I’ve long had the idea in the back of my mind that National Parks could have been designated as such for more sinister reasons other than simply natural beauty and wildlife. It’s a crazy idea, I even think so. Definitely a reach, Yet it still itches and begs the question. Thus I’m interested in hearing your opinions on it too.

I was reading up on visiting Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks.

The NPS makes it very clear that: - No weapons specifically BB guns, bear spray, bow and arrows are allowed. - open carry of firearms and discharge of them is disallowed, they make it seem as if one could only carry with a Concealed Carry license (uncommon in CA). - No drones or unmanned air vehicles even small personal ones are allowed - it’s made extra clear that there’s virtually no cell service in either of the parks

The question I pose is, what if national parks were designated for some other purposes that we’re not aware of?

Here’s a few bits of data to support my ridiculous half serious theory:

  1. The protections of being a National Park obviously restrict all major development, mining, digging up of land, removal of trees, damming of rivers, exploration to some degree, establishment of large housing areas and towns etc. IF something was there, it wouldn’t be discovered on any large scale and would be relatively easy to discredit.

  2. Many parks have extreme restrictions reducing (or implying trying to limit) ones rights to personal protection.

  3. Parks such as Yosemite have some of the largest clusters of missing people with unsolved cases in the world.

  4. Many parks have bans on drones, private flights etc and other airspace restrictions (limited ability to survey from the air or potentially capture something one shouldn’t.

  5. The NPS apparently doesn’t keep good records of missing persons, seems that would be a good thing to do.