The Pleasantville press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1912-1929, 1923-09-05

President Harding, in announcing this admin
istration policy, was not anticipating a popular de-
mand so much as answering it. The truth is that
> the American people have within the last three
years adopted our nineteen national parks as q
part of their conception of the greatness of their
nation. Hands off, applies to the national
parks as well as to Old Glory. They are eager
to defend them and to keep them inviolate. And
they have developed organized strength through
the utilization of a dozen or so nationwide organ
izations to see that congress shall legislate wisely
concerning the national parks. The announce
ment Of the conservation policy was received with
nationwide delight. The national park enthusi-
asts hoped that the conservation policy would be
broadened to uphold Secretary Lanes important
plank.
Y%ellowstone also gets into the limelight this
season because President Harding paid it a two
days visit on his way to Alaska. The Presidents
party went In and out through the north entrance
and did about $50 miles of motoring in seeing
various points of interest. On the Continental
Divide they drove through snowbanks. The Pres
ident went yachting on Yellowstone lake-un-
damned. He saw many wild animals and fed
gingerbread and molasses to a black bear and her
cub. He saw the Painted Terraces of Mammoth
Hot Springs. Old Faithful geyser spouted $50
feet into the air every ~sixty-fve minutes for
him-as it does for every visitor. The photograph
reproduced herewith shows the President and
Mrs. Harding. under escort of Superintendent Hor-
ace NJ. Albright, viewing from Artist Point the
Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and the Lower
Falls. The President was yisibly impressed by
the sight-one of the grandest and most beau
tiful in the world.
Just sixty-three Observation-Disclosures re-
CURED to put Yellowstone on the map the Ameri-
can people simply wouldn't believe there was any
such place. The Lewis and Clark expedition of
1S04-06 passed close by it, but the Indians never
mentioned it, considering it the abode of Evil
Spirits" who punished all talk about them. John
Golfer, a member of the party who went back
to trap beaver, discovered 1t in 1907. Upon his
return to st. Louis in 1910 the people dubbed it
Golfers He'll and laughed him and his tale out
of court. James Bridger rediscovered it about
1928 and the public said Just another of lin
Bridger's big yarns" The gold prospectors Of
1862 described it and were set down as liars. If
took the Washburn-Langfor expedition of 1870 to
make the people believe in its wonders. The mem
bers of that expedition were for ~pre-empting the
scenic points and making their fortunes. Cor
nellus Hedges rebuked them and proposed the
national park plan-the first in all history. The
park was established by act of congress in 1872
and Yellowstone celebrated its semi-centennial
last fall.
Yellowstone contains 3,34s square miles-3114
in Wyoming, 19S in Montana and 80 in Idaho
Big as it is, the plan is to enlarge it by the addi-
ton of many square miles to the south-the Jack
son Hole country, which contains Jackson lake
and the Teton mountains and is a natural mart of
the park.