114 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
Springfield, 111., 
has an ordinance 
forbidding heavy 
traffic on its boul- 
evards. A driver 
of a heavy wagon 
recently became 
a practical example of its efficacy; he was arrested and 
fined $25 and costs. 
The new state park commission of Connecticut met and 
organized last month at New Haven, Conn. 
Quincy. 111., famous for its park development under the 
late Edward J. Parker, continues to be in earnest in 
this field. The parks committee of the Council have been 
in conference with the boulevard and park association, of 
which Mrs. Elizabeth Parker, widow of the late president, 
now occupies that office, discussing the proposition to 
open a public swimming pool in South Park, or in that 
neighborhood, and which could be used as a skating rink 
in winter. In a general way the plan is approved. 
A bond issue of $25,000 has been authorized by the 
Orange, N. J., Common Council to be used for the de- 
velopment and equipment of the new playground. 
St. Joseph, Mo., after having, in a bit of economy, ter- 
minated its relations with Mr. Geo. E. Kessler, the con- 
sulting landscape architect of their extensive park plans, 
has found it a hard road to travel without expert help, 
and has concluded to engage his services again. 
The bill transferring by patent to the state of Califor- 
nia all the vacant lands adjacent to the California Red- 
wood park and owned by the United States has passed 
both houses of congress. The lands lie between the 
present limits of the park and the coast, .and will add an 
area of more than 1,000 acres to this great wonderland 
of nature. The original park contained about 3,800 acres, 
and is regarded as the botanist’s paradise. The late Pro- 
fessor Dudley of Stanford university is authority for the 
statement that the park embraces over 50 varieties of 
trees, and besides the redwood, the mountain slopes are 
covered with fir, tan oak and the madrone peculiar to 
California. The open places abound with huckleberry, wild 
lilac, manzanita and buckhorn, while the canyons are fra- 
grant with azaleas, lilies, woodwardias and delicate ferns. 
The park is a splendid example of the California forests, 
and the trees for which it is best known, and which form 
the greater part of the timber are the coast redwoods. 
The purchase of the park was made by the state in 1901, 
at a cost of $250,000, and annual appropriations are made 
for the building of trails and protecting and caring for 
the trees, while the commissioners provide for the sprink- 
ling of the roads. 
A visit to Peoria by the mayor and city council of 
Alton, 111., have decided them to work for the improve- 
ment cf their own fine opportunities for a river driveway 
on the heights along the Illinois river. 
An ordinance has been passed by the Taylorville, 111., 
City Council, providing for a bond issue of $30,000, to 
meet the costs of purchasing and improving a park site. 
The Sorosis club, one of the women’s clubs of Belle 
Plaine, la., has bought two artistically designed drinking 
fountains which will be presented to the city to replace 
the fountains now in use on Main street at Eighth and 
Ninth avenues. 
Champaign, 111., has twenty-four parks of various sizes, 
though all are small. With an amount of between $6,000 
and $7,000 available in August or September, a movement 
is growing to enlarge and improve park conditions, and 
the park commis- 
sioners will per- 
fect an organiza- 
tion for work. 
No city stands 
more preeminent 
than Detroit, 
Mich., as an example of how civic beauty and commercial 
prominence work in harmony. It is a beautiful city and 
its plan and layout dates from the fire in 1805 which de- 
stroyed every house in the old town but one. Its ra- 
diating avenues from two centres, alternating 200 and 
120 feet wide, followed that event, and this arrangement 
has provided the large open spaces in the heart of the 
city, and the numerous triangular parks and fine streets, 
now well shaded. The growth of Detroit between 1900 
and 1910 was 63 per cent. 
The Sunday civil bill carries an appropriation of $60,000 
for the Chickamauga National park, which is $3,600 less 
than the estimate for 1913. This cut is not so great as 
made in the estimates for Vicksburgh and Shiloh national 
parks. 
The establishment of a national park and forest reser- 
vation in Maine was provided in a resolution introduced 
in the House of Representatives recently. The measure 
authorizes the secretary of agriculture to make the se- 
lection for the park and reservation in the region of Mt. 
Katahdin and to purchase such lands as he deems ad- 
visable and which will not exceed $50,000 in any year 
in cost. 
A $150,000 bond issue to develop a park system on Coody 
Creek on the southern city limits of Muskogee, Okla., to 
purchase the fair grpund site for combined county fair 
and playground and park purposes, to add another park 
to the east side of the city and to improve the sites on 
the west side of Muskogee to a greater extent was unan- 
imously proposed at a recent open meeting of the Park 
Board of that city. 
Hazelton, Pa., which is quite behind in the matter of 
parks is becoming aroused to the necessity of providing 
such civic advantages. 
Buffalo councilmen are almost unanimously in favor 
of the purchase of the so-called Willert and Sperry sites 
for small park purposes. These are valued at $130,000 
and $188,800, respectively. 
The poor condition of the New York parks is now 
charged to water-famine. 
A site has been selected in St. Joseph, Mo., for the 
new Observation Park. It is to be located on France 
Hill, and it is estimated that the land will cost $50,000. 
The Washington Architectural Club at a meeting held 
June 25, passed resolutions protesting against the repeal 
of the Tarsney act, as provided for in the sundry civil 
bill. The provision of the bill proposing the taking over 
of the supervision of all of the improvement work to be 
done in the parks by the office of the municipal archi- 
tect, instead of having the work under the control of the 
fine arts commission, was particularly objected to. Club 
members were of the opinion that the change would ma- 
terially interfere with the plans for the parks as now 
mapped out 
The Danish-American National park at Rebild-Bakker, 
in the province of Juttan, consisting of some 300 acres of 
typical and virgin Danish heather landscape, which is to 
be preserved as a national park, will be formally dedicated 
on August 5. The park is a gift to the Danish nation 
from Danish Americans, as a memorial of their love and 
JSgSP?® 
PARK NEWS. 
