Lake Mead National Recreation Area

Lake Mead National Recreation Area: A History of America's First National Playground by Jonathan Foster

"Foster deftly exposes the struggles the National Park Service faces in their attempt to reconcile dwindling resources and the insatiable desire of Americans for recreation. Foster shows that the Lake Mead National Recreation Area may very well be the faltering coalmine canary of our modern hydraulic society. It is an imortant and interesting read." - Dr. Aaron McArthur, Public History Program Director, Arkansas Tech University

Lake Mead National Recreation Area: A History of America's First National Playground examines the creation, characteristics, and tribulations of the first United States national recreation area. The book also addresses the National Park Service's historic role in managing reservoir-based recreation in a uniquely arid region. In so doing, it explores the role of government, the social impacts of the transformaton of nature, and the increasing predominance of water-based recreation in modern American history.

First named the Boulder Dam Recreation Area, this parkland was created in 1936 by a memorandum of agreement between the National Park Service and US Bureau of Reclamation. It was a pacesetter in terms of reservoir-based recreation. Over the course of its existence, the area has served as a model for a subsequent system of nation recreation areas and has consistently ranked among the most visited and heavily utilized National Park Service units. The area's extreme popularity has, in combination with changing public attitudes regarding preservation and safety, presented the National Park Service with tremendous challenges in recent decades. Foster's examination of these challenges and the responses to them reveal an increasingly anxious relationship between the government, recreating public, and special interest groups in the American West."

Dimensions: 6 x 0.7 x 9 inches

Format: Paperback

Page Count: 160