Dawn at Mineral King Valley: The Sierra Club, the Disney Company, and the Rise of Environmental Law

When the Disney Company submitted its 1965 bid to open a ski resort in California’s Mineral King Valley, nestled between Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks, company administrators were unaware of the vast legal and public ramifications the project would withstand in the coming 13 years. Selmi (Loyola Law Sch., Loyola Marymount Univ.) deftly describes an era when environmental protection was taking center stage in the public eye and how the Sierra Club’s fight to conserve the valley from development ushered in a new era for law wherein citizens could sue for environmental cause. The book is broken into three parts—the history of the valley, which falls under the purview of the U.S. Forest Service, and the ski resort proposal; the legal battle between the Sierra Club and the government; and the fate of the valley following the Supreme Court decision granting its conservation. Readers will appreciate that Selmi considers multiple angles of the debate and enjoy the suspense built from shifting narratives throughout each chapter.