Minerva Hamilton Hoyt (March 27, 1866 – December 15, 1945) was an early American activist who worked to preserve California desert areas, and promoted the establishment of

Joshua Tree National Park Joshua Tree National Park is an American national park in southeastern California, east of San Bernardino and Los Angeles and north of Palm Springs. It is named after the Joshua trees (''Yucca brevifolia'') native to the Mojave Desert. Origin ...

. Born on a Mississippi plantation, she later lived in East Coast cities with her physician husband before they moved to

South Pasadena, California South Pasadena is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 25,619, up from 24,292 at the 2000 census. It is located in the West San Gabriel Valley. It is 3.42 square miles in area an ...

in 1897. There she gradually became deeply interested in desert plants and habitat.

Early life and move to California

Minerva Hamilton was born on March 27, 1866 on a plantation near

Durant, Mississippi Durant is a city near the central eastern border of Holmes County, Mississippi, United States, and Big Black River. The town was founded in 1858 as a station on the Mississippi Central Railroad, later part of the Illinois Central. Durant was nam ...

to an upper-class family. She attended a local school for white students, many from the planter class. After marrying Dr. Albert Sherman Hoyt, they live for a time in New York and Baltimore, and had two sons together. In 1897 they moved to

. In California, Hoyt used her influence as a wealthy socialite to support civic causes. Among these was the

Los Angeles Philharmonic The Los Angeles Philharmonic, commonly referred to as the LA Phil, is an American orchestra based in Los Angeles, California. It has a regular season of concerts from October through June at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, and a summer season at th ...

Preserving natural habitat

Hoyt became interested in Southern California's desert plants through her interest in gardening, particularly cactus and

Joshua Trees ''Yucca brevifolia'' is a plant species belonging to the genus ''Yucca''. It is tree-like in habit, which is reflected in its common names: Joshua tree, yucca palm, tree yucca, and palm tree yucca. This monocotyledonous tree is native to the ar ...

. After the death of her husband in 1918, she became concerned that increased automobile traffic in the desert was threatening the area. Hoyt began to exhibit desert plants across the country, to educate people about their qualities. Exhibitions included the national 1928

Garden Club of America The Garden Club of America is a nonprofit organization made up of around 18,000 club members and 200 local garden clubs around the United States. Founded in 1913, by Elizabeth Price Martin and Ernestine Abercrombie Goodman, it promotes the recor ...

show in New York, where the work was seen and commented on by Secretary of Agriculture William Jardine. She later exhibited as far as London. The exhibitions were significant efforts—for the New York exhibition, seven freight cars of rocks, plants, and sand were shipped across the country, and fresh flowers were flown in. In March, 1930 Hoyt founded the International Desert Conservation League. Throughout the 1930s she worked to encourage the state of California to create three parks, including Joshua Tree,

Death Valley Death Valley is a desert valley in Eastern California, in the northern Mojave Desert, bordering the Great Basin Desert. During summer, it is the hottest place on Earth. Death Valley's Badwater Basin is the point of lowest elevation in Nort ...

, and

Anza-Borrego Desert Anza-Borrego Desert State Park (, '' AN-zə bə-RAY-goh'') is a California State Park located within the Colorado Desert of southern California, United States. The park takes its name from 18th century Spanish explorer Juan Bautista de Anza and ...

. Though initially thwarted, in 1936, she gained support by the administration of President

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...

, which designated more than 800,000 acres in California desert area as the Joshua Tree

National Monument A national monument is a monument constructed in order to commemorate something of importance to national heritage, such as a country's founding, independence, war, or the life and death of a historical figure. The term may also refer to a spe ...

. She also worked to appeal to the Mexican government, appealing to the latter to set aside 10,000 acres for cactus preservation.

Legacy and honors

* In 1931, a species of Mexican cactus was named after Hoyt (''mammillaria hamiltonhoytea''). * In 2013, the US Board of Geographic Names named a peak within Joshua Tree after Minerva Hoyt. * The Joshua Tree National Park Association annually honors "notable achievement on behalf of the deserts of California" with a Minerva Hoyt Award. * Asteroid 7321 Minervahoyt, discovered by American astronomers

Eleanor Helin Eleanor Francis "Glo" Helin (née Francis, 19 November 1932 – 25 January 2009) was an American astronomer. She was principal investigator of the Near-Earth Asteroid Tracking (NEAT) program of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. (Some sources gi ...

and

Schelte Bus Schelte John "Bobby" Bus (born 1956) is an American astronomer and discoverer of minor planets at the Institute for Astronomy of the University of Hawaii and deputy director of NASA's Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF) at the Mauna Kea Observat ...

at the

Siding Spring Observatory Siding Spring Observatory near Coonabarabran, New South Wales, Australia, part of the Research School of Astronomy & Astrophysics (RSAA) at the Australian National University (ANU), incorporates the Anglo-Australian Telescope along with a col ...

in 1979, was named in her memory. The official was published by the

Minor Planet Center The Minor Planet Center (MPC) is the official body for observing and reporting on minor planets under the auspices of the International Astronomical Union (IAU). Founded in 1947, it operates at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. Function T ...

on 27 August 2019 ().

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hoyt, Minerva Hamilton 1866 births 1945 deaths American conservationists Joshua Tree National Park People from Durant, Mississippi People from South Pasadena, California