State Parks of Wisconsin 



time in this important matter, recognizing and providing for the in- 

 crease of population and steadfastly relying upon the increase of 

 wealth. 



In conclusion the specific justification of State Parks for Wiscon- 

 sin may be summed up as follows: ( 1 ) They would, in common 

 with the forest reservations, the great economic value of which is now 

 unquestioned, preserve and protect just so much more of the wood- 

 land of the State and the stream flow dependent upon it. (2) They 

 would provide the best method of preserving places of historical and 

 scientific interest. (3) They would secure a necessity of modem 

 life before it is too late. The Earl of Kenmare owns all of the lakes 

 of Killamey, all of the land that surrounds them, all of the islands 

 of or in the same, the fisheries of said lakes, and all the mountains 

 round about, comprising in all a million acres. Wisconsin fortun- 

 ately has nothing to parallel such private ownership as this, but Lake 

 Geneva, the Oconomowoc- Waukesha Lake District, and other 

 places of peculiar beauty are rapidly passing into exclusive private 

 use and the time for action in Wisconsin has arrived. It is already 

 too late in many of the Eastern States. The agent of the Massa- 

 chusetts Trustees of Public Reservations, earlier referred to, describ- 

 ing a visit to Gloucester, says: "There is no public holding along 

 this very attractive shore and the public has no right whatever even 

 to walk by the sea here. I spent a summer at East Gloucester twen- 

 ty-five years ago, and where I passed weeks in solitude on the shore, 



[39] 



