Evening star., 1936-02-02
By Alice Rogers Hager.
= T Is Winter sports time in Uncle
Sans nlaVrrnllndSl

T T Is Winter sports time IN uncle
Sans Fairgrounds!
Greece had her Olympiads,
i Rome her circuses, modern Eu-
rope her athletic carnivals in prepara-
tion for the arts of peace and war. but
few realize that to no other country
has been given the heritage which
belongs to us of the United States IN
our national parks, and that the
season of ice and snow merely brings
new thrills to those who will enjoy
them. Not only that, but here within
the boundaries of our own District lie
almost l3 per cent of the grand total
owned and operated by the Federal
Government. and many are the happy
uses to which they and those others
farther sfield can be put during the
present months.
We think of Winter sports too often
in terms of st. Moritz and the Scan
dinavian highlands. Those who are
truly sport-minded, however, know
of the amazing development of the
American program these past few
years, and gradually that knowledge
is reaching into the life Of the average
citizen, the man who might have done
q little ice skating as boy, but who
put by such childish things with
maturer years. Until recently, he has
locked at ski-jump pictures IN the
rotogravure and been content to buy
new sled for his boy at Christmas.
If he could manage it, he has achieved
q trip with the family to Yellowstone
or Glacier on Summer vacation,
and wondered what funny kind Of
fellows the rangers were who lived
on there during the Winter shut in" !"
But little by little, through the edu-
eational activities of the park service,
the Joneses of Connecticut avenue are
becoming conscious that things are
happening over the edge of their
immediate horizon-that friends are
buying "ski suits" and going in
for seemingly eccentric activities,
strangely enough, fostered by a
friendly Government. This new con-
eciousness carries Pa Jones on a
sheepish skating expedition when the
Rejecting Pool is frozen over, or he
and Junior may be found on the
closed hill by the Shoreham, trying
out the Christmas sled while darkness
hides his bushes.
1t carries Ma to the point of taking
her bridge club away from its weekly
session to make a motor jaunt down
- tta Cbopo pdoob Mo otiopo1 Forest
because they've heard the road was
good and the scenery grand. Young
Mary Jones, just out of college, and
full of campus inspired and trained
athletic prowess, decides she is going
West with a group Of friends to the
great parks where elaborate sports
programs are in progress. BY this
time the whole family is ready to
besiege the Department of the Inte-
rior for booklets and maps and list
Of dates" throughout the park system,
and to make a considerable invest
ment In suitable clothing.
THERE are many kinds of parks
- and monuments in the national
possessions. but only three enter into
the Winter sports picture. The 5,537
acres which lie within the District
and which boast better than 800
separate playing areas, not counting
almost so miles Of bride paths, are,
because of the Capitals mild climate,
available almost the entire year. Two
special spots are provided for skating,
the Rejecting Pool and one in Rock
Greek Park. There are five sleighing
reservations. including Rock Greek
and Potomac Parkways, Rock Greek
Park itself, Foundry Parkway and the
Monument grounds.
In the second group lie the Winter
park areas kept open for public en-
1oyment, but in which no development
for a sports program has yet been pos
Eible. So far as Washington is con.
cerned, this lies in the Shenandoah
and the Great Smokes. The PARK
Service maintains motor roads In such
parks throughout the Winter and visi'
tors find enchanting scenic beauties te
reward their journeying.
It is to the third group, however, the
ones equipped to care. for Winter
sportsmen, that the true enthusiast
must turn. All but one Of these arr
parks located in the West. Except
for the closed parks, such as Yellow
stone and Glacier, where the Storm
King RACES so fiercely that only highly
trained rangers and the hardest ami
mails survive, there is something
doing" in every park area Of any i'm
portance. These include Acadia, In
Maine; Rocky Mountain, in Colorado;
Yosemite, Gen Grant and Sequoia, In
California; Mount Rainier, in Wash.
ington. and, when the weather Is suf-
nciently open. Lassen, in California
and Crater Lake, in Oregon.
Every year, since the Inauguration
Of the program idea in 1928, the
sporting clubs which use these parks
have been growing In size and i'm
portanoe, and the volume Of trafac