Our national parks

Book Two

BY MARY A. ROLFE, A.M.

FORMERLY GOVERNMENT LECTURER IN GEOLOGY YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK

BENJ. H. SANBORN & CO.

CHICAGO NEW YORK BOSTON 1928

CopyriGut, 1928 By BENJ. H. SANBORN & CO.

Preface

I. THE NATIONAL PARK MOVEMENT

As President Merriam of the Carnegie Institute in Washington, D. C., has so forcefully pointed out, our National Parks are the great living museums of our land. Each Park is our supreme example of its kind. Some of them are the supreme examples in the world of their kinds. For this reason, in studying about them we learn of Nature’s finest masterpieces. When we visit them we have the rare privilege of watching Nature at work on them, because Nature’s masterpieces are never completed. Inevitably as we learn to know these gifts from Nature’s skill we tune our lives to accord with their greatness. Who can say what human development will result from this contact? In preserving these gifts and in making them our own our national ideals should be refined and strengthened. Thus our National Parks become of value to us aS museums, as workrooms, and as quiet places of inspiration.

The movement which is resulting in the opportunity to touch the finest of everything Nature has given to-us is a comparatively recent accomplishment of the American people. There were but two National Parks previous to 1890. In that year John Muir’s enthusiasm and persistence bore fruit in the establishment of three California Parks. Nine years later Mount Rainier National Park was established largely through his efforts.

In the early years of this century America began to awaken to a sense of man’s responsibility for the preservation of the gifts of Nature and also to the need for vacations in wild places. A group of those who love the outdoor life were writing of little-known regions of the country, many of them men who had gone out in iii iv PREFACE search of health. Theodore Roosevelt was one of these. He missed no opportunity to speak or write about man’s responsibility and about man’s health need. He gave new impetus to what had already been established as a national policy and did it just when, on theone hand, automobilesand hard roads made long vacation trips a possibility for the masses and when, on the other hand, the doors of the great western areas were about to be opened to corporations whose scant respect for Nature or the needs of future generations could be met only by a popular awakening to these same needs. His brilliant and forceful pen and his insistent energy and purpose drew forth a most effective popular response. Quick to feel this rising tide of popular desire, governing officials in towns, cities, counties, states, and in Washington vied with each other, setting aside areas for the enjoyment of all and the preservation or conservation of natural beauty and of national resources. This movement is steadily progressing, each year witnessing the establishment of many more reserved areas. The continuous care of such areas has become a matter of civic pride and of national loyalty.

Of the nationally owned areas some have been assigned to the care of the War Department, some to the Department of Agriculture, and some to the Department of the Interior. Those assigned to the War Department are those that record our respect for the heroes of the past. Those assigned to the Department of Agriculture are tracts of forest, swamp, and meadowlands held for the conservation of trees, birds, game, fish, water supply, etc. Lumbering, hunting, pasturing, etc., are allowed within them, but only under very strict supervision and to a limited extent.

The scenic wonders have been assigned to the Department of the Interior to be preserved for all time as Nature has wrought them. Trees are never cut, game is never hunted, birds are never killed, wild flowers are never picked, cattle and sheep are never pastured in these areas unless it becomes absolutely necessary to do so for the proper administration of the areas.

PREFACE Vv

These scenic areas are of two sorts, National Monuments, which are set aside by Presidential proclamation, and National Parks, which are set aside by Congressional action. Areas are held as Monuments which, while of sufficient scenic interest to warrant their preservation, are either in size or kind not of National Park calibre. Areas are also from time to time selected from publicly held land for Presidential proclamation that they may be preserved until such time as Congress may see fit to act with a view to raising them to National Park rank. The policy of the National Park Service, a branch of the Department of the Interior in immediate charge of the Monuments and Parks, specifies that before any area may be considered as of National Park rank it must include our supreme example of its kind, must be of a size sufficient to protect this feature and to accommodate large numbers of visitors without despoliation of the natural beauty, and must be so located that it will not interfere with established trade routes and industries. It must be free from all debts or other incumbrances and the title to each section must be clear before the Government will accept it for National Park purposes. Thus far all Parks have been carved out of public lands or have been acquired by gift or exchange. It is not the policy of the department to purchase land for Park purposes, although it may be necessary to do this in order to protect some choice natural features. While admitting that this might be done it is expected that all such areas will be acquired by private or public donation, or through exchange of public land or its resources for privately held land.

II. THESE BOOKS

These readers describe the National Parks through the fabric of a story. Two families travel from their homes near the Eastern Parks to the Pacific and back again, visiting the various Parks, one after the other. They are normal families and therefore the vi PREFACE stories picture them with somewhat of the give and take common to such families. Life is a happy thing to them and each experience is enjoyed whole-heartedly, but sometimes they grow weary of seeing, as would normal people. The characters are: Mr. and Mrs. Bruce Carroll, Jill Carroll, aged ten, and Jack Carroll, aged twelve; Mrs. Carroll’s brother, George Brown, Mrs. George Brown, Alice Brown, four years old, and Rob Brown, aged fourteen; Madam Brown, the mother of Mrs. Carroll and Mr. Brown; Anna, Jill’s nurse; Joe, the son of a cousin of Mr. Carroll and a sailor in the United States Navy; and a great many other, casual characters.

Woven into the experiences of these two families as they travel from Park to Park are stories from history, stories and legends of the different Indian tribes that once claimed as their own the land we now occupy as Parks, stories of pure adventure with settings in the Park areas, and stories that mix adventure with instruction in good sportsmanship and the art of mountaineering. As the pupil reads he will acquire a continuously growing knowledge of how rocks and water, frost and snow, wind and rain, and the rise and fall of land have worked together to form these regions of great natural beauty and awe-inspiring features, of how trees live and bear fruit and shelter birds, of how man in his carelessness destroys them, and of Nature’s efforts to rebuild them. He will learn much of the habits of wild animals, birds, fish, and flowers, and he will be shown the problems which we as a people face in our efforts to preserve wild life and to prevent the commercial use of those parts of our land which we have — already set aside for future generations.

Each book contains over one hundred illustrations and several color plates. These have been very carefully selected to interest and instruct children. The illustrations are all closely associated with the story, the two having been worked out together. A large number of the best-informed men and women of the United States have given of their time, skill, and specific knowledge to help the

PREFACE vii author. Without their codperation it would not have been possible to bring the needed material together.

The National Park Service has rendered every possible service in the way of information, photographs, advice, etc. A personal message from Mr. Stephen T. Mather, the Director of the Service, appears on page ix. The Forestry Service of the Department of Agriculture has made possible the inclusion of the bulk of the fire-prevention material. The magazines Forestry and American Forests and Forest Life have furnished most of the rest of this material. The U. 8. Geological Survey, the Biological Survey, the U. 8. Fish Commission, and the War Department have all helped greatly. The Roosevelt Wild Life Association and many outdoor and motor organizations have sent official reports and photographs. Railroads serving the various Parks have given both time and imagination to the selection of photographs and other material. The Union Pacific has been especially kind in granting permission to reproduce their color pictures on the cover and as a frontispiece. _A Hawaiian photographer, K. Maehara, of Hilo, permitted the use of two color illustrations. Many newspapers, magazines, and publishing firms have permitted the reprint of illustrations, poems, and portions of articles. Arthur Guiterman has given permission to use his poem, and Lew Sarett has permitted the use of his fishplanting story.

For the passages quoted in the section on Mount McKinley, I am indebted particularly to those who have permitted me to glean information from their writings, published and unpublished. It has been necessary for the sake of uniformity and in consideration of the age of the readers of this book to reword the quotations somewhat so that the several stories could be interwoven to form one story, but the main quotations are designated by footnotes.

For maps, information, and advice with regard to the Mount McKinley section I am also indebted to George Lingo and Robert Sheldon of the Mount McKinley Park Transportation Company,

Vill PREFACE to Hudson Stuck’s book, The Ascent of Mount Denali, to G. E. Mitchell of the U. 8. Geological Survey, to the Alaskan Railway, to T. E. Savage, University of Illinois, and particularly to Ida Hamlin of the Alaska Agricultural College.

Grateful acknowledgment is made to all of them. Especially does the author wish to acknowledge the invaluable assistance of her personal friends who have given their own experiences that the pages of these books might be full of the spirit of adventure as well as of facts, and the serious criticisms of her nieces and the children of her neighborhood who have acted as child editors. Their characters are, in fact, woven into the story.

To every child who will help to preserve the beautiful things of this world I dedicate these books.

MARY A. ROLFE

Champaign, Illinots.

PERSONAL MESSAGE FROM THE DIRECTOR OF THE NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

The National Parks, about which you will read in this interesting book, belong to all the people of the United States—to you, children of the grammar grades, as well as to your grown-up relatives and friends. Uncle Sam’s representatives who take care of these reservations want you to know them and love them, to spend your vacations in them when possible, and to feel the thrill of pride that must come from a realization of partial ownership in some of the world’s scenic wonderlands.

Most of you have read Longfellow’s poem Evangeline and _ remember his reference to ‘‘the forest primeval.” The forest primeval is fast vanishing, except in our National Parks. But here, as long as the Parks endure, these forests, mute reminders of what our pioneer ancestors encountered, will be protected and cared for.

It is interesting to read animal stories—to learn of the habits of bear, antelope, and deer, and of the herds of buffalo that once thundered across the plains. But think how thrilling actually to see them in their native habitat in the National Parks, where none may molest them.

My own daughter has accompanied me on many a Park trip, so that now she is an experienced camper and an outdoor enthusiast of the first rank. Watching the broadening effect on her of contact with Nature as exemplified in the National Parks, I am convinced that they offer unlimited possibilities for the education of children in love of country and true patriotism.

I hope that some day most of you may have the pleasure of making in person the trip that you will take with Miss Rolfe, through the medium of this reader, to our National Parks.

STEPHEN T. Matuesr, Director.

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