Evening star., 1923-12-16
BY WILL y. KENNEDY.

w It: s.s:. in the ''& 1p"s;s's's" 9s''sa''
The national parks are
all in the west. East of the Missis-
sippi river the entire country is bare
of national parks, with the single eX-
..eption of Lafayette Park, in Maine.
The nearest are Hot Springs, Ark.
and Platt Park, Okla. The people of
the east want one or more of these
great public recreation grounds, and
Stephen T. Mather. director of the
national park service. recommends
such a reservation in his annual re-
port.
How to get it is problem.
\ national park can be created only
hy act of Congress. Each park must
he individual, distinctive, containing
scenery of supreme and distinctive
quality or some natural feature SO
extraordinary or unique as TO be of
national interest and Importance as
distinguished from merely local in
terest. There must be no competition.
For example:
ne 'IIdIu NdIlS Oh OF the 1OiOTduO
IS the highest accomplishment of
stream erosion: the Sequoia presents
the highest form of accomplishment
IN natural tree growth, the wonder
ful Sequoia gigantea: the Yellow
stone contains the greatest geyser
basin in the world: Lafayette exhibits
the oldest rock formations in Amer
ica and the luxuriance of it's decidu-
Gus forests; Mount Rainier contains
the largest single-peak glacial sys
'em in the world, spreading down the
tanks of the enormous extinct VOL
cano.
Wonders of East Privately Owned.
The east is full of wonderful seem
cry, but the federal government owns
very little land in the east, and the
national parks have been carved out
"f the public domain-reserved for
the people-except Lafayette Park,
which has been built up by a dona-
ton Of land or of money for the pur-
chase of land, with a special act of
Congress necessary to accomplish
even this.
Congress has never agreed to the
creation of a national park by pur-
chase.
There is the problem-the east is
full of superb scenic areas, but 1t
is practically all privately owned.
This situation has resulted from
the way in which the country was
settled From the days of earliest
colonization the lands east of the Al
leghenieS. and later further west and
still east Of the Mississippi, were
taken up by grants and then by in
dividual settlements under those
grants or by right of discovery. The
great empire west of the Mississippi
containing most of the spectacular
scenery, still was to be acquired by
the nation. BY the time the idea of
conservation of such areas for ma
tional parks came into the popular
mind there was no unowned land left
in the east. Niagara Falls and the
Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, it Is now
recognized. should both have been
claimed by the nation as too import
ant soenically to have passed into
private hands.
In the case of Niagara it has been
only by the closest cooperation be-
tween the American and Canadian
governments that SO much of the
present falls as are now the scenic
marvel of the east has been saved
Already there has been a bill intro
duced in the present Congress for
the purchase of the Mammoth cave
by federal appropriation of a million
dollars.
Donation Proposed.
The director Of the national parks
system says: II should like to see
additional national parks established
east Of the Mississippi. but just how
this can be accomplished snot clear
There should be typical section of
rhe Appalachian range established
as national park, with its native
flora and fauna conserved and made
accessible for public use and Its de-
velopment undertaken by federal
funds.