The National Park Service has taken down an exhibit at Muir Woods National Monument that aimed to tell a more complete history of the site, SFGATE has learned from a former park ranger who helped to develop the exhibit. It’s the first confirmed removal of what the Donald Trump administration has referred to as “improper ideology” under a directive from Interior Secretary Doug Burgum issued earlier this year.
Installed in 2021, the “History Under Construction” exhibit was an effort by staff at Muir Woods, a 544-acre forest site protecting old-growth coast redwoods in Marin County, to expand upon the timeline that had long been displayed on a large placard. Annotated with sticky notes, the revised exhibit added missing context rather than replacing any of the information. A message on the display read: “Alert: History Under Construction. Everything on this sign is true but incomplete.”
The notes highlighted previously untold narratives: the Coast Miwok and Southern Pomo peoples who stewarded the land for centuries, the role of colonial violence in their displacement, and the efforts by the California Club — a women’s organization — to save the forest in the early 20th century.
Rangers also filled in historical gaps left by the original exhibit. One note referenced 1769, when Spanish missionaries began enslaving Native Americans. Another highlighted that John Muir, the park’s namesake, used racist language in his writings about Native Americans in 1869. Other annotations called attention to Gifford Pinchot’s 1898 appointment as chief of what is now the U.S. Forest Service, noting his involvement with the American Eugenics Society, and Congressman William Kent’s support for California’s Alien Land Laws in 1920, which targeted Asian immigrants.
“We didn’t want to take anything out. All we wanted to do was add in,” Elizabeth Villano, the former park ranger who worked on the signs, told SFGATE. “It gives the average visitor, who maybe wasn’t super drawn towards the importance of history, the chance to see how history is traditionally taught and then what it looks like to start adding in some of these narratives that we skate over so quickly and so regularly.”
The sign was removed in response to Secretarial Order 3431, a directive signed by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum in January that instructs agencies to eliminate any sign that “disparages” the United States.