The Wilmington morning star., 1940-10-30
WASHINGTON
DAYBOOK
BY JACK

WASHINGTON, Oct. ~. Just what inpels
tourists to tour the way they do is a mystery
that no authority that I have been able to find
here wants to tackle. But that the ways of
tourists are strange is a certainty.
That much is proved by a survey of the
National Park service on comparative travel
for the II months ending September l and inst
released. I put the puzzle up to the personnel
of the American Automobile Association. SUD.
posed to know all there is to know about tour.
ing, but they said they would have to pass the
buck. They couldn't explain what goes on in
a tourists mind If you want to try to make
something OF it, here are some facts and
figures.
For example, the most popular tourist snot
IN America today is the Lincoln Memorial. For
sometime now, its popularity has been sneak
ing up and ahead of the Washington Monu-
ment's. This year, the Memorial to the rail-
splitter President put the 555-foot marble obel-
isk in the shade. The park service found that
l,357,286 persons passed through the fluted col
onades of the Memorial in the 11-month period.
while only 847, 713 visited the Monument.
Visitors to the Monument were about the
same as last year, but for some reason the
number OF those who went in to gaze at the
Daniel Chester French statue of the Great
Emancipator Increased nearly 40, 900.
While you are working on the why's of this,
add the fact that in New York harbor. that
mecca OF tourists for generations, the Statue
OF Liberty did a bit of a nose dive in popular
lty, drawing about AZ, 1000 fewer unofficial in
spectors than a year ago.
AND II you are not confused enough now.
take into consideration that of the memorials
that the park service keeps a check on, the
least popular was the house where Lincoln
died, only about 10, 900 persons visiting that
spot in the II months.
GETTYSBURG TOPS
OF the military parks, battlefields and GEM
eteries, Gettysburg was tops, with more than
haf a million visitors, but the supposedly
much lesser known Chickamauga Chattanooga
battle site was a respectfully close second.
with 416, 774 visitors.
When anybody mentions national parks to
me always think of Yellowstone and Yose-
mite. But they are only fourth and fifth on the
list respectively with less than half a million
visitors. Shenandoah had nearly no, 900; Great
Smoky Mountains had 745, 600; Rocky Noun
tain National park, sos, 900. The Grand Canyon
was well down the list. Only 1928, 3O7 persons
stopped there.
Visiting all areas in the period checked by
the park service were about a million more
persons than last year, a fact attributed to the
war, which not only has stopped travel abroad
but has had some bearing on South American
travel and travel to the Caribbean. The battle
OF the British with the Graf Spec caused a
in South American travel and rumors
of submarine activity and the presence of
British and French warships in the Caribbean
slowed things up there.
TRAVEL SLIPS
The A says travel to Mexico was boom
ing for a time, but the threat of a revolution
as result of neither presidential candidates
willingness to concede he had lost apparently
caused a big change in plans on this side Of
the border. Travel in that direction had come
almost to a standstill at last report.
If you want a final puzzler, take this one:
Why did $500 tourists choose August to visit
Death Valley 2