The Book of the National Parks Part 2

Of course this triumph of organization, for it is no less, could not have been accomplished nearly so quickly without the a.s.sistance of the closing of Europe by the great war. Previous to 1915, Americans had been spending $300,000,000 a year in European travel. Nor could it have been accomplished at all if investigation and comparison had not shown that our national parks excel in supreme scenic quality and variety the combined scenery which is comfortably accessible in all the rest of the world together.

To get the situation at the beginning of our book into full perspective, it must be recognized that, previous to the beginning of our propaganda in 1915, the national parks, as such, scarcely existed in the public consciousness. Few Americans could name more than two or three of the fourteen existing parks. The Yosemite Valley and the Yellowstone alone were generally known, but scarcely as national parks; most of the school geographies which mentioned them at all ignored their national character. The advertising folders of competing railroads were the princ.i.p.al sources of public knowledge, for few indeed asked for the compilation of rates and charges which the Government then sent in response to inquiries for information. The parks had practically no administration. The business necessarily connected with their upkeep and development was done by clerks as minor and troublesome details which distracted attention from more important duties; there was no one clerk whose entire concern was with the national parks. The American public still looked confidently upon the Alps as the supreme scenic area in the world, and hoped some day to see the Canadian Rockies.

IV

Originally the motive in park-making had been unalloyed conservation. It is as if Congress had said: "Let us lock this up where no one can run away with it; we don't need it now, but some day it may be valuable."

That was the instinct that led to the reservation of the Hot Springs of Arkansas in 1832, the first national park. Forty years later, when official investigation proved the truth of the amazing tales of Yellowstone's natural wonders, it was the instinct which led to the reservation of that largely unexplored area as the second national park.

Seventeen years after Yellowstone, when newspapers and scientific magazines recounted the ethnological importance of the Casa Grande Ruin in Arizona, it resulted in the creation of the third national park, notwithstanding that the area so conserved enclosed less than a square mile, which contained nothing of the kind and quality which to-day we recognize as essential to parkhood. This closed what may be regarded as the initial period of national parks conservation. It was wholly instinctive; distinctions, objectives, and policies were undreamed of.

Less than two years after Casa Grande, which, by the way, has recently been re-cla.s.sed a national monument, what may be called the middle period began brilliantly with the creation, in 1890, of the Yosemite, the Sequoia, and the General Grant National Parks, all parks in the true sense of the word, and all of the first order of scenic magnificence.

Nine years later Mount Rainier was added, and two years after that wonderful Crater Lake, both meeting fully the new standard.

What followed was human and natural. The term national park had begun to mean something in the neighborhoods of the parks. Yellowstone and Yosemite had long been household words, and the introduction of other areas to their distinguished company fired local pride in neighboring states. "Why should we not have national parks, too?" people asked.

Congress, always the reflection of the popular will, and therefore not always abreast of the moment, was unprepared with reasons. Thus, during 1903 and 1904, there were added to the list areas in North Dakota, South Dakota, and Oklahoma, which were better fitted for State parks than for a.s.sociation with the distinguished company of the nation's n.o.blest.

A reaction followed and resulted in what we may call the modern period.

Far-sighted men in and out of Congress began to compare and look ahead.

No hint yet of the splendid destiny of our national parks, now so clearly defined, entered the minds of these men at this time, but ideas of selection, of development and utilization undoubtedly began to take form. At least, conservation, as such, ceased to become a sole motive.

Insensibly Congress, or at least a few men of vision in Congress, began to take account of stock and figure on realization.

This healthy growth was helped materially by the public demand for the improvement of several of the national parks. No thought of appropriating money to improve the bathing facilities of Hot Springs had affected Congressional action for nearly half a century; it was enough that the curative springs had been saved from private ownership.

Yellowstone was considered so altogether extraordinary, however, that Congress began in 1879 to appropriate yearly for its approach by road, and for the protection of its springs and geysers; but this was because Yellowstone appealed to the public sense of wonder. It took twenty years more for Congress to understand that the public sense of beauty was also worth appropriations. Yosemite had been a national park for nine years before it received a dollar, and then only when public demand for roads, trails, and accommodations became insistent.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _From a photograph by Pillsbury_

THE YOSEMITE FALLS--HIGHEST IN THE WORLD

From the brink of the upper falls to the foot of the lower falls is almost half a mile]

But, once born, the idea took root and spread. It was fed by the press and magazine reports of the glories of the newer national parks, then attracting some public attention. It helped discrimination in the comparison of the minor parks created in 1903 and 1904 with the greater ones which had preceded. The realization that the parks must be developed at public expense sharpened Congressional judgment as to what areas should and should not become national parks.

From that time on Congress has made no mistakes in selecting national parks. Mesa Verde became a park in 1905, Glacier in 1910, Rocky Mountain in 1915, Hawaii and La.s.sen Volcanic in 1916, Mount McKinley in 1917, and Lafayette and the Grand Canyon in 1919. From that time on Congress, most conservatively, it is true, has backed its judgment with increasing appropriations. And in 1916 it created the National Park Service, a bureau of the Department of the Interior, to administer them in accordance with a definite policy.

V

The distinction between the national forests and the national parks is essential to understanding. The national forests const.i.tute an enormous domain administered for the economic commercialization of the nation's wealth of lumber. Its forests are handled scientifically with the object of securing the largest annual lumber output consistent with the proper conservation of the future. Its spirit is commercial. The spirit of national park conservation is exactly opposite. It seeks no great territory--only those few spots which are supreme. It aims to preserve nature's handiwork exactly as nature made it. No tree is cut except to make way for road, trail or hotel to enable the visitor to penetrate and live among nature's secrets. Hunting is excellent in some of our national forests, but there is no game in the national parks; in these, wild animals are a part of nature's exhibits; they are protected as friends.

It follows that forests and parks, so different in spirit and purpose, must be handled wholly separately. Even the rangers and scientific experts have objects so opposite and different that the same individual cannot efficiently serve both purposes. High specialization in both services is essential to success.

THE NATIONAL PARKS AT A GLANCE

[Number, 18; total area, 10,739 square miles]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------- NATIONAL PARKS AREA IN IN ORDER LOCATION SQUARE DISTINCTIVE CHARACTERISTICS OF CREATION MILES --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hot Springs, Middle Arkansas 1-1/2 46 hot springs possessing 1832 curative properties--Many hotels and boarding houses--20 bath-houses under public control.

Yellowstone, Northwestern 3,348 More geysers than in all rest 1872 Wyoming of world together--Boiling springs--Mud volcanoes--Petrified forests--Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, remarkable for gorgeous coloring--Large lakes--Many large streams and waterfalls--Greatest wild bird and animal preserve in world.

Sequoia, 1890 Middle eastern 252 The Big Tree National California Park--12,000 sequoia trees over 10 feet in diameter, some 25 to 36 feet in diameter--Towering mountain ranges--Startling precipices--Large limestone cave.

Yosemite, 1890 Middle eastern 1,125 Valley of world-famed California beauty--Lofty cliffs--Romantic vistas--Many waterfalls of extraordinary height--3 groves of big trees--High Sierra--Waterwheel falls.

General Grant, Middle eastern 4 Created to preserve the 1890 California celebrated General Grant Tree, 35 feet in diameter--6 miles from Sequoia National Park.

Mount Rainier, West central 324 Largest accessible single peak 1899 Washington glacier system--28 glaciers, some of large size--48 square miles of glacier, 50 to 500 feet thick--Wonderful sub-alpine wild flower fields.

Crater Lake, Southwestern 249 Lake of extraordinary blue in 1902 Oregon crater of extinct volcano--Sides 1,000 feet high--Interesting lava formations.

Wind Cave, 1903 South Dakota 17 Cavern having many miles of galleries and numerous chambers containing peculiar formations.

Platt, 1904 S. Oklahoma 1-1/3 Many sulphur and other springs possessing medicinal value.

Sullys Hill, North Dakota 1-1/5 Small park with woods, streams, 1904 and a lake--Is an important wild animal preserve.

Mesa Verde, S.W. Colorado 77 Most notable and best preserved 1906 prehistoric cliff dwellings in United States, if not in the world.

Glacier, 1910 Northwestern 1,534 Rugged mountain region of Montana unsurpa.s.sed Alpine character--250 glacier-fed lakes of romantic beauty--60 small glaciers--Sensational scenery of marked individuality.

Rocky Mountain, North middle 398 Heart of the Rockies--Snowy 1915 Colorado range, peaks 11,000 to 14,250 feet alt.i.tude--Remarkable records of glacial period.

Hawaii, 1916 Hawaiian Islands 118 Three separate volcanic areas--Kilauea and Mauna Loa on Hawaii; Haleakala on Maui.

La.s.sen Volcanic Northern 124 Only active volcano in United 1916 California States proper--La.s.sen Peak 10,465 feet--Cinder Cone 6,879 feet--Hot springs--Mud geysers.

Mount McKinley, South central 2,200 Highest mountain in North 1917 Alaska America--Rises higher above surrounding country than any other mountain in world.

Grand Canyon, North central 958 The greatest example of erosion 1919 Arizona and the most sublime spectacle in the world--One mile deep and eight to twelve miles wide--Brilliantly colored.

Lafayette, 1919 Maine Coast 8 The group of granite mountains on Mount Desert Island.

Another distinction which should be made is the difference between a national park and a national monument. The one is an area of size created by Congress upon the a.s.sumption that it is a supreme example of its kind and with the purpose of developing it for public occupancy and enjoyment. The other is made by presidential proclamation to conserve an area or object which is historically, ethnologically, or scientifically important. Size is not considered, and development is not contemplated.

The distinction is often lost in practice. Casa Grande is essentially a national monument, but had the status of a national park until 1918. The Grand Canyon, from every point of view a national park, was created a national monument and remained such until 1919.

THE GRANITE NATIONAL PARKS

GRANITE'S PART IN SCENERY

The granite national parks are Yosemite, Sequoia, including the proposed Roosevelt Park, General Grant, Rocky Mountain, and Mount McKinley.

Granite, as its name denotes, is granular in texture and appearance. It is crystalline, which means that it is imperfectly crystallized. It is composed of quartz, feldspar, and mica in varying proportions, and includes several common varieties which mineralogists distinguish scientifically by separate names.

Because of its great range and abundance, its presence at the core of mountain ranges where it is uncovered by erosion, its attractive coloring, its ma.s.siveness and its vigorous personality, it figures importantly in scenery of magnificence the world over. In color granite varies from light gray, when it shines like silver upon the high summits, to warm rose or dark gray, the reds depending upon the proportion of feldspar in its composition.

It produces scenic effects very different indeed from those resulting from volcanic and sedimentary rocks. While it bulks hugely in the higher mountains, running to enormous rounded ma.s.ses below the level of the glaciers, and to jagged spires and pinnacled walls upon the loftiest peaks, it is found also in many regions of hill and plain. It is one of our commonest American rocks.

Much of the loftiest and n.o.blest scenery of the world is wrought in granite. The Alps, the Andes, and the Himalayas, all of which are world-celebrated for their lofty grandeur, are prevailingly granite.

They abound in towering peaks, bristling ridges, and terrifying precipices. Their glacial cirques are girt with fantastically toothed and pinnacled walls.

This is true of all granite ranges which are lofty enough to maintain glaciers. These are, in fact, the very characteristics of Alpine, Andean, Himalayan, Sierran, Alaskan, and Rocky Mountain summit landscape. It is why granite mountains are the favorites of those daring climbers whose ambition is to equal established records and make new ones; and this in turn is why some mountain neighborhoods become so much more celebrated than others which are quite as fine, or finer--because, I mean, of the publicity given to this kind of mountain climbing, and of the unwarranted a.s.sumption that the mountains a.s.sociated with these exploits necessarily excel others in sublimity. As a matter of fact, the accident of fashion has even more to do with the fame of mountains than of men.

But by no means all granite mountains are lofty. The White Mountains, for example, which parallel our northeastern coast, and are far older than the Rockies and the Sierra, are a low granite range, with few of the characteristics of those mountains which lift their heads among the perpetual snows. On the contrary, they tend to rounded forested summits and k.n.o.bby peaks. This results in part from a longer subjection of the rock surface to the eroding influence of successive frosts and rains than is the case with high ranges which are perpetually locked in frost.

Besides, the ice sheets which planed off the northern part of the United States lopped away their highest parts.

There are also millions of square miles of eroded granite which are not mountains at all. These tend to rolling surfaces.

The scenic forms a.s.sumed by granite will be better appreciated when one understands how it enters landscape. The princ.i.p.al one of many igneous rocks, it is liquefied under intense heat and afterward cooled under pressure. Much of the earth's crust was once underlaid by granites in a more or less fluid state. When terrific internal pressures caused the earth's crust to fold and make mountains, this liquefied granite invaded the folds and pushed close up under the highest elevations. There it cooled. Thousands of centuries later, when erosion had worn away these mountain crests, there lay revealed the solid granite core which frost and glacier have since transformed into the bristling ramparts of to-day's landscape.