290 PUBLIC PARKS OF IOWA 



shelter and use of picnic parties. Pasturing in this tract would be pro- 

 hibited and a rich heritage passed to future generations. 



This may all seem like a wild dream but it is entirely practical. The 

 expense could be easily borne by a general tax and when fairly started the 

 income from sale of matured trees would pay more than cost of main- 

 taining. Northeast Iowa is to have a forest reserve park. This has been 

 held in reserve for years through private interest and why should not all 

 parts of the state share in a like enterprise? This is still a new and 

 pioneer country and very much undeveloped. Hunters and the public 

 have been allowed to roam over private property at will but this cannot 

 always be and if people are to have a place for recreation, it must be pro- 

 vided through public enterprises. The sooner this is done the better, as 

 delays will cost in money and loss of material. The legislature can make 

 (provision for this the same as they did for a soldiers' memorial, and 

 each county be allowed to start when ready. There is nothing more at- 

 tractive than ia well kept farm, but not all our land and attention should be 

 given to the purely commercial side of ouir natures. Recreation is needed 

 by all and the kind this would provide would be better than any other that 

 can be devised. Let us have a forest reserve park in every county of the 

 state and begin at once on a scale that would be a credit to the country. 

 Iowa Forestry and Conservation Association Report 1914-15, pp. 143-7. 



COUNTY PARKS. 

 By Melvin F. Arey, Geologist. 



The term "park" as popularly used has reference to tracts of land of 

 varying extent set aipart for public resorts, far recreative and other pur- 

 poses. Great landed estates in Europe have had their parks for cen- 

 turies but the people had no access to them. Free public parks are of 

 comparatively recent origin. Few city parks in this country date back a 

 hundred years, yet within the last fifty years they have met with such 

 favor and appreciation that there is scarcely a city or village of any pre- 

 tentions in the whole wide land that does not have something answering 

 the idea of a park, though in too many instances the true purpose of the 

 park has been perverted. In the main, parks in this country are repre- 

 sented by city parks which are intended to serve local interests only or 

 by national parks which are few in number and which, because of their 

 location, are accessible to relatively few people. Manifestly the gap be- 

 tween these is too great to meet the urgencies of the people both of the 

 town and country. It was with this in view that Mr. Foster, a few years 

 ago, set forth in a paper before this association the claims of township 

 parks. The grounds presented for the establishment of such parks were 

 sound and sufficient to warrant at least the experiment, in a few instances, 

 but somehow there has been little, if any, response anywhere in the state. 



In a rich and progressive state like Iowa there ought to be found a way 

 of combining, with suitable modifications, the best features and character- 

 istics of both the city and national parks. How can this better be done 



