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TAKE ACTION
PRESERVING getting politicians and businessmen to support her THE ROOSEVELTS CARE
Hoyt was wealthy and knew important people. Still,

cause was a challenge. She had to convince them the
THE BEAUTY desert was not a wasteland but a special place. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the 32nd
president of the United States,
How do you do that?
became a leader in conservation early
Hoyt organized elaborate exhibitions of desert plants
OF THE DESERT in places like New York and London, England. Just as in his life and political career.
He planted trees on his family’s
she’d hoped, visitors were amazed and impressed—
Hyde Park estate. As governor of New
but she still needed to do more to protect the area now York State he supported planting
known as Joshua Tree. Hoyt hired Stephen Willard, a trees on abandoned farmlands, and
as president he created the Civilian
Minerva famous landscape photographer, to take photos of the Conservation Corps. The corps hired
desert. She sent two albums of those photos to then
Hamilton Hoyt president Franklin Roosevelt. Her plan worked. unemployed men during the Depression
to stop soil erosion and plant trees.
In 1936 Roosevelt signed Proclamation 2193, estab- But he wasn’t the only Roosevelt
(1866–1945) lishing Joshua Tree National Monument. In 1994 Joshua active in saving natural places.

Tree became a national park. Twenty years earlier, in 1906, his
“Here is your country. Cherish cousin Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th
president of the United States,
these natural wonders, cherish
oday Joshua Tree National Park in southern created the National Park Service,
the natural resources, cherish the
history and romance as a sacred
heritage, for your children and California is a beloved and protected area. But in establishing 150 national forests,
Tthe late 1800s, many people didn’t appreciate the
your children’s children. Do not 51 bird reserves, 4 national game
let selfish men or greedy interests Minerva Hamilton Hoyt loved the desert. She wanted to share its beautiful landscape preserves, 5 national parks and 18
unique beauty of the desert. national monuments.
skin your country of its beauty, its with others and worked tirelessly to make Joshua Tree a national park.
riches or its romance.”
That is, they didn’t until the 1890s, when Minerva
—Theodore Roosevelt,
Hamilton Hoyt came along. Born on a cotton plantation
26th US president
in Mississippi, Hoyt later moved to California with her
husband. As she traveled west by train, she was awed by
the rugged beauty of the desert.
Soon she began riding her horse through the desert

and camping with her maid among the cactuses and
Joshua trees. When her husband died, visiting the desert
comforted her in her grief.
She was determined to protect the land she loved.

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