DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 



OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY 



GLIMPSES OF OUR NATIONAL PARKS 



By Robert Sterling Yard 



I. 

 CHARACTERISTICS 



THE national parks are areas which Congress has set apart, because 

 of extraordinary scenic beauty, remarkable phenomena or other 

 unusual qualification, for the use. and enjoyment of the people for 

 all time. They are administered by the Department of the Interior. 



These are not parks in the common meaning of the word. They are 

 not beautiful tracts of cultivated country with smooth lawns and 

 winding paths like Central Park in New York, or Lincoln Park in 

 Chicago, or Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. They are, on the 

 contrary, large areas which nature, not man, has made beautiful 

 and which the hand of man alters only enough to provide roads to 

 enter them, trails to penetrate their fastnesses, and hotels and camps 

 to live in. 



There are fourteen national parks, of which eight are of the first 

 order of size and scenic magnificence — which means a great deal in 

 a land so beautiful as ours. Every person living in the United 

 States ought to know much about these eight national parks and 

 ought to visit them when possible, for, considered together, they con- 

 tain more features of conspicuous grandeur than are readily accessi- 

 ble in all the rest of the world together; while, considered individu- 

 ally, there are few, if any, celebrated scenic places within easy reach 

 abroad which are not equaled or excelled in America. Even the far- 

 famed Swiss Alps are equaled, and, some travelers believe, excelled 

 by the scenery of several of our own national parks. 



SCENERY OF THE FIRST ORDER 



We have said that in some respects American scenery is unequaled 

 abroad. There are more geysers of large size hi our Yellowstone 

 National Park, for instance, than in all the rest of the world together, 

 the nearest approach being the geyser fields of Iceland and far New 



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