NATIONAL PARK NOTES 



Annual Report op the Director of the National Park Service 

 The annual report of the Director of the National Park Service for 1920 may 

 be obtained upon request from the National Park Service, Department of the 

 Interior, Washington, D. C. 



It is well worth obtaining and reading with care, for it contains much that 

 is of vital interest to every lover of the mountains. One cannot read this report 

 without feeling thankful that we began to preserve these park areas in time. 

 The statistics and facts show that they are being regarded as a valuable and 

 necessary element in our national life by rapidly increasing numbers of people 

 who find in these public parks unequaled opportunities for healthful recrea- 

 tion, education, and enjoyment. 



It is a temptation to quote liberally from this report, but as the volume itself 

 is so easy to obtain, only a few figures and passages concerning the parks 

 that come within the ordinary range of Sierra Club members are touched 

 upon in these notes. The following paragraphs are quoted or abridged from 

 the report : 



One outstanding feature of the year's achievements undoubtedly is the fact 

 that, while trying economic conditions throughout the country, inflated valua- 

 tions, increased prices of labor and materials have caused disturbances in every 

 line of human activity and contributed to the general unrest of the masses, our 

 people have turned to the national parks for health, happiness, and a saner 

 view of life. Our final returns show that the volume of tourist travel to our 

 national parks and monuments this year exceeded the million mark. The total 

 for 1920 was 1,058,455, as compared with 811,516 for 1919 and 356,097 for 

 1916. In the last analysis, this travel is the deciding factor as to whether or 

 not the parks are measuring up to the high standard that has been set for them 

 and all that is being said about them as the great recreational and pleasure 

 grounds of the American people. Our travel figures indicate that our people 

 have enthusiastically and spontaneously accepted these national wonderlands 

 as their own. They are taking a personal interest in them. They are using 

 them. 



But it is at this time, when the national parks are entering upon their period 

 of greatest usefulness, that they are confronted with dangers that threaten 

 their very existence. The most determined efforts are being made, and will 

 continue to be made, by private irrigation and water-power interests to invade 

 the sanctity of these great areas reserved from the national domain solely be- 

 cause of their matchless scenic exhibits. It is primarily toward the utilization 

 of their wonderful lakes, rivers, and spectacular waterfalls that their efforts are 

 directed, and we are squarely face to face with the fact that the whole na- 

 tional-park system is facing a grave crisis, where a single false step would be 

 irremediable. 



