Evening star., 1927-05-29

n Conference on State Parks
NN meets at Bear Mountain,
Palisades Interstate Park,
New York. May II to 20,
inclusive. it is expected the 1926 roster
OF SIS State park and forest areas
will have grown and passed the ooo
mark.
Forty-three of the forty-eight States
now possess areas which conserve
scenery, wild life, historical or scien-
tific sites, according to the permanent
conference headquarters in Washlng-
ton. d, c.. An advance estimate places
the aggregate areas of the more tnan
600 recreation and conservation sites
at some 100000 acres. .
The delegates to this years confer
ance will see in Hartman Park,
largest of the six divisions of the Pail
Sades Interstate Park of New York
And New Jersey, and in other New
York State parks which they may
visit in touring Bear Mountain an ex-
ample of the greatest State park sys-
tenn in the country.
The conference also will hear of no.
liable advances in other States, such
as Pennsylvania, where million ana
a quarter acres now are in State for
ests and parks, and Indiana, where
million dollars is being spent to estab-
lish the Dunes Park on Lake Michi-
gan. Michigan is heir to Sc State
parks given it by public-spirited citi-
zens. Iowa. Ohio and Connecticut
each has now more than 40 such pre-
serves.
Sparsely settled South Dakota will
report the spending of S2,0OO,000 in
Custer State Park, a preserve of ma
. tional park standards. Californlans
will tell the story of how million
dollars of public and privately contrib
uted funds now has been expended to
conserve the finest remaining giant
redwoodS.
While New York State has the
! largest area set aside for recreational
and conservation purposes, one must
: jump the continent, to California, TO
find the first State park on large
scale. That park was established In
California in 1865, when the Yosemite
Valley was made a State park. 1t re-
manned in that status for 80 years,
when it was taken over by the FED
eYal Government and enlarged as the
present famous Yosemite National
Park.
I About the same time California set
about the preservation of the now
famous beauty area Of Yosemite the
, movement began in New York Tor
taking the American side of Niagara
Falls out of private hands. That
movement resulted in the creation of
a state park at the falls in 1888.
In that year New York stopped sell
ing off forest land in the Adirondacks
and made beginning of the great
wilderness park which now exceeds
9 600 900 acres. Also, in 1885, Michi-
gan ACQUIRED Fort Mackinac from the
Federal Government as its first State
park.
However. the study of the origin
and development Of State parks and
forests in this country recently made
by the conference showed that their
inception goes far back of the setting
aside of Yosemite and the public ac-
QUESTION of Niagara Falls.
The Massachusetts Bay Colony in
1G41, gave the public rights for fish
ing and fowling" on great ponds"
over 10 acres in extent. and this far
sighted ordinance of the Puritan legis-
lators later was interpreted to cover
such recreational needs as bathing,
boating and skating.
rne actual forerunners OF our State
rhrKa Were memorials of our early
wars. taken over by various public
agencies early in the nineteenth cen
tury After the Civil War, when
cities grew faster and wild land was
tanned to agriculture and industry, the
great movement for all kinds of parks
began 10 take hold.
King automobile. which ribboned
the nation with roads. now is bedeck-
ing it with State parks.
Stephen T. Mather. vice chairman
OF the State Parks Conference,
evolved the slogan, "A State Park
k"e~v Hundred Miles" and that
hogan is approaching realization
largely because Of the motorists de-
mand for accessible breathing and
beauty places.
City parks long have ministered to
the pedestrians OF crowded municipal
tiles; visit TO national parks means
Z, railroad trip from our great popula-
ton centers, but the State parks are
the major rendezvous of millions of
motorists.
These State areas afford city
dwellers places to spend holiday pc
riods Of d few days. within Il few
hours Of their home, amid scenic
beauty, historic shrines. and natural
settings.
The growing State park and forest
&aoVement was co-ordlnated in 1921 by
,