National Parks as an Asset' 



By Hon. Franklin K. Lane, Secretary of the Interior. 



THE United States furnishes playgrounds to the 

 people of this country which are, we may 

 modestly state, without any rivals in the world. 

 Just as the cities are seeing the wisdom and the necessity 

 of open spaces for the children, so, with a very large 

 view, the nation has been saving from its domain the 

 rarest places of grandeur and beauty for the enjoyment 

 of the world. 



And this fact has been discovered by many only this 

 year. Having an incentive in the expositions on the 

 Pacific coast, and Europe being closed, thousands have 

 for the first time , 

 crossed the continent 

 and seen one or more 

 of the national parks. 

 That such mountains 

 and glaciers, lakes and 

 canyons, forests and 

 waterfalls were to be 

 found in this country 

 was a revelation to 

 many, who had heard 

 but had not believed. 

 It would appear from 

 the experience of this 

 year that the real awak- 

 ening as to the value 

 of these parks has at 

 last been realized, and 

 that those who have 

 hitherto found them- 

 selves enticed by the 

 beauty of the Alps and 

 the Rhine and the soft 

 loveliness of the valleys 

 of France, may find 

 equal if not more stim- 

 ulating satisfaction inthe mountains, rivers, and valleys 

 which this Government has set apart for them and for 

 all others. 



It may reconcile those who think that money expended 

 upon such luxuries is wasted if any such there are to 

 be told that the sober-minded traffic men of the railroads 

 estimate that this year more than a hundred million 

 dollars usually spent in European travel was divided 

 among the roalroads, hotels, and their supporting enter- 

 prises in this country. 



During the year a new national park of distinction 

 and unusual accessibility has come into existence. It 

 crosses the Rockies in Colorado at a point of supreme 

 magnificence; hence its title, the Rocky Mountain 



HON. FRANKLIN K. LANE 

 Secretary of the Interior. 



National Park. Through it, from north to south, winds 

 the Continental Divide the Snowy Range in name and 

 fact. Two hundred lakes grace this rocky paradise, and 

 bear and bighorn inhabit its fastnesses. It has an area 

 of 350 square miles and lies only 70 miles from Denver 

 Many hotels lie at the feet of these mountains and three 

 railroads skirt their sides. 



This is Colorado's second national park, the other 

 being Mesa Verde, where this department, with the assist- 

 ance of Dr. Jesse Walter Fewkes, of the Smithsonian 

 Institution, has uncovered during the last summer prehis- 

 toric ruins of unpre- 

 cedented scientific in- 

 terest. 



Oregon has but re- 

 cently completed a 

 great highway along 

 the Columbia River. 

 This should be con- 

 nected by road with 

 Mount Hood and a 

 portion of the present 

 forest reserve convert- 

 ed into a park. The 

 limits of Sequoia Park, 

 in California, the home 

 of the great redwoods, 

 should be so extended 

 as to include the Kern 

 River Canyon, a most 

 practicable project to- 

 day ; but tomorrow 

 may be too late, be- 

 cause of the lumber 

 interests. The Grand 

 Canyon is not yet part 

 of the park system, al- 

 though as part of a national forest it comes under the 

 control of the Department of Agriculture. 



There is no reason why this nation should not make 

 its public health and scenic domain as available to all its 

 citizens as Switzerland and Italy make theirs. The aim 

 is to open them thoroughly by road and trail and give 

 access and accommodation to every degree of income. 

 In this belief an effort has been made this year as never 

 before to outfit the parks with new hotels which should 

 make the visitor desire to linger rather than hasten on 

 his journey. One hotel was built on Lake McDermott, in 

 Glacier Park, one is to be built immediately on the 

 shoulder of Mount Ranier, in Paradise Valley, another 

 in the valley of the Yosemite, with an annex high over- 



'Krom Secretary Lane's annual report to Congress. 

 22 



