238 FOREST OUTINGS 



want to experience for a while the zest of frontier living. The explorer seeks 

 to enrich geographic knowledge of this new land. The high mountains and 

 the unique game animals challenge the mountaineer and the big-game 

 hunter. The motion-picture and still-camera enthusiasts and the painter 

 are attracted by the scenery and wildlife. The student and the expert in 

 natural sciences come to study the native races, wildlife, rocks, glaciers, 

 volcanoes, northern flora, and many other subjects in this little-explored 

 land. Such present and prospective visitors are but a small fraction of the 

 thousands of forest visitors in the States. But they come here thinking, and 

 what they have to say in their various ways, reflectively, from without, may 

 make in time a real contribution to land-use planning in Alaska. 



If this wilderness land is to be more widely used by the people, better 

 facilities than now exist must be provided to bring them here and to care 

 for their wants in town and field. Two bottlenecks now discourage stopover 

 visitors. The first is insufficient steamship service during the summer season. 

 The number of round-trip tourists seeking accommodations is so large that 

 the transportation companies can readily fill their ships to capacity with 

 this class of travelers. Stopover visitors then have great difficulty in obtaining 

 return passage unless arrangements are made months ahead and strictly 

 adhered to. The second serious obstacle is the lack of sufficient first-class 

 hotel accommodations in many ports near entrances to wilderness areas. 

 Interrelated, these difficulties will, no doubt, have to be solved together as 

 parts of the same problem. They are, perhaps, matters that must be left 

 to private initiative. 



The Federal Government is building roads and trails, but more than 

 that is needed. There should be simple but comfortable lodges adapted 

 primarily to water trips, transportation from steamship ports to these lodges, 

 and guide service for the back country. Planned trips for small parties could 

 be arranged by the operators of these lodges, combining trout fishing, seeing 

 the Alaska brown bear, clamming, sea fishing, visits to an Indian village, 

 and to glaciers. Areas of national-forest land suitable for lodges and per- 

 manent camps can now be leased, provided the facilities are so located and 

 the business so conducted that the natural beauty of this new land is not 

 defaced and defiled. 



