The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1919-10-16
HOOD RIVER TO BE
ON PARK HIGHWAY

parks Of. .the west with motor high
way. two Yellowstone Park cars
reached Hood River Wednesday of last
week en- route to Crater Lake. Sequoia.
U. ). Grant, Yosemite and Grand Can
Won. They have driven from Rocky
Mountain Park. near Denver to Yel-
lowstone and Glacier National Parks
and Mount Rainier. The tour is being
made under auDslees of the National
Park Service.
The ears have averaged 26.2 miles
an hour, running time. from Denver,
by way of the national parks, a dis
tanee of 2l52 miles.
On May l6, 1919. Secretary Franklin
x. Lane, of the Interior Department,
announced plan for tying together the
nationl parks with we'll defined and
marked automobile road. 1t is to car.
nv cut his plans and to forward the
program of Stephen I. Mather. direc-
tor of national parks, that the Yellow
stone cars are speeding around the
park circle to scout the roads and to
test the government scheme.
The National Park Service hopes
some day to have regular automobile
transportation around the park circle
and this part of its plan was success
fully tried during the 1919 season be.
tween Yellowstone and Glacier Parks.
The Yellowstone, Glacier and Rocky
Mountain transportation companies op.
Grated passenger cars on schedule time
from Yellowstone to Glacier, and as
soon as road conditions permit the ser
vice will be extended to include the
Rocky Mountain National park and the
other parks.
The Yellowstone Glacier service fol-
lowed the spectacular Geysers-to.Gla
ciers trail along the main range of the
Rockies for distance of 3S4 miles.
The trip was easily made by the II
passenger motor coaches in two DAYS.
Luncheon stops on this route were
made at Bozeman and Choteau, Mont,
and the overnight stop at Helena.
ii. W. Child. president of the Yellow
stone Park Transportation & Hotel
Companies, who is in charge of the
touring party which visited Hood Rv-
er. said he would be interested in es-
tablishing an automobile stage line
from Yellowstone. via Helena. Mis-
soula, Spokane, Seattle and Tacoma
to Mount Rainier.
This will not be possible. however,
until the roads across Idaho and from
Davenport to Elensburg, in Washing
ton. are improved" he said. 'Trans-
portation of tourists over most of the
way would be practical as the entire
trip from Hood River to Helena is
scenic wonderland. The trip over the
Columbia River Highway is a most
beautiful one and one which everv au-
tomobile owner in the United States
should some day take. The road from
Seattle to Portland. however, is terrific
in fact. it is the worst road we have
encountered on the entire trip from
Denver. | understand that the road
Improvements now underway will put
this highway in pretty good condition
next year.
In our experience this year we
have found that tourists like to take
the automobile ride between the ma
tional parks and Montana. In fact, we
had so much business that we could
not begin to accommodate the number
of people who wished to take our cars.
This experience has convincedsus that
tour around the entire circle Of parks
throughout the west would be enor-
mously popular and one which will
some .day become world famous. be-
cause there is no collection of features
so wonderful for tourists to visit as
those embraced in our national parks
and in the country between these
parks. "
The yellow cars and their occupants
aim to stir up greater interest among
tourists in California this winter to
tour through the Northwest according
to Max Goodsill. secretary of the Hell
ena Commercial club. another member
of the party.
montana has been overwhelmed
with visiting automobilists this sea.
son, said Mr.. GoodsilI, "and with our
two great national parks we really
have something to exchange with such
important tourist centers as Seattle
and San Francisco. Upwards of SO 600
foreign cars drove through Montana
through the summer and we expect
twice as many in 1920.
Thomas A. NARROW, president of the
National Bank of Montana and Repub.
lican national committeeman ex-
planned the purpose of the yellow car
tour further.
"Our government has at last come
to the point of adding a travel bureau
to its service" said Mr.. Marlow. at
has been forced to this because of
pressure from Europe. The govern
ments of Switzerland. Italy, France,
Great Britain and the rest are flooding
America with tourist propaganda
They want Americans to spend their
vacation dollars overseas. Before the
war Americans did this at the rate of
half billion year. The west cannot
afford to have the tide of tourist travel
turned away. We have had the tour
lists this year and the entire country
has profited. Unless our government
completes with European governments,
however, we will not continue to hold
our supremacy. The Wall Street Jour-
nal reports in its current issue that
one agency alone has booked 100, 900
sghtseers for Europe as soon IS the
bars are let down.
national parks together is diplomatic
stroke for the benefit of the west. The
government can advertise its national
parks and the country between them
1t is willing to do this. We are col
lecting data on this tour which will be
forwarded to Washington for this pur-
pose. We believe the record of our
trip will encourage other private cars
to come to the Northwest for vacation
and sightseeing trips
7. b. Miller. mine owner and capi-
talist, another member of the touring
party, said. "The traveller of the fu-
ture in the United States is going to
be the automobilist. Of course we
will travel by train, too. particularly
on business. but the vacationists will |
go in their own cars. This has been
proven this season through the North
hal -. 49,