State Parks of Wisconsin 



wild and beautiful places of Nature, and in almost every State of the 

 Union there are places fitted to supply their need and reward their 

 search. It would seem like a clear case of demand and supply. 

 Most of these places are not of such a character as to form National 

 Parks, nor are they so situated as to serve the needs of a single city. 

 The result is, under our present foolish system, that they are either 

 being ruthlessly destroyed or are gradually drifting into private 

 hands for purely private uses. 



Some States, it is true, have appreciated the logic of this situation 

 before it was altogether too late. Massachusetts, ever a leader in 

 matters affecting the common welfare, awoke to the importance of 

 this matter nearly a score of years ago. In 1 892 a body of public- 

 spirited men petitioned the legislature as follows: "The under- 

 signed petitioners respectfully represent that the seashores, the river 

 banks, the mountain tops, and almost all the finest parts of the 

 natural scenery of Massachusetts are possessed by private persons, 

 whose private interests often dictate the destruction of said scener>' 

 or the exclusion of the public from the enjoyment thereof. In the 

 opinion of the undersigned, the scenes of natural beauty to which the 

 people of the Commonwealth are today of right entitled to resort to 

 for pleasure and refreshment are both too few in number and too 

 small in area ; and, therefore, your petitioners respectfully ask that an 

 inquiry be instituted by your honorable bodies for the purpose of as- 

 certaining what action, if any, may be advisable in the circum- 



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