National Park Notes 



323 



the lower Waterwheel Falls down the Tuolumne Canon, approximately ten 

 miles, to Pate Valley, and one from Pate Valley up Piute Creek to connect with 

 the northern system. 



SEQUOIA 



Many notable achievements in various lines of activity have marked the year's 

 operations in Sequoia National Park. The administrative and protective forces 

 have been reorganized; better facilities for transacting Government business 

 at summer headquarters in the Giant Forest have been established; roads and 

 trails have been kept in a better state of repair than usual, and there have been 

 extensions of the road and trail systems; construction work on the important 

 Middle Fork road project has been started; and more of the private holdings 

 in the park have been extinguished through purchase and donation to the 

 United States. 



The funds made available for the park for the current fiscal year amounted 

 to $86,000, but $50,000 of this appropriation was granted for building part of 

 the Middle Fork road from the valley of the Middle Fork of the Kaweah 

 River toward the Giant Forest. This left only $36,000, the usual appropriation 

 of the park, for all other items of administration, protection, maintenance, and 

 improvement, a sum altogether inadequate to cover the ever-increasing needs 

 of the park arising from enormous increase in volume of tourist travel. It is 

 remarkable that with this small amount of money so much has been accom- 

 plished this year. It is interesting to note that in 19 12, when 2923 people 

 visited the park, the appropriation was $15,550, and the revenue amounted to 

 only $305.16, while in 192 1, exclusive of the $50,000 new construction fund, 

 the appropriation was $36,000, and the revenues in excess of $20,000. In 1912, 

 however, the revenues could be expended in the park, while now they must be 

 deposited in the Treasury to the credit of miscellaneous receipts. 



During the year the so-called Martin tract, an area of 640 acres, a school 

 section acquired from the state and lying in the heart of the park near the 

 Giant Forest, was purchased and donated to the United States, thus extermi- 

 nating private title and restoring the land to Government ownership. From the 

 standpoint of administration and park protection, the acquisition of this tract 

 was exceedingly important, as sooner or later, had the land remained in private 

 ownership, it would have been cut up into lots and made the scene of a sum- 

 mer-home development such as the Wilsonia project in the heart of General 

 Grant Park, which has not only raised serious problems of administration, but 

 ^as more or less desecrated the park. The Martin tract was transferred to the 

 Government through the National Geographic Society, which aided in the pur- 

 chase of the land and which has for years taken a leading part in the saving 

 of the big trees of the Giant Forest region. 



PROPOSED ROOSEVELT-SEQUOIA EXTENSION 



This big-tree park of 252 square miles embraces not only Sequoia forests, but 

 the lower fringe of one of the finest alpine regions of America. When rounded 

 out by the inclusion of a thousand square miles of additional mountain terri- 

 tory, as provided in H. R. 7452, now pending in Congress, and providing for 

 the creation of the Roosevelt-Sequoia National Park, this park will perhaps * 

 equal the Yosemite and Yellowstone in attendance, as it will in beauty. The 



