HISTORY 9 



system in common was enacted during this period except the 

 act for the preservation of American antiquities. There 

 was, moreover, no such thing within the Department of the 

 Interior as a section or division charged with the administra- 

 tion of the park system to the exclusion of everything else. 

 The Patents and Miscellaneous Division, in the office of the 

 Secretary, already occupied with an abundance of other duties, 

 gave such attention to the parks as time could be found for. 

 It cannot be said that such a thing as a park system existed, 

 if the word system be used in the sense of a disciplined, coor- 

 dinated unit. Every park was in a very real sense a law unto 

 itself, and the parks were more of a conglomeration at this 

 time than a system. When the Secretary's office was reor- 

 ganized in 1907, the miscellaneous duties of this division were 

 given to the Miscellaneous Section in the Secretary's office, and 

 the former chief of division was placed in charge of the section 

 as Assistant Attorney. The work of this section embraced, be- 

 sides the management of the parks and monuments, the ad- 

 ministration of Alaska and Hawaii, the care of several elee- 

 mosynary institutions, etc. 



A series of national park conferences held in 191 1, 1912, 

 and 191 5 at the Yellowstone, Yosemite, and Berkeley, Cali- 

 fornia, respectively, and participated in by all the park super- 

 intendents and many of the department officers concerned in 

 park administration, had much to do with bringing about an 

 improved system of park control in the department. * 



The first step in this direction was made in 1913, when 

 Secretary Lane placed the Assistant to the Secretary in gen- 

 eral charge of park administration. This was followed, June 

 5, 1914, by the appointment of a General Superintendent and 

 Landscape Engineer of the national parks, to reside at San 

 Francisco and have general supervision over all the park super- 

 intendents. Thereafter a still further advance was made when 



* A fourth conference, held in Washington, January 2-6, 1917, was 

 in the nature of a celebration of the success of the movement for 

 a national park service. 



