NATIONAL PARK NOTES 



National Parks — ^The Federal Policy, Past and Future* 

 To My Fellow-Members of the Sierra Club: 



At the request of Mr. William E. Colby, your secretary, I am glad to 

 give you a statement for the Sierra Club Bulletin of my stewardship 

 over the National Parks during the past year, and something of the 

 plans that the Department of the Interior has outlined for the coming 

 year. 



The Yosemite National Park, in which the Sierra Club is more vital- 

 ly interested than any of the others, has seen much interesting develop- 

 ment during the past year. The most important has been securing and 

 rebuilding the old Tioga Road, reaching some forty-five miles across 

 the Park, from the west to the east side. Over $30,000 has been spent 

 during the past season in putting this road in condition, constructing 

 new bridges, putting in culverts, and general surfacing work. It is now 

 passable to automobiles and is already an important link in the trans- 

 continental travel, besides opening up portions of the Park that have 

 hitherto been practically inaccessible to the ordinary tourist. The devel- 

 opment of the road has been accompanied by close co-operation with 

 State Engineer W. F. McClure. The State purchased the east and west 

 ends of the Tioga Road and Mr. McClure promptly went ahead with the 

 necessary work to put these sections into good condition, which made it 

 possible to open up the whole road by the twenty-eighth of July last. In 

 the estimates of appropriations for the coming year the Department of the 

 Interior is asking for $75,000 for the further improvement of the Tioga 

 Road. If Congress makes this appropriation the Department will arrange 

 for regrading a number of points along the road, particularly at the 

 crossing of Yosemite Creek. With the additional work which the State 

 intends to do on their portions, the end of next season should make the 

 Tioga road a perfect mountain highway, with grades that any car of 

 moderate power can negotiate, and with scenery along the route that 

 will be the equal of any in the land. 



The Big Oak Flat Road has been purchased by Tuolumne County and 

 the portion within the Park given to the United States by the county 

 authorities. This leaves the Wawona Road as the only toll road in the 

 Park. The State authorities are arranging for the rebuilding of the por- 

 tion of the Big Oak Flat Road outside the Park, and surveys have been 

 made for the relocation at a point where it enters the Park near the 

 Tuolumne Grove of Big Trees. A survey has been made by State and 



* The Assistant to the Secretary of the Interior, Mr. Stephen T. Mather, has 

 kindly written this comprehensive statement at our request. [W. E. C] 



