Antiquities Act Made Way for National Parks

In the heat of the 1932 battle to enlarge Grand Teton National Park, conservationist Dick Winger mused that "it would he nice if President Hoover would decide to make the territory embraced in the Jackson Hole Plan into a National Monument." [1] Winger, as well as other advocates, was frustrated by a slow, fickle Congress, which was reluctant to pass a park bill. Exhausting discussion, debate, letter writing, and congressional investigations had netted nothing. Quick presidential action could accomplish what park proponents desired. Eleven years later, in 1943, Winger obtained his wish—President Franklin Roosevelt established Jackson Hole National Monument. An expanded park, which could not be accomplished through the congressional process, came into being through executive fiat.