6 THE NATIONAL PARK SERVICE 



the springs "shall be reserved for the future disposal of the 

 United States," and makes no mention of the preservation 

 of natural curiosities in their original state, the protection 

 of wild life, the public pleasure-ground feature, or of any 

 of the elements of the national park idea; and as a matter of 

 fact Congress had no such idea in mind when it set the Hot 

 Springs area aside. Reservation to prevent private exploita- 

 tion was its only thought. 



It may be argued that this was precisely the thought back 

 of the setting aside of the Yellowstone. But there was this 

 difference: Hot Springs represented mere reservation, Yel- 

 lowstone represented reservation plus development toward a 

 particular end, — the working out of the national park idea. 



After the Yellowstone was established the two areas were 

 administered together in the office of the Secretary of the 

 Interior. As other parks were established from time to time — 

 fourteen ^ were created betweeA the founding of the Yellow- 

 stone and the establishment of the National Park Service in 

 April, 1917 — they were grouped for administrative pur- 

 poses with Yellowstone and Hot Springs, and they came to be 

 spoken of collectively as the National Parks and the Hot 

 Springs Reservation. They continued to be so referred to 

 even after the creation of the National Park Service in 19 16, 

 Hot Springs being called a reservation until the passage of the 

 sundry civil appropriation act for 1 921, in which a clause was 

 inserted providing that it should thenceforth be known as "Hot 

 Springs National Park" (Act of March 4, 1921 ; 41 Stat. L., 

 1407). As a matter of fact, the real status of Hot Springs, 

 until the time at least of the creation of the Yellowstone, was 

 less that of one of the national parks than of one of the national 

 monuments, of which there are at present twenty- four in the 

 national park system, twenty of which had been created prior 

 to the organization of the National Park Service. Detailed 

 reference to the monuments is made below. 



''Including one park, Casa Grande, which was later given monu- 

 ment status. 



