Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-07-07
8,OOC- MILE AUTO
TRIP OFFERED FALL
BY HERBERT COREY

WASHINGTON.-How would you
like to swing around an S.OOo-mile
circle in a flivver?
That is the question that is to
be put to Secretary of the Interior
Fall at the convention of the Ma
tional Park-to-Park Highway asso-
citation at Salt Lake City on June
16. He will be accompanied by
Stephen B. Mather, director Of the
National Park service, and various
other representatives of the gov
eminent. And they will meet $50
men who. if not the aristocrats of
motordom-an aristocrat is apt to
be peevish when ralned on or stuck
in the mud or confronted by a
broken axle fifty miles from a 81
rage-are easily the most SaVaSe
and determined roadhounds there
are in the world
Secretary FAN will be invited to
make the giant circle around the
western parks in motor car, OF
course. Every. man he meets will
likely invite him. He will be as
sured that all he needs is a suit
of old clothes and tin plate. The
ing towropes, emergency wreckin3g
trout, Juicy berries from those in
credible berry orchards In oregon
and Washington, oranges and NOV
les from California. bear STEAK
on writing down a list, of treats
for the rest of this column: But
he will make the big ride IN a
parlor car. Devoted motorlst as ne
1s-convinced, in his weste err =
+oI-os two months TO make the
ronnd-th he trip by gas.
Gus Holms invented the park-to-
park idea years ago, out in Cody,
Wyo. Holmes is the sort OF a man
found only in the west. He mas oeth
a sailor and a barber and a ranch
man and a merchant and school
teacher and always an enthusIast,
The first day he swarmed up "a
ratline he probably told the A 4i p,
to his right that this was +t bnt
finest ship on the hnest ocean '-A'''
ever was.
Ho1ms the Originator
Living right at the backdoor OF
the Yellowstone park, ne began ~
yearn to see the other great WeS' ern
parks. Then he began to pore oyer
maps. Then he organized the Nd
tionaI Park-to-Park Highway aSsocl2-
tion, the end and aim of which was
to make navigation feasible between
parks. Scott Leavitt, OF Great rams
Mont, helped him. LeaVitt was once
q forest ranger who saw the posi-
bilities of roads through mountain
forests. He built one by sheer bull
logging which at the time began no
where and ended nowhere. Now 1t is
one of the fashionable places OF the
northwest. People out there. aim to
name it for him when he dies. AS
long as he lives they can not.
Other enthusiasts Joined in around
the S,O00-mile circle which links Gla-
cier and Yellowstone and Rainier ana
Mesa Verde and the rest OF the doz-
en-. There isn't any money in the
idea for them. No one but the gov
eminent gets the entrance fees from
tourists who visit parks. and most of
the f1ivveriSts camp out, so the MOTEL
keepers do not profit. The farmer
who raises fruit and PIGS and and chick h, :
in the long run. The enthusiasts
are men who would have gone Dio-
neering in Conestogas ii. they had
lived a, century ago.. ana who are
cars now for lack of harder wagons.
Route Not Difficult
Last year Holms and Leayitt led
a party around the circle that ioil>
the twelve great national parks OF
the west. They did the tour in
something less than three months.
1t was on this trip that Colonel A.
L Westgaard. the famous pathfinder
of the American Automobile associa-
ton, succumbed to the lOng-standing
illness that finally caused his death
They found no roads that We're not
practicable even in bad weather,
though it is not considered advis-
able to start north from Denver he
fore August 10. They had no ex--
traordinary difficulties en- route, and
a large part of the way was nego-
tiated over excellent macadamlzed
or concrete roads.
Thanks to these pioneers, the
states and counties through which
the National Park-to-Park highway
runs are agreeing to cooperate with
the national government in the Gre
alton of concerted roadways for the
entnre distance. What at first may
have seemed the dream of motor
ing entT 1siast now appears to be not
only fe8qible, but practically forced.
There were days when the Park-to-
Park touring party met hundreds Of
tourists in cars of every sort from
the tin lizzie to the silver-mounted
creation in enamel. During the tour
they encountered not less than 10000
such outfits. This year reports from
all sections indicate that touring has
started earlier, and that more are at
1t. 1t promises to be the banner
year for the man with a gas-Wagon
and frypan.