National Parks Bulletin 
THEIR “INCOMPARABLE SCENIC GRANDEUR 
“ Areas Whose Principal Qualification is Adaptability for Recreation 
are Not of National Park Calibre” 
By Stephen T. Mather 
Director of the National Park Service 
T HE national park system of the United States is 
unique both in its scenic exhibits and in the ex- 
ceedingly high standards by which each candidate for 
admission to the system is judged. As now constituted, 
it is made up of areas of incomparable scenic grandeur. 
Each of the major national parks was selected for park- 
hood because of some distinctive feature, either scenic or 
prehistoric, which is of national importance and interest. 
Under the policy governing the establishment of national 
parks, only one area of a particular type is considered 
for inclusion in the system, and each' area selected must 
represent the highest example of its particular type. 
“Requirements Are Exacting” 
The scenic supremacy of an area alone is not sufficient 
to gain it admission into the national park system. It 
must also be susceptible of whatever development is 
necessary to make it available for use by the millions of 
park visitors who may care to use it, without injuring 
in any way the extraordinary natural features which, 
under the expressed command of Congress, the National 
Park Service is to preserve “unimpaired for the enjoy- 
ment of future generations.” 
Areas whose principal qualification is adaptability for 
recreational uses are not, of course, of national park 
caliber. 
Proposed parks are measured by the standards set by 
the major national parks of the system; hence the re- 
quirements are exacting. As long as these standards 
shall prevail there is no danger of too many national 
parks being established, or of the excellence of the pres- 
ent system being lowered. 
A STATE PARK, INSTEAD 
North Dakota Offers an Example which can 
Profitably be Followed in the East 
T HROUGH promotion of the State Park Conference, 
the area in North Dakota proposed for the Roose- 
velt Memorial National Park is likely to be made a 
State. Park instead. One of the most vividly colored 
examples of the Bad Lands, highly scenic, possessed of 
unusual recreational values, nevertheless it lacks the 
quality of supreme beauty required by National Park 
standards; and several years of persistent effort on the 
part of its promoters have occasioned much worry to de- 
fenders of the National Parks System, who feared that 
its creation as a national park would tend to break 
down protective barriers. 
Public Sentiment Backing State Parks 
According to “State Recreation,” Governor Sorlie 
will investigate the possibilities of acquiring the area 
for a state park, toward which local sentiment is rapidly 
turning. This wholesome solution was largely helped by 
the example of South Dakota in creating Custer State 
Park in the scenically finest area of the Black Hills. 
The conference with Governor Sorlie, says the organ of 
the State Park Conference, “was arranged by Mr. E, 
Danielson, of Minot, President of the Greater Noi 
Dakota Association, and by Mr. James C. Milloy, 
Fargo, Secretary of the same association. Others | 
took part were Professor 0. G. Libby, Secretary of I 
North Dakota Historical Society of Grand Porks, a 
the Field Secretary of the National Conference on St 
Parks. Congressman J. H. Sinclair, representing t 
district including the Bad Lands, who has present 
bills in Congress for a National Park, also was presi 
at later discussions. 
“Governor Sorlie agreed to appoint a committee 
act for the State, and Congressman Sinclair promt 
his aid in Washington, looking to transfer of the rema: 
ing Federal lands to a State preserve.” 
Good Example for the East 
North Dakota’s example may well be followed by pi 
moters of eastern national park projects, almost eve; 
one of which falls short of the incomparable scei 
grandeur and other standards of the National Pat 
System. It is the opinion of many that a State park' 
distinction serves its State better than a national pai 
for whose lack of the necessary special standards 1 
country is obliged always to apologize. 
Besides, the day of the State Park has dawned. Stal 
are ranking today by their number, size and important 
A NATIONAL PARK CREED 
By John C. Merriam 
President Carnegie Institution of Washington 
W hile the National Parks serve in an important 
sense as recreation areas, their primary uses extend 
far into that fundamental education which concerns 
real appreciation of nature. Here beauty in its 
truest sense receives expression and exerts its in- 
fluence along with recreation and formal educa- 
tion. To me the parks are not merely places to 
rest and exercise and learn. They are regions 
where one looks through the veil to meet the reali- 
ties of nature and of the unfathomable power 
behind it. 
I cannot say what worship) really is — nor am I 
sure that others will do better — but often in tht 
parks, I remember Bryank’s lines, “Why should 
we, in the world ’s riper years, neglect God ’s ancienit 
sanctuaries, and adore only among the crowd, anil 
under roofs that our frail hands have raised?! 
National Parks represent opportunities for wor- 
ship through which one comes to understand morj 
fully certain of the attributes of nature and ill 
Creator. They are not objects to be worshipped 
but they are altars over which we may worship. 
