THE NATIONAL PARKS SYSTEM 275 



During the same decade six new National Parks, 

 Hawaii, Lassen Volcanic, Mount McKinley, Grand 

 Canyon, Lafayette, and Zion, have been added to the 

 System, and their initial and increasing attendances 

 are merged into the totals. These new fountains of 

 patronage, for example, account for 8,000 of the 

 total in 1917, 2,000 in 1918, 114,245 in 1919, 139,- 

 307 in 1920, 166,329 in 1921, 200,045 in 1922, 223,- 

 458 in 1923, 253,056 in 1924, 301,500 in 1925, 317,- 

 544 in 1926, and more than 400,000 in 1927. 



The totals therefore cannot be understood to 

 represent increase either in park popularity or in 

 motor touring. If we assume, for example, that at- 

 tendance in all National Parks should decrease, the 

 totals for the System nevertheless might still in- 

 crease annually provided that meantime enough rec- 

 reational areas of established patronage should be 

 added to more than offset losses. To predict such 

 an occurrence would, of course, be absurd, but the 

 point is worth making to warn us of the danger of 

 inferring much from unanalyzed statistics. 



It should be understood also that these increases 

 include figures for several parks which differ so 

 widely from standard parks as to make inclusion 

 misleading. Hot Springs, for example, draws pat- 

 ronage for its bath houses. Platt, acting as city 

 park to the adjoining city of Sulphur, draws inci- 

 dental crowds wholly uncharacteristic. Wind Cave 

 is the picnic terminal for a great surrounding coun- 

 try of farms. 



