Mission 66 Totally Explained

Everything about Mission 66 totally explained

Mission 66 was a US National Park Service ten-year program that was intended to dramatically expand NPS visitor services by 1966, in time for the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the Park Service. When the National Park Service was created in 1916, long-distance travel in North America was typically accomplished by train. There was no national road system, and airline travel was in its infancy. Railroads were closely involved in the development of visitor services at such parks as Grand Canyon National Park, Glacier National Park and Yellowstone National Park, and in many cases the railroads built and operated park visitor facilities.
With the development of the US highway system as a public works project during the Great Depression, many previously remote parks became accessible via good roads and inexpensive automobiles. The explosion in prosperity following World War II brought a tide of automobile-borne tourists that the parks were ill-equipped to receive. By the mid-1950's it was apparent that massive investment in park infrastructure was required. Mission 66 was conceived as the means to accommodate increased visitor numbers and to provide high-quality interpretation services.
While Mission 66 involved a variety of infrastructure projects such as roads, utilities and employee housing, the most visible components were the interpretational facilities, or visitor center. Visitor centers were often the first point of contact between the Park Service and visitors, and the Park Service put considerable emphasis on the appropriate orientation and learning opportunities that visitor centers could provide.

Origin

During the late 1940's and early 1950's, the Park Service came under increasing criticism for neglect of the park system. An essay by Bernard DeVoto in Harper's Magazine proposed that the national parks should be closed until they were funded appropriately . While this had little immediate effect, it highlighted an increasing level of concern about the state and future direction of the park system. In 1955, Park Service Director Conrad Wirth proposed a decade-long program of capital improvement, to be funded as a single program by Congress. The expressed aim was to complete the upgrades in time for the Park Service's 50th anniversary in 1966.

Visitor facilities

In early parks, visitor orientation facilities were built on a relatively small scale, often in the form of "trailside museums" for visitor edification. With the development of the visitor center concept, the visitor center was to be the main point of contact between the Park Service and visitors, providing orientation, education, toilets, concessions, public safety and administrative services in one location. As a new feature, visitor centers had to be built quickly and in quantity. The National Park Service Rustic style that had previously been popular was suitable for the 1930's, when cheap and plentiful Civilian Conservation Corps labor was available, but wasn't practical on a large scale in a time of full employment. Managers such as Thomas Chalmers Vint, the Park Service director of design and construction, made a conscious decision to employ a more streamlined modern style of design for Mission 66 facilities. The simpler, cleaner design philosophy was faster and less expensive to implement, and its public image fitted with the idea of a "new era" in park services.

Housing

While a large portion of the funding for Mission 66 was devoted to visitor facilities, attention was also given to employee housing. Much of the existing housing was built by the CCC and amounted to little more than cabins . Using the model of postwar military housing, a series of standard designs was developed, focusing on the ranch style detached housing popular at the time .

Park development versus preservation

While most Mission 66 projects were intended for infrastructure improvements and visitor services, some urban projects involved the creation of entirely new attractions at the expense of the urban landscape. The Jefferson National Expansion Memorial on the St. Louis, Missouri riverfront entailed the demolition of forty blocks of the city to create a new urban park at the feet of Gateway Arch. The old warehouse district had been targeted for demolition by the city to eradicate "urban blight", and the arch and its park were seen as a means to this end, which had been pursued since the 1930's . Ironically, much of the exploration and expansion the new project commemorated had originated from the demolished riverfront district.
In Philadelphia, the development of Independence National Historical Park involved the creation of Independence Mall. The mall was designed to provide a vista of Independence Hall, necessitating the demolition of numerous 19th-century buildings .

Programs

While Mission 66 is most frequently associated with physical improvements, it also funded a number of continuing programs. The Historic American Buildings Survey, which had been inactive since 1941, was re-funded. The former Historic Sites Survey was reorganized into National Historic Landmarks and National Register of Historic Places programs in 1960, under Mission 66 funding.

System expansion

While most aspects of Mission 66 involved improvements to existing Park Service units, there was also an active movement to expand the system to encompass active recreational use. In particular, the National Seashore and National Recreation Area programs were expanded as major portions of the twenty-seven units added from 1955-1963 . Cape Cod, Point Reyes, Fire Island and Padre Island were all incorporated into the system under Mission 66.
At the same time, a number of National Recreation areas were developed in conjunction with Bureau of Reclamation projects, including Glen Canyon and Flaming Gorge, both built around new dam projects.

Preservation and controversy

Fifty years later, as many Mission 66 facilities themselves aged and required repairs and modernization, controversy erupted over their suitability for the Park Service mission and their impact on historic and natural sites. Modernism had fallen from favor with the general public, and some facilities were considered intrusive. Two of the most notable examples were Richard Neutra's Cyclorama at Gettysburg National Military Park and the Henry M. Jackson Visitor Center by Whimberley, Whisenand, Allison & Tong at Mount Rainier National Park.
The following list highlights some of the most significant facilities.

Extant

Badlands National Park Visitor Center, Cecil Doty and Lucas, Craig, Whitwam (Rapid City), 1957-58
Grand Teton National Park � *Colter Bay visitor center, Malone & Hooper, San Francisco and the Western Office of Design and Construction, 1956-57

*Jackson Lake Lodge, Gilbert Stanley Underwood, 1955 � *Moose visitor center, Spencer, Ambrose and Lee, San Francisco and the Western Office of Design and Construction, 1957-58
Great Smoky Mountains National Park � *Sugarlands visitor center, Eastern Office of Design and Construction, 1957-58

*Clingman's Dome observation tower
Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument visitor center, Max R. Garcia, San Francisco, 1964-65
Mesa Verde National Park Far View visitor center, WODC, Joseph & Louise Marlowe, Denver, 1964-68.
Petrified Forest National Park, visitor center, Neutra and Alexander, Los Angeles, 1959-63
Rocky Mountain National Park, Beaver Meadows Visitor Center/Headquarters, Taliesin Associated Architects, 1967, National Historic Landmark
Wright Brothers National Memorial, visitor center, Mitchell/Giurgola, 1957-59 (National Historic Landmark )
Zion National Park, Oak Creek visitor center, WODC, Cecil Doty, Cannon and Mullen, Salt Lake City, 1957-61

Endangered

Antietam National Battlefield visitor center, William Cramp Scheetz, Jr., Philadelphia and the Eastern Office of Design and Construction, 1961-62

Cape Cod National Seashore, Salt Pond Visitor Center, EODC/Biderman, 1964-65

Dinosaur National Monument visitor center, Anshen and Allen, San Francisco, 1957 (National Historic Landmark)

Gettysburg National Military Park visitor center, Neutra and Alexander, Los Angeles, 1958-62 (under consideration for National Historic Landmark status)

Mount Rainier National Park, Henry M. Jackson Memorial Visitor Center, Whimberley, Whisenand, Allison & Tong, Honolulu, with McGuire & Muri, Tacoma, Washington, 1964-67

Demolished or extensively altered

Mount Rushmore National Memorial visitor center, Harold Spitznagel & Associates, Sioux Falls and the Western Office of Design and Construction, 1957-63, demolished 1994

Yellowstone National Park, Old Faithful visitor center, San Francisco Planning and Service Center, 1968-70 - demolished

Road projects

Completion of the Blue Ridge Parkway, Foothills Parkway, Natchez Trace Parkway and Colonial Parkway was funded under the Mission 66 program. The Park Service's enthusiasm for roadbuilding projects resulted in a plethora of proposals for new projects, particularly in the East. These included:

Allegheny Parkway, paralleling Skyline Drive and the Blue Ridge Parkway on the Allegheny side of the Shenandoah Valley from Harpers Ferry to the Cumberland Gap

Blue Ridge Parkway extension to Georgia

Chesapeake and Ohio Parkway, to be built over the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal; the road project was abandoned and the canal became Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park

Cumberland Parkway, linking Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Mammoth Cave National Park, Cumberland Gap National Historical Park and the Natchez Trace Parkway

Mississippi River Parkway or Great River Road, an expansion of the existing Great River Road route on either side of the Mississippi for its entire length

Linkage of the Blue Ridge Parkway, Colonial Parkway, Chesapeake and Ohio Parkway, and George Washington Memorial Parkway Funding for such roads wasn't forthcoming from the Interstate Highway program, and the projects were never pursued.

Further Information

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