The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-08-08
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC j. HASKIN, Director.
Washington, d. g.
GET OUT OF DOORS.

| ing II IS rapidly becoming the accepted
antidote for overdoses of business.
housekeeping. hot weather, worry
even running government.
President Harding was the last not
| able recruit to camp life, tho anyone
! reading of his necessarily de luxe
| camp with it's half hundred attend
ants, and its movie men catching Mr..
Edison in the act of brushing a fly
! off his nose and the president reading
] scarcely had a chance to get the real
flavor of life without a necktie.
The everyday citizen is in this more
| fortunate. If he aspires to build a
| log cabin in the woods and fish, hunt
| take pictures, tramp, study nature, or
merely sit, he can enjoy these recre-
| atoms 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 an
! nual slogan of over 100000 people
who have solved the problem of rest
| full, cheap vacation by using the ma
| tional forests. There would probably
| be very little forest left to get back
| to by this time if the reckless cutting
and burning of timber had not been
restricted some twenty years ago, and
| a national forest system built up.
Since then, TAT forests, containing
| 156,00O,00 acres of land, have been
| dedicated as Fairgrounds for the peo-
pie.
In one way. the national forests are
/ of necessity a one-si@ed proposition.
! OF the LAT forests, all but twenty are
I in the west. In the east which so
much needs camping grounds there
| is left comparatively little forest land
! which could be set side 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
number of foreign countries. The
! other national forests are rapidly be-
| coming known as practical play
grounds, and automobiles the wander
lust, good roads, nerves. and high
prices are all contributing to the popu-
larity of the public Fairgrounds every
where.
The 100000 people who have got
| the habit of using the national forests
are only beginning. Some of the
| so comparatively unused by campers
that party may travel for days at a
| time thru them without meeting any
| other vacationists.
The West is honeycombed with
] these vast forest stretches, with snow
! topped mountains, lakes hidden among
the pines, shady streams stocked with
fish, and smooth roads and trails, al;
at the service of the people.
Eastern Forests.
The East has it's national forests too,
| in Florida. the Carolinas, Arkansas,
Alabama, Georgia, Oklahoma, Maine,
New Hampshire, Tennessee, Virginia
and West Virginia. These forests, set
! aside, most of them, long after the
| states were well built up are limited
in area, compared to the big western
forests. The smallest of these eastern
fNrEr
North Carolina, is only 1000 acres
| while the largest, the Arkansas Forest
! is some 100000 acres, In the West
| there are a number of national forests
with 1,OOO,0OO or more acres, and one,
| in New Mexico, with 100000.
In all of the national forests except
a Few in the east anyone who ewishes
| to build cabin or cottage may lease
a camp site of from a quarter of an
acre to five acres of ground for from
$40 to SIS d year. Timber for the
house may be bought where available
at cost price off the stump from the
forest service, and the camper can cut
it and build his own house or hire
some one to do it for him. The land
once leased may be released in sue
ceeding years.
Not all the persons who patronize
Many prefer to pitch camp in tents
which requires no permit, or to motor
from place to place.
Forest rangers have headquarters al
intervals thru the forests and at these
headquarters, marked by the Ameri-
can flag, campers and travellers car
obtain information, use a telephone
and get help in an emergency.
The different forests have their owr
special attractions. Pixies Peak is II
the national forest of the same name
Olympic elk, once almost extinct bu'
now protected and increasing, may bt
shot-with a camera-in the Olympic
forest in Washington state. Game
trout abound in the streams of mos
OF the forests. Deer, bear, elk, grouse
and other wild game are to be foune
in the various forests and may b'
hunted under state game laws.
In the Suiattle River forest in Wash
ington the fuH-blood Indians of Suiat
tie River tribe never fail to interes
campers, while in east, the White
mountains boast of their Lakes of thu
J Clouds, 5000 feet above the sea, ant
their waterfalls. and the famous OLD
Man of the Mountains cut by nature
in the side of cliff.
The West Gets the Crowds.
OF them all, the forests in Colorado
and California are the most popula
, as vacation retreats. A million peopl
visit the Colorado forests, and 1900,
600 the California forests every year
In the east the White Mountain fores
is probably the best known.
The eastern forests have to be con
Quoted along somewhat different line
from the more extensive western play
= grounds In three of them publ
5 camping grounds have been carefully
surveyed ana designated. No one ma,
lease a lot in them because if monopo
lies were granted. a few people woul
: quickly take up all the land Thes
E three forests the Pisgah in Nortl
Carolina, the Wichita forest and gam
preserve in Oklahoma, and the Whit
Mountain Forest in Maine and Ne1
Hampshire, are being used by picni
5 parties, for boy scout and mountain
, GERS camps, and by campers, who ar
permitted to stop for several week
without charge. Hotels and inns 10
= Gated at picturesque spots help t
= make the forests accessible for peopl
who cannot conveniently pitch canr
The forest service, with the help 0
L all those who use the national forest: