4. The National Park Service needs the help of your eternal
vigilance and sympathy. Keep the National Park Service absolutely
separate from the Forest Service or any other organization.
5. Concessions are a bad feature in any Park. The Palisades
Inter-State Park is run without concessions. Why should private
concerns reap profits by exploiting the visitors to National
Parks?
6. A Board of National Park Commissioners is needed. These
commissioners should act as a Board of Directors, as do the
Inter-State Park Commissioners, and have absolute control over the
National Parks.
No nation has ever fallen through having too many parks. We may have
too many soldiers, too many indoor functions, too many exclusive
social sets, but the United States Government, or any other, will
never fall for having too many national parks.
Nearly all the large nations of the earth now have national parks or
are planning to create them. Canada, Australia, and New Zealand are
especially thoughtful in park matters. Switzerland has a number, and
is planning new ones. A number of South American countries are making
investigations with the view of establishing national parks.
National parks are an institution intimately allied with the general
welfare. You need this institution, and it needs your help. Every one
ought to be glad to help better and beautify our land. Whittier was
once asked by a young man for advice as to how best to succeed. The
poet told him to attach himself to a noble and neglected cause and to
stay with it till he won. The Park field greatly needs the help of
young men and young women who are willing to serve a noble cause. In
connection with National Parks you can be exceedingly helpful in
furthering the following work:--
A number of new Parks should be at once created. A number of the old
Parks need to be enlarged. Appropriations are greatly needed for the
development of all. You can help the National Park Service. It is in
danger of being crippled by the lack of appropriations. A number of
the National Monuments should at once be made National Parks. Among
these are the Grand Cañon, the Olympic, the Mukuntuweap Cañon, and
others. The Sequoia and other National Parks need enlargement; and
the Mount St. Elias and other scenic regions, especially the Mount
McKinley region, are most worthy of early consideration for park
purposes.
The Yellowstone Park needs to have the Grand Teton region added;
Rainier, about twenty square miles at the southwest corner; Crater
Lake, a few square miles on the west and north; Yosemite, mountainous
country on the east and southeast; Rocky Mountain, small areas--east,
west, north, and south; and the Sequoia, Mount Whitney and the
King's-Kern region.
[Illustration: TETON MOUNTAIN REGION, PROPOSED ADDITION TO
YELLOWSTONE PARK]
One of the most deserving of National Park projects, as well as one of
the most unique, is that which centers about the Jamez Plateau, in New
Mexico. Upon this plateau in prehistoric times stood a metropolis of
Indian civilization, and the magnificent ruins which remain make this
place priceless, and throw over it one of the most fascinating
mysteries in the realm of archæology. A number of the buildings were
stone structures of excellent and artistic architecture, and contained
hundreds of rooms. The pottery and other records left by this vanished
people indicate that they were a people of culture and refinement.
While the opposition is delaying the making of this Park, the
despoilment of the region goes on. In this connection Dr. Jesse W.
Fewkes makes this significant statement:--
Too strong language cannot be used in deprecation of the
butchering of the architectural features of our Southwestern ruins
by pot-hunters, either private individuals for gain or
representatives of institutions under the name of scientific
research.
The Cook Forest in western Pennsylvania, the greatest existing
primeval growth of white pine; a splendid redwood forest near Eureka,
California; the Dunes on the shore of Lake Michigan in northern
Indiana; the Mammoth Cave of Kentucky; the Luray Caverns in Virginia;
and a stretch of the seashore in eastern North Carolina,--all ought to
be public property, though now privately owned. These places might be
saved for the people for all time in State Parks, but their unique and
splendid characteristics justify their becoming National Parks.
Nearly all proposed National Park areas are of territory in the public
domain--still owned by the Government. The privately owned areas that
are proposed for National Parks are places admirably fitted for park
purposes, and are located close to millions of people.
It is important that the remaining scenic areas in the country be at
once made into State or National Parks. Fortunately there still are a
number of these wild places, but it will require effort to save them.
Each Park proposed will have powerful and insidious opposition. The
insidious opposition to National Parks will say, "There is a feeling
in Congress that we should not have any more National Parks at this
time"; or, "We should wait until present ones are improved."
Scenery is perishable--is easily ruined. The better parts of scenery
are birds, flowers, and trees. These are easily despoiled. No work, no
public service, is more noble than that of the Park extension and
improvement which now presses us. Every National Park needs
appropriations. It is the duty of every one to ask and urge Congress
at once to make adequate appropriations.
Much is to be gained and nothing to be lost in acting promptly. It is
important that new Parks be created now, a working plan made for all,
and the development pushed. When all our National Parks are ready for
travelers, we shall not need to shout, "See America First."
The phrase "See America First" may have done a little good, but it is
now obsolete. A plain condition now confronts us. Scenic America is to
be made ready to be seen. Only a small percentage of the area of our
National Parks is really ready for the traveler.
Congress should not be blamed for this condition; neither should we
severely blame ourselves. But we ought promptly to see that these
Parks receive adequate appropriations. If we do this, in a short time
the National Park Service, through its Director, will say, "Your
National Parks--our matchless wonderlands--are now entirely ready for
millions of travelers."
[Illustration: MOUNT BAKER FROM THE WEST
Mount Baker is likely to be a National Park
_Copyright, 1900, by W. H. Wilcox, Port Townsend, Wash._]
The plan for the development of National Parks includes three types of
hotels, the luxurious, the popular-priced, and inns or shelter cabins
that are clean and comfortable, and that give simple entertainment at
the lowest possible cost. And all buildings should be of an
architecture that harmonizes with the landscape.
Guides in Parks should be of the highest type of culture and
refinement, naturalists who can impart information. Of course they
must be masters of woodcraft. The wilderness is destined to have a
large and helpful place in the lives of the people. This is to be
partly brought about by guides and Park rangers. There should be
guides of both sexes.
The ultimate development should embrace a scenic road-system, roads
built so as to command scenery and to be for the most part on
mountain-sides and summits. They should touch the greatest and most
beautiful spots, and should follow, not the lines of least resistance,
but those of greatest attraction. In places along the forested roads,
openings might be cleared so as to expose near scenes and to enable
travelers to see the game which may come to these openings.
Many roads should be paralleled by trails for people afoot or on
horseback. Of course trails should be made to numerous high or wild
places not reached by roads.
Many persons do not realize the difference between a forest reserve
and a National Park. A forest reserve is primarily used for
cattle-grazing and saw-mills, while a National Park is a region wholly
educational and recreational for your children and yourselves. A
forest reserve is a commercial proposition, while a National Park must
be estimated by higher values. In a paper on the conservation of
scenery, in "The Rocky Mountain Wonderland," I have said:--
We need the forest reserve, and we need the National Park. Each of
these serves in a distinct way, and it is of utmost importance
that each be in charge of its specialist. The forester is always
the lumberman, the park man is a practical poet.... The forester
must cut trees before they are over-ripe or his crop will waste,
while the park man wants the groves to become aged and
picturesque. The forester pastures cattle in his meadows, while
the park man has only people and romping children among his wild
flowers. The park needs the charm of primeval nature, and should
be free from ugliness, artificiality, and commercialism. For the
perpetuation of scenery, a landscape artist is absolutely
necessary. It would be folly to put a park man in charge of a
forest reserve, a lumbering proposition. On the other hand, what a
blunder to put a tree-cutting forester in charge of a park! We
need both these men; each is important in his place; but it would
be a double misfortune to put one in charge of the work of the
other.