Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1915-09-03


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The preserve that Lord Dunraven
would have created as private hold
ing became a ma
Holding Becomes tional park through
National Park. last session or Com
gress. which in January set aside $780,
600 acres to be held forever as wilder
ness OF nature, where the people may
upon occasion repair and review the
primeval world still undefiled. On July
it was turned over to the Secretary
of the Interior and is now being ad-
ministered as a national park. Dur
ing the present month it Is being Wis
tied by many tourists, to whom 1t Is
making it's first bow with Uncle Sam
as it's sponsor.
Thus has come into existence the
fourteenth national park that Is cared
ready 1t has been administering such
Fairgrounds as the wonderland of the
Yellowstone: the snow pyramid of
Mount Rainier; that titanic cash in the
earth that bakes the Grand canyon,
Glacier Park in Montana, which sur
passes the Alps; Yosemite, Crater, Sc
quota and others.
But the Rocky Mountain National
Park introduces new attraction into
the sisterhood. 1t Is not park which
has as its central attraction some one
feature that Is a freak Of nature or
that lends peculiar interest 1t occu-
pies that point in the Rocky mountains
where theg randeur of this huge noun
tain scenery Is regarded as having
most nearly approached perfection. 1t
is single point where the widefiung
Rockies may be seen to best advan-
tage-where the impresstveness Of the
whole system may be appreciated.
The new park contains about $50
square miles, which means that it is
about five times as big as the District
Of Columbia. It is about twenty-five
miles long and fifteen wide.
There is not in the park a single spot
that is less than 5000 feet, or a mile
and a half, above
Tract 5000 Feet sea level. Yet SO
Above Sea Level n nssh t 1ns r she.s
are by comparison lowlands. There are
sixty peaks that rise above the 1900
foot line and are in the two-and-a-half-
mile class as to height. The highest
Of them all surpasses Pixies peak and
Is among the great mountains Of the
Rockies. This IL Longs peak, which
has an elevation Of 1926 feet. Eight
cen Of the mountains In this small
area have an elevation of more than
$4,000 feet.
Suspended in this sky line Of a con-
tinent are 200 crystal lakes mirroring
the nearby sky. They are but patches
of blue in the pockets Of mountain
canyons. They cover ten or twenty
or sixty acres of ground. Grand lake.
the largest OF them all, 10 three miles
long. Odessa lake 10 tho most pictur-
esoue in its riot Of grandeur. while
| like q fawn in hiding at an elevation
Of 1900 feet.
The Rocky Mountain National Park
| straddles the continental divide. The
waters from portions OF 1t now into
Platte and thence to the Missouri. the
Mississippi and the Gulf Of Mexico.
others of them leap over precipices
into the headwaters Of the Grand river,
which flows into the Colorado, which
Grand canyon and empties into the
pearl-breeding waters Of the Gulf Of
California.
The trees Of the region. chiefly pines
SHOWS. Timber line here Is 1880 feet
high-a decided contrast to conditions
in the Alps. where nothing grows
above $500 meet The landscapes that
are laid out upon this basis have their
own peculiarities. mostly virtues:
the surface Of the park is timbered.
The landscape gardener of the ages.
who laid down the plan for these CEN
trail Rockies, had a different Idea.
II
The trees He planted in clumps and
groves and scattered about without
rhyme or rea-
Has Timber Line son. They
H., Feet High. e CAMEO n up a .ne
scramble over the mountain sides. But
| in the valleys where appear little
stretches Of level land there are seldom
ftrees. These open out into parkways
and meadows covered with luxuriant
grasses and blossoming in flowers the
| varieties Of which mount into the
thousands.
From tho meadows and the lakes in
the valleys rise the mountains-tower-
ing masses Of rock spotted to the tim
| Der line with forests and above that
belt crowned with perpetual SHOWS.
There are many snow beds in the park
| that never melt. and there are three Of
these Of suficisnt magnitude to produce
| glaciers.
crownius the whole are those cloud
| effects produced in the clear air Of
these attitudes, and Of which it has
often been said that they alone were
recompense for trip across a con-
tinent. The altitude and the clarity OF
| the atmosphere work strange magic
upon the clouds. These become as sub
stantial and as clear in outline as the
grim walls of q monastery beneath
Which one passes. They pile in huge
masses about the plateaus. as though
pushed forth by some stupendous vol
cano. They roll down mountain gorges
and lie in the roadway. The traveller
drives into a cloudlet that has drifted
into his track, Is enveloped for a time
in its misty folds. and he drives out of
~ again into the sunlight.
|
| One OF the chief considerations that
led to the creation OF this national
| park was the fact
| 5000 Visitors that it constitut-
| r- Cuwr.r ed q region that
| SNs was already visit
ed by something like $4,000 people every
summer. It's elevation 10 50 great and
the anow so deep in the winter that II
| is dificult to establish homes here In
which people will want to live tho year