Watauga Democrat. [volume] (Boone, Watauga County, N.C.) 1888-current, 1924-12-04
BELIEVES STATE HIS.
CHANCE FOR PARK
Subcommittee Has Returned From
Washington After Conference With
the Officials.

the Officials.
Members of the sub committee of
the park commission appointed by
i the special session of the legislature
to keep in touch with the work of the
q national park commission, appointed
by Secretary Work, have returned to
their homes after having spent two
4 days in Washington last week. The
sub committee was composed of Mark
u Squires, chairman, John G. Dawson,
Il DR.. E. C. Brooks, D. M. Buck and A.
n M. Kistler, The entire committee
y held a meeting in Raleigh last week
just prior to sending the sub-commit-
tee to Washington. The meeting in
II Raleigh followed the trip of the COM
mittee through the Grandfather noun
B tain and Linvile and other sections
of western North Caroina.
The sub committee was sent to
Washington to confer with Federal
officials regarding the location of the
proposed 0ark and to urge consider
alton of North Carolina sections
They went to see what preliminary
steps have been taken in the park
matter. They found that no action
had been taken, and that there was
nothing to the reports that location
in the Virginia mountains had been
decided upon.
In the first place it is recalled that
the commission which recently Wis
Nited Virginia can only act an ad-
visOry capacity and that no recon-
mendation it may make would be
binding on Congress. l the next
place it is hoped that the commits
sion, which is to report to Congress
in December will suggest the FEAST
bility and desirability of planning a
number of parks, or chain of parks
in the several states concerned, link
ed together by good roads, project
which is favored by Secretary Work.
Both Col. Joseph HyGe Pratt ss4nt.s'
j. S. Holmes, the head of the North
Carolina Forestry Association, who
are attending the national confer
ence on the utilization Of forest pro-
ducts in Washington, were inter-
viewed on the proposal to establish in
the Appalachian range of western
North Carolina a national park by
the government. These gentlemen
are wide apart in their views to the
value of such park in the State.
Mr.. Holmes is of the opinion-an
opinion shared by some others-that
there is not sufficient territory in
that locality to establish such park
as the government would need to
have without taking areas now re-
auired for the economic and indus
trial development of the state. Any
park with sufficient magnitude to be
considered national park would
necessarily absorb many valuable
farms, water power locations and
forests that are worth far more to
the state and its people from an eco
nomic stndpoint than what the
state, and indeed the whole country,
could hope to secure in benefits from
a national park as a means OF adver-
tising that locality and people.
Mr.. Holmes said in looking at the
subject entirely from the, utilitarian
point of view, if national park was
established in the western North Car
olina range there would probably be
merged in the territory the only ches-
, nut forests now remaining in the
whole United States. These groves
in the north have all perished. They
are many other such thriving indus
tries in western North Carolina that
would be thrown on the scrap heap
if a national park is opened there.
Colonel Pratt contends that Mr..
Holmes is taking narrow view OF
one of the greatest projects, not only
for North Carolina, but for the whole
country, that was ever conceived Of
He declared the commission appoint
ed by the government to make sur
vey of the whole southern Appalach.
ian range for a suitable location fol
a national park now has in mind not
a single national park in some par.
ticular state or locality but chain
of national parks in the seven states
of Virginia, North and South Caro-
lima, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky
and West Virginia.
This commission, at whose head is
Representative Temple Of Pennsylvs
mia, has made careful survey withir
the last year of the Appalachian
range in all the above named states
and Col. Pratt's understanding il
that the report of the commission il