A sweeping new Trump directive orders national parks to remove any signs that might "disparage Americans,” or hurt the sensitive egos of rich white men, so Muir Woods National Monument is being forced to change some of their signs.  

Famed naturalist and “Father of the National Parks” John Muir was largely responsible for the preservation of the Yosemite Valley, Sequoia National Park, and many other wonderful outdoor spaces. But as we’ve discussed before, he had a history of being kind of a huge racist. His famed writings generally referred to Black and Indigenous people as “dirty” and “savages,” and he co-founded the Sierra Club with a few men who were openly white supremacists that called for the sterilization of non-whites races.

Marin County’s Muir Woods National Monument, which is named for Muir, allowed their staff to do a project called History Under Construction in 2021 as they reckoned with this. This project did not technically alter the signs, but added “sticky notes” that gave the context of some of the male founders’ more problematic aspects, or acknowledged the unsung roles of women and Indigenous people in the park’s creation. You can check out a few of these sticky notes in the tweet below.  

But that tweet is now one of the only places you can see those notes anymore. SFGate reports that the Trump administration has ordered the sticky notes be removed. Their removal is part of what the New York Times points out is compliance with an executive order that ordered national parks to remove any signs that Trump feels "disparage Americans,” or rather, disparage white men in American history who may have owned slaves or committed genocides.

Muir Woods was forced to comply.

“To me, the biggest irony is that the Trump administration says it wants to tell a more balanced version of history, and that’s exactly what this sign did,” former park ranger Elizabeth Villano, who contributed to the signs, told SFGate. “It didn’t remove anything. It just layered in what had been missing.”

Villano added, “They’re trying to take away any nuance of history that might be a challenge to power.”

Though Muir Woods may have gotten off easy compared to some other parks, who may be forced to make some pretty galling changes to their signage. As the New York Times explains, North Carolina’s Cape Hatteras National Seashore might have to change signs acknowledging rising sea levels, Philadelphia’s Independence National Historical Park may be forced to remove references to slavery, and Florida’s Castillo de San Marcos National Monument may be forced to scrub signs referring to the one-time imprisonment of Native Americans at that site.

Trump has also targeted the National Museum of African American History at the Smithsonian, ironically saying that its mission has been part of a "widespread effort to rewrite our nation’s history." His administration also revoked two grants that were awarded to the Whitney Plantation, a former plantation and museum in Louisiana that focuses on the realities of slavery.

Related: Muir Woods Might Want To Look For a New Name As The Sierra Club Reckons With Its Founder's Racism [SFist]

Image: Fernando R via Yelp