How park visitors responded when asked to report anti-American signs

The Trump administration wants national parks visitors to report signs or other information that’s “negative about either past or living Americans,” and posted QR codes on signs across the country encouraging people to submit comments.

Instead of rooting out examples of anti-American ideology, however, commenters have responded by criticizing mosquitos and staffing cuts and praising the parks’ natural beauty as well as its employees.

The drive to overhaul park signage is part of a wider effort begun by President Donald Trump in a March executive order seeking to scrub federal institutions — including the Smithsonian — of the Biden administration’s “corrosive ideology” recognizing historic racism and sexism. After that order and a similar directive from the Interior Department, an internal National Park Service memo instructed staff to post signs soliciting public comments by June 13.

The Washington Post reviewed more than 200 comments submitted since then that were obtained by the National Parks Conservation Association, a nonprofit advocacy group.

A sign at Gettysburg National Military Park recognizes slavery as a major cause of the Civil War. (National Parks Conservation Association)

The comments overwhelmingly praise the parks as beautiful national treasures, with dozens complimenting rangers for their knowledge and navigational help. Many called for undoing funding cuts and rehiring staff who were fired by the Trump administration.

“The vast majority of public comments show what we’ve always known — people love their national parks and deeply value the dedicated staff who protect them every day,” said Theresa Pierno, president of the NPCA.

The Interior Department said in a statement that the review effort was focused on restoring “historical monuments, markers and memorials altered or removed since 2020.” Comments would be reviewed by relevant subject matter experts before action is taken, the department said.

Only a handful of comments aligned with the administration’s goal of condemning “inappropriate” or “divisive” information. One of those comments criticized a guide for speculating on the sexuality of a historical figure. Another claimed that “woke” park rangers had taken away all the garbage cans.

Most of the complaints about signage were nonspecific, saying that a park display went too far or made them uncomfortable but not spelling out why. Similar comments about Petersburg National Battlefield in Virginia said it unfairly villainized a historical figure, who went unnamed.

The moose calf and its mother walk along the edge of Sawmill Ponds, a wetland known for the sawmill that once operated in the area before Grand Teton National Park was established.

Positive comments — along with direct criticisms of Trump’s policies — vastly outnumbered those that were critical of educational materials.

“It’s great I like it,” reads one terse comment without punctuation about Olympic National Park in northwestern Washington state near the Canadian border.

Many other comments stayed out of politics entirely, like one about Yellowstone National Park: “The bison were great! But the bison delayed traffic. There were so many bison!”

While some found too many large mammals, others saw too few.

“Not enough moose. They are so hard to find! Moose pond was supposed to have moose, but we didn’t even see them there,” said a visitor to Grand Teton National Park.

Many park visitors said they enjoyed learning about Indigenous people or said that parks needed more information about them — even if that history involved atrocities committed by White settlers.

Some visitors criticized the Trump administration for changing references to landmarks from their Indigenous names back to colonial names such as Mount McKinley in Alaska, reversing President Barack Obama’s decision to rename it Denali.

The Stonewall Monument in New York City on Thursday.

At least nine comments criticized the removal of information about Stonewall National Monument, a site that is central to the early fight for LGBTQ+ rights, primarily taking aim at the administration’s decision to erase recognition of transgender people there.

“This initiative to ask the public to identify negative stories about Americans in the past or living, seems aimed at distorting history to meet partisan ideology,” read one comment about the Manzanar National Historic Site in California, arguing that the story of Japanese Americans interned there needed to be told.

President Joe Biden did not institute a wide effort to remove statues from national parks, though his interior secretary, Deb Haaland, removed the word “squaw” from the names of hundreds of federal properties. Efforts in recent years to take down statues of Confederate figures or historic enslavers have primarily been pursued by local governments. In New York City, the American Museum of Natural History removed a statue of former president Theodore Roosevelt that Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) said depicted Black and Indigenous people as inferior.

One commenter called for the removal of the Stonewall Jackson statue at Manassas National Battlefield Park in Virginia.

A man uses his phone to view inside the Henry House at Manassas National Battlefield Park in Manassas, Virginia, in 2019.

The Interior statement cited two examples of inaccurate information discovered since Trump’s executive order. In one instance, at Capitol Reef National Park in Utah, a visitor reported that a postcard misidentified a landmark and appeared to have used Wikipedia text without attributing it. In another case, a video on the Washington Monument’s website attributed a historically inaccurate phrase to George Washington.

Visitor complaints about the parks themselves generally had little to do with the administration’s aims. There are comments requesting benches in visitor centers and one asking for empty flower beds to be replanted at a former Russian bishop’s house at Sitka National Historic Park in Alaska. Another visitor complained about a horse at Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve in Kansas that appeared neglected, dirty and sad.

“Too many mosquitoes,” said one brief comment about Congaree National Park in South Carolina.

“There are a lot of mosquitos can we do something about that,” read another about Biscayne National Park, which includes a stretch of coast and islands near Miami.

One commenter took the opportunity to talk about how invasive plants such as stinknet and buffelgrass at Arizona’s Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument are leading to increased fire risk.

A common theme running through many comments was a sense of dismay at funding and staffing cuts made by the Trump administration. These visitors complained about unclean bathrooms and the absence of rangers to give tours, with one typical comment concluding: “Hire back park staff. We need them.”