Interview with Michael Childers, author of “The Mountains are Calling”

Michael Childers is an associate professor of history at Colorado State University and author of Colorado Powder Keg: Ski Resorts and the Environmental Movement, winner of the International Ski History Association 2013 Ullr Award. He was kind enough to chat about his new book, The Mountains are Calling: Tourists and the Unmaking of Yosemite National Park (University of Nebraska Press, 2026).

How would you describe your new book to people who haven’t read it (yet)?

Simply put, it's a history of Yosemite National Park told through the eyes of its visitors, from the Mariposa Battalion's invasion of the region in 1851 to today. But it also tells the story of how visitors came to know and love this place, and the consequences of that adoration.

What are you hoping this book will achieve out in the world? How do you want it to affect readers, etc.?

A couple of things, I suppose. First, I hope readers see themselves in the book. Several people have already told me, “That was my family's experience in Yosemite decades ago.” Second, I want readers to reflect on Yosemite's purpose, and on the impacts of our overcrowding. Over four million people visited the park last year, and with the removal of the reservation system, that number will almost certainly rise this year. Visitors aren't going because they want to ruin Yosemite. If anything, they’re going to experience its beauty and wonder. But that paradox comes from our historical understanding of national parks as mere tourist attractions. And so recreational use must be seen as an extractive use, not a benign one.

What inspired you to write this book? Was this something you’ve been wanting to write for a while, or was there something about this book, right now?

I was approached by Char Miller and Matt Becker about taking on a book about Yosemite after I published my first book. I had been the project lead on the park’s administrative history as a graduate student, and had just published a book on the ski industry and tourism in Colorado, so they thought it I would be a good fit for the press’s series on the national parks. I agreed, but then spent the next two years pondering what I could possibly say that was new about Yosemite. I slowly pieced together that the real story was that of the millions of visitors to Yosemite, and that by telling their story, I could tell Yosemite's story. As I started writing, I then knew I had to speak to crowding within the park and its environmental consequences, including its negative impacts on our own experiences of Yosemite’s wonder.

Your book is titled The Mountains are Calling… How many things do you have around your house that have “The mountains are calling and I must go” written on them?

Ha! Just a sticker on my truck, which I bought after the book was published. The title came from the Muir quote, who looms large over Yosemite’s history, but I like its double meaning on how Yosemite continues to attract millions of visitors just like it did Muir when he penned those lines.

Your book is also subtitled “Tourists and the Unmaking of Yosemite National Park.” What do you mean by “unmaking?”

At its core, the book is about placemaking. From the very first tourists in 1855 through today, Yosemite has been layered with visitors' meaning, memories, and expectations. But just as visitors shaped Yosemite's meaning, which led to its development, they also came to destroy the very place they came to experience.

The National Parks seem to be one of the few things most Americans can agree on. Based on the numbers, most of us like to visit them. Why do you think they can be so unifying? And what do you think makes the National Parks so popular?

I have always like Wallace Stegner’s line about the national parks – that they are “best idea we ever had. Absolutely American, absolutely democratic, they reflect us at our best rather than our worst.” Now, it is worth noting that he wrote those lines in protest of the Reagan administration’s attempts to reduce the number of national park units, and so parks also divide us. But to your point, Americans love their national parks for many reasons. They hold some of our most iconic landscapes. They are our memory. To stand at the base of a giant sequoia in Yosemite, or watch Old Faithful erupt, or see where the Wright Brothers first took flight at Kitty Hawk is pretty special. More importantly it speaks to American identity, which we may argue over, but cherish nonetheless.

Where does Yosemite fit among the National Parks and in the national awareness of parks? What made you want to focus on Yosemite?

In many ways Yosemite established what a national park is. The Yosemite Valley and Mariposa Grove’s cession to California was the first time the federal government ceded land not for agriculture or mining or the railroad, but for its enjoyment. This directly influenced the establishment of Yellowstone National Park twelve years later, and set the precedence of setting aside the nation’s sublime landscapes for our, and future generations, enjoyment.

I wanted to focus on Yosemite for a couple of reasons. First, I had already done a lot of research in the park. But more importantly, it's one of the most iconic parks in the world, which makes it a perfect case study for the impacts of tourism. Plus, I got to spend a couple of summers "working" in the park.

Your book looks at the experiences of visitors in Yosemite and how visitors have shaped a place like Yosemite. Why do it that way? And what would we miss if we did not center visitors?

I found it striking that we often ignore the overwhelming majority of people when we tell any national park’s story. Visitors are often just depicted as background, rather than actors in the park’s history. This means we are missing most of the story, and maybe idealizing national parks more than the wider public does. I mean sure, visitors value preserving wildlife within the parks, but they also want a place to park their RV, roast marshmallows over a fire, listen to a ranger talk, and buy a souvenir. These experiences are far more common within national parks, and speak to how many understand parks like Yosemite.

People talk about visiting other countries and wanting to be a “traveler” and not a “tourist.” Is there an equivalent for visiting the National Parks/spending time in the outdoors?

Yes, though I would argue it is different for everyone. Your question comes down to the idea of authenticity. A tourist is not as authentic as a travel. There is statis there based on how people experience a place. In national parks that is often seen between front country visitors, those camping in organized campgrounds and spending time visitor centers, and those who set out into the back country, climb El Capitan, or hike the John Muir trail.

People often visit the National Parks to see “nature.” How do you define nature and how do you think we define it as a society?

Wow, tough question. Nature is often understood as the world out there, away from built world of man. Now, as generations of writers and artists have noted, that is a culturally constructed definition. Putting aside my academic hat, we often define nature is the world outside. It is wilderness, or the city park. It can be beautiful, or threatening. National parks like Yosemite are understood to be natural parks because of their wonderous landscapes.

What role do you think nature plays in our national identity?

It is the historical basis of American identity. As I note in the book, we only need to start with Emerson’s 1936 book Nature to see how the nation’s rivers, forests, mountains, plains, and deserts came to differentiate America from Europe. That continued throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, even as we grew more urban. 

Have you already started your next project? If so, can you share a little bit about it?

I have. I'm starting work on a history of the headwaters of the Colorado River, where I grew up. I grew up in a place called Grand County, which encompasses an entire watershed known as Middle Park. It includes two ski resorts, a national park, the headwaters of the Colorado, and vast public lands and ranching landscapes. I want to write about the challenges facing the rural West, from gentrification to climate change, and how locals have adapted to forces so often out of their control. I have just started, so I really don't have much more to tell at the moment.