Part 11
At the south end, the cañon is about twelve hundred feet wide, but gradually narrows for a distance of seven miles, until a point is reached where with outstretching arms the finger tips touch the walls on either side. In a number of places the walls of this cañon rise vertically to a height of more than two thousand feet, thus exhibiting a plain surface of extremely hard, pink sandstone.
The vast barren areas of the walls are broken by figures in relief, and statuary on the summits--all the carving of Nature. On the terraces and in the niches are growths of ash and oak, maple and spruce and other trees. In a number of places these walls are further enlivened and glorified by waterfalls that plunge grandly over them into the cañon. We thus have in this region an unexcelled variety of the best-known cañon effects--the vast sweep of vertical walls, the walls that are undercut so that they appear to lean, and extreme narrowness between the walls.
But, enlivening and glorifying all these, is the color! Here you will find immense spaces of chocolate, red, crimson, magenta, and maroon, with touches of silver and gold. It is doubtful if Nature has anywhere covered such immense areas with such deep and contrasting colors as in this cañon.
This region is little known, but probably in a short time it will be easily accessible. It was made a National Monument in 1912. The people of Utah now want it for their National Park.
XIII
OTHER NATIONAL PARKS
1. WIND CAVE NATIONAL PARK
The Wind Cave National Park consists of about sixteen square miles of pine-covered hills in the southwestern corner of South Dakota. It is about twelve miles north of the town of Hot Springs and about the same distance southeast of Custer. The altitude is between four thousand and five thousand feet. It was created in 1903. The scenery is typical of the picturesque Black Hills region, which the Indians especially loved.
The Park's special attraction is a large natural cavern. This has recesses said to have been traced for ninety-six miles, but never thoroughly explored. Its name is due to the strong air-currents noticeable at the entrance, which sometimes blow one way and sometimes another. Bridges, stairways, landings, and paths through the cave's mysterious passageways permit visitors to reach its natural splendors, which are seen by the light of burning candles or magnesium ribbon.
The cave was discovered in 1881. Its temperature varies only between forty and forty-seven degrees the year round. Some of its known passages are almost five hundred feet below the surface of the earth, and wind over, under, and around one another. The formations are mostly of limestone. Among the features of this interesting underground world are a spring and a miniature lake, beautiful calcite crystals, exposed geodes, boxwork forms, and other attractive natural formations.
The Park is the permanent home of a herd of buffaloes, presented to the Government by the American Bison Society. Herds of elk and antelope are also found in an inclosed section. Many white-tailed deer running wild in the region annually seek shelter within the Park from the attacks of hunters. Grouse and quail are increasing in numbers under National-Park protection.
2. SULLY'S HILL NATIONAL PARK
Sully's Hill National Park was established in 1904. Its area is only seven hundred and eighty acres. It is on the south shore of Devil's Lake, in northeastern North Dakota, near Fort Totten.
Lack of an appropriation for the care and protection of the Park makes it necessary (1917) for the Superintendent of the Government Industrial School for Indians, which is about one mile east of Fort Totten, to act as Superintendent of the Park. It is badly in need of conveniences--as roads, trails, clearings, etc. Although money has been appropriated for the establishment and maintenance of a game preserve on the tract, not a cent has ever been set aside for development and improvement.
It is well wooded and has many rugged hills, including Sully's Hill. Another of its natural beauties is Sweet Water Lake. The Park is popular as a picnic-ground and Devil's Lake affords a good bathing-beach and fine opportunities for yachting. It is one of the beauty-spots of North Dakota, and its scenery is of the restful and delightful character.
3. CASA GRANDE RUIN RESERVATION
The most important prehistoric Indian ruin of its type in the Southwest is now protected and preserved, for the study and enjoyment of the people, in the Casa Grande Ruin Reservation. This contains four hundred and eighty acres, set aside in 1892. It is near Florence, Arizona, about eighteen miles northeast of Casa Grande railroad station. The ruins are of undetermined antiquity. A Jesuit missionary discovered them in 1694. As excavated so far, a great house built of puddled mud moulded into walls and dried in the sun is the main structure of the group. As it is of perishable character, the walls have been gradually disintegrating, and a corrugated iron roof has been put over the ruins to protect them from the elements so far as possible. Considerable more repair and protection work is needed.
The main building was originally five or six stories in height and covered a space fifty-nine by forty-three feet. Surrounding Casa Grande proper is a rectangular walled inclosure. A number of buildings or clusters of rooms have been excavated in this, and others as yet unexcavated are known to be there. One hundred rooms with plazas and surrounding walls now open on the ground floor of the reservation. These ruins are of great historic and scientific interest, and have strong claims for archæological study, repair, and preservation.
4. HOT SPRINGS RESERVATION
Although the Yellowstone was our first scenic National Park, the honor of being the oldest national recreation place falls to the Hot Springs Reservation, in the mountains of central Arkansas. It was created in 1832. Forty-six springs of hot water possessing radioactive properties, and also some cold-water springs of curative value, are embraced within the tract of nine hundred and twelve acres, fifty miles west by south from the city of Little Rock. The waters flow from the sides of Hot Springs Mountain. Rheumatism and other bodily ills are relieved or remedied by the waters. Eleven bathhouses on the reservation, and a dozen more within the little city of Hot Springs, are under government regulation.
As early as 1804 the power of the waters was known to white men, and a settlement had already begun there at that time. Tradition says that the Indians knew of the springs long before the Spanish invasion, and that they warred among themselves for their possession. Finally a truce was made, and thereafter all the tribes availed themselves of the healing waters.
5. PLATT NATIONAL PARK
The Platt National Park contains many sulphur and other springs possessing medicinal value. It includes one and a third square miles in southern Oklahoma, and was created in 1906.
6. MOUNT McKINLEY NATIONAL PARK
The Mount McKinley National Park, Alaska, was established early in 1917. It is in the approximate center of Alaska and embraces twenty-two hundred square miles. Mount McKinley is known to many Indians as "The Great One." Its summit is 20,300 feet above sea-level. On the north this stupendous mountain is exceedingly precipitous and rises 18,000 feet in a distance of thirteen miles. It is doubtful if there is a peak in the world that rises so high above the limits of tree growth. And no mountain that I know of has slopes so completely snow-covered. Its snow-line is at the altitude of 7000 feet, and from this altitude upward only a few crags and rocky ridges show. The upper 14,000 feet of steep slopes appears a vast towering white mass of glaciers and snow. The largest glacier is the Muldrow. It is thirty-nine miles long. The summit of this peak and a part of its slopes are embraced in the Mount McKinley National Park.
This Park is a wild-life refuge. Its slopes are the greatest known big-game range on the continent. Here are mountain sheep and caribou by the thousand. Moose are common. Beaver are plentiful. And there are grizzly, brown, and black bear. Many kinds of birds use the region for their summer nesting-land. Brilliant wild flowers abound. Spruce, birch, cottonwood, and willow are the more common trees, but none of them grow large.
In 1902, D. L. Raeburn, of the Geological Survey, explored this territory and brought out much valuable information concerning it. Mr. Raeburn determined most of the boundary-line of the present Park. In 1903, James Wickersham attempted to scale the peak. It was first conquered in March, 1913. The creation of this Park was brought about chiefly through the efforts of Charles Sheldon. When completed, the Alaskan railroad will be within fifteen miles of the Park boundary-line.
XIV
CANADIAN NATIONAL PARKS
The Dominion, or National, Parks of Canada possess a wealth of snow-capped peaks and majestic mountains, magnificent glaciers, luxuriant forests, and peaceful, sunny valleys. These Parks are gemmed with crystalline lakes and glorified by hundreds of gardens of rare and brilliant wild flowers; they rival and surpass the celebrated scenes of Europe. Travelers who are visiting the scenic world will find in the Canadian parks a number of places of the most inspiring character and of original composition. Mental pictures of the earth's great scenes are incomplete without the masterpieces of Canada.
The Canadian people are to be congratulated on their splendid scenic inheritance. I thank them for the statesmanlike appreciation of this noble resource. They realize that scenery is a rich asset, and--what is more important--that every one needs outdoor life and great views. The Canadians already have comprehensive plans for fuller use of scenery. These include not only the saving of other scenic places and getting these ready for visitors, but also plans that will assist large numbers of their own people to visit the Parks.
1. JASPER PARK
Jasper Park, the continent's largest national playground, was created in 1907. It contains forty-four hundred square miles and comprises all the ranges east of the Divide in northern Alberta. It is reached by two transcontinental railroads.
This part of the Great North country suggests adventure, romance, and history, and brings back to mind the power, the strangeness, and the picturesqueness of the earlier days of the Hudson's Bay Company. The storied Athabasca flows through it, a band of silver in a flower-strewn valley of meadow and park land, hemmed in by glistening mountains. An important fur district a century ago, its trading-posts now are tourist resorts with railroads and hotels.
[Illustration: ILLECILLEWAET VALLEY Mount Sir Donald in distance. Glacier Park, Canada]
Yellowhead Pass, of historic associations, is the western entrance. Two grim peaks guard the eastern portal. Roche Miette, which dominates the surrounding country, was formerly a favorite Indian hunting-ground for mountain sheep. Perdrix or Folding Mountain has strange folds and angles in its strata.
Many roads and trails reach the beauty spots of this park. Fiddle Creek Cañon is in places only twenty feet wide, but the roaring, rushing waters are two hundred feet below. On the same road are the celebrated Miette Springs and Punch-Bowl Falls, a geological curiosity. Maligne Lake is a scenic jewel, and its river cañon displays wonderful erosion. The Park abounds in minerals. Administration headquarters are at Jasper.
2. ROCKY MOUNTAINS PARK
Indian stories of remarkable and curative hot springs probably led to the creation of the Rocky Mountains Park, the oldest and best-developed of the Dominion's national playgrounds. With statesmanlike foresight, the Government determined to retain the springs region in a National Park as a permanent health and pleasure ground for all the people. In 1889, two hundred and sixty square miles were thus set aside, and the Park has since been enlarged to eighteen hundred square miles. It lies on the east slope of the Rockies in Alberta, adjoining Yoho Park.
The springs rise in Sulphur Mountain, near Banff, the geographic and chief tourist center. On this mountain-side the Government conducts public baths. The region is a winter as well as a summer resort.
The Banff district also possesses notable scenery. It has an invigorating atmosphere and the peaceful serenity of a lovely mountain valley, with bare, rocky summits and dark, forest slopes. This was a celebrated Indian hunting-ground, and the legends and traditions of the aborigines will ever touch it with the spell of adventure and romance. Here is beautiful Lake Minnewanka. Beyond lies the strange valley of the Ghost River. It is a limestone cañon, into which a number of streams fall, but from which none are known to flow. An undiscovered subterranean outlet is supposed to account for this phenomenon.
Banff has an excellent Government museum, containing complete collections of the mountain flora and fauna, also a zoo, buffalo-corral, and moose-pasture. The town-site is owned and controlled by the Government, which makes regulations, leases ground, and issues permits for competitive business.
Laggan, another railway station in the Park, is the center for the celebrated Lake Louise district. Near are snow-capped peaks standing thickly together, with countless tumbling streams and leaping waterfalls.
High among the mountains are exquisite blue or emerald lakes, set like sparkling gems in the bold surroundings of peaks and glaciers. Chief of these is the famous Lake Louise.
Brilliant wild flowers in luxuriant profusion and of many varieties are one of the Park's chief charms. Delicate twin-flowers, adder's-tongue, false heather, and dainty blossoms of every hue are included in these wild alpine meadow displays.
A transmountain automobile road from Calgary runs through the Rocky Mountains Park and into the Yoho Park. Its route includes points of great scenic interest. This road will be extended to the Pacific.
3. YOHO PARK
Scenic allurements are numerous in Yoho Park, which embraces five hundred and sixty square miles of the west slope of the picturesque Rocky Mountains, in eastern British Columbia. Fantastic shapes and sharp points characterize it. The vegetation is rich and verdant. Many wonderful views and interesting districts in it are easily reached.
Yoho Valley in this Park was not discovered until 1897, but its unusual beauty at once attracted numerous visitors. Takakkaw Fall is the thunderous spray-shrouded leap of eleven hundred feet of a glacier torrent. The Indian name means "It is Wonderful." This valley also possesses other beautiful falls, a remarkable ice region, and other interesting alpine features.
Emerald Lake, admired by artists and nature-lovers, is said to have twenty shades of green, but never one of blue, in its crystalline mirror depths. It is reached by a straight road through dark fragrant firs that meet overhead. A dazzling white mountain at the end of the vista gave rise to the name Snowpeak Avenue.
The Natural Bridge is not far from Field, the main-line railway town that serves as a center for this national playground. The Kickinghorse River forces its way through a narrow gap in a solid wall of rock. Rocks remaining above this boiling, seething mass of water and cloud spray make a natural passageway across and give the formation its name.
Millions of trilobites have been found in the extensive fossil-bed of Mount Stephen. This probably was once the bed of an ocean. This massive, round-topped mountain, 10,523 feet high and with curiously marked sides, is probably the most frequently climbed peak in Canada. It seems to rise directly over the town, is not difficult to ascend, and affords wonderful views of the "frozen sea" of snow peaks to the north and west.
4. WATERTON LAKES PARK
Waterton Lakes Park, in southern Alberta, is notable chiefly for its glacier lakes. Although one of the smallest, it is one of the most beautiful of the Canadian scenic reservations. Since sixteen square miles were set aside in 1895, it has been enlarged to four hundred and twenty-three square miles.
For about twenty miles this Dominion playground adjoins the Glacier National Park of the United States. The two will be linked by a motor road, so that visitors to one may also enjoy the other. An enlargement of the Waterton River forms the main chain of lakes. The upper one, nine and a half miles long, extends three miles into the United States.
Prehistoric glaciers gouged out the main valleys, leaving them carved in massive proportions. Beautiful streams rush down cañons, plunge in shining cascades, or remain dammed up as superb lakes. The lower valleys are clothed with forests. Columnar peaks, fantastic rock formations, and unscalable precipices complete the imposing effects.
Fishing is a leading attraction. The Park contains many Rocky Mountain goats and bighorn sheep. Grizzly and black bears and mountain lions also are frequently found.
5. REVELSTOKE PARK
Revelstoke Park is a natural park on Mount Revelstoke's summit, near the city of Revelstoke in British Columbia. This mountain's rolling uplands are studded with beautiful groves, dainty flowers, and exquisite lakes. The wonderful views include unnamed and unclimbed peaks, wild forests, streams and falls, and a great ice-field. A motor road to reach this summit panorama is being completed. The Park has an area of ninety-five square miles. It is well adapted to ski-jumping and kindred sports.
6. THE ANIMAL PARKS
To protect its large wild animals and prevent their threatened extinction, the Canadian Government has gone to enormous expense and trouble. Two animal parks have been established: Elk Island Park of sixteen square miles, near Lamont, Alberta; and Buffalo Park of one hundred and sixty square miles, near Wainwright, Alberta. The former contains many elk and deer, as well as moose, buffaloes, birds, wild-fowl, and water-folk. Buffalo Park makes a natural home for over two thousand wild bisons, the largest pure-blooded herd in the world. The original seven hundred of these were bought from a Montana Indian. Both parks produce their own forage, and are well fenced and fire-guarded. They have many scenic lakes, woods, hills, and valleys. Visitors are admitted to study the wild life under natural conditions.
7. ST. LAWRENCE ISLANDS PARK
As a National Park for summer use by fishermen, campers, picnickers, and excursionists, the Dominion Government has a dozen islands among the Thousand Islands of the St. Lawrence River. Eleven of these were purchased from Indians and the twelfth was donated for park purposes. (Other islands in the vicinity are part of the New York State park system.)
8. FORT HOWE PARK
Fort Howe National Park is the first of a new kind of Canadian parks that will preserve historic places. An old British fort site at St. John, New Brunswick, comprises the first of these historic parks. It covers nineteen acres. Here a resort will be established, and memorials of important events connected with the spot will be erected.
Responsibility for the creation and the administration of Canadian National Parks rests upon the Minister of the Interior. Under his direction is a Commissioner of Dominion Parks, with a staff. This is absolutely separate from the Canadian Forest Service. This bureau is charged with responsibility for the administration of all park matters, under one head. The head office plans the work and the several superintendents carry it out under the inspection of the chief superintendent. Park appropriations are voted each year by Parliament in one lump sum, on estimates prepared by the Parks Bureau. Each superintendent is furnished every month with an amount sufficient to cover the cost of the work planned for the month ensuing. This system means uniformity of administration; expenditure based on a proper perspective of the needs of the several Parks; a comprehensive scheme of development; and flexibility to meet changed conditions.
Further information concerning these Parks may be had from the Commissioner of Dominion Parks, Ottawa, Canada.
XV
PARK-DEVELOPMENT AND NEW PARKS
A platform for park-promoters:--
1. Immediate appropriations for every National Park.
2. Early enlargement of a few of the Parks.
3. Prompt creation of a number of new Parks.
4. The National Park Service needs the help of your eternal vigilance and sympathy. Keep the National Park Service absolutely separate from the Forest Service or any other organization.
5. Concessions are a bad feature in any Park. The Palisades Inter-State Park is run without concessions. Why should private concerns reap profits by exploiting the visitors to National Parks?
6. A Board of National Park Commissioners is needed. These commissioners should act as a Board of Directors, as do the Inter-State Park Commissioners, and have absolute control over the National Parks.
No nation has ever fallen through having too many parks. We may have too many soldiers, too many indoor functions, too many exclusive social sets, but the United States Government, or any other, will never fall for having too many national parks.
Nearly all the large nations of the earth now have national parks or are planning to create them. Canada, Australia, and New Zealand are especially thoughtful in park matters. Switzerland has a number, and is planning new ones. A number of South American countries are making investigations with the view of establishing national parks.
National parks are an institution intimately allied with the general welfare. You need this institution, and it needs your help. Every one ought to be glad to help better and beautify our land. Whittier was once asked by a young man for advice as to how best to succeed. The poet told him to attach himself to a noble and neglected cause and to stay with it till he won. The Park field greatly needs the help of young men and young women who are willing to serve a noble cause. In connection with National Parks you can be exceedingly helpful in furthering the following work:--
A number of new Parks should be at once created. A number of the old Parks need to be enlarged. Appropriations are greatly needed for the development of all. You can help the National Park Service. It is in danger of being crippled by the lack of appropriations. A number of the National Monuments should at once be made National Parks. Among these are the Grand Cañon, the Olympic, the Mukuntuweap Cañon, and others. The Sequoia and other National Parks need enlargement; and the Mount St. Elias and other scenic regions, especially the Mount McKinley region, are most worthy of early consideration for park purposes.
The Yellowstone Park needs to have the Grand Teton region added; Rainier, about twenty square miles at the southwest corner; Crater Lake, a few square miles on the west and north; Yosemite, mountainous country on the east and southeast; Rocky Mountain, small areas--east, west, north, and south; and the Sequoia, Mount Whitney and the King's-Kern region.
[Illustration: TETON MOUNTAIN REGION, PROPOSED ADDITION TO YELLOWSTONE PARK]
One of the most deserving of National Park projects, as well as one of the most unique, is that which centers about the Jamez Plateau, in New Mexico. Upon this plateau in prehistoric times stood a metropolis of Indian civilization, and the magnificent ruins which remain make this place priceless, and throw over it one of the most fascinating mysteries in the realm of archæology. A number of the buildings were stone structures of excellent and artistic architecture, and contained hundreds of rooms. The pottery and other records left by this vanished people indicate that they were a people of culture and refinement.
While the opposition is delaying the making of this Park, the despoilment of the region goes on. In this connection Dr. Jesse W. Fewkes makes this significant statement:--
Too strong language cannot be used in deprecation of the butchering of the architectural features of our Southwestern ruins by pot-hunters, either private individuals for gain or representatives of institutions under the name of scientific research.