What’s Going on With the Muir Woods Exhibit Removal?

Staff at Muir Woods National Monument in Marin County have removed signage that spotlighted Indigenous history, women’s contributions to the park and instances of racism in the space’s history — following an executive order from President Donald Trump.

The March 27 executive order criticized materials, monuments and signage within the Department of the Interior’s jurisdiction — which includes national parks — that “rewrite our Nation’s history” and “undermine the remarkable achievements of the United States by casting its founding principles and historical milestones in a negative light.”

As reported by outlets like the 19th, the New York Times and POLITICO’s E&E News, the White House directed national parks staff to flag any signage that could violate the order.

In a statement to the New York Times, a spokesperson for the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, Joshua Winchell, confirmed that last week Muir Woods staff had removed sticky notes that were added to existing signage in 2021. These notes were accompanied by a poster explaining the staff’s aim “to tell the full story” of Muir Woods — for example, by acknowledging the role of Native American stewardship in the redwoods’ history.

“The stories protected at our national parks bring us closer together as a country, not further apart,” said Alan Spears, senior director for cultural resources at the National Parks Conservation Association, in a statement emailed to KQED. “Our history is complex, and as national park advocates, we trust national park staff to navigate those complexities and do their jobs without interference.”

“Great countries don’t hide from or sanitize their history,” Spears said.

Here’s what you need to know about the signs, why they were removed and what’s happening at other national parks across the country.

What was removed at Muir Woods and why?

The now-removed sticky notes at Muir Woods were part of a 2021 exhibit called “History Under Construction” developed by park rangers at the national monument.

As an accompanying poster — also now removed — explained, staff made the sticky note additions to the existing signage in an effort to add context to the park’s history, highlighting the foundational roles of women and Indigenous people in its creation and the oftentimes racist and violent past of its more notable founders.

“This sign credits influential, philanthropic white men with saving Muir Woods,” the poster read. “While they undoubtedly contributed to the forest becoming a national monument, part of our duty in the national parks service is to tell the full story of how that happened.”

“Everything on this sign is true but incomplete,” the poster read.

In particular, the sticky notes pointed out founder Gifford Pinchot’s ties to the American Eugenics Society, John Muir’s use of racist language against Indigenous people in his writing and Congressman William Kent’s work on legislation that targeted Asian immigrants.

What was in the executive order around materials in national parks?

In March, Trump issued an executive order, called “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” which took aim at what the White House called a “distorted narrative” that Trump claimed was permeating the United States’ national parks, monuments and other federal institutions like the Smithsonian.

“Under this historical revision, our Nation’s unparalleled legacy of advancing liberty, individual rights, and human happiness is reconstructed as inherently racist, sexist, oppressive, or otherwise irredeemably flawed,” Trump wrote.

The Trump administration also instructed staff at national parks to publicly post signs with QR codes inviting visitors to themselves report any signage they found to “inappropriately disparage Americans past or living.”

The order then gave parks a deadline: By mid-July, they had to flag any materials for possible editing or removal, which the Trump administration said it would carry out by Sept. 17, according to the New York Times.

The order stated that Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum would review materials “within the Department of the Interior’s jurisdiction” for “improper partisan ideology” and then take action to ensure they did not “contain descriptions, depictions, or other content that inappropriately disparage Americans past or living (including persons living in colonial times).”

Many cultural and outdoor organizations swiftly decried the order, including the American Historical Association and the Sierra Club. Some visitors, too, used the opportunity to criticize the administration’s order — or praise parks staff — rather than flag parks content for removal.

So what happened at Muir Woods?

Muir Woods officials did not respond to KQED’s request for comment. But Golden Gate National Recreation Area spokesperson Winchell said the sticky notes had been removed last week pending a review following the executive order.

“As we implement the order, we will review all signs in the park as well as all the public input we receive about the signs,” Winchell told the New York Times. The “History Under Construction” webpage at nps.gov, with full details of the exhibit and the additions made, is still online.

Elizabeth Villano, a former park ranger at Muir Woods who worked on the 2021 sticky notes, told SFGate that to her, “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.”

“It didn’t remove anything,” Villano said. “It just layered in what had been missing.”

“National park staff have made tremendous strides in recent decades, teaching the facts about difficult topics like slavery, racism and climate change,” NPCA’s Spears said.

“If some of these proposed changes are made, visitors may miss out on the full picture of history and nature that they deserve at our parks,” he said.

Why are some parks staff complying with Trump’s executive order?

“If park staff don’t comply with this directive, they may lose their jobs,” Spears said.

In February, the Trump administration fired over a thousand NPS staff across the country as part of a broader plan to cut federal spending. Although the parks service was authorized to reinstate those probationary workers in March, permanent staffing at national parks around the United States has fallen 24% since Trump took office, according to NPCA.

In that time, the White House has threatened deep cuts to national parks budgets, which some staff say has created a cloud of uncertainty in the department and at parks all over the country.

“Policies like these do not help Park Service staff protect these incredible places,” Spears said. “The administration is making their jobs harder and killing their morale, at a time when Park Service staff numbers dwindle near historic lows.”

What are other parks doing in light of the executive order?

The New York Times investigation reports that Muir Woods appears to be the first park to have actually changed or removed its signage ahead of the White House deadline, but employees at other parks across the country have also flagged exhibits for their “inappropriate” language.

That includes: exhibits naming slave owners and describing violence against enslaved people at Cane River Creole National Historical Park in Louisiana; signs discussing sea level rise and erosion at Cape Hatteras National Seashore in North Carolina; and wording on the U.S. government’s removal and imprisonment of Native Americans at Castillo de San Marcos National Monument in Florida, the National Parks Conservation Association said.

“Americans count on our parks to tell truthful stories and accurate information,” Spears said. “The public can handle the truth.”

KQED’s Carly Severn contributed to this report.