THE GREAT AMERICAN DESERT* 



By C. .1. lU.ANCHAKl) 

 Statistician^, U. S. Kecla.mation Service 



y^::^0 the bulk of our citizens the Great American Desert is still a region 

 V J apart, and illusions concerning it which obtained in the days of Webster 

 and Clay still persist. The average citizen of the East, whose vacation is 

 usually spent abroad, and there are more than 200,000 unpatriotic Americans 

 who annually seek their recreation in the Old World, regards our rainless coun- 

 try as the habitation only of hostile savages and deadly reptiles. Millions of 

 our people, crowded in our great cities, have never felt the uplift of its unmeas- 

 ured distances and its far-flung horizons. To those the desert means desolation, 

 thirst and loneliness; a waste place, forbidding and terrible, wherein civiliza- 

 tion has no place. Instead of a level plain of sun-baked, shifting sand, our 

 desert is a region of varied and interesting topography, with every gradation of 

 climate from semi-tropic to north temperate. It posesses all the climates of 

 Europe, while its scenic wonders have no rivals in any country. In our desert 

 proper are located all the important National parks, whose 5,000,000 acres of 

 territory embrace more natural wonders than can be found in all other parts of 

 the world. 



To those of you who are accustomed to taking your vacations abroad, I 

 wish it were possible to convince you that in our own country there are moun- 

 tains which in sublimity and grandeur equal any in the Old W^orld. The 

 traveler may enjoy the wonders which a prodigal Nature has lavished upon us 

 with a greater degree of ease than he finds in Europe tours. 



Infinite variety characterizes the colors of the desert, for this is a land 

 where the atmosphere itself has color. Strange and incomprehensible are the 

 magical changes of tint in rock and bush and cloud at different hours of the 

 day. These colors are often so transitory that the eye receives impressions 

 which the mind refuses to accept as real. 



The West needs more people and more money. If we could divert one-half 

 of the i)resent tourist travel from Europe toward the W^est we would hold in 

 circulation in this country more than .'ii;i*50,000,000 ; all of which is now annually 

 expended abroad. The knowledge of the West and its resources gained by the 

 tourist on his trip to view our scenery would increase his confidence in western 

 securities and would encourage larger investment. The lure of (his new coun- 

 try is so comi)elling that many who come would remain and take their part in 

 its u])bnilding. The returning tourist would direct others to seek the pleasures 

 which have been enjoyed by him. 



Two economic problems of obvious importance confront the people of the 

 country today, viz: increasing the opportunities for our citizens to acquire 



156 



