DEVELOPMENT OF THE NATIONAL PARKS. 17 



during the season on the Mariposa and Chinquapin roads south of 

 the valley, and on the Tioga road and Big Oak Flat road, as well as 

 on the floor of the valley itself. 



Furthermore, construction work on the new hotel at Glacier Point 

 was undertaken and is now nearing completion. On the 4th of July 

 ground was broken for the new hotel on the floor of the valley, and 

 it is now in the course of erection. This building will be ready for 

 the 1918 tourist season. 



This outline of what the Desmond Park Service Co. has already 

 accomplished and has under way should leave no doubt in the mind of 

 anyone that Yosemite National Park is well provided with excellent 

 accommodations for its visitors and that more and finer accommo- 

 dations and highest-class hotel service are still to come. 



Camp Curry, Camp Ahwahnee, and Camp Lost Arrow, long estab- 

 lished in the Yosemite Valley, were operated this season under their 

 managements of former years. 



CONGRESSIONAL APPROPRIATIONS. 



Congress made a more liberal appropriation for Yosemite National 

 Park for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1917, than for any previous 

 period. This appropriation made available $250,000 for protection 

 and, improvement of the park. It was provided, however, that not 

 more than $150,000 might be expended in the construction of a new 

 hydroelectric power plant, and not more than $75,000 in regrading 

 the El Portal road. There was nothing specifically appropriated for 

 other roads in the park, but they were improved with revenue de- 

 rived from concessions granted, automobile license fees, and from 

 miscellaneous sources. 



The new hydroelectric power plant was an absolute necessity in 

 view of the increasing demands for power, light, and heat for the 

 park concessioners, and it was desirable that this demand be met by 

 the Government because the sale of electric current meant a substan- 

 tial revenue for the park. During the summer of 1913 the late Mr. 

 Henry Floy, electrical engineer, of New York, and sometime in- 

 spector of the Interior Department, made a careful study of this 

 hydroelectric power project, and it was largely his able presentation 

 of the results of his study of this project before the Committee on 

 Appropriations that gained for it favorable consideration. The new 

 plant is now in the course of construction. 



In general it may be said that power plants, water and sanitation 

 systems, and telephone lines in national parks should be owned and 

 controlled by the Government. Their construction by the Govern- 

 ment relieves the concessioner from the necessity of investing in these 

 69006 16 3 



