Your National Parks Part 9

In the lake near the west sh.o.r.e is Wizard Island. It is a perfect little volcano--a crater within a crater. Although a few pines are growing upon it, the island's lava and ashes appear as if just cast from the internal furnace. It probably was formed after the collapse of Mount Mazama. Lava, cinders, and tiny water-filled crater appear strange mimicry. The island rises several hundred feet above the lake-surface, and its crater is eighty feet deep. The island is a good view-point at noon, at evening, or when the blue cold crater glows and sparkles with the reflected fires of a million fiery worlds.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PHANTOM s.h.i.+P, CRATER LAKE

_By permission of the National Park Service, Department of the Interior_]

Phantom s.h.i.+p, near the southeast sh.o.r.e, is a volcanic island masted with rock-spires. It has scattered trees. From a number of points of view it has the appearance of a s.h.i.+p, but under certain lights it blends so completely with the walls behind it that it vanishes.

The forests are magnificent. Among the trees on the rim and on Wizard Island are n.o.ble fir, alpine fir, mountain white pine, Douglas spruce, alpine hemlock, and lodge-pole pine. Sheep-pasturing in former years wrought havoc with the wild flowers, of which there are numerous varieties. There are many kinds of wild birds and wild life. While there are other scenic attractions, the supreme one must ever be the lake of marvelous blue and its rugged, fire-tinted walls. In the ruined caldron where red fire and black smoke wildly mingled, blue water lies in repose.

On June 12, 1853, a number of prospectors, led by John W. Hillman, discovered Crater Lake. Though not interested in scenery, they were aroused by this gigantic blue gem in its rough volcanic setting.

In 1885, William G. Steele began the campaign which finally won this National Park. This campaign went through numberless vicissitudes and lasted seventeen years, the Park having been established in 1902.

In 1888, Steele carried a number of trout in a can upon his back for more than forty miles. These trout were placed in the lake and grew rapidly. Since then it has been repeatedly stocked by the Government.

Nowhere else that I know of can a fisherman catch a trout and clearly watch its every effort many feet under the water, as it tries to run away with or escape from the cruel hook.

This Park is in the heart of the Cascade Mountains in southern Oregon, a short distance north of the California line. It has an area of about two hundred and forty-nine square miles. Mount Thielson, Diamond Lake, and other near-by attractive features might well be added to the territory of the Park.

VI

GLACIER NATIONAL PARK

Lakes--splendid intermountain lakes--are an unrivaled attraction in the Glacier National Park. Here, too, are other striking features--glaciers, peaks precipitous and stupendous, forests, and streams. The rugged Alplike mountains are of first magnitude. The forests that crowd the lower elevations of the park are primeval and grand. The vigorous streams are set in magnificent scenery. But I feel that the lakes are ent.i.tled to first rank among the scenic attractions in this park.

There are two hundred and fifty of these, of different sizes, each of individual outline and with an original alpine setting. Some repose in the depths of the forest. Others have a sh.o.r.e-line half forest and half the abrupt wall of a towering peak. Still other lakes have a wild sh.o.r.e of snow-fields, glaciers, forests, meadows, and mountains.

Waterfalls out of the mountain sky drop into many; cascading streams rush from the outlets of others.

Many of the lakes are strikingly long for their narrow width. Lake McDonald is about ten miles long and one mile wide. Waterton Lake is about twelve miles long, with an average width of perhaps half a mile.

Bowman Lake is about six miles long by half a mile wide. Avalanche Lake, which lies in Avalanche Basin, is hemmed in on all sides, except at the outlet, by precipitous mountains. It is a beautiful ellipse about one mile long. Iceberg Lake is on the north side of Wilbur Mountain, which towers three thousand feet above the surface of the water. The Blackfeet name for this is "Fly-around-in." McDermott and Altyn Lakes are beauty spots. The outlet of McDermott is a series of spectacular cascades. Its sh.o.r.e is open, and around it one moves about easily. Altyn Lake is only a quarter of a mile distant from McDermott. These lakes lie between Grinnell Mountain and Allen Mountain and are a part of one of the grandest scenes in the Park.

Grinnell Lake lies one mile above Altyn Lake, at the foot of the tremendous cliffs of Gould Mountain. The lower end of the lake is open and parklike, while at the upper end cliffs rise about four thousand feet. This lake receives the waters from Grinnell Glacier. These pour over high cliffs at the upper end of the lake and form a beautiful spectacle. The scenes which unite around Grinnell Lake are unsurpa.s.sed in the park.

These lakes are glacier lakes. That is, the basin of each was gouged or eroded by the movement of glacial ice. There are a few exceptions where the lake is due chiefly to a morainal dam, or a dam that was formed by a landslide.

The highest peak in the Park is Cleveland Mountain, 10,438 feet above sea-level. Several others rise more than ten thousand feet, and a great number more than nine thousand feet. Many of these peaks are connected with sharp pinnacled ridges, and most of them rise steeply into the sky. Precipices, nearly vertical, that measure between two thousand and four thousand feet are common. Thus it will be seen that these two hundred and fifty lakes have a mountainous setting.

Distribute these lakes on terraces among the peaks and fit in about one hundred glaciers, have the forests everywhere in the lower alt.i.tudes, cut these with clear streams, and we have the scenic make-up of the Glacier National Park. Considered as a whole, it is unexcelled mountain architecture.

[Ill.u.s.tration: McDERMOTT FALLS AND GRINNELL MOUNTAIN GLACIER NATIONAL PARK]

The Blackfeet Glacier on the Continental Divide is the largest in the Park. Mount Jackson towers red above it. It has an area of about three square miles and lies between the alt.i.tudes of six thousand and seven thousand feet. The much-visited Sperry Glacier, which is easily reached from Lake McDonald, has a little more than one square mile of ice-area. Grinnell Glacier is about the size of the Sperry.

Altogether there are about one hundred glaciers in the Park. Most of these have an area of less than one square mile. The majority of them, of course, are mere remnants of vast glaciers. In many cases their small size is an advantage to the student. Carrying, as most of these do, the characteristics of larger glaciers, and being in a small compa.s.s and surrounded with various kinds of glacial work--moraines, lakes, and smooth rock-surfaces--they place before us, in one scene, the story of the ice age.

On every hand is evidence of glacier work. The glaciers themselves in many instances are placed in a manner that explains their mobility.

You can see that they have moved and are moving. You can see the effects of their moves, and the results of the movements of the stupendous prehistoric glaciers that have vanished.

The Glacier National Park has an endless variety of small game, and in it numerous varieties of large animals are fairly abundant. Most important of all is the grizzly bear. Black bears are common. So, too, are elk; and there is a scattering of moose, lions, deer, and antelopes. In some localities bighorn sheep and mountain goats are abundant. Trout abound in many lakes and streams.

There is a goodly array of suggestive outdoor names, many of which are of Indian application. Red Eagle Mountain, Pa.s.s, and Valley, Rising Wolf Mountain, Two Medicine Lake, Avalanche Lake, Swift Current River, are a few of the vigorous, spirited names. Many of the old picturesque and descriptive Indian names have been discarded, however, for names that are utterly unfit or meaningless.

There are scores of varieties of flowers. These brighten the woods, stand along the streams, border the lakes, and crowd close to the glaciers. They climb above the limits of tree growth. Grinnell Lake has a grand wild-flower garden on its sh.o.r.es. Among the many kinds are bluebell, queen's-cup, violet, water-lily, and wild hollyhock.

The summit slopes of these mountains are above the timber-line. All the lower slopes and s.p.a.ces in the Park not occupied and glorified by lakes, streams, and cliffs are crowded with forests, green and grand.

Much of the old glaciation is covered with forest growths. Many moraines are crowned with spruces, and numerous glacial amphitheaters are now filled with splendid forests.

The visitor to the summit of Swift Current Pa.s.s will find himself monarch with great scenes to survey. Below, around, and above are lakes, streams, peaks, waterfalls, snow-fields, glaciers, canons, and mountains. These are splendidly grouped and combined; gradually they fade into mysterious horizons.

St. Mary's Lake--"Good Spirit Woman Lake"--is crescent-shaped, with miles of spruce-walled sh.o.r.es. It has a length of ten miles in the Glacier Park and is a queen among queens of mountain lakes. Kingly peaks stand waiting around the sh.o.r.es. Red Eagle Mountain, Fusillade Mountain, and Going-to-the-Sun Mountain are a part of the magnificence in which this lovely lake reposes. Mount Jackson, one of the highest summits in the Park, is often reflected in its waters.

The mountains of this Park are broken and have towering walls. On the east they rise abruptly from the peaceful plains. Nowhere in the country can be found such an array of high and nearly vertical walls.

Many of these mountains and peaks are enlivened with color. Yellow, red, and green are distributed on a magnificent scale.

The very name "Two-Ocean Pa.s.s," in the Yellowstone Park, led me through the pathless forest for days in search of it. There was a fairyland novelty in the lure of the name. As soon as I heard of a glacier in the Glacier National Park whose waters were divided between the Arctic and the Pacific Oceans, I wanted to see it. A part of the water of a glacier on Vulture Peak goes to the Pacific through Logging Creek and the Columbia River. The remainder goes to Hudson Bay through the Little Kootenai Creek. Some one has wisely proposed the name "Two-Ocean Glacier" for this ice-field.

Triple Divide Peak is another place that has a peculiarly wild, romantic appeal. This sharp-pointed peak is 8001 feet above the sea.

Close together in its summit slopes, surrounded by a maze of alpine mountains, three streams start almost from a common source, each to go on its separate, scenic way to the ocean.

The Red Eagle travels towards the North Pole through the north country and empties into that vast ice-formed basin, Hudson Bay. The waters of the Cut Bank choose the channel of the Missouri in which to travel the long journey to the inland sea, the Gulf of Mexico, and perhaps from this to flow north into the Gulf Stream. The Nyack goes to the Pacific through the crooked international channel of the scenic Columbia River.

HISTORY OF THE GLACIER NATIONAL PARK

George Bird Grinnell was a loyal and helpful friend to the Yellowstone National Park during its trying years. He also rendered the public the distinguished service of originating the Glacier National Park idea and helping to bring about its realization. In 1885, accompanied by James Willard Schultz, he visited a number of its now famous lakes and glaciers. On his return he published a series of articles ent.i.tled "To the Walled-in Lakes." A peak, a glacier, and a lake have been named in his honor. Year after year he returned to this region to enjoy the scenery and to study the language and customs of the Blackfeet Indian.

In 1891, accompanied by Harry L. Stimpson, he discovered the Blackfoot Glacier, the largest in the Park, and a little later he wrote an article concerning it. In an article ent.i.tled "The Crown of the Continent" he gave a good account of the region.

James Willard Schultz lived for years with the Blackfeet Indians and spent a number of years with them in this territory. He says that Hugh Monroe was the first white man to see the Glacier National Park region. This was in 1815. Grinnell states that James Doty visited it in 1853. The same year, apparently, A. W. Tinkham, a government engineer, crossed through Cut Bank Pa.s.s. The American and British boundary-line survey commissioners visited the region in 1861.

I had a few weeks in the region in the autumn of 1896. For most other National Parks I have recommended enlargements, feeling that some adjacent and important scenic territory had been left outside the Park lines. But with the vast Glacier National Park no additions appear to be needed.

Grinnell says:--

In an old notebook, under date of September 17, 1891, I found not long ago the following remark: "How would it do to start a movement to buy the St. Mary country, say thirty by thirty miles, from the Piegan Indians at a fair valuation, and turn it into a national reservation or park?"

This idea, in the course of the next ten years, grew in my mind.

It was, I think, the first suggestion, in words, of the Glacier National Park. About the year 1893 indications of copper were found in the foothills. It was believed that the country contained mines, and before long strong pressure was brought to bear on Congress to purchase the land from the Indians and throw it open to settlement. The mountain region was not used by the Indians.

They lived on the plains. In 1895, Secretary of the Interior Hoke Smith sent out Commissioners W. C. Pollock, George Bird Grinnell, and W. M. Clements, to treat with the Blackfeet for this territory, and a majority of the commission went into the mountains and made a hasty inspection of the region. An agreement was made with the Indians, and was ratified by Congress, and about two years later the territory was thrown open to settlement....

Soon after 1902 I spoke to Senator T. H. Carter about setting aside this recently purchased tract as a National Park, and found that he was disposed to favor the suggestion. I then took up the matter with friends in Montana, and induced them to write to Senator Carter about the project. The result was that a little later he introduced a bill, which pa.s.sed the Senate once or twice, and at last, in 1910, pa.s.sed both houses, and was signed by President Taft, May 12, 1910, and the Glacier National Park became a fact.

Certainly the most striking fact in the history of this Park is the rapidity with which it has been developed and opened to travelers. L.

W. Hill has given this region a large share of his time, and in it has spent enormous sums of money. There is more than commercialism behind his work. It has been done with happy hands. He has made this a part of his life-work. He has endeavored to create on artistic lines. What he has done for this Park has stimulated interest in the other Parks and will greatly help to bring about their development.