Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1915-11-17
NATIONAL PARK IN IOWA.
Senator Kenyon Would Have Park
Created i'm the Switzerland
of America

Senator Kenyon would have a ma
tional park created in the "Switzer-
land of America" as Professor Cal
vim once called it, the almost noun
famous northeastern county of ALA
makee where it fronts on the Missis-
sippi says the Register and Leader.
There is romance there, and tradi-
tion, and some chapters of vital
American history. In fact the gov
ernment reserved spot on the west
bank, opposite the mouth of the Wis
consin when it treated with the Sacs
and Foxes in 1904, the very spot the
senator would now have taken over
for permanent national memorial.
The remains Of old Fort Crawford
are still to be seen across the river
in Prairie du Chien, the old fort
where Zachary Taylor spent so many
years, where Col Jefferson Davis
courted and won his daughter, where
in 1912 the British and Indians car
ried the war 70 the Iowa border and
for more than year floated the
British flag.
In these times of national deficits
and war talk we do not know just
how much of a hearing the senator
will be able to get in Washington.
If he can divert national attention
to the peaceful Mississippi and
arouse enthusiasm over preserving
nature rather than in getting ready
to mutilate men, well and good. But
why should Iowa turn to Washington
for the success of a project every
consideration of state pride ought to
force home upon ourselves?
At least Iowa might popularize the
Mississippi by building scenic high
way, much as Oregon is popularizing
the Columbia, and so open to the ma
tional public view of the possibili-
ties. While national appropriations
do not always follow national infor-
nation, in fact frequently the con-
'trary, still there is much to be said
for bringing the people to see what
can be done before they. are asked
to pay for doing it.
The Register some weeks ago
threw out the suggestion that Iowa
and Minnesota join in making q
scenic highway from ST. Paul to Keo-
kuk, not road along the easiest
grades and by the shortest cut, but a
road over the baldest bluffs and
through the most romantic scenery,
a road to invite even the globe trot-
ter, slated with the best in Europe.
Can, anybody suggest an investment
that would pay better in dollars and
cents, to say nothing of other con-
siderations?
Nobody can calculate the travel
over such road. properly surveyed
and properly built, easy of grade,
and dustless, parallelling the great
internal channel of trade of America,
the highway of the fur trader, of the
missionary, of early commerce, every
mile telling the story of some raid,
or battle of border war, or adventure,
or pioneer settlement.
Before even Zebulin Pike went up
the Mississippi in 1905 to discover
for President Thomas Jefferson what
sort of bargain he had made in the
Louisiana purchase, there was
enough along the river to make an in
tersting guide book for the wayfar-
er, while after Pike, from the rapids
at Keokuk to the Falls of st. An
thony, the river valley is one contin-
ual romance of the frontier.
The Register wishes Senator Ken
Won well in his efforts to arouse ma
tional interest in the spot the gov
ernment once owned and set apart
for national use. But while he is so
engaged let us not be wholly idle
here at home. For Iowa is rich
enough to put every romantic spot
along the Mississippi into park, and
to build a highway better than the
ancient Romans knew leading into
it.
-O-