St. Louis had a memorable "flag day" a little more than a century ago.
Within twenty-four hours the yellow and red flag of Spain was run down
and the tricolor run up; this hauled down and the Stars and Stripes
run up. The Louisiana Territory thus became a part of the United
States. In a flash, the western boundary of this country was changed
from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains.
Scarcely were the Stars and Stripes flying, before Lewis and Clark
were on their way to explore the vast and mysterious Louisiana
Territory--the West. Theirs was one of the most comprehensive and
successful exploring expeditions on record--one of the greatest of
outdoor expeditions. There were adventures and hardships, but after
two years the party returned to civilization with the loss of only
one man. The resources of the great West were definitely placed before
the world.
This expedition revealed the extraordinary resourcefulness of Lewis
and Clark and brought out also two other characters who are worthy of
a place in American literature and whose achievements might well be a
source of inspiration in American life. These are John Colter, who
afterwards discovered the Yellowstone, and Sacagawea, the "bird
woman." Sacagawea was the one woman of the Lewis and Clark expedition.
She rendered remarkable service, and her name will be forever
associated with exploration, with woodcraft, and with the
National-Park wildernesses.
Just before the returning Lewis and Clark expedition reached St.
Louis, it met trappers starting up the river--going into the great
West. This was the real beginning of the trapping industry, which for
nearly two generations was the dominating influence of the West.
The West was thoroughly explored by the trappers. In a number of
States they formed the first permanent settlement. The trappers
harvested the furs of lakes and streams throughout the mountains and
built up the "Commerce of the Prairies." We are indebted to them for
the Oregon and Santa Fé trails. All history shows no more picturesque
or resourceful character than the trapper. Among them were such great
men as John Colter, James Bridger, and Kit Carson.
The trapper was followed by the prospector. The trapper did not search
for gold. The prospector did not look for furs or fertile lands. In a
different way the prospector exploited the same territory as the
trapper and thus placed the resources and the romance of the West
before the public.
Closely following the trapper and prospector was that rugged and
aggressive character, the cowboy. He had a definite part in the
forward movement of the frontier. The cowboy cared nothing for furs,
or gold, or fertile lands. He was interested in the rich grasses for
his cattle. He, too, had his short day. These characters--the cowboy,
the prospector, and the trapper--tarried for a brief moment on the
frontier when the farmer, the first lasting settler, arrived. All
these armed and vigorous people, the wearers of buckskin, were people
of individuality and power. They made great changes throughout the
West, and hastened its final development.
Pioneer men and women are among the great and influential figures in
history. They were human, they were honorable, and we do honor them.
They did not want or need sympathy. They were getting much, perhaps
the most, from life; they were happy. We think of theirs as being a
life of sacrifice, but it really was a life of selection. They were
away from the crowd--from the enemies of sincerity and individuality.
Of all people they were most nearly free. But the pioneers are gone.
The frontier no longer exists, and the days of the wilderness are
gone forever. Yet, in our magnificent National Parks we still have a
bit of the primeval world and the spirit of the vigorous frontier. In
these wild parks we may rebuild the past, and in them the trapper, the
prospector, the cowboy, and the pioneer may act once more their part
in the scenes that knew them.
These wilderness empires of our National Parks have been snatched from
leveling forces of development. They are likely to prove the richest,
noblest heritage of the nation. Here the world is at play, here are
scenes ever new and that will greatly help to keep the nation young.
In the words of John Dickinson Sherman: "It is as if Nature in these
places had in self-defense devoted all her energies to scenery,
proclaiming to the nation, 'Here I will make playgrounds for the
people. Here is nothing for commerce or industry. Here is natural
beauty at its wildest and best. Elsewhere man must live by the sweat
of his brow. Here let him rest and play. Here I will rule supreme for
all time.'"
There are seventeen National Parks. New ones will early be made and
there are at least twenty other scenic regions which should at once be
added. No nation has ever fallen for having too much scenery. Scenery
is, indeed, one of our most valuable resources, and these Parks will
enable us to build up a scenic industry of magnitude. Already they are
being developed with roads and trails, and before long there will be
in all of them hotels and camps for visitors of every taste, together
with special camps and provision for school-children.
I have tried to describe a few of the wonders of the Parks and to
suggest the larger, fuller use of them. Through most of the Parks
described I have had happy excursions afoot, alone and unarmed. Not
only do the Parks contain some of the world's sublimest and most
beautiful scenes, but each Park is a wild-life reservation, a place
where guns are forbidden. Thus protected, these wildernesses will
remain forever wild, forever mysterious and primeval, holding for the
visitor the spell of the outdoors, exciting the spirit of exploration.
Within them will survive that poetic million-year-old highway, the
trail. Among their pathless scenes wild life will be perpetuated.
Chains of mountain-peaks will ever stand--"the silent caravan that
never passes by, the caravan whose camel backs are laden with the
sky"--with purple forests, mountain-high waterfalls, vast and broken
cañons, wind-swept plateaus, splendid lakes, and peaks and glaciers
often touched with cloud and sunshine.
Our National Parks will continue for generations to come to be the
No Man's Land, the Undiscovered Country, the Mysterious Old West,
the Land of Romance and Adventure. My great hope and belief is that
they will become a marked factor in public education. Surely, these
wonderlands mean much for the general welfare, and will help to
develop greater men and women--to arouse enthusiasm for our native
land, and for nature everywhere.