The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1915-12-24
OUR NATIONAL PARKS
Thousands Visit Natures Beauty
SpOst at Home Who Heretofore
Have Gone Abroad.

Lane, IN the forthcoming annual re-
port, calls attention to the national
parks as valuable and undevelopec
asset of the country He says:
"The United States furnished play
grounds to the people of this country
which are, we may modestly state
without any rivals in the world. just
as the cities are seeing the wisdom
and the necessity of open spaces for
the children, so, with a very large
view, the nation has been saving from
its domain the rarest places of gran
deur and beauty for the enjoyment OF
the world.
Visitors to National Parks
"And this fact has been discovered
by many only this year. Having an
incentive in the expositions on the
Pacific coast, and Europe being clos
ed, thousands have for the first time
crossed the continent and seen one or
more of the national parks.
During the year a new national
park of distinction and unsuual ac-
feasibility has come into existence.
1t crosses the Rockies in Colorado at
a point of supreme magnificence;
hence its title, the Rocky Mountain
National Park. Through it, from
north and south, winds the Continent
tai Divide-the Snowy Range in name
and fact. Two hundred lakes grace
this rocky paradise, and bear and big
horn inhabit its Businesses. 1t has an
area of $50 square miles and lies only
70 miles from Denver. Many hotels
lie at the feet of these mountains and
three railroads skirt their sides.
"This is Colorado's second national
park, the other being Mesa Verde,
where this department, with the as
sistence of DR.. Jesse Walter Fewkes,
of the Smithsonian Institution, has
uncovered during the last summer
prehistoric ruins of unprecedented
scientific interest.
"Oregon has but recently complet-
ed great highway along the Column
bia River.
"This should be connected by road
with Mount Hood and a portion of the
present forest reserve converted into
a park. The limits of Sequoia Park,
in California, the home of the great
redwoods, should be so extended as to
include the Kern River Canyon, most
practical project today; but to-mor-
row may be too late, because of the
lumber interests. The Grand Canyon
is not yet of the park system, al
though as part of national forest
it comes under the control of the De-
partment of Agriculture.
Like Foreign Lands
There is no reason why this ma
ton should not have its public health
and scenic domain as available to all
its citizens as Switzerland and Italy
make theirs. The aim is to open
them 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 never before to outfit the
parks with new hotels which should
make the visitor desire to linger
rather than hasten on his journey.
"One hotel was built on Lake Nc
Dermott, 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 overhead on Gla-
cier Point, while more modest chalets
are to be dotted about in the obscur-
err beauties of the inner Yosemite.
at is land of forests, snow and
glaciers.
Developing Yellow Stone Park
"While as years have passed we
have been modestly developing the
superb scenic possibilities of the yell
lowstone, nature has made of it the
largest and most populous game pre-
serve in the Western Hemisphere.
"If Congress will but make the
funds available for the construction
Of roads over which automobiles may
travel with safety flor all the parks
are now open to motors) and for
trails to hunt out the hidden places
of beauty and dignity, we may ex-
pect that year by year these parks
will become more precious possess
sion of the people, holding them to
the further discovery of America and
making them still prouder of its re-
sources, esthetic as well as material"
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A box supper was given at the
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