Your National Parks Part 1

Your National Parks.

by Enos A. Mills and Laurence F. Schmeckebier.

PREFACE

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 hards.h.i.+ps, 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 a.s.sociated 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 Fe 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 gra.s.ses 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 s.n.a.t.c.hed from leveling forces of development. They are likely to prove the richest, n.o.blest 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 d.i.c.kinson 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 pa.s.ses by, the caravan whose camel backs are laden with the sky"--with purple forests, mountain-high waterfalls, vast and broken canons, wind-swept plateaus, splendid lakes, and peaks and glaciers often touched with cloud and suns.h.i.+ne.

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.

E. A. M.

I

THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK

1. A CAMP-FIRE THAT MADE HISTORY

On September 19, 1870, a number of men were chatting around a camp-fire in the wilds of northwestern Wyoming. They had been exploring the Yellowstone wonderland. They had seen the geysers,--little hot-water volcanoes,--the pools of boiling colored mud, the great petrified forest, and the golden canon of the Yellowstone, into whose colored depths the snowy river leaps. The exploration was over, and the men were about to start for their homes.

A group were discussing how they might secure the owners.h.i.+p of this scenic empire. A monopoly of this wonderland would mean a fortune.

The discussion was interrupted. Cornelius Hedges arose before the camp-fire. He said that private owners.h.i.+p ought never to be considered. This region, he thought, should be set aside by the Government and forever held for the unrestricted use of the people.

The magnificent National-Park idea was thus born by a camp-fire in the wilds. The views of this statesman prevailed, and it was agreed that the park project be launched at once and vigorously pushed. And this was done. A few enterprising, aggressive men championed the measure so earnestly that the Park became a reality in less than two years after the idea originated.

This celebrated camp was near the junction of the Gibbon and Firehole Rivers, at the foot of what now is National Park Mountain. In 1891 I made a reverent pilgrimage to this historic spot. I am grateful to every one who helped establish the Yellowstone Park. I am glad that the idea of a National Park was a camp-fire thought.

The Helena (Montana) "Herald" of November 9, 1870, had an article by Cornelius Hedges, containing what is probably the first published reference to the park project. Honor must be given to David E. Folsom and a number of other individuals for publicly suggesting, independently, a similar idea. These suggestions, however, were barren of results.

In the course of that autumn a bold park campaign was begun by Nathaniel P. Langford, Cornelius Hedges, and William H. Claggett, who had just been elected Delegate to Congress from Montana. Langford lectured in behalf of the project before interested audiences in Minneapolis, Was.h.i.+ngton, New York, and elsewhere; and he and Walter Trumbull published magazine articles on the subject. Copies of Langford's article in "Scribner's Magazine" were placed in the hands of every Member of Congress.

Dr. Ferdinand V. Hayden, of the United States Geological Survey of the Territories, became interested in the cause, and rendered invaluable service. During the summer of 1871 he explored the Yellowstone region and took scores of photographs. In cooperation with others, he drew the bill for Congressional enactment, and marked the boundary lines of the Park. This bill was introduced in the House by William H.

Claggett, December 18, 1871. Senator Pomeroy, of Kansas, immediately introduced the identical measure in the Senate. Claggett, Hayden, Langford, and others made a thorough canva.s.s. Each Member of Congress was personally interviewed. The enthusiasm, intelligence, and sincerity of these advocates produced winning results. The question came to a successful vote in the Senate, January 30, 1872. Senator Cole, of California, opposed.

In the House, the Committee on Public Lands reported the bill favorably. Henry L. Dawes, of Ma.s.sachusetts, championed the measure.

It reached a vote, February 27, 1872, with the following result: yeas, 115; nays, 65; not voting, 60. The bill was signed by President Grant, March 1, 1872.

It is a remarkable fact that Congress should have thus created the Yellowstone National Park. Through the ages the privileged cla.s.ses have had almost exclusive enjoyment of scenic empires. The campaign which brought about the creation of this Park was brief, intense, and unique. It was a genuine and epoch-marking achievement.

The National-Park idea has gone round the world. All leading nations now have national parks and are planning more. Time is likely to stamp our original legislation as one of the important acts of statesmans.h.i.+p. A few public-spirited men of vision began a revolution and triumphed. The anniversary of this event may some day be observed with world-wide celebration. People progress in the improvement of their playgrounds no less than in the ordering of their workshops.

Concerning this National-Park legislation, General Hiram M.

Chittenden, author of "The Yellowstone National Park," makes the following comment:--

Perhaps no act of our National Congress has received such general approbation at home or such profuse commendation from foreigners as that creating the Yellowstone National Park. The lapse of time only serves to confirm and extend its importance, and to give additional force to the sentiment so well expressed by the Earl of Dunraven when he visited the Park in 1874: "All honor then to the United States for having bequeathed as a free gift to man the beauties and curiosities of 'Wonderland.' It was an act worthy of a great nation, and she will have her reward in the praise of the present army of tourists, no less than in the thanks of the generations of them yet to come."

It was a notable act, not only on account of the transcendent importance of the territory it was designed to protect, but because it was a marked innovation in the traditional policy of government. From time immemorial privileged cla.s.ses have been protected by law in the withdrawal, for the exclusive enjoyment, of immense tracts for forests, parks, and game preserves. But never before was a region of such vast extent as the Yellowstone Park set apart for the use of all the people without distinction of rank or wealth.

It has been well said that "history is geography set in motion." And "Geography," says Kant, "lies at the basis of history." The peculiar geographic environment of the Yellowstone tract had a definite and striking influence on the early history of the region. It attracted few visitors and no settlers. To the pioneer and the Indian it offered few necessities, and these were almost inaccessible owing to climatic discomforts and difficulties of communication. Even to-day, for commercial use, the Yellowstone country would support only a spa.r.s.e population.

But what formerly repelled now attracts. Time has brought changes.

Congested population, the necessity for outdoor life, the destruction of most of the wild outing-places--these conditions have given to this and to other scenic mountain places a high economic value; likewise what may be called a n.o.bler or higher value. Reserved and used as a recreation park by the public, it has become an economic a.s.set of enormous importance. And through park use it conveys benefits to thousands.

Yesterday the Yellowstone environing factor arrested, deflected, and r.e.t.a.r.ded the movement and the development of society. To-day it attracts, arouses, energizes, and enn.o.bles a mult.i.tude.

2. THE DISCOVERY OF THE YELLOWSTONE

In the Yellowstone National Park--the first national park in the world--are so many natural wonders, of such unusual character, that not until the tract was discovered the sixth time were the American people convinced of its existence. Sixty-three years elapsed from the time of its first discovery to that of its recognition as an actuality.

The first two discoveries--they were made by trappers a generation apart--were laughed at and soon forgotten. The third, by prospectors, led to a successful private exploring expedition from Montana. This was followed by a larger and semi-official expedition, which also achieved its object. The sixth and last was an official discovery by the United States Government.

The Indians of the Yellowstone region knew of the present Park tract.