Not to pick, but I get a couple of Canadian channels, and I heard a commercial within the past week or two bragging that some national park in Canada was the world's first. I had it on in background, so I can't give the specifics.
Any way, it only pricked my interest because it conflicted with what I had understood about TR and national parks.
Could be. But TR at least managed to popularize it, and as we all know, success goes to the person who stakes the claim!
As for the rest of it, anybody in the universe can go to a National Park, and I can’t see any earthly reason that the parks wouldn’t be visited by non-whites, which according to the press seems to be a pretty broad group, including many whites from non-English speaking white ethnic groups. I’m not sure what constitutes the press definition of “white,” but it seems to be pretty restrictive.
I also don’t know exactly who the new park management is trying to attract, but if they just present history as it was, without the left-wing overlays, they’ll get people of every ethnic group from all over the US.