The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-12-17
AMERICANS APPRECIATE NATIONAL PARKS AS NEVER BEFORE; COUNTRY
 HAS RICH ASSET IN FAIRGROUNDS
CoIorados New Unusually Accessible retary Calls Attention to Development of Won
 Scenic Beauties of the Western Country

I comes under the control of the De- partment of Agriculture.
 There is no reason why this Nation should not make it's public health and scenic domain as available to all it's citizens as Switzerland and Italy make theirs. The aim is to open them 1 thoroughly by road and trail and give access and accommodation to every degree of income. In this belief an effort has been made this year as nev- CT before to outfit the parks with new hotels which should make the visitor desire to finger rather than hasten on his journey. One hotel was built on Lake McDermott, in Glacier Park, one is to be built immediately on the shoulder of Mount Rainier. in Paradise Valley, another in the valley of the Yosemite. with an annex high over head on Glacier Point, while more modest chalets are to be dotted about in the obscurer spots to make acces- sible the rarer beauties of the inner Yosemite. For, with the new Tioga road, which, through the generosity of MT Stephen T. Mather and few others, the Government has acquired there is to be. revealed new Yosem- ite, which only John Muir and others of similar bent have seen. This is a Yosemite far different from the quiet incom parable valley. It is a land of forests, snows and glaciers. From Mount Lyel1 one looks, as from an is1- and. upon tumb1ed sea of snowy peaks. Its lakes, many of which have never been hshed, are alive with trout. And through it foams the Tuolumne River which in a mile drops a mile, water spectacle destined to world celebrity. Meeting obstructions in it's slanting rush the water now and again rises nearly perpendicu1arly, forming upright foaning arcs some times 50 feet in height. These tsw9- Der. will be accessible next summer by trail to be built when the snow me1ts in June. T J
 While as the years have passed we have been modestly developing the su- perb scenic possibilities of the Yellow stone, nature has made of it the Iarg- est and most populous game preserve in the western Hemisphere. Its great size, its altitude, it's vast wiIdernesses it's plentiful waters, its favorable con- formation of rugged mountain and sheltered valley. and the nearly per feet protection afforded by the policy and the scientific care of the Govern ment have made this park since it's inauguration in 1872, the natural and inevitable center of gave conservation for this Nation. There is something
 
 tiny of the national parks, if wisely controlled. to become the public labo- sratories of nature study for the Ma tion- And from them specimens may be distributed to the city and State preserves, as is now being done with the elk of the Yellowstone which are too abundant, and may be later with the antelope.
 If Congress will but make the funds available for the construction of roads over which automobiles may travel with safety (for all the parks are now open to motors) and for trails to hunt out the hidden places of beauty and dignity, we may expect that year by year these parks will become more precious possession of the people. holding them to the further discovery rof America and making them still prouder of it's resources. esthetic as well as material.