Your National Parks Part 23

It had its beginning in the walks of beasts that prowled the solemn primeval forests. Over it our half-lost ancestors painfully advanced.

A fallen tree was their first bridge and a floating log their first boat. They wondered at the strange alternating day and night at which we still wonder. With joy they watched the s.h.i.+ning dawn, and with fear and dread they saw the dusk of dying day. They learned the endless procession of seasons. The mysterious movements of wind and water aroused their curiosity, and with childlike interest they followed the soft and silent movements of the clouds. The wide and starry sky appealed strangely, strongly, to their imagination, and in this luminous field of s.p.a.ce their fancy found a local habitation and a name for the thousand earthly fears and factors of their lives. They dared the prairie, climbed the hills, but long kept close to the forest.

After hard and fearful ages--after "a million years and a day"--the camp-fire came at last. This fragment of the Immortal Sun conquered the cold and the night, and misery and dread gave way to comfort and hope. No more the aspen trembled. It became a dancing youth, while the strange, invisible echo was a merry hiding child. The fireflies changed to fairies, and Pan commenced to pipe the elemental melody of the wild.

Nature ever showed her pictures and interested her children in fairylands. Winter, cold and leafless; spring, full of song and promise; the generous wealth of summer; and autumn with its harvest and color, came and disappeared, and came again through all the mysterious years. Lightning, the echo, with roar and whisper of the viewless air, the white and lonely moon, the strange eclipse, the brilliant and fleeting rainbow,--Nature's irised silken banner,--the mystery of death, these seeds of thought bloomed into the fanciful, beautiful myths and legends that we know.

Once, like a web of joy, trails overspread all the wild gardens of the earth. The long trail is gone, and most others are cut to pieces and ruined. The few broken remnants are but little used.

The traveler who forgets or loses the trail will lose his way, or miss the best of life. The trail is the directest approach to the fountain of life, and this immortal way delays age and commands youth to linger. While you delay along the trail, Father Time pauses to lean upon his scythe. The trail wanders away from the fever and the fret, and leads to where the Red G.o.ds call. This wonderful way must not be buried and forgotten.

APPENDIX

APPENDIX

A

ACT OF DEDICATION OF THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK

AN ACT TO SET APART A CERTAIN TRACT OF LAND LYING NEAR THE HEADWATERS OF THE YELLOWSTONE RIVER AS A PUBLIC PARK.

_Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress a.s.sembled_,--That the tract of land in the Territories of Montana and Wyoming lying near the headwaters of the Yellowstone River and described as follows, to-wit: Commencing at the junction of Gardiner's River with the Yellowstone River and running east to the meridian, pa.s.sing ten miles to the eastward of the most eastern point of Yellowstone Lake; thence south along the said meridian to the parallel of lat.i.tude, pa.s.sing ten miles south of the most southern point of Yellowstone Lake; thence west along said parallel to the meridian, pa.s.sing fifteen miles west of the most western point of Madison Lake; thence north along said meridian to the lat.i.tude of the junction of the Yellowstone and Gardiner's Rivers; thence east to the place of beginning, is hereby reserved and drawn from settlement, occupancy, or sale under the laws of the United States, and dedicated and set apart as a public park or pleasuring ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people; and all persons who shall locate, or settle upon, or occupy the same or any part thereof, except as hereinafter provided, shall be considered trespa.s.sers and removed therefrom.

SEC. 2. That said public park shall be under the exclusive control of the Secretary of the Interior, whose duty it shall be, as soon as practicable, to make and publish such rules and regulations as he may deem necessary or proper for the care and management of the same. Such regulations shall provide for the preservation from injury or spoliation of all timber, mineral deposits, natural curiosities or wonders within said park, and their retention in their natural condition.

The Secretary may, in his discretion, grant leases for building purposes, for terms not exceeding ten years, of small parcels of ground, at such places in said park as shall require the erection of buildings for the accommodation of visitors; all of the proceeds of said leases, and all other revenue that may be derived from any source connected with said park, to be expended under his direction in the management of the same and the construction of roads and bridle-paths, and shall provide against the wanton destruction of fish and game found within said park and against their capture or destruction for the purpose of merchandise or profit. He shall also cause all persons trespa.s.sing upon the same after the pa.s.sage of this act to be removed therefrom, and generally shall be authorized to take all such measures as shall be necessary or proper to fully carry out the objects and purposes of this act.

_Approved March 1, 1872._

Signed by:

JAMES G. BLAINE, _Speaker of the House_.

SCHUYLER COLFAX, _Vice-President of the United States and President of the Senate_.

ULYSSES S. GRANT, _President of the United States_.

B

THE NATIONAL PARKS AT A GLANCE

ARRANGED CHRONOLOGICALLY IN THE ORDER OF THEIR CREATION

(Number, 17; total area, 9776 square miles)

----------------+------------+----------+-------------------------------- _Area in _National _Location_ square _Distinctive Parks_ miles_ characteristics_ ----------------+------------+----------+-------------------------------- Hot Springs Middle 1-1/2 46 hot springs possessing (1832) Arkansas curative properties--Many hotels and boarding-houses-- 20 bathhouses under public control.

Yellowstone North- 3348 More geysers than in all rest (1872) western of world together--Boiling Wyoming springs--Mud volcanoes-- Petrified forests--Grand Canon of the Yellowstone, remarkable for gorgeous coloring--Large lakes--Many large streams and waterfalls-- Vast wilderness inhabited by deer, elk, bison, moose, antelope, bear, mountain sheep, beaver, etc., const.i.tuting greatest wild bird and animal preserve in world--Alt.i.tude 6000 to 11,000 feet--Exceptional trout-fis.h.i.+ng.

Yosemite (1890) Middle 1125 Valley of world-famed beauty-- eastern Lofty cliffs--Romantic California vistas--Many waterfalls of extraordinary height--3 groves of Big Trees--High Sierra--Large areas of snowy peaks--Water-wheel falls-- Good trout-fis.h.i.+ng.

Sequoia (1890) Middle 252 The Big Tree National Park-- eastern 12,000 sequoia trees over 10 California feet in diameter, some 25 or 36 feet in diameter--Towering mountain-ranges--Startling precipices--Fine trout-fis.h.i.+ng.

General Grant Middle 4 Created to preserve the (1890) eastern celebrated General Grant California Tree, 35 feet in diameter-- 6 miles from Sequoia National Park and under same management.

Mount Rainier West 324 Largest accessible single (1899) central peak glacier-system--28 Was.h.i.+ngton glaciers, some of large size--48 square miles of glacier, 50 to 500 feet thick--Wonderful sub-alpine wild-flower fields.

Crater Lake South- 249 Lake of extraordinary blue in (1902) western crater of extinct volcano, no Oregon inlet, no outlet--Sides 1000 feet high--Interesting lava-formations--Fine trout-fis.h.i.+ng.

Mesa Verde South- 77 Most notable and best (1906) western preserved prehistoric cliff Colorado dwellings in United States, if not in the world.

Platt (1906) Southern 1-1/8 Many sulphur and other Oklahoma springs possessing medicinal value, under Government regulation.

Glacier (1910) North- 1534 Rugged mountain region--250 western glacier-fed lakes--60 small Montana glaciers--Peaks of unusual shape--Precipices thousands of feet deep--Fine trout-fis.h.i.+ng.

Rocky Mountain North 400 Heart of the Rockies--Snowy (1915) middle range, peaks 11,000 to 14,250 Colorado feet alt.i.tude--Remarkable records of glacial period.

Hawaii (1916) Hawaiian 117 Vast volcanoes--Craters-- Islands Tropical plants and birds.

La.s.sen Volcanic Northern 123 Active volcano, volcanic (1916) California records, lakes, hot springs, and forests.

Mount McKinley Central 2200 "The Great One"; highest peak (1917) Alaska in North America, 20,300 feet; vast big-animal range; enormous glaciers; wild flowers.

Other National Parks are:--

Sully's Hill (1904) North Dakota Wooded hilly tract on Devil's Lake.

Wind Cave (1903) South Dakota Large natural cavern.

Casa Grande Ruin (1892) Arizona Prehistoric Indian ruin.

For National Park booklets and other Park information address The Director, National Park Service, Department of the Interior, Was.h.i.+ngton, D.C.

C

PROPOSED NATIONAL PARKS

-----------------+---------------+------------------------------------ _Region_ _Location_ _Characteristics_ -----------------+---------------+------------------------------------ Grand Canon Arizona The Grand Canon.

Mount Evans Near Denver, Magnificent peak, primeval Colorado forests, lakes, and alpine flora.

Mount Baker (the Northwestern Extinct or sleeping volcano; Indian Kulshan) Was.h.i.+ngton thirty square miles of glaciers, forests, and wild flowers.

Sawtooth Central Idaho Precipitous mountains, alpine Mountains lakes, heavy forests, flowery meadows, clear streams.

Ozark Mountains Northern Rare river and mountain Arkansas landscapes.

Mount McGregor Northeastern Rare combination of river, hill, Iowa forest, bluff, and plains.

Pajarito Cliff Pajarito Many vast prehistoric ruins of Cities Plateau, near wonderful Indian civilization.

Santa Fe, New Mexico. Mount Mitch.e.l.l Western North Highest peak east of the Rockies, Carolina 6711 feet high; quiet scenery of the South Appalachians.

Pike's Peak Central The most frequently climbed Colorado 14,000-foot peak in the world; excellent view-point, rising abruptly from the plains.

Dunes Northern Lake Sh.o.r.e; extraordinary Indiana aggregation of plants from warm, cold, wet and dry zones.

San Juan Southwestern Magnificent mountains, individual Colorado in form and color, with large scene-commanding plateaus.

Grand Mesa Western Lake-dotted plateau that towers Colorado near splendid horizons.

Bighorn Northern A towering, rocky, scenic Mountains Wyoming alpine-island area in the sea of plains.