THE PLAYGROUNDS OF THE NATION
The public forests are steadily increasing in popularity as the
playgrounds of the Nation. The woodlands offer splendid
opportunities for camping, hunting, fishing and outdoor life.
Millions of motorists now spend their vacations in the government
and state forests. Railroads and automobiles make the forests
accessible to all. Thousands of miles of improved motor highways
lead into the very heart of the hills. More than 5,500,000 people
annually visit the National Forests. Of this number, some
2,500,000 are campers, fishermen and hunters.
[Illustration: A CAMPING GROUND IN A NATIONAL FOREST]
The forests provide cheap health insurance to all who will enjoy
what they offer in sport and recreation. For example, over
1,000,000 vacationists visit Colorado's forests each year. If
each person spent but five days in the forests, this would mean a
total of 5,000,000 days or 50,000,000 hours of rest and
enjoyment. Recreation at the beaches and amusement parks costs at
least fifty cents an hour. Applying that rate to the free fun
which the people get out of the forests, in Colorado in one
year the tourists, campers and fishermen gained $25,000,000 worth
of pleasure from the forests.
The National and State Forests furnish summer homes for thousands
of people who live in the neighboring cities and towns. Regular
summer home sites are laid off in many of the forests. Usually
these individual sites cover about one-quarter acre or less. They
rent for $5 to $25 a year, depending on the location. A man can
rent one of these camp grounds for a term of years. He can build
a summer cottage or bungalow on it. There are no special rules
about the size or cost of the houses. Uncle Sam requires only
that the cottages be sightly and the surroundings be kept clean
and sanitary. Many of the cabins are built for $150 to $300. Some
of them are more permanent and cost from $3,000 to $5,000 or
$10,000. In the Angeles National Forest in southern California,
over sixteen hundred of these cottages are now in use and many
more are being built.
Where there are dead or mature trees in the forest, near summer
home sites, timber can be purchased at low prices for use in
building cottages. Even the people of small means can build
cabins in the forests and enjoy living in the mountains during
the heat of the summer. These camps provide fine surroundings for
the rompings and summer games of the children and young people.
In California a number of cities have set up municipal camps in
the National Forests. At very low costs, the city residents can
spend their vacations at these camps. Tents and cottages are
provided. Facilities for all kinds of games and sports furnish
recreation. Each family may stay at the camp for two weeks. The
expenses are so low for meals and tents that the municipal camps
furnish the best and cheapest vacation which the family of
limited means can enjoy. These camps are very popular. Wherever
they have been tried, they have been successful. There are twelve
municipal camps in California. They cost $150,000.
Fine automobile camps are maintained along many of the important
National and State Forest highways for the use of tourists.
Concrete fireplaces, tables, benches and running water are
provided at these wayside camping places. The tourists who carry
their camp kits like to stop at these automobile camps. They
meet many other tourists and exchange information about the best
trails to follow and the condition of the roads. Sometimes,
permanent cabins and shelters are provided for the use of the
cross-country travelers. The only rules are that care be
exercised in the use of fire and the camping sites be kept in
clean and sanitary condition.
All the forest roads are posted with many signs asking the
tourists to be careful in the use of matches, tobacco and camp
fires, so as not to start destructive forest fires. In the
Federal and State forests hundreds of man-caused fires occur
annually, due to the neglect and carelessness of campers and
tourists to put out their camp fires. A single match or a
cigarette stub tossed from a passing automobile may start a
costly fire. During the season from May to October, the western
forests usually are as dry as tinder. Rains are rare during that
period. A fire once started runs riot unless efficient control
measures are used at once.
Those interested in fishing and hunting usually can find plenty
of chance to pursue their favorite sports in the National and
State Forests. There is good fishing in the forest streams and
lakes, as the rangers, working in coöperation with Federal and
State hatcheries yearly restock important waters. Fishing and
hunting in the National Forests are regulated by the fish and
game laws of that state in which the forests are located. The
killing of wild game is permitted during certain open seasons in
most of the forest regions.
[Illustration: GOOD FORESTS MEAN GOOD HUNTING AND FISHING]
The eastern forests in the White Mountains, the Adirondacks, and
the Appalachians, are not, for the most part, as well developed
as recreation grounds as are the western vacation lands. However,
more interest is being taken each year in the outdoor life
features of the eastern forests, and ultimately they will be used
on a large scale as summer camp grounds. Many hikers and campers
now spend their annual vacations in these forests. Throughout the
White Mountain forest of New Hampshire, regular trails for
walking parties have been made. At frequent intervals simple
camps for the use of travelers have been built by mountaineering
clubs. This forest, located as it is near centres of large
population is visited by a half-million tourists each season. The
Pisgah National Forest of North Carolina is becoming a centre for
automobile travel as it contains a fine macadam road. The
Superior National Forest of Minnesota, which covers 1,250,000
acres and contains 150,000 acres of lakes, is becoming very
popular. It is called "the land of ten thousand lakes." One can
travel in a canoe through this forest for a month at a time
without passing over the same lake twice. Other popular national
forests are the Angeles in southern California, the Pike and
Colorado in Colorado, and the Oregon and Wenatchee--the Pacific
Northwest. Visitors to these forests total more than 1,750,000 a
year.
The western forests are also being used for winter sports. They
furnish excellent conditions for snow-shoe trips, skiing and
sledding. The people who have camps on government land use their
places for week-end excursions during the snow season when the
roads are passable. The White Mountain National Forest is used
more for winter sports than any other government woodland. At
many of the towns of New Hampshire and Maine, huge carnivals are
held each winter. Championship contests in skiing, snowshoeing,
skating, ski jumping, tobogganing and ski-joring are held. Snow
sport games are also annual events in the Routt, Leadville and
Pike National Forests of Colorado. Cross country ski races and
ski-joring contests are also held. In the Truckee National Forest
of California, dog-team races over courses of 25 to 50 miles are
held each winter.
About eighty per cent. of the 5,500,000 people who visit the
National Forests are automobile tourists. The other twenty per
cent. consists of sportsmen interested in hunting, fishing,
canoeing, boating, mountain climbing, bathing, riding and hiking.
In the Pacific Coast States there are a number of mountain
climbing clubs whose members compete with each other in making
difficult ascents. The mountaineering clubs of Portland, Oregon,
for example, stage an interesting contest each summer in climbing
Mount Hood, one of the highest peaks in the country.