UNFAMILIAR SCENES IN NATIONAL PARKS 



BY HERBERT W. GLEASON 



^TVTHY do you keep speaking about the 'National 

 ** Parks' ? I didn't know there was more than one." 

 Such was the remark to the writer by a man of unusual 

 intelligence, who although he was well informed as to 

 many matters of public importance, had somehow over- 

 looked the development of the national park system of 

 this country. It was a genuine surprise to him to be 

 told that there were no less than nineteen national parks 

 already created, with several more in prospect, besides 

 thirty-six national monuments which are also, in effect, 

 national parks. 



It should be said, however, in all fairness that not 

 until within the past four years, since the establishment 

 of the National Park Service, has there been any thorough 

 and systematic effort made to acquaint the public in gen- 

 eral with the facts regarding our national parks. Before 

 that time it was left almost wholly to the railroads to 

 advertise the national parks ; and as their object 

 was chiefly financial profiit, each railroad was concerned 

 to advertise only the one or two parks within reach of 

 its own line. A new era of information and development 

 succeeded the inauguration of the National Park Service, 



Courtesy of National Park Service 



A NATIONAL PARK IN THE EAST 



' 



Popular impression is that all the National Parks are in the West, but here is a view in Lafayette National Park, in Maine. 

 The tourists are standing on Summit Beach Cliff, from the top of which there is a view well worth the climb. 



And it is to be feared that this is not a solitary instance 

 of lack of knowledge. Only recently the writer was 

 addressing a large audience of cultivated New England 

 people, and asked how many of those present knew the 

 location of Lafayette National Park. Not a single hand 

 was raised in reply. Yet Lafayette Park is the only 

 national park in New England ; its origin, in the gifts 

 of land by public-spirited residents of Mt. Desert Island 

 off the coast of Maine, and its creation by act of Congress 

 had been duly noted in the public press, and various per- 

 iodicals had reproduced numerous illustrations of its 

 scenic beauty. 



and the past four years have witnessed an amazing prog- 

 ress in both of these directions. In fact, as a direct result 

 of the propaganda issued by the Service and the efforts 

 put forth to make the parks more readily accessible, our 

 national park system has come to hold a large place in 

 the estimation of the public, and the number of visitors 

 annually has increased beyond all expectation. The fol- 

 lowing figures taken from the last report of the Director 

 of the National Park Service, giving the amounts appro- 

 priated by Congress for several of the larger parks in 

 1916 and again in 1921, and the number of visitors to the 

 same parks in 1916 and in 1920, are highly suggestive: 



