Evening star., 1937-10-24
The Travellers Notebook
National Parks Of the East, as Well as the West,
Fill Vacation Needs Of Millions, With
Shenandoah Most Popular.

those VINO tnlnk Cnat nODOOy ever sees
America--that 1t just isn't done--and
that / person in every 10 goes to Eu-
rope. Europe measures its tourists
from America in terms Of tens Of thou
sands; individual national parks reg
lister visitors in units Of hundreds OF
thousands, and only few fall below
the 100000 mark.
Eastbound transatlantic figures for
1887, when ships sailed with fewer
vacant accommodations than in any
recent year, have not been gagged
but it is doubtful II the total will be
more than 20 per cent higher than in
1896. Last year about 10000 Ameri-
cans obtained passports or renewals
with pleasure as the objective. OF the
total passports issued for business and
sundry reasons as well as pleasure, rs
per cent were for travel in Europe.
But 1.04l ,204 vacationists visited
Shenandoah Park during the travel
year that ended September 30.
IT TOOK the West, with its richly
colored and spectacular canyons
and. peaks, its largest concentration
Of geysers in the world, to dramatic
the national park idea. America began
to be park conscious as early as 1917,
when the National Park Service took
them over, but in that year only
488,268 persons visited the IA parks
then operated by the Government. BY
1927 the figure neared the 100000
,, mark; the count was 2,797,840. In
the 1887 travel season more than
100000 persons visited national
parks and monuments.
The Federal domain dedicated to
ecreation-whether simply for sight
seeing or camping beneath the stars
or enjoying the comforts of hotel
home in the picturesque lodges oper-
ated as part of the park service
has increased rapidly in the last few
years. Parks now number 26, national
monument areas dot the map, the IL
military parks and cemeteries are CEN
tered in the East, there are 10 battle
field sites under park service jurisdic-
ton and 8 miscellaneous monu-
ments, including the Lincoln Memo
rial and Washington Monument. Each
drew its share of Americans, and some
travellers from foreign lands, to bring
the count of visitors to one to every
eight Americans. Last year the figure
was to every IA.
THE Park Services acting director,
A. E. Demaray. declines to esti-
mate the number Of Americans who
will enjoy the parks next year. He
reported to Secretary Ickes: There
is apparently no limit to next year s
potentional national park travel. ="
Every one Of this years visitors Is
enthusiastic about our parks and
when the testimony OF eyewitnesses is
taken back to millions Of homes,
there are additional millions of park
enthusiasts and travellers created. New
facilities are being provided and this
years record has only been made to
be broken"
travel for years. and only COM
paratively recently have the three
great parks OF the East become gen.
orally known. Shenandoah led all
others as travel magnet this year,
and second was Great Smokes in
North Carolina and Tennessee. While
not yet as glamorized nor equipped
v,,,< hA~ IT, -, 90 l~l $a
ties. Smoky Mountains exceeded in
popularity the world-known Yellow
stone. drawing an estimated 727.00o
against 499.242 for Yellowstone. sec
ond ranking park OF the West. Rocky
Mountain Park in Colorado was first
in the Western area, with 651 ,899 vis-
itors.
Acadia National Park. in Maine
leading some of the more famous