FOREST RECREATION DEPARTMENT 



Arthur H. Carhart, Editor 



Producing tke Recreation Commodity 



A MOTOR car, stripped of every bit of finish, is a com- 

 ^*- mon sight in almost any community. The driver 

 perches upon the gas tank or a box and the poor nude 

 thing looks like a s])ra\vley giant bug. There is no com- 

 fort about it. no cushions, no top, no body even to hold 

 one in on the curves. 



Such a car is in about the relative shape of the recrea- 

 tion plant of our \ational Forests. It is a motor vehicle, 

 it can be ridden, but there is no production of the real 

 jov of motoring in clinging to the shaky seat with noth- 

 ing to protect the rider from mud. rain, or a spill from his 

 perch. A car in this predicament needs a body, floor, 

 mud guards, a wind shield, cushions, a top, sides, and 

 other things to make it a comfortaljle motor car. The 

 recreation facilities in our forests need improvement to 

 ])roduce recreation as much as the stripped car needs 

 further improvement to produce motoring. 

 ' )r the recreation situation might be likened to a great 



cotton goods factory, which is incomplete. The walls are 

 substantial, the bases for giant machines and looms are 

 all built and fitted with bolts, shafting is ready to carry 

 ])ower from the central plant to all of the machines but 

 there is no chance of a thread of cotton being manufac- 

 tured into something useful because only the foundation 

 is there and there are no spinning machines to i)roduce 

 the cotton fabric. 



Our Forest Recreation Manufacturing plant is lacking 

 in machines to produce recreation fabric. The belting, 

 machine bases, site and structure all exist, but there is a 

 dearth of the units which are essential in manufacturing 

 the recreational commodity. 



For the site we have all forests. For the belting and 

 shafting there is the present road and trail system of 

 the forest. The machine bases are camp, cabin and hotel 

 sites. The structure in which the plant is located is God's 

 woodlands. But the machines are not present and the 



THE CRESTONE NEEDLES-SAN ISABEL FOREST 



Such forest beauties as these are not worth writing of unless there is some real provision made to make them usable. Trails, 

 shelters, protection measures, signs and other recreation producing necessities are needed to make these produce the most possible 



