Perth Amboy evening news., 1923-02-27
Geographic News
Bulletins By the
National Geographic So0iety
STATE PARKS AND WHY

| SxAIE FAHAS AMI WHY
What is a state park?
Announcement shat the third an
lnual conference OF state parks will
be held at Turkey Run State Park,
Indiana, May 2, and 8, gives rise
10 the question.
you will search most reference
\ books in vain for any information
about state parks, an important fact
that every thinking American citi-
zen should know" says bulletin
from the National Geographic So
eiety, though thero you will find
ample mention OF national parks
and city parks.
| Five-Foot Park Shelves
state parks are pocket editions
OF our great national park system.
They are the stop-over places OF
the motorist.
They perch on barren peaks and
preserve tree-bowered lovers lanes
beside running brooks.
! They take in such shrines as Lin
coins birthplace and James Whit.
comb Riley's ole swimmin' hole
| They perpetuate far old history
| than that to be found in history
textbooks. Starved Rock Park, 1lli-
nois, commentaries the time when
Americas inland was a sea; when
the cosmic happenings of millions
of years ago deposited the shells and
| lprecipitated the lime which formed
the magnesium limestone layer OF
this region.
| "Prairie Land to IairSland"
Iowa invited its citizens to an
hours auto ride from prairie land
to fairyland.'
I'm Wisconsin you can rent an
island for $40 a year.
State parks save the opan- play
lspaces amid dense populations Of
the east and they keep out encroach.
ing farm lands of the Middle West.
| RIP Van Wrinkle sought surcease
IN skittles from a shrewlsh spouse
put the city man of today, harried
BY a hundred wofrNts, can take wife
and children for a iNs,y-eight hours
rest to the hills where Rip re-.
| treated.
IF this sounds like rhapsody
tnats what state parks still afford
to routine-ridden CITY dwellers.
Our own parks bear evidence Of
our new governmental ideal. Orig
inally a park, says Noah Webster,
was an inclosed piece Of ground
stocked with beasts Of the chase,
held by prescription or the kings
grant.
To-day a park might be defined
as an uninclosed piece of ground
| stocked with beasts, not to be
chased. or killed, held by prescrip-
ton OF the people for their own USE
Many New Editions
Nobody knows exactly how many
state parks there are in 1923. Two
years ago survey by the National
Park Service showed that twenty.six
| states had state parks. The move-
nent has taken such a hold within
the last few years that the park
areas within those states has ex-
banded materially and other states
have embarked upon park pro.
grams.
Niagara Falls is nationally
known as scenery, and also as a
| controversy, but, in the history of
the park movement, Niagara is a
precedent. 1t was the first public
reservation in the United States ac-
quired by condemnation and pur-
chased with public money for the
scenery; a proceeding which was
public funds.
| Hartford has park which is an
early example of the best sort of
civic publicity and also established
a park precedent. Search your
| memory and see whether you have
not forgotten most OF the statistics
and slogans which you greet upon
huge signboards placed along the
| railway tracks by trade bodies of
many enterprisin2 cities. But no
body who has entered Hartford by
train, in daylight, is likely to forget
the sylvan beauty of Bushnell park,
which adjoins the station with the
| ttree-shaded Connecticut Capitol
building set on its central hill.
Horace Bushnell worked I'VE
years to persuade his neighbors to
tax themselves to buy this tract.
Thus Bushnell park is a monument
marking the first time in history
when the people bought a tract with
public park.
A Reversal of Purpose
Exactly opposite to the days
when feudal barons used a. park to
keep the public out Is the era when
! the essential element of a park Is
that King Auto and Sovereign Pc.
destrian must have easy access.
Colorado proclains that she has
motorists camp In every town Of
1000 or more people. Iowa AYERS
| that she has more camp sites per
capita than any other state.
New York, with forty reserva-
tions, comprising nearly 100000
acres, heads the list OF states in the
extent OF her park system. Ten mill
lion people. it ts estimated, can
reach the Palisades Interstate Park
in a two.hour ride by auto or boat.
mo where are parks longer re-
garded as luxufies; but in New
York state they are an additional
necessity because they protect the
vitality important watersheds in the
north of the state. Upon this pro-
lection depends the great industrial
enterprises which use i1ydro-elec-
trio power.
Turkey Run State Park, Indiana,
where the coming conference will
be held, is a. last stand of the prime.
val forest which once covered prac.
tically all the Hoosier state. It is
especially rich in the yellow poplar
or tulip tree of Indiana, the syca-
more and the back Walnut. It has
u modern hotel electrically equipped,
modern plumbing and a steam heat
ing system. Thus the park has been
made available for use the year
round"