The Colorado statesman., 1916-07-22

United States to use their national
parks and become acquainted with
their splendors.
To build legal fences around the
scenic beauties of the West is not
enough, holds Secretary Lane of the
department of the interior. "Why have
great national Fairgrounds unless the
people play in them?" he asks. Let us
have our scenic splendors seen, he in
SistS.
Hereby hangs the story of new
and interesting policy in the admins
tration of the national parks.
In these great reservations are to be
found more of the mystery, majesty
and magnificence of the out-of-doors
than can be found in any other coun-
try of the world. They contain rest
for the weary; a spur for the sound
man and tonic for the weak infinite
outlet for eXuberant youth and new
vigor for the aged; and even this-life
for a dead imagination.
There are countless Snow-crowned
mountains, waterfalls of dazzling vol
ume and dizzying descent, canyons
you can drive through in the biggest
auto truck made, vistas and eXpanses
that defy expression. 1t is a marvel
Gus panorama which includes about
every remarkable thing the earth pro-
duces, animate or inanimate, save one
the Great American Spender.
"Why not complete the picture?"
Lane argues.
Need Not Conserve Scenery.
To state it by anecdote, n perfectly
well-meaning editor, all lit up with en-
thusiasm for the idea-a piece" for
his magazine was the object-recently
wrote the secretary of the interior
seeking data upon the conservation
policy as applied to the parks.
Conserve blazes!" ran the reply, in
substance. You're in the right church
but the wrong pew. We're conserving
gas, Oil, radium, phosphates, coal and
human energy; we're not conserving
the parks. Most of them have been
conserved many years, by acts of con-
gress. Our supply of scenery, I AR
happy to say, is not in danger of eJ
haustion.
use is the idea now. 1t is bus,-
ness question. Here lies one of Il
biggest business assets in the U. S. A.,
and it is largely unused. Why Tot
c9Sh it and add to our prosperity" !"
Some of Uncle Sans national p iy-
grounds-such as Yellowstone and To-
semite-are well known even to those
who have never seen them, but there
are a number of others equally as in
teresting, if not as large, of which the
majority of American citizens probably
have never heard. Among the smaller
parks that are full of interest to the
visitor, is the Mesa Verde, in south
western Colorado.
Discovered by Accident.
One December day in 1888 Richard
and Alfred Wetherall, searching for
lost cattle on the Mesa Verde, or green
mesa, near their home at Mancos,
Colo, pushed through dense growths
on the edge of a deep canyon and
shouted aloud in astonishment. Across
the canyon, tucked into n shelf under
the overhanging edge of the opposite
brink, were the walls and towers of
what seemed to them a palace. They
named it Cliff palace. Forgetting the
cattle in their excitement, they
searched the edge of the mesa in all
directions. Near by, under the over
hanging edge of another canyon, they
found similar group, no less majes-
tic, which they named Spruce Tree
house, because large spruce grew out
of the ruins.
Thus was discovered the home of
the cliff dwellers, the most elaborate
and best-preserved prehistoric ruins
in America, If not in the world. A
careful search of the entire mesa in
the years following resulted in many
other finds of interest and Importance.
In 1906 congress set aside the region
as national park. Even yet it's treas
ures of antiquity are not all known. A
remarkable temple to the sun was un-
earthed in 1915.
Cliff palace is the most celebrated
of the Mesa Verde ruins because it is
the largest and most prominent. 9th
ers are not less interesting and i'm
p0rtant from standpoint of history.
Spruce Tree house is next in size.
Balcony house and Peabody house are
equally well preserved. There are
many others: some which have yet to