FOREST RECREATION DEPARTMENT 



145 



* 



UNITED STATES FOREST SERVICE REST CABIN PIKE NATIONAL FOREST 



Circulation is not the only problem for the landscape architect in the human use of the Forests. The 

 housing problem or camp development is present too. Here at Timberline on Mount Evans the Service 

 has built a tastily designed and serviceable house where one is welcome to stay over night. Inside arc 

 beds made of rough lumber, cooking utensils 1 and tools bought and placed there by the Colorado 

 Mountain Club, and by the door hangs a Service Traveler's register where each visitor is supposed to 

 put down his name so the total visitors coming here in the season may be counted and added to the total 

 for the Forest, State, or District. 



be emphasized 

 that up to the 

 present moment 

 the artistic pos- 

 s i b i 1 i ties of 

 development in 

 the natural 

 landscape have 

 been almost 

 wholly neglect- 

 ed. Whenever 

 some really ef- 

 fective develop- 

 ment comes it 

 must be expect- 

 ed at the hands 

 of the men 

 who know what 

 landscape is and 

 who, through 

 rigorous train- 

 ing and experi- 

 ence have ac- 

 quired the tech- 

 nical knowledge 

 necessary for 

 the solution of 



such problems. Circulation is of course only one of 

 the technical problems in landscape development, but it 

 is typical of the sort of work which the professional 

 landscape architect ought to be doing in all the terri- 

 tories now being conserved for human enjoyment. 

 Every artist of every sort has not only problems of 

 structural design, but if he is a real artist he must also be 

 capable of offering a spiritual interpretation of his 

 work or of the 

 work of other 

 artists. Inter- 

 pretation is en- 

 tirely clear to 

 us in many of 

 the fine arts. 

 We remember 

 that Hamlet is 

 a very different 

 person when 

 interpreted by 

 Robert Mantell 

 from the Ham- 

 let of Salvini 

 or Otis Skin- 

 ner. Musical 

 interpretation is 

 a high form of 

 musical art and 

 even Beetho- 

 ven's Fifth 

 Symphony is by 



no means the 

 same when ren- 

 dered under 

 S t o k o wski's 

 baton or Dam- 

 rosch's. Quite 

 the same way 

 the big native 

 landscape re- 

 quires interpre- 

 tation. A thor- 

 oughly trained 

 and sympa- 

 thetic landscape 

 artist can see 

 more in the 

 landscape than 

 the common 

 person, and he 

 ought to be 

 capable in 

 some way to 

 co m m unicate 

 his deeper feel- 

 i n g or his 

 broader vision 



ON TRAPPERS LAKE 



Any suggestion for planting a tree here or a bush 

 The landscape arrhirect ha* a vrrv Herinite orogram 



to other per- 

 sons of 'ess training or insight. Quite obviously we are 

 touching here on a matter of extreme difficulty. Yet 

 landscape interpretation ought to be no more difficult 

 than musical or dramatic interpretation. The main dif- 

 ficulty is that the idea is entirely new. It will take us 

 some time yet to produce trained landscape interpreters 

 and for them to find the most effective technique for 

 this branch of the art of landscape architecture. To 



some extent, 

 however, t h e 

 way has al- 

 ready been 

 shown. John 

 Burroughs has 

 long been the 

 unofficial inter- 

 preting natural- 

 ist of this coun- 

 try. The details 

 of landscape 

 trees, flowers, 

 birds he has 

 made seem 

 more vivid, 

 more human 

 and more worth 

 vflh i 1 e . John 

 Muir was the 

 prophet of the 

 larger phases 



of the land- 



there or grading down a little hillock is ridiculous, 

 in his mind with reterence to these larger problems. 



