178 OUR FEDERAL LANDS 



No one has seen the West who has not seen and 

 studied at least one of our national reclamation pro- 

 jects. No one knows beauty till he has seen it 

 wrested from desolation. No Easterner knows the 

 power of earth to produce till he has seen for him- 

 self what these dull sands can bring forth under 

 controlled waters. 



Seen at a little distance, under conditions so sur- 

 prising, in surroundings so unfriendly, these unex- 

 pected bodies of deep water are always inspiring. 

 Close up, it depends upon the season whether they 

 picture beauty or desolation. Before the water is 

 drawn low in summer, Jackson Lake at the foot of 

 the Tetons in Montana may not have lost a great 

 deal from the pristine loveliness which inspired 

 Struthers Burt to call it the American Lake Geneva, 

 and it has gained in size, if size is a gain, and human 

 interest; but in July and especially in August, the 

 horror of broad mucky shores disclosed by retreat- 

 ing waters has made it world-famous for a far dif- 

 ferent reason. 



Shoshone Reservoir on the way into Yellow- 

 stone, Klamath Lake in Oregon, the Salt River Val- 

 ley reservoirs in Arizona, in fact all which lie among 

 hills or mountains, are creations of unusual, perhaps 

 extraordinary beauty, but a different beauty, far, 

 from nature's, a fact which those persons do not 

 comprehend who cite increasing the beauty of nature 

 as a reason for building reservoirs in National Parks. 

 Calling the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir in Yosemite Na- 



