Bearpaw Meadow
In his anti-backcountry-roads campaign Colonel White prevented a full third of Sequoia Park's later formal wilderness from being lost. Yet, he was not opposed to appropriate, low-level development, even in the backcountry. We have already documented his trail-building efforts, and it was in 1933, while he was still smarting from his first serious attempts to remove facilities from Giant Forest, that Colonel White and George Mauger rode together out the new High Sierra Trail to choose a location for the park's first concessioner-operated High Sierra Camp at Bearpaw Meadow.
Ultimately, Colonel White was no scientist. When given the chance in 1936 to summarize his ideas to his peers, he spoke not of resources but of "atmosphere." In this he was very much a man of his times. The 1930s were the great era of National Park Service visual management—if a park looked good, it must be successful in its goal of resource protection.
