The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1920-06-03

Yellowstone our oldest and most famous
tfonal park-the first national park in the world
never had been a SUCCESS playground. The
truth is it is q wOnderhOuse of freak scenery
geysers. boiling springs, volcanic curiosities snd
the Yellowstone Falls Also it has its semi
dOmestcated bears and its wonderful big game In
the old days of the stage the regulation trip
took five days. After that the tourist 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 conditions obtain. The Yellowstone at
tendance figures tell the story. In 1915. the
attendance was 51,S95; in 1916 it was $3.50; in
1917 it was 35,4OO; in 1918 1t was 21245; in 1919
it was 81 ,261. 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 1000 and III .1S6 and 1O1 49T and 1884,
1872. Rocky mountain has freak scenery, but
its scenic magnfcence wears well and large
proportion of its visitors regard 1t as their sum-
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 adj
dition will give the Yellowstone the kind of
cry it lacks. Moreover, plans for the farther de-
veIopment of the Yellowstone include large auto
mobile camps golf links, tennis courts and the IL
ragenent of fishing, mountain climbing and rid
ing In short, the Yellowstone is to be made a
playground sufficiently attractive to hold the tour
isl for a time and induce him to return.
Another example of needed enlargement is Sc
quota National park in California. This park
created in 1890 and contains 252 square miles.
1t was created largely for the purpose of preserv
ing the Big Trees (SeQuOia gigantea)-the big
gest and oldest living things the earth. The
General Sherman tree, for example, is about SO
feet in diameter and is approximately 5000 years
old Congress, with eye TO the big trees only,
cut the park boundaries arbitrarily and left out
a magnficentIy scenic which lies contiguous.
Features of this contiguous the Canyons of
the Kings and Kern rivers and the summit of
Mount Whitney C14,5O1). the highest mountain in
continental United States. 1t is now purpoSed to
add about a thousand square miles of this con-
tiguous area to Sequoia and to change its name
to Roosevelt, making the enlarged park a ma
tional outdoor memorial to the dead statesman.
proposition.
No description do justice to Crater lake
itself. Uncle SAM however, has done q 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 great natl >aal Fairgrounds have their
distinctive beauties; each is different in great
measure in thf sublimity and attractiveness of
its national grandeur. but Crater lake stands
alone in this: that all likeness to any familiar
landscape here ceases.
Other lands have their crater lakes-Italy, In
dia and Hawaii-and there some craters in this