Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1883-09-12
The National Park.

The London Times, of the 9Th inst,
gives more than three columns to the
subject of the Yellowstone Park, fully
half of which is devoted to the rather
arduous task of telling how to get
there. Having informed its readers
that the Park is as large as the counties
of Devon and Dorset combined, and
situated in the Northwest corner of
Wyoming Territory, it confesses to an
embarrassment as to how it shall con-
vey to them an idea of the exact locali-
ty of this hitherto unheard of country.
Having told them that Wyoming Ter
ritory was South of Montana and East
of Idaho, it gives over the effort to
locate the Park by reference to its
equally unfamiliar surroundings, and
patiently describes each step necessary
to be taken by English tourists in order
to reach the Park by way of Liverpool,
Quebec, the Great Lakes and Duluth.
The wonders of the Yellowstone
have heretofore had much greater at
traction for Englishmen than fo,' Amer
leans 1t is said that until this Sum-
mer 80 per cent of the visitors to the
Park have been English gentlemen.
Now, however, that railroads have
made the Park more accessible, Presi
dent Arthur has made it fashionable,
and Uncle Rufus Hatch's Hotel and
Improvement Company are about to
make it comfortable for visitors, the
number of Americans who will do the
National Park each Summer will be
be multiplied many fold. Probably in
a few years the trip to the Yellowstone
will be as familiar an American expe-
rence as the trip to Europe
The National Park is not only as
large as two English counties, it is as
large, or even larger, than two Ameri-
can States, viz Rhode Island and
Delaware, and it lacks but little of be-
ing just half the size of the State of
New Jersey. 1t is 5000 feet above the
level of the sea at its lowest elevation,
and its mountain peaks ascend to TO-
900 and 1000 feet. The Presidents
Party even now find frost greeting them
every morning, with the thermometer
sometim, uncomfortably near to zero.
The August sun shining through the
rare atmosphere soon dissipates the
frost where it can get at it, and it is
not unusual In this month for the ther-
mometer to register ninety degrees at
midday, but even this temperature in
this dry atmosphere brings with it no
sensation of more than ordinary warmth.
The hot springs and the great
CANYONS of the Yellowstone have been
made familiar to the public through re-
peated descriptions and magazine Illus
trations. A writer in the Cincinnati
Commercial Gazette found there, in
addition to the other peculiar features,
an epitome of all American scenery.
at has," he says, "the bold. snow,
streaked peaks of the Rockies, the
rounded and wooded ranges of the AL
leghenys, bluffs like those of Wisconsin
palisades like those of the Hudson,
savannahs such as can be found in the
Southern States, prairies resembling
those of Illinois, meadows and uplands
such as may be seen in New England" ("
1t is difficult to picture all these in con-
junction, coupled, too, with spouting
geysers, the alkaline soil of the Ameri-
can desert and the countless natural
curiosities which have made the Yel-
lowstone region famous on both sides
Of the Atlantic.
Not the least satisfying feature about
this Park is that it is a National Park,
set apart for the use and enjoyment of
the American people for all time. 1t
was happy thought to dedicate this
region to the public, and one which,
while the country is yet young, can
well bear to be many times repeated
Philadelphid Press.