PUBLIC PARKS OF IOWA 181 



On East and West Okoboji one may sail today in a single course a 

 distance of twelve miles; presently a deepened channel will connect 

 Minnewashta, then locks will open the way to great Spirit lake and the 

 length of the course will be almost doubled. Fine highways already 

 bring the various points along the miles of shore line almost every- 

 where in easy access, and the time is not far when the Iowa northern 

 lakes will be not only the summer home of hundreds of families, even 

 as now, but the delight of thousands who love natural beauty and find 

 solace in the gentle ministrations of the natural world where sky and 

 meadow, woodland and placid waters meet. 



Nor less will science here have place. The Lakeside Laboratory is 

 a beginning only. The movement is even now in progress which shall 

 make "the highest point" the pedestal for a telescope; shall build a 

 meterological station for the United States, that from such point of 

 survey the climatic conditions of the vast northwestern prairie may be 

 studied and all our human procedure be more securely guided, if not by 

 the influence of the stars, <at least by certain knowledge of those aerial 

 tides which bring the early and latter rain. 



The northern lakes are the property of the state; they constitute 

 an inviolate natural park and are destined to become the most beautiful 

 playground for all the people of the whole northwest; shall not Iowa con- 

 serve its own? 



PRESERVATION OF IOWA LAKES. 

 By Lewis E. Ashbaugh. 



The question of lake preservation may be justly considered an im- 

 portant topic for the people of Iowa, and it is especially appropriate 

 that the Iowa Park and Forestry Association take interest therein at the 

 present time. Nature has given to this great state rich and abundant 

 blessings in many ways, but in the matter of beautiful lakes of clear, blue 

 water, with sandy shores, and with high banks covered with native forests, 

 we realize and admit that we are not well favored. 



Some of us have grown up in other states, or in certain parts of this 

 state, where lakes are frequent, and well do we remember the Saturday 

 excursions of our childhood days when we trudged off in the early morn- 

 ing with our lunch basket, fish-pole, and tomato-can of worms, to spend 

 the day on one of the nearby lakes. Perhaps we got only a few small 

 perch or sunfish, but there was great pleasure in rowing the big flat- 

 bottomed boat around the shores and across the deep, blue waters. And 

 who has enjoyed more pleasure than pushing a boat among the lilies in 

 search of the beautiful white flowers? And what is more exhilarating than 

 the swim in the clear water, along easy sloping, sandy shores, or in the 

 winter season, the lively skating with its games of tag and shinny? The 

 bath houses and skating rinks of our cities are poor substitutes to one 

 accustomed to nature's provisions. 



The condition of this state as regards its lake resorts and pleasures 

 was noted very emphatically when a party of forty students went to the 



