GENERAL PLANNING OF A PARK SYSTEM 37 



Natural beauty and spaciousness are prime considerations in areas of this 

 character a spaciousness so large that the natural beauty cannot be 

 greatly marred by the presence of large numbers of people, and even a 

 single individual may find some place where he can be alone, if he desires, 

 without being too conscious of the crowd. Because it is desirable that 

 people frequent them as often as possible, these areas should be reasonably 

 accessible. 



Their size and the element of cost in acquisition will as a rule require 

 their location on original acquisition toward the outskirts of the city, 

 although they may later be completely surrounded by the city. If a city 

 is growing evenly in all directions a diagrammatic representation of where 

 large parks should be might properly show one at each of the major points 

 of the compass, and as the city grows around these a more numerous ring 

 of them might be shown some five or more miles beyond. Topographical 

 conditions frequently determine the location and the size of large parks 

 for the reason that rough broken areas of cities and lowlands along water 

 courses, while undesirable for residential or other purposes, may present 

 very good or ideal possibilities for large parks. Certain topographical features 

 may be very desirable for other community purposes, but their possibilities 

 for large parks are so valuable that other possible uses should give way 

 to park use. An example in point is the presence of lakes in the vicinity 

 of cities or of certain portions or the whole of a river front. 



4. The reservation. The invention of the automobile, its subsequent 

 possession by so large a percentage of the people, coupled with the develop- 

 ment of an exceedingly large mileage of good roads, especially in the vicinity 

 of cities, are factors that have brought into existence, within recent years, 

 a new type of park property known as the public reservation or forest 

 park. These factors have partially reversed the point of view of park 

 planners of twenty-five to fifty years ago whereby they sought to bring 

 the country into the city through large landscaped parks; whereas now they 

 plan to take the people out of the city into the country into large forest 

 reservation parks. These same factors have caused the projection of mis- 

 cellaneous types of active recreation areas many miles outside the city 

 limits, such as bathing beaches, golf courses, and municipal camps. 



The function of the forest park or reservation is practically the same 

 as that of the large city landscaped park, although it will probably be less 

 intensively developed and used, except in the vicinity of very large cities. 

 There is no general principle governing their size nor their distance from 

 the city, although so far as daily or week-end use is concerned it is 

 not desirable to have them located more than fifty miles from the city 

 limits. 



