The Concordia sentinel. (Vidalia, Concordia Parish, La.) 1882-current, 1920-05-29

Yellowstone our oldest and most famous
tional park-the first national park in the world
never had been a success as playground. The
truth is it is a wOnderhouse of freak scenery
geysers boiling springs, volcanic curiosties and
the Yellowstone Falls. Also it has its semi
domesticated bears and its wonderful big game. In
the old days of the stage coach the regulation trip
took five days. After that the tourist was ready
to leave And he seldom returned TO see the
park a second time. Now that the automobile
has taken the place of the coach, the time of the
regulation trip has been cut in two; otherwise
the same conditions obtain. The Yellowstone at
tendance figures tell the story. In 1915, the
attendance was 81, S95; in 1916 1t was 35S49; In
1917 it was 35400; in 1918 it was 21,215; in 1919
1t was 62261. BY way of contrast take the cor
responding attendance at Rocky Mountain Nation
al park, which is a play ground park where peo-
pie stay their entire vacation time and there are
thousands of regulars" who go every year: 81
600 and 81 900 and III, 1856 and 101 497 and 169,-
492> Rocky mountain has no freak scenery, but
its scenic magRifcence wears well and large
proportion of its visitors regard it as their sum-
mer home.
In consequence the national park service is pro-
noting the project of adding about thousand
square miles to the south end of Yellowstone, in
Guiding the Teton range, Grand Teton, Mount
Moran Jackson lake and the Jackson Hole region
and the headwaters of the Yellowstone. This ad-
dition will give the Yellowstone the kind of Seen
cry ii lacks. Moreover, plans for the farther de-
yeopment of the Yellowstone include large auto
mobile camps golf links, tennis courts and the en-
couragement of fishing, mountain climbing and rid
ing In short, the Yellowstone is to be made
playground sufficiently attractive to hold the tour
list for time and to induce him to return.
Another example of needed enlargement is Sc
quota National park in California. This park was
created in 1890 and contains 252 square miles.
1t was created largely for the purpose of preserv-
ing the Big Trees (Sequoia gigantea)-the bg7
gest and oldest living things on the earth. The
General Sherman tree, for example, is about 36
feet in diameter and is approximately 5000 years
old. Congress, with an eye to the big trees only,
cut the park boundaries arbitrarily and left out
a magnifcently scenic area which lies contiguous
Features of this contiguous are the canyons of
the Kings and Kern rivers and the summit of
Mount Whitney (14,501) the highest mountain in
continental United States 1t is now purposed to
add about thousand square miles of this con-
tfguous area to Sequoia and to change its name
to Roosevelt, making the enlarged park ma
tional outdoor memorial to the dead statesman.
Here again the public playground idea is the basic
proposition
No description do justice to Crater lake
itself Uncle Sam, however, has done good job
under the circumstances in a booklet issued last
season by the United States railroad administra-
ton And this booklet says among other things
All of our great national Fairgrounds have their
distinctive beauties; each is different in great
measure in the sublimity and attractiveness of
its national grandeur. but Crater lake stands
alone in this: that ali likeness to any familiar
landscape here ceases
other lands have their crater lakes--TtaIy, In
dia and Hawaii-and there are some craters in this