State Parks of Wisconsin 



III. REQUIREMENTS OF STATE PARKS 



State Parks, like other parks, have definite purposes to serve and 

 therefore should have definite requirements. Their main purpose is 

 to refresh and strengthen and renew tired people, to fit them for the 

 common round of daily life. Practically National Parks have a 

 similar purpose, but on account of their limited number and location 

 they are available only to persons living in certain sections or to the 

 few people who can afford the time and money necessary for a long 

 journey. The City Parks may be thought to serve this purpose also, 

 but it is not to any great degree. In the first place, only large cities 

 can afford large parks and even then they are too small, as a rule, for 

 broad scenic effects; secondly, cities are located for commercial, 

 business or transportation reasons and seldom possess invigorating 

 climate or natural features of special beauty or interest, — or, if they 

 do, the demands of commerce are such, or are thought to be, that the 

 preservation of these features is not considered practicable. Apply 

 these statements to Wisconsin. There would be little justification 

 for establishing a National Park in Wisconsin ; within the State at 

 the present time there is but one city with a population of over 

 50,000; the largest park in the State is only a few hundred acres and 

 all the parks of the State together contain but little over a thousand 



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