The St. Charles herald. [volume] (Hahnville, La.) 1873-1993, 1920-06-26

Yellowstone our oldest and most famous ma
tional park-the first national park In the world
never had been Il success playground. The
truth is it is 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 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 it 35,S49 In
1917 it was 354O0; in 1918 II was 21,2T5; in 1919
it was 62.261. BY way of contrast take the cor
responding attendance at Rocky Mountain Nation
al park, which is 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 1856 and 1O1 497 and 169.-
49, Rocky mountain has freak scenery, but
It's scenic magnifcence 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
diton will give the Yellowstone the kind of seen
cry il lacks. Moreover, plans for the faFner de-
yelopment 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
ist for a time and to induce him to return.
Another example of needed enlargement is Sc
auoa 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 ggantea)-the big
gest and oldest living things on the earth The
General Sherman tree, for example, is about SO
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 magnificently scenic area which lies contiguous
Features of this contiguous the canyons of
the Kings and Kern rivers and the summit OF
Mount Whitney C4.50D, the highest mountain in
continental United States. 1t is now purposed to
add about thousand square miles of this con-
tiguous area to Sequoa 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 booklet issued last
season by the United States railroad admrSstra-
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 sublmity 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 akes-Italy In
dia and Hawali-and there are some craters In this