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guard furnished by the CCC. It is natural that the far western forests 

 should contribute to any discussion of a general policy on this problem hearty 

 wishes to keep the facilities as simple as possible. 



For see what it involves, anywhere, East or West, the development and 

 maintenance of some modern equivalent to the old swimming hole in a 

 public forest: It is not just a matter of keeping the water sanitary. If you 

 are going to concentrate bathing or swimming at some ordinarily safe place, 

 rather than let people scatter and try it almost anywhere, you must provide 

 some decent shelters where men and women may put on their own (or rented 

 and sterilized) bathing suits; and where they can reassume civilized garb 

 with a decent degree of supervised separation afterwards. Present appro- 

 priations do not allow for this at most of the many natural watering places 

 on our national forests or for trained and watchful lifeguards to rescue people 

 from drowning. 



The easy way, on paper, is simply to close the new watering places to 

 swimming. But to post signs does not really close these watering places, and 

 it is a question whether safer places should be posted: Keep Out. The 

 people, especially the wilder youngsters, don't keep out, and a certain 

 number of them drown each year. 



But this, and many other questions which affect the life, limb, and spirit 

 of Americans seeking outings must be met. The need behind this increasing 

 rush into the open is actual and urgent. It must be met, and governed, in 

 some degree. The hard times which followed the lush times of the early 

 1920's did not notably reduce the pressure on outdoor recreational sites and 

 facilities. In many places, where such recreation was cheap or was free, the 

 load increased. Distressed farmers and tradesmen from the middle country 

 and High Plains bought more gas from many a filling station on the main 

 routes to the Rockies and the Coast in the lean early thirties than ever before. 



The plain truth is that forest recreational facilities have been extended 

 under the push of a constant, driving, increasing demand. This has been 

 done mainly by the willing aid of relief labor. Much has been done but it 

 falls far short of meeting the peak loads and the immediate prospect of an 

 increasing human use. The recreational plant or equipment is overextended 

 in point of existing appropriations and in point of the time required of the 



