America’s Most Useless National Park is Near Idaho

There’s a cave you can tour, but I suppose you could do that before the designation of Great Basin National Park.  I made a stop there a few years ago.  There wasn’t an admission fee, which I would say is truth in advertising.  The park was created because people like the late Senator Harry Reid wanted to claim they had permanent successes.  Ranchers in the area had grazed cattle there for ages, and were promised they wouldn’t lose rights, and then they did, which I suppose was a part of the plan hatched by greenies for the park.

Seriously, What's the Point?

It’s not like the land was threatened with development.  For miles outside the park, there’s very little in the way of community, with a small one with a general store near the entrance.  Route 50 is nearby, and it’s mostly sagebrush, sand, and rocks.

More Expense and More Government Control

I’m not one of those absolutists who claim parks aren’t a government responsibility.  Yellowstone, Glacier, and Grand Teton are wonderful public assets, but a parks department is a major expense in a heavily indebted nation, and Great Basin wouldn’t look much different today if it had never joined the club.  What’s the point?  I can drive a few miles from home in any direction and see much of the same.  Every designation of land as special gives some faraway bureaucrat a little more control over local people.  I’m sure for the first two weeks after a park is created near where you live, there’s a glow.  It’s like something the English writer Stephen Spender told me about being knighted by the queen.  The excitement quickly fades when you realize most of your neighbors don’t see you in a new way.