
efforts of a coalition of mountaineers, geologists, and
conservationists, including John Muir.

Today, the National Park System has grown to 378 sites
visited by more than 285 million people each year. Each
of these sites is interwoven with America's richly
diverse natural and cultural heritage to make up the
pattern of our past, the fabric of our present, and the
promise of our future. The two newest additions to our
park system reflect this grand tradition. Little Rock
Central High School National Historic Site in Arkansas
pays tribute to the courage and quiet dignity of nine
young African Americans who crossed the color line and
changed American society forever. Alabama's Tuskegee
Airmen National Historic Site celebrates the World War
II exploits of the all-black Army Air Corps unit whose
members prevailed over prejudice and discrimination in
the U.S. Armed Forces to compile a distinguished combat
record in defense of freedom.

At these and so many other parks and historic sites
across the country, the dedicated men and women of the
National Park Service preserve America's heritage and
teach a new generation the importance of informed and
careful stewardship of our Nation's treasured places.
During National Park Week, let us give thanks for the
wisdom of all those who established our national parks
and for the hard work and generous spirit of all those
who continue to preserve them for our benefit. Because
of their efforts, Americans

will always find in our national parks the beauty,
inspiration, knowledge, and renewal of spirit that have
blessed our national journey for so long.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, WILLIAM J. CLINTON, President of the
United States of America, by virtue of the authority
vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United
States, do hereby proclaim April 19 through April 25,
1999, as National Park Week.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
fifteenth day of April, in the year of our Lord
nineteen hundred and ninety-nine, and of the
Independence of the United States of America the two
hundred and twenty-third.