484 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



river front has been an eyesore. Industries back up to 

 it and in many cases encroached upon the channel. There 

 was hardly a front door on the whole river bank and a 

 strictly utilitarian population for generations regarded 

 the river as a natural dump. 



"There was a general awakening of public taste in 

 a large section of the community, and many citizens 

 began to realize that in her river Hamilton had a great, 

 utilized opportunity for civic beauty and recreation. A 

 Park Commission, composed of three leading business 

 men, was named and George E. Kessler, the landscape 

 architect, was called in. Mr. Kessler pronounced the 

 situation ideal for development and his studies eventuated 

 in a comprehensive plan for an encircling boulevard, 

 with levees at some points, and two large parks to be 



connected by the driveways. It was estimated that under 

 the scale of costs obtaining at that time the whole im- 

 provement could be carried out for $400,000, but the 

 development of public taste and civic spirit had not been 

 sufficiently general, and the bond issue was voted down 

 overwhelmingly. 



"In March, 191 3, Hamilton, in common with other 

 towns of the Miami Valley, was swept by flood. So great 

 was the loss of property and life that the counties of the 

 Valley banded together resolved to make the Valley for- 

 ever free from the menace. The Miami Conservancy 

 District was organized and a flood prevention project 

 estimated to cost about $23,000,000, was undertaken and 

 is now more than sixty per cent completed. Arthur E. 

 Morgan, of Memphis, whose protective works in the 



Underwood and Underwood 



THE ROAD TO THE CROSS 



.The cross on Mount Rubidoux. ncir Riverside, California, in memory of Tunipera Serra, founder of California missions, has made the way to the 

 top a virtual Road of Remembrance, ' showing that such memorials need not be confined to world war heroes. 



