THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR, WASHINGTON 



April 9, 1918. 



Dear Mr. Sherley: 



I write to ask your favorable consideration of the estimate of 

 fifty thousand dollars I have entered among the National Park 

 estimates for the ensuing year for the improvement and protec- 

 tion of the Sieur de Monts National Monument on the coast of 

 Maine. 



I decided personally on this estimate after visiting the Monu- 

 ment last summer and making thorough examination during a 

 week's stay into its needs and opportunities as a unit of the 

 National Park system. It is a true park area in the highest 

 sense, totally different from any other that we have and ca- 

 pable of giving untold refreshment to the great town and city 

 populations of our country to the eastward of the Mississippi. 

 It is the only National park — using the word in its descriptive 

 sense — that fronts upon the sea, and it represents at its cul- 

 minating point one of the oldest and most important recreation 

 areas upon the Continent — the New England coast. 



It is a tract of extraordinary variety and interest, a bold moun- 

 tain chain compressed within the limits of an island fifteen miles 

 across — though seventy or eighty in its ocean frontage. A dozen 

 or more separate peaks, deeply divided by lakes and gorges and 

 an ocean inlet, make up this chain. The most beautiful woods 

 remaining on that coast — once famous for its timber — lie 

 round the mountain bases. 



The lands constituting the Monument have been for over 

 sixty years the object of resort from all the great Eastern cities, 

 from Southern ones extending to New Orleans, and Central ones 

 to St. Louis. Now, over fifty thousand people visit the Monu- 

 ment each summer, making it third among the National Park 

 areas in the number of its visitors. Placed as it is in relation to 

 the great Eastern population centers, and equally accessible by 

 boat and motor as by train, this number may readily be doubled 

 within a few years' time by right development. 



The Monument was made possible by the gift of citizens, and 

 it has been generously added to since its creation. 



