142 OUR FEDERAL LANDS 



recreational use first attained sufficient importance 

 to secure a seven line paragraph in the Forester's 

 annual report, 814 summer residences, 26 hotels and 

 28 summer resorts were noted. No report was made 

 the following year, but in his report for 1919, Henry 

 S. Graves, Forester, emphasized the swift prophetic 

 growth in the pleasure use of the forests, and the 

 need of a comprehensive study of their recreational 

 resources. He concluded: 



"In short, the national forests, which must be 

 administered with a view to recreation use as one of 

 their major functions, cannot carry out that function 

 in fullest measure except through co-operative rela- 

 tions with other agencies in the same field, resulting 

 in joint effort under a truly national and common 

 policy." 



When these words were written, already New 

 York, Pennsylvania and other states were develop- 

 ing extensive wild park systems, the National Parks 

 movement was in full swing, the road building era 

 was well started, automobile touring was taking hun- 

 dreds of thousands into the country's many wilder- 

 nesses, and wild life conservation had caught the 

 ears and enlisted the sympathies of millions. 



This first call for national co-operation in out- 

 door recreation assumed the proportion of a trumpet 

 call. The nation was ready, and the first steps to- 

 ward organization followed closely. In the surpris- 

 ingly short interval of four and a half years, in May, 

 1924, was organized in Washington the National 



