Asheville daily citizen., 1892-11-30
AN EASTERN NATIONAL PARK.
mo. 81

| or parks for the East as 1t has already
done for the West will not be denied
when the duties of the government
are duly considered. 1t is obligatory
upon it to consider the public welfare,
not only i'll question concerning trans
portation, as in roads and navigation
but in what concerns public health and
recreation. We expect it to guard pub
lie health, which it assays to do by shut
ting the gates against the Introduction
| of infectious or pestilcutial diseases by
the strict enforcement OF quarantine reg
ulations, as it is doing at the present
time. We expect it, with equal reason,
to add to public health by providing for
the people of all sections places OF recrea-
tion and recuperation, places to which
the weakened constitutions or shattered
health of the inhabitants of crowded
cities or dcnscly peopled localities may
repair to build up those energies which
flag under the imposition of ceaseless toll
and vitiated atmosphere. The duties of
a free people are exactinG when they are
constantly directed to the work Of main
tanning or advancing the general welfare,
or adding to the resources OF private
prosperity, the aggregate OF which con-
stitutes the public wealth and health.
Taking this view Of the subject, which
we think ir:efutabe, the next question
that occurs is where such public park for
the East can be pro cured, and what sec
ton of country offers the proper coudi-
tions2 These conditions lie in the situa-
tion of the land to be set apart. its cou-
iormty as much as possible to the origi-
nal state of nature and capacity for be-
| ing preserved as such, the ability to OBJ
tain i'll unbroken contiguity land enough
to serve the purposes of Il large public
park; scenery that combines SO much
of the wild, the grand and the beautiful
as will CRAFTY the tastes OF those who
are in the endowment OF good health, or
stimulate to healthy action the tagging
energies of those who are depressed by
sickness or enfeebed by the lassitude OF
continuous close confinement and all OF
those conditions imply the essential Gle.
ments of health in the abundance OF pure
waters and heathiul atmosphere Ac-
cessiblity is also an element in the Selec
tion OF locality OF such park, while at the
same time it is not essential, rather the
reverse, that such place should lie
reached, and afterwards explored, with
all the accompanlments OF modern ease
and luxury. The zest OF visit and So
journ at such point would be increased,
rather than leSsened, by the experience
of moderate degree OF hardship and
privation; for health, lost or enteebled, is
more sure OF restoration by coming back
to he simple habits and rustic methods
of the partial wilderness rather than by
transporting into such solitude the in
dulgences and etieninacies with which
the luxurious systems CT the times are
wont to surround subjects at length
forced to appeal to nature for reliet, and
seek at the fountain heads OF health that
which has been withheld from them by
the habits of an unnatural social sys-
TEN.
In the search for such spots as the wis
est judgment would indicate and choose,
we naturally turn to the mountain
regions here all the elements to which
reference has been made are happily com.
| bined, with the added advantages that
to them, owing to remoteness and rea-
tive inacCesSiblity, population has
slowly and reluctantly flowed and
therefore presenting larger areas OF unoC-
cupied land than found, with all other
desirable attributes, i'll other parts OF the
country.
Throughout the Atlantic slope OF the
| United States, at VARYING distances from
the coast, there extends range, or in
some sections, ranges OF mountains,
stretching from Maine to the north part OF
Alabama; in the far north uplifting them
selves, as the White mountains in New
| Hampshire, the Green mountains in Yer.
mont, the Adirondacks and the CatskiIls
in New York; and again after partial de.
preston in Pennsylvania and Maryland,
rising again Observation-Disclosures
to pursue their course until their ulti-
mate disappearance in the far south in
other parallel ranges OF the Blue Ridge
and that long western chain known by
the various names of the Allegheny, APP
alaChian, Smoky or Unaka mountains.
| We must dismiss from consideration the
White and Green mountains, as being
too far north for health and pleasure
resort; and also, because, from being the
centre of population, lands are held at
high values. and bodies of unappropria-
ted territory are not to be had in sufficient
degree. The State of New York is making
efforts to secure controlofthe heAdirondacks
for its own public uses; and the Catskis
are largely dominated by private owner
Ship and could at all events, provide
public park room tor the citizens OF the
most dcnsely populated part of the Uni
ted States, possessing unlimited facilities
of access; therefore, If a park were estab-
lished in its wilds, giving it a local, not a
general character, such as the East de-
serves. We must look then to Virginia, to
North Carolina, or to East Tennessee
for the territory that combines the
greater number of advantages and at
fractions.
In discussing the question the Rich
mond Dispatch, warm advocate OF the
scheme OF national park in the East,
seems to dismiss Virginia from the rank
of a competitor, partly because the Blue
Ridge in that State, the more eastern of
the prrallel ranges, has been long settled,
the mountains lower than in North Car.
olina, their bases narrower; and contiu-
ued long occupation has much subdued
their natural wildness and picturesque
ness. The western, the higher and
the rougher range, is so rich in mineral
wealth, coal, iron, gypsum, salt, etc,
that private ownership would never be
surrendered except at great cost; and
even then would never be free from un,
lawful invasion and violation of such
rules and regulations as would beneeded
to preserve the integrity of what would
become, by purchase, national domain
Therefore, no locality remains to be con
sidered except North Carolina, and the
contiguous territory of East Tennessee
in which nature still asserts her reign
and when she can invite safely to The
preservation OF her natural features tc
the extent required.