Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-08-09
wv ASHINGTON, D. c., August s.
w Roughing it is rapidly becoming the
w accepted antidote for overdoses of

business, Housekeeping, hot weather. worry
even running a government
President Harding was the last notable re-
cruit to camp life, though any one reading
of his necessarily de luxe camp, with it's half
hundred attendants, and it's movie men
catching Mr.. Edison in the act of brushing
fly off his nose and the president reading
paper, must feel that Mr.. Harding scarcely
had a chance to get the real flavor of life
without necktie.
The everyday citizen is in this more fortu-
nate. If he aspires to build log cabin in
the woods and fish, hunt, take pictures,
tramp, study nature, or merely sit, he can
enjoy these Iecreations undisturbed for as
many weeks as he likes, at the price of a
few days at any fashionable resort.
Back to the forest is now the annual so-
gan of over 100000 people who have solved
the problem of a restful, cheap vacation by
using the national forests There would
probably be very little forest left to set
back to by this time if the reckless cuttng
and burning of timber ha not been re-
stricted some twenty years ago, and ma
tional forest system built up.
Since then, LAT forests, containing 1856,
100000 acres of land have been dedicated
as Fairgrounds for the people.
In one way, the national forests are of
necessity one-sided proposition. Of the lat
forests, all but twenty are in the West. In
the East which so much needs camping
grounds there is left comparatively little for
est land which could be set aside for the
people.
But the back to the woods germ is too
contagious and virulent to be checked by
difficulties of distance. We are told that the
Colorado forests, which are perhaps the most
famous in the country, attract people from
every state in the Union and from number
of foreign countries. The other national for
eSts are rapidly becoming known as practical
Fairgrounds, and automobiles, the wander
lust, good roads, nerves and high prices are
all contributing to the popularity of the
public Fairgrounds everywhere.
The 100000 people who have got the
habit of using the national forests only
beginning. Some Of the western forests
are so extensive and so comparatively I'M
used by campers that party may travel for
days at a time through them without meet
ing any other vacationists.
The West is hOneycombed with these vast
forest stretches, with snowtopped mountains,
lakes hlduen among the pines, shady streams
stocked with fish, and smooth roads ana
trails, all at the service of the people.
Eastern Forests
The East has it's national forests, too, in
Florida, the Carolnas, Arkansas, Alabama
Georgia, Oklahoma, Maine, New Hampshire,
Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia
These forests, set aside, most of them, long
after the states were we'll built up, are limit
ed in area, compared to the big western for
ests. The smallest of these eastern forests
for instance Boone Forest, in North Caro-
lima, is only 1000 acres, while the largest,
In the West there are mum of national
forests with 1000 900 or more acres, and
one, in New Mexico, with 2,500,00O.
In all of the national forests except few
in the East any one who wishes to build a
cabin or cottage may lease camp site of
from a quarter of an acre to 5 acres of
ground for from ten to twenty-five dollars
year. Aimbel for the house may be bought
where aValG ble at cost price off the stump
from the Forest Service, and the camper can
on
one to do it for him. The land once leased
may be released in succeeding years.
Not all the persons who patronize the ma
tional forests build quarters. Many prefer
to pitch camp in tents, which requires no per-
nit, or to motor from place to place.
Forest rangers have headquarters at inter-
walls through the forest and at these heal
quarters, marked b.. the American flag,
= hpers and travellers can obtain informa
ton, use a telephone. and get help in an
emergency.
The different forests have their own spe-
cial attractions Pixies Peak is in the ma