Report on King's River Canon and Vicinity. 127 



Every now and then the view is expressed in print that the 

 reserves are likely to be run more and more for merely com- 

 mercial reasons. On the contrary, as I wish to point out, the 

 reserves are able to develop a large income from timber and 

 grazing resources, and therefore are especially well fitted to 

 maintain and improve suitable tourist areas in wild regions 

 unfit for commerce. In looking at these things, we must utilize 

 the trained imagination so as to understand what fifty years of 

 growth will do for the Sierra. 



A park within a reserve would virtually be a case of divided 

 authority, and it is not seriously proposed by any one. The 

 whole reserve idea is based on the preservation of natural beau- 

 ties, as well as on the wise development of commercial enter- 

 prises. 



It seems to me especially desirable to have all the tourist ele- 

 ments brought closer together, allotted local areas, and made 

 more definitely responsible for the results. I do not now refer 

 to the thousands of campers and cottagers who more and more 

 gather each summer in the timber belt or about cattle camps or 

 near sawmills, or here and there by little meadows. These people 

 come from the valley, and really become a part of the daily 

 life of the reserve, sometimes for many months. But the country 

 that Stewart Edward White writes of in "The Pass," that Muir, 

 Le Conte, and all the rest of your Club have cHmbed over, can 

 be made to belong to those whose vacations are brief and whose 

 organization is of a higher type. It will be a sad day for the 

 Sierra Forest Reserve if its officers ever lose the good will and 

 hearty co-operation which the Sierra Club and kindred bodies 

 have ever given. 



Very sincerely, 



Charles H. Shinn, 

 Supervisor Sierra (N) Reserve. 



