East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1919-09-19

al parks east of the Rocky mountains I
merely emphasizes the fact. The Hot
Springs of Arkansas were set apart in
1882, while the Ozark mountains were
still a wilderness. The Lafayette Ma
tional Park, in Maine, is made up of
many small parcels of privately own
ed land, which group of public
spirited citizens, because of the i'm
possibility of securing national appro-
priations, patiently acquired during a
series of laborous years, and present
ed, in 1916, to the people of the Unit
ed States.
The Lafayette National Park diff
fers fro mall other members of the
national parks system in several i'm
portant respects, according to Robert
Sterling Yard, of the department of
the interior, in his Book of the Ma
tional Parks" recently published by
the Scribners. 1t is in the far east;
it combines seashore and mountain;
it is clothed with a rich and varied
growth of deciduous trees and east
ern conifers; it is intimately associat-
ed with the very early history of Am
erica. Besides which, it is a region of
great beauty and fascinating variety.
All the mountain wilderness, free
as it was to the public, was in private
ownership. Some of it was held by
persons who had not seen it for years.
Some of it was locked up in estates.
The time came when owners began
to plan fine summer homes high on
the mountain slopes. A few, however,
believed that the region should be-
long to the whole people, and out of
this belief grew the movement. led by
George B. Dorr and Charles w. Eliot,
to acquire it'll eand present it to the
nation which would not buy it. They
organized a holding association, to
which they gave their own properties;
for years afterward Mr.. Dorr devoted
most of his time to persuading 9TH
ers to contribute their holdings, and
to raising subscriptions for the pur-
chase of plots which were tied up in
estates In 1916 the association pre-
sented five thousand acres to the
government, and President Wilson
created it by proclamation the Sieur
de Monts National Monument. The
gift has been greatly increased since.
In 1918 congress made appropriations
for it's supkeep and development. In
February, 1919, congress changed its
name and status; it then became the
Lafayette National Park.
The impulse to name the new ma
tional park after the French general
who came to our aid in time of need
arose, of course, out of the wartime
warmth of our feeling for our ally,
France. 1t naturally followed that
this reservation with its French asso-
Citations should commemorate not
only the old Province of Acadia.
which the French yielded to England
only after half a century of war, and
England later on to us after another
war, but the great war, also, in which
France, England and the United
States all Joined as allies in the cause
of the worlds freedom. In accord
with this idea the highest mountain
looking upon the sea has been named
the Flying Squadron in honor of the
service of the air, born of an Ameri-
can invention and carried TO perfec
ton by the three allies in common.
There are ten mountains in the
eastern group; the three fronting Bar
Harbor have been renamed, for his
toric reasons, Cadillac Mountain, the
Flying Squadron, and Champlain
Mountain. For the same reason noun
tains upon Somes Sound have been re-
named Acadia mountain, st. Sauveur
mountain, and Norumbega mountain,
the last an Indian name ;similar
chages commemorating the early Eng
lish occupation also have been made
in the nomenclature of the western
group. Tablets and memorials are al
so projected in emphasis of the histo-
rical associations of the place.