Checking in on a National Park bookshop

Nestled under the Golden Gate Bridge next to the Fort Point historic site, the National Park Service runs a book and trinket shop to lure the many visitors who flock to the area. It's called The Warming Hut, a proper name for a place often wrapped in dense fog -- though not so often in winter as bright sun shone yesterday.

Since the MAGA wrecking crew took over, I've been watching to see whether their attempt to erase the true, messy, magnificent history of this state and country had yet prevailed in the book display. 

Last July, The Warming Hut displayed several shelves of both adult and children's books which explored the history and present conditions of which the regime is trying to keep us ignorant: lots of serious treatments of dispossession of California's natives, of Black soldiers, of looming climate change. 

By late September 2025, the adult books that offend MAGA had been pushed to a shelf in the corner, but they were still there. However, the children's section was still magnificent -- wildly diverse and clearly curated by some thoughtful employee who cared.

Yesterday, though depleted, the NPS is still selling books which MAGA would abhor. (Do they read? I shouldn't be snotty, I suppose.)

Here's the adult shelf, small but still there:

Meanwhile, the children's section is still imaginative, if not large as it once was:

Click to enlarge.

I'll check in again next summer and see how nuance, truth and complexity are holding up in this national park ...