The Benson signal., 1920-02-07

Mount Mckinley Q917), in Alaska, 2,2O0 square
miles including Mount Mckinley (20,3OO feet), and
vast numbers of big game.
Grand Canon of the Colorado (1919) 95S square
miles in northern Arizona including the Grand
Canon, one of the natural wonders of the world
Lafayette Q919), eight square miles on the Is
land of Mount Desert Maine, presented to the ma
tion by the property owners.
Zion Q919) 1872 square miles in southern Utah.
including Zion canon which is said to be the
equal of Yosemite in form and its superior in col
oring
The national park service is committed to four
enlargement projects of size and dignity. These
include:
The establishment of the Mount Evans region
in Colorado as a national park area by adding it to
Rocky Mountain National park The Mount Evans
region under consideration contains 16O square
miles, is splenddly scenic and is practically ada
cent to Denvers municipal mountain parks
The addition of about 1000 square miles on the
south to the Yellowstone National park. This area
includes Jackson lake, Grand Teton, Mount Moran
and the headwaters of the Yellowstone river 1t is
the range of Il large herd Of elk (not the Yellow
stone National park herd), which is threatened
with determination under present conditions.
The addition of about 1850 square miles to Sc
quota National park and the change of the name
to Roosevelt. The proposed addition lies to the
north and east and includes the canOns of the
crest of Mount Whitney Q45O1 feeD. The idea
is to make the enlarged park national, outdoor
memorial to Theodore Roosevelt.
The addition of the Diamond lake region to the
Crater Lake National park in Oregon The en-
largement lies to the north and would increase
the park from 249 square miles to $50 square miles
In the seven years since Secretary Lane took
charge of the department of the interior the at
tendance at the national parks has increased from
232 153 in 1913 to 755 325 in 1919. The increase in
1919 was from 451 ,691 The 191S-19 increase is
pecially significant. 1t was not due to Increased
tourist railroad traffic. 1t was due to the fact that
the American people turned out for vacation in
their own automobiles and three-quarters of a mil
lion of them chose to go to the national parks. In
the II national parks where records were kept
Yellowstone, Sequoia, Yosemite, General Grant,
Mount Rainier, Crater Lake Wind Cave, Mesa
Verde, Glacier, Rocky Mountain, Lafayette and
Grand CanOn-there were 563,51l visitors and
97721 private cars. This means that approximate
ly four-fifths travelling in their cars. And
these cars came from all parts of the country
Rocky Mountain with 1888 private cars and 169,-
492 visitors, attracted from every state in the
Union. Yellowstone cars from every state eX-
cept two.
While the national parks received the best kind
of advertising in the wOrld-word of mouth rec
ommendaton of delighted visitors-nO small part
of this increased attendance is due to the publicity
methods of the national park service, which has
carried on fairly comprehensive campaign of ed
ucatiOn.
During these seven years congress has been in
duced to increase it's annual appropriations for the
national parks from about $4,000 to about ST.
100000
In general it may be said that the schools
now beginning to appreciate the educational value
of rhe national parks as museums of natural his
tory and object lessons of the process of earth
making; that the outdoor organizations preach
ing their heathgving importance and that the
American people are awakening to their recrea-
tional and economic value.
National park enthusiasts feel that in this prog
ress Secretary Lane has had small part and
that if his successor proves good friend of
the national parks they will be indeed fortunate.
They will not be satisfied however, until there
is Il secretary of national parks, with seat in the