State Parks of Wisconsin 



stances." The inquiry instituted as a result of this petition is full of 

 suggestion and warning to newer or more sparsely settled places. 

 The agent appointed to investigate possible public holdings on the 

 ocean shore, to quote his own words, "found everywhere recent 

 changes in the ownership of land, and a movement of people of 

 means from the cities and the interior of the country to the shore re- 

 gions of the State. I found leagues and leagues together of the 

 shore line to be all private holdings, without the intervention, in these 

 long reaches, of a rod of space on the shore to which the public has a 

 right to go. I walked across the domain of one man who owns 

 about six miles of shore line. I found a great population inland 

 hedged away from the beach, and all conditions pointing to a time, 

 not remote, when nobody can walk by the ocean in Massachusetts 

 without payment of a fee, as we formerly had to pay for a glimpse of 

 Niagara. I could see that the movement for more open spaces of 

 public resort — for the use and enjoyment of the people — has most 

 vital relations to civilization, and that it has been instituted in re- 

 sponse to a pressing need." Resulting from this and similar move- 

 ments Massachusetts has already acquired large and valuable hold- 

 ings, first, through direct action of the State appropriating money for 

 the purchase of park lands ; secondly, through State appointed com- 

 missions, like the Metropolitan Park Commission; and, thirdly, 

 through the creation of a Board entitled the Trustees of Public 

 Reservations. The holdings thus secured of mountain tops, lakes, 



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