Duncan
McDuffieDuncan
McDuffieDuncan McDuffie (1877-1951) received the Pugsley Silver Medal “for his services as a member of the California State Parks Commission, in establishing a state park system.” He was a residential developer who was an intrepid mountaineer and an active member of the Sierra Club. His efforts in the 1920s were central to creating the California state park system and to securing approval for an initial bond package that would fund land purchases for the system.
Born on September 24, 1877, in Jefferson, Indiana, McDuffie and his family moved to California soon after. He attended high school in Santa Barbara and obtained a B.S. from the University of California in 1899. After graduation, McDuffie became a residential developer in the Berkeley area. He was tall, distinguished-looking, and became a widely known realtor and civic activist. Over the years, he was president of the Mason-McDuffie Company, the Berkeley Development Company, the Westgate Park Company, the Garden Homes Company, and the St. Francis Home Building Company. He was responsible for the development of a number of subdivisions: Claremont Park, Claremont Court, and Northbrae Properties all in Berkeley, and St. Francis Woods in San Francisco.
McDuffie planned the suburban neighborhood that enhanced the spectacular Claremont Hotel and its gardens, retaining Frederick Law Olmsted to advise on the project. He also retained the Olmsted firm to design St. Francis Wood. Trees lined the streets, landscaped zones lined the sidewalks, and irrigated greenery bound together all the architecturally varied houses. A series of parks and playgrounds were scattered throughout the development, but they were private facilities restricted to homeowners who paid for their maintenance with an annual tax on their property of $.002 per square foot. His subdivisions were not merely roads and residences: they were refined, elegant, and aesthetically pleasing. They were,
“…planned around a park or public space that integrated a naturalistic setting with spacious lots for residences of refinement and elegance so as to have ample space for gardens…[with]…planted roadways aligned with the contours of the landscape and upon central transit boulevards planted with overbowering trees, perhaps even supporting an electric line, called "parkways" or "pleasure drives," that were connected to town centers.”
McDuffie had a sensitivity to the natural world, acquired from his hiking and camping experiences in the Sierras with "Little Joe" LeConte, Jr., who was a professor of mechanical engineering at the University of California and the son of the revered Joseph LeConte, professor of geology and natural history – both of whom were early influentials in the growth of the Sierra Club. His appreciation for space, landscaping, and the natural environment that were characteristic of his subdivisions stemmed greatly from McDuffie’s personal experiences. As an active member of the Sierra Club, McDuffie made immense contributions to the organization. In 1908, he was a member of the team that made the first ascent of Mt. Abbott (13 736 ft.). Along with J.S. Hutchinson and J.N. LeConte, McDuffie undertook a 300-mile trek over un-scouted territory from Tuolumne to Evolution Basin and Muir Pass to the Kings River, culminating in the ascent of Abbott. In 1920, McDuffie teamed up with J.S. Hutchinson and O. I. Brown to be the first to scale Black Keweah (13,752). After these physical achievements, McDuffie took a leadership role in the Sierra Club. He was vice president in 1928, and president from 1928-31, with a second term from 1943-46. During the interim, he was on the executive committee from 1931 to 1941.
McDuffie made lasting contributions to the development of the state park system in California. In 1923 he was appointed chair of a Save-the-Redwoods League committee charged with developing a definitive plan for the development and administration of a state park system. Later, in 1944, he became president of the league. McDuffie concluded that the only way to save the Redwoods was to integrate their interests into a comprehensive statewide park development effort. McDuffie’s leadership resulted in the creation of the California State Parks Council in 1925 and he served as its chair from its founding until 1930.
When a group of leading businessmen, government leaders, and conservationists met in San Francisco in January,1925 to discuss the need to create a California state park system, they looked to McDuffie to lead them. In a widely publicized, eloquent speech which became a “call to arms” and galvanized supporters, McDuffie observed that with more and more people coming into the state and urban and industrial development proceeding rapidly in many areas, it was clear that open space and recreation opportunities would be shrinking even as the need for them increased. He stated:
It is not exaggerating the matter to say that unless a comprehensive plan for the preservation of recreational and scenic areas is set in motion, our children and our children’s children will want for the opportunities for out-of-door life which make for sound bodies, clear brains and good citizenship.
He went on to point out that from an economic perspective, preservation of scenic and recreational attractions was essential to the development of California’s tourism industry.
Next to our fertile soil, California’s greatest single asset is the opportunity it offers for outdoor life. No industry except agriculture puts as much money into circulation in California as do the hundreds of thousands of visitors who come here seeking health, recreation, pleasure, sport and out-of-door life generally. Yet gradually many of the attractions that have made the state famous are being destroyed like our redwood groves, or are passing into private ownership like the Monterey coastline. It would seem to be sound business for the state to see that its major opportunities for recreation and enjoyment of the out-of-doors are left open for the use and enjoyment of both its citizens and its visitors.
Vast sums of money were being invested in highway development, and as McDuffie pointed out:
More than 60 percent of the revenues to pay for this development come from the license fees and gasoline taxes paid by the owners of pleasure cars. Yet, the time is fast arriving when the highways will be fenced from end to end and the old opportunities for picnicking, camping and recreation which we have so enjoyed in the past will be gone forever. Thus, our every interest demands the creation of a state park commission to provide a centralized administration for its park lands, the making of a survey of our park needs and park possibilities, the establishment of a fundamental state park policy, and the gradual upbuilding of a state park system.
McDuffie’s comments and legislative proposals were received with great enthusiasm that day, and everyone present, including members of the California Development Association (the state chamber of commerce), agreed to support the proposals. A campaign organization, the California State Parks Committee, was formed with McDuffie as chairman, and plans were made to gather endorsements and other support for the proposed legislation.
Newton Drury was given primary responsibility for organizing public support for the state parks legislation. Drury immediately sent copies of McDuffie’s speech to fifty leading newspapers around the state and then had it printed as a brochure for still wider distribution.
The council gathered endorsements for proposed legislation to create the state park system. After considerable effort on the part of a broad coalition of environmental business and community organizations, bills were introduced in the state legislature to (a) form a State Park Commission, (b) undertake a comprehensive survey of potential park sites through the state, and (c) authorize submission of a referendum to approve $6 million for the acquisition and development of state parks.
There was substantial opposition to the proposed state parks legislation when it was introduced, inspired primarily by the lumber companies and their influential legislature allies, including the state’s governor. However, the movement gained momentum when McDuffie’s close friend and longtime business partner C.C. Young, became governor of the state at the beginning of 1927.
After two years of advocacy work, the legislature approved all three pieces of legislation in 1927 by a unanimous vote in both houses. The bond issue was approved by the public in 1928 by a three to one margin. The campaign for its approval was led by McDuffie who raised substantial financial resources to promote it and traveled the state speaking eloquently on its behalf. McDuffie declined an offer to serve on the Council as a matter of principle, because of his close personal and business ties with the governor, but he concentrated on finding the five most qualified, most appropriate people in California for the governor to appoint to the park commission. The governor, who once referred to McDuffie as his “boss when it comes to parks,” immediately accepted McDuffie’s recommendations.
Today, a number of legacies stand in Duncan McDuffie’s memory. People still walk the wide boulevards of Claremont Park, while the more adventurous can scale the peak of Mt. McDuffie in the Palisade Region of the Sierra Nevada.