PUBLIC PARKS OF IOWA 201 



of which are tied into one continuous system by means of their boule- 

 vards. 



The national park system is comparable in its organization with that 

 of the municipalities in that it is made up of all of these various units, re- 

 gardless of their ownership and control, before mentioned, starting with 

 the national parks and continuing down through to the smallest unit 

 within the municipality. This whole group of disconnected areas is in 

 turn to be connected and made into one great park system by means 

 of a net work of national, state, county and local highways and munici- 

 ipal boulevards. 



Professor Frank A. Waugh, who has been influential in forming the 

 national park policy, has the following to say relative to the factors 

 that should determine the selection and location of these parks. 



"The national parks are destined to play a very important role in 

 the future development of America. If we look at civic art from the na- 

 tional standpoint, they are of prime importance. These national parks 

 should be established in various parts of the country, their location 

 being determined primarily by the desire to preserve spots of national 

 historic importance, or with the intention of preserving typical examiples 

 of natural scenery or special more or less spectacular features of na- 

 tional importance. The Yellowstone Park in Wyoming is a fine exempli- 

 fication of this idea. Niagara Falls and its environs ought to become a 

 great national (really international) park, and this again illustrates the 

 idea distinctly. The battle ground reservations at Gettysburg and 

 Lookout Mountain give examples of areas reserved on account of their 

 historic interest. 



"Should we secure an adequate park reservation in the White moun- 

 tains OT in the Adirondacks under federal control, this would be an ex- 

 amiple of a park in which would be preserved fine types of natural scen- 

 ery. However, we ought to present in .the same way the equally beauti- 

 ful scenery of the sea coast dunes, of the great interior prairies and of 

 the arid deserts. All these scenery types are beautiful, valuable and 

 highly important. They cannot be permanently kept for succeeding gen- 

 erations in America unless they are appropriated by the national govern- 

 ment and administered in behalf of the whole people. The time should 

 never come when the people of the United States cannot have access 

 to the great and beautiful landscapes which make America what it is 

 today. 



"Other and similar reservations, however, are needed under state con- 

 trol. There are many spots of natural beauty, many types of fine native 

 scenery, many places of historic interest in every state, which are espe- 

 cially valuable to the state itself. Though these should all be preserved, 

 they may not be of such national importance as to justify the federal 

 government in patronizing them. 



"Besides this, however, even the local community has similar oppor- 

 tunities. The smallest and poorest town has also its spot of historic 

 interest, its types of beautiful scenery, its picnic grounds, its lakes 

 and hills, w i hich should not be allowed to pass into private control. Rather 

 should they be acquired by the public and kept oipen to all the citizens 



