National Parks 



317 



is under consideration under which new hotel and camps will be 

 provided for the accommodation of tourists in the Yosemite Valley 

 and in the other parks material improvements have been made in 

 the permanent camps and other services. 



One new monument, the Papago Saguaro, was created during the 

 fiscal year. It embraces approximately 2,050 acres of rocky and 

 desert land in Maricopa County, Arizona. Within the tract is found 

 a splendid collection of characteristic desert flora, including many 

 striking examples of giant cactus and other interesting species of 

 cacti, as well as fine examples of the yucca palm. Within the tract 

 historic pictographs may be found upon the faces of the rocks, adding 

 to the interest of the reservation ethnologically and archseologically. 



The supervision of these various monuments has, in the absence 

 of any specific appropriation for their protection and improvement, 

 necessarily been intrusted to the field officers of the department 

 having charge of the territory in which the several monuments are 

 located. 



As stated in the last annual report, the administrative conditions 

 continue to be unsatisfactory, since no appropriation of funds has 

 yet been made available for this important, protective, and preserva- 

 tive work. Such supervision as has been possible in the cases of a 

 few monuments only has been wholly inadequate and has not pre- 

 vented vandalism, imauthorized exploitation or spoiliation of reHcs 

 found in those prehistoric ruins, whose preservation is contem- 

 plated by the passage of the Act of June 8, 1906. An estimate in 

 the sum of $S,ooo for protection of these monuments was submitted 

 last year, but no appropriation was made, and a similar estimate 

 will again be submitted to Congress, not so much for the purpose of 

 preserving by restoration the objects reserved in the national monu- 

 ments as to prevent the removal of valuable relics and vandalism. 

 Monuments suffering from these causes should be provided with a 

 custodian or superintendent, and in this way a small general appro- 

 priation can be made most useful and its expenditure will be wholly 

 in the interest of the public. The protection and preservation of 

 the national monuments as pubHc reservations are of great interest 

 and importance because a great variety of objects, historic, prehis- 

 toric, and scientific in character, are thus preserved for public use 

 intact, instead of being exploited by private individuals for gain and 

 their treasures scattered. These reserves should ' be administered in 

 connection with the national parks, which they strongly resemble. It 

 would be difficult to define one in terms that would exclude the other. 

 The renewal of the estimate for a small appropriation has been made 

 for the purpose of keeping this class of reserves intact until such 

 time as Congress shall authorize the creation of some administra- 

 tive unit which shall take over both the parks and monuments and 

 administer them under a general appropriation. — From the Report of 

 the Secretary of the Interior 



