Introduction

Mount Rainier was designated as a national park on March 2, 1899 by President William McKinley. In 1916 President Wilson signed the Organic Act, establishing the National Park Service (NPS) and defining its mission to:

...promote and regulate the use of the...national parks, monuments, and reservations... [in accordance with the purpose ofthese places] which is...to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic oblects and the wild life therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.

President Wilson probably could not have foreseen the vast spectrum of cultural and racial diversity that would characterize "future generations." Nevertheless, inasmuch as our modern interpretation encompasses all Americans, the vision of the Organic Act is, sadly, not being played out.

The 1996 U.S. census found that 83 percent of Americans classified themselves as white and nonHispanic, while the 1990 Washington State census found that 89 percent of Washingtonians classified themselves as such (Tables 1.2 and 1.3). The 1995 Mount Rainier National Park (MORA) visitor survey, however, found that 92 percent of the park's visitors considered themselves white and nonHispanic (Table 1.1). MORA's visitors clearly represent but a single segment of American society, too specific to fit a reasonable modern interpretation of the Organic Act.

A. The National Park Service and Diversity The National Park Service is keenly aware of this discrepancy and recognizes that as the country's demographic profile changes (See Table 1.2), it is important for the NPS to appeal to both white and non-white Americans. John Reynolds, the director the NPS Pacific West Region, believes that parks will be endangered if they do not respond to the changing demographics of the country: "If we cannot be relevant, we will not be supported. We will fade from the 'best idea' to 'interesting anachronism.'"1 The fear of attracting an ever-smaller segment of America and eventually losing congressional funding is a powerful force pushing the Park Service to change.

In response to criticism that the NPS visitors and work force are primarily white, the NPS sponsored its first diversity conference in 1998. The conference was attended by representatives from various cultural groups, including African Americans, Asian Americans, Latinos, and other ethnic minorities. Workshops at the conference bore titles such as "National Parks: Places of Isolation or Inclusivity?" and "Achieving a National Park System Relevant to All Americans."2

During an interview at the diversity conference, the first African-American Park Service Director, Robert Stanton, responded to the diversity problem:

We need to continue our efforts intemally and to work with other organizations to assure that all citizens of the United States understand that these parks are being preserved for their benefit.3

Stanton felt there was a link between the small number of ethnic minorities visiting the parks and the small number of ethnic minorities working for the NPS. In 1997, seventynine percent of the Park Service's 15,929 pemmanent employees were white and eleven percent were black. Less than five percent of the employees were Latino, one percent were Asian American and less than three percent were American Indian. Stanton suggested that one way to help non-white visitors feel welcome in the parks would be to increase the number of non-white park employees.4

In addition to evaluating the cultural diversity of NPS employees, the NPS is beginning to develop strategies to attract non-white visitors. Two years ago the Western Regional office compiled a list of newspapers, magazines and radio stations that were aimed at ethnic communities, and distributed the list to all park superintendents. In response, park superintendents have begun to use these media outlets for news releases, job notices, and other park public relations efforts. The NPS has also begun to recruit temporary summer employees from both inner cities and black college campuses. Unfortunately, due to low staffturnover and chronic funding shortages, the NPS faces many challenges in their attempts to recruit and develop outreach programs for minorities.5

Using the mass media is one way to attract a culturally diverse population to the national parks, in particular MORA, but the mass media are only part of a comprehensive strategy that I feel would be more effective. A comprehensive strategy would include:

• mass transit to MORA

• the elimination of entrance fees

• increasing the numbers of minorities working for the NPS

• adding more cultural diversity to the interpretation programs

• and using the park's web page to broadcast culturally diverse interpretation programs

Thesis: I propose that an effective component of a strategy to increase use of national parks by all segments of American society would be an interpretation program that emphasized the experiences of non-white visitors at Mount Rainier. Their experiences would be told in first-person narrative form, and would be distributed primarily by means of a web site (for the purpose of this thesis), although traditional media could be used as well. This MORA web site would include a "Your Story" entry form, so that all visitors could have the opportunity to share their Mount Rainier stories with the public.

The following discussion will support this thesis. Chapter one previews relevant literature examining personal narrative theory and Internet demographics. It discusses the impact that personal narrative (i.e., storytelling) can have on people's desire and ability to learn, and on their feelings of being part of a larger group. The Internet demographics literature examines the increased availability of the World Wide Web to a culturally diverse population, and discusses the resultant democratizing effects. Chapter two details the design and development of a web page and survey designed to address the question: Could a web site that featured the Mount Rainier stories of a culturally diverse group encourage a more culturally diverse group to visit Mount Rainier National Park? The final chapters provide a description and analysis of the results of the study and offer suggestions for future work.

B. Interpretation at MORA The present interpretive approach at MORA reflects a long NPS history, dating from the beginning of the century. In 1912, the Chief of the Department of Interior Publications, Laurence F. Schmeckebier, ordered the publishing of short pamphlets that gave park visitors basic information about transportation, accommodations, and points of interesf in the national parks. Schmeckebier believed that it was important to promote the educational value of the parks by arranging "a series of publications that will deal clearly and in general terms with the geology, botany, and the zoology of these great reservations that are being administered by the government for the benefit of the people."6

In response to Schmeckebier's directives, several pamphlets were compiled for MORA. They were: F.E. Matthe's Mount Rainier and its Glaciers (1914); John B. Flett's Features of the Flora of Mount Rainier National Park (1916); Grenville F. Allen's Forests of Mount Rainier National Park ( 1916); and Professor Edward S. Meany's Mount Rainier: A Record of exploration (1916).7

1 Mary (Surtis, "Park Service promotes diversity to counter criticism," SeattIe Times 18 Jam 1999.

2 Ibid.

3 Ibid.

4 Ibid.

5 Ibid.

6 Theodore R Catton. An Adrninistrative Historv of Mount Rainier National Park. (National Park Service Cultural Resources, 1996) 197.

7 Ibid. 195.