Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1925-11-06
PARK MOVEMENT
GIVEN IMPETUS
Another Rally For States Greatest
Assct-Some Pertinent Facts
(By G. Prather Knapp, Assistant to
the President, Shenandoah Ma
tional Park Assn. Incl

The Shenandoah National Park
movement interests me as a student
of investments and of the methods
by which public interest in invest
ment is secured / find Virginia pre-
sented with a unique investment OPP
portunity. / have been travelling for
six months all over the State, from
coast to western border, and, while
l find Virginians awake and alive to
the situation, / do not believe that
even they have fully realized the
magnitude of their opportunity or the
golden profits which can be expected
from the small investment they are
about to make
Please understand that / am not
combining my definition of the word
Investment" to mere money. Nor
am l figuring merely in dollars and
cents when | speak of profits"
think Virginia's greatest investment
here will be the capitalization of her
patriotism and State pride into one
unanimous cooperative movement
| think her greatest profit will be
in national recognition of the facts
about the Commonwealth the
facts about her scenic beauties and
historic shrines-of the facts about
her homes and farms and cities-of
the facts about her economic and
community advantages the fact
that the old Virginia spirit of nation
al service is still alive and active.
The money investment is neces-
sary, but small and insignificant,
thing if the cooperative spirit can be
aroused. The money profits are
large and certain, but they are not
worth discussing as compared to the
social profits which will accrue when
the whole nation. and its travellers
turn back to this homeland of all
American institutions.
l am going to describe, if l can, the
machinery by which Virginians are
preparing to make this investment.
l am going to detail, if l can, the
profits which Virginians may conf
IDENTIFY expect this investment to pro-
duce. But first of all, want to tell
a story.
Out in the far West, where our
present national parks are located,
there was once a border town, so
small and so isolated that it really
had no aseertainable reason for ex-
listing at all. 1t was one of those
scattered aggregations of implanted
pine and tinware shanties, so often
seen in the old West, which looked
as though family of giants had had
a picnic and had left their sardine
cans and cracker boxes scattered in
an untidy cluster. 1t bordered on
what Californians call an arroyo
"a wide, bare, blistering river
course of sand and rocks, filed in by
freshets by a torrent of muddy wa
ter, but otherwise holding only the
thinnest possible trickle of stream
let, lodging from rock to rock in its
midmost center.
There was not even a water tank
in this town of Spotted Dog. 1t pos
sessed only one store and only five
saloons, but it was rich in the spirit
Of civic pride and cooperation. Its
citizens heard one day that a party
of English capitalists were touring
the west in search of sites for water
power development in close juncture
with rail transportation.
Instantly the inhabitants of Spot
ted Dog sprang as one man to meet
the opportunity. An emissary was
dispatched to approach the English
capitalists and suggest that they look
at Spotted Dogs undeveloped water
power at date three weeks distant.
When this emissary reported that he
had made the arrangements, every
man, woman. child and Chinaman of
the population seized shovel and
spade, pick axe and crow bar, and
proceeded to canyon about a mile
up the slender stream, where hasty
but effective dam was built across it.
Three weeks later, on the day when
the capitalists were expected to ar
rive, there were several hundred
thousand cubic feet of water held up
behind the dam, and when the Eng
lishmen stepped off the train, that
dam had been cut and those thou
sands of cubic feet of water were
rushing and dashing through the wa
ter course on the other side of town.
We were little nervous for fear
the night train would be late and the
water wonld give out before we got
rid of those fellers,'' says the oldest
inhabitant, "but the train was on
time, and we'd sold 'em options on
every lot in town before they got
away
The point Spotted Dog illustrates
has been illustrated time and again
all over the United States. Over and
over again, American communities
have demonstrated two facts:
First. communities rich in tourist
advantages do not see the necessity
of cooperating to make the nation ac-
quainted with them Second, COM
munities comparatively poor in such
advantages. which have cooperated in
movements to develop tourist trade.