National Park Notes 



103 



vorable conformation of rugged mountain and sheltered valley, and the 

 nearly perfect protection afforded by the policy and the scientific care of 

 the Government have made this park, since its inauguration in 1872, the 

 natural and inevitable center of game conservation for this Nation. 

 There is something of significance in this. It is the destiny of the nation- 

 al parks, if wisely controlled, to become the public laboratories of nature 

 study for the Nation. And from them specimens may be distributed to 

 the city and State preserves, as is now being done with the elk of the 

 Yellowstone which are too abundant, and may be later with the ante- 

 lope. 



If Congress will but make the funds available for the construction of 

 roads over which automobiles may travel with safety (for all the parks 

 are now open to motors) and for trails to hunt out the hidden places of 

 beauty and dignity, we may expect that year by year these parks will be- 

 come a more precious possession of the people, holding them to the fur- 

 ther discovery of America and making them still prouder of its resour- 

 ces, esthetic as v*rell as material. 



NATIONAL PARKS AND RESERVATIONS 



The creation of the Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, Mon- 

 tana and Idaho by the act of March 1, 1872, marked the beginning of a 

 policy on the part of Congress of setting aside tracts of land as recrea- 

 tion grounds for all the people. Since that time 12 additional national 

 parks have been established in various sections of the country, the latest 

 being the Rocky Mountain National Park, in Colorado, which park was 

 opened to the public last June. The total amount of land embraced in 

 these reservations is 4,665,966.25 acres. To these parks should be added 

 as speedily as possible the Grand Canon of the Colorado River, with its 

 wonderful scenic features. 



Visitors: The interest of the general public in these national parks 

 has been clearly evidenced by the large number of requests for literature 

 regarding them. During the season just closed there has been very 

 marked increases in the number of tourists visiting these national play- 

 grounds. In the Yellowstone National Park in 1914 there were 20,250 

 visitors, and this year two and one-half times as many — 51,895. Yosemite 

 National Park in California had 33,452 visitors during the 1915 season, 

 whereas in 1914 only 15,145 persons visited the park. Again, in Mount 

 Rainier National Park, Wash., there has been an increase in the num- 

 ber of visitors of over 100 per cent — 35,166 in 1915 as against 15,038 in 

 1914. 



Economic value of national parks: Leaving out of consideration the 

 cost to visitors of transportation from their homes to the parks, a fair 

 idea of the economic value of tourist travel in four of the larger parks 

 may be obtained by consideration of the financial reports of concession- 

 ers, which show gross receipts for past seasons in the following approx- 

 imate estimates: Yellowstone National Park in 1912, $1,067,161.34; in 

 1913, $1,186,811.36, and in 1914, $848,688.44. Yosemite National Park in 



