12 
PARK AND CEMETERY 
other large scenic park. The village of 
Estes Park, just outside of its boundaries, 
and large resorts situated near the park, 
were taxed to their maximum capacity 
throughout the season. There was a scar- 
city of accommodations of all kinds. Au- 
tomobile service appears to have been 
the only necessary service which was 
adequate to meet all demands, and it 
is understood that the transportation 
company operating this service out of 
Denver, Boulder, Loveland, Longmont, 
Lyons and other cities on numerous 
occasions was compelled to decline to car- 
ry passengers to the park because of in- 
sufficient hotel and camp accommodations 
in Estes Park and in Rocky iMountain 
Park itself. I am reliably informed that, 
prior to the opening of the 1917 season, 
large additions to several of the larger 
hotels will have been constructed, and that 
these will be adequate for the anticipated 
heavy travel. This season’s extraordinary 
increase was not foreseen and could hardly 
have been anticipated. 
Beyond the work of maintaining the 
trail system and telephone lines, the depart- 
ment has been unable to undertake any im- 
provement of this park. A clause in the 
organic act establishing this park inhibits 
the appropriation of more than $10,000 an- 
nually for its administration, protection 
and improvement. This sum is just suffi- 
cient to administer and protect it. Before 
its improvement is undertaken, therefore, 
this inhibition on the amount which may be 
appropriated each year must be removed. 
Senate bill 6854, introduced by Senator 
Shafroth, of Colorado, is designed to ac- 
complish this end, but it has not had the 
consideration of either house or Congress. 
The revenues of the park are turned into 
the miscellaneous receipts of the treasury. 
Some years ago, the state of Colorado 
undertook the construction of a road 
across the Continental Divide from Estes 
Park to Grand Lake by way of Eall River 
and Milner Pass, but the road has never 
been completed. The state, however, is 
continuing to build a few miles of the 
highway each year. Until this road is 
completed by the state, and other improve- 
ments are made by the Federal Govern- 
ment, visitors to this splendid scenic park 
will find it accessible only to persons ac- 
customed to foot or horseback travel on 
the trails. 
House bill 10124, now pending in the 
Senate, provides for the addition to the 
Rocky Mountain National Park of a num- 
ber of scenic tracts, including Twin Sisters, 
Deer Mountain, Gem Lake and The 
Needles. Should this measure be enacted, 
the east boundary of the park will be 
brought very close to the city limits of 
Estes Park. 
The season of 1916 brought an increase 
in travel to Hot Springs Reservation in 
the Ozarks of Arkansas, and, as might be 
expected, an increase also in the indigent 
sick who became at once a charge upon the 
community and upon charitable organiza- 
tions of the city. 
Less than a year ago, I spent a week 
carefully studying conditions in Hot 
Springs. I found that the burden of car- 
ing for the afflicted poor that annually 
came into the city to bathe at the Govern- 
ment free bathhouse was very heavy, and 
I cannot too highly commend the efforts 
of the men and women who are constantly 
devoting themselves to the alleviation of 
the suffering of these people and to pro- 
viding them with sufficient nourishment to 
enable them to seek relief from their ills 
by bathing in these healing waters. 
iMesa Verde National Park possesses his- 
torical and scientific features that should 
bring it a very large tourist patronage. 
There are no facilities for the care of 
many visitors at one time, , how'ever, and 
neither has there been sufficient road im- 
provement to make the important cliff 
dwellings and the scenic sections of the 
park readily accessible. Nevertheless, 
1,385 people visited the park during the 
1916 season, an increase of more than 100 
per cent over 1915. 
Here again we point to a park for which 
the funds appropriated by Congress are 
wholly inadequate. Liberal appropriations 
for a year or two would make the park 
available to tens of thousands. 
Further important discoveries of prehis- 
toric structures and implements were made 
in the park during the summer by Dr. J. 
Walter Fewkes, of the Smithsonian Insti- 
tution. His explorations were financed by 
both the National Park Service and the 
Smithsonian Institution. Many curios and 
rare objects of historic interest recently 
.SPIRE BLOWN OFF BY WIND. 
The accompanying illustrations show the 
results of a windstorm in a cemetery at 
Mechanicsville, N. Y. It is not very often 
that the wind blows with sufficient violence 
to overturn monuments, but the photo- 
graphs show a ten-foot spire that was 
lifted off its die and hurled to the ground. 
The spire struck the bases in falling, 
grinding off some of the edges of these 
uncovered are being carried away by tour- 
ists because the park has no place to house 
them and protect them. A museum should 
be constructed in the park, and an effort 
made to recover some of the important 
relics that have been carried away. If 
there is a building in which these objects, 
may be placed for preservation, in all like- 
lihood many valuable relics will be volun- 
tarily returned to the park. 
There have lieen no important develop- 
ments in the smaller parks, nor have I any 
recommendations to make with respect tO’ 
their improvement and management. 
On the whole, we should be well pleased,, 
if not satisfied, with the year's accomplish- 
ment. While nothing new has been com- 
pleted, we have made substantial begin- 
nings in most important directions. 
Of first importance is the creation of the 
national park service, which makes all 
things possible. 
Of perhaps ecjual importance is the prac- 
tical establishment on sound business lines 
of the principle of Government participa- 
tion in concessioners' profits, which makes 
eventual financial independence for the na- 
tional parks possible, and, with wise admin- 
istration, probable. 
Also of very great importance is the 
creation of a spirit of hearty co-operation 
among concessioners, railroads and park 
officials. There is much still lacking here, 
but the beginnings are inspiring. 
Finally, the sympathy and spirit of help- 
fulness shown by Congress in this public- 
spirited endeavor to realize a vast national 
destiny is tremendously encouraging. 
And the enthusiastic, whole-hearted way 
in which American people are rising to 
their opportunity is a genuine delight. 
HOW SPIRE LANDED ON BASE. 
stones and burying itself into the ground, 
as seen in the illustration. The base is 
5-6x5-6 and the spire 1-7x1-7x10-0. 
In the background of one of the pictures 
may be seen a tall column very close to 
the damaged monument which escaped en- 
tirely from the ravages of the wind. Sev- 
eral other smaller monuments, however, 
were also badly damaged. 
Monuments l^emolished by Udnd storm 
