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YOUR NATIONAL PARKS

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A Guide to the National Parks

YOUR
NATIONAL PARKS

BY
ENOS A. MILLS

WITH DETAILED INFORMATION
FOR TOURISTS

BY
LAURENCE F. SCHMECKEBIER

And with Illustrations and Maps

BOSTON AND NEW YORK
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
The Riverside Press Cambridge
1917

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COPYRIGHT, 1917, BY ENOS A. MILLS
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Published June 1917

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TO
GEORGE W. PERKINS
AND
WILLIAM A. WELCH

WHOSE STATESMANSHIP, ENERGY, IDEALS, AND COURAGE
ARE MAKING THE PALISADES INTER-STATE PARK
"THE GREATEST PARK IN THE WORLD"

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PREFACE

St. Louis had a memorable "flag day" a little more than a century ago. Within twenty-four hours the yellow and red flag of Spain was run down and the tricolor run up; this hauled down and the Stars and Stripes run up. The Louisiana Territory thus became a part of the United States. In a flash, the western boundary of this country was changed from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains.

Scarcely were the Stars and Stripes flying, before Lewis and Clark were on their way to explore the vast and mysterious Louisiana Territory—the West. Theirs was one of the most comprehensive and successful exploring expeditions on record—one of the greatest of outdoor expeditions. There were adventures and hardships, but after two years the party returned to civilization with the loss of only one man. The resources of the great West were definitely placed before the world.

This expedition revealed the extraordinary resourcefulness of Lewis and Clark and brought out also two other characters who are worthy of a place in American literature and whose achievements might well be a source of inspiration in American life. These are John Colter, who afterwards discovered the Yellowstone, and Sacagawea, the "bird woman." Sacagawea was the one woman of the Lewis and Clark expedition. She rendered remarkable service, and her name will be forever associated with exploration, with woodcraft, and with the National-Park wildernesses.

Just before the returning Lewis and Clark expedition reached St. Louis, it met trappers starting up the river—going into the great West. This was the real beginning of the trapping industry, which for nearly two generations was the dominating influence of the West.

The West was thoroughly explored by the trappers. In a number of States they formed the first permanent settlement. The trappers harvested the furs of lakes and streams throughout the mountains and built up the "Commerce of the Prairies." We are indebted to them for the Oregon and Santa Fé trails. All history shows no more picturesque or resourceful character than the trapper. Among them were such great men as John Colter, James Bridger, and Kit Carson.

The trapper was followed by the prospector. The trapper did not search for gold. The prospector did not look for furs or fertile lands. In a different way the prospector exploited the same territory as the trapper and thus placed the resources and the romance of the West before the public.

Closely following the trapper and prospector was that rugged and aggressive character, the cowboy. He had a definite part in the forward movement of the frontier. The cowboy cared nothing for furs, or gold, or fertile lands. He was interested in the rich grasses for his cattle. He, too, had his short day. These characters—the cowboy, the prospector, and the trapper—tarried for a brief moment on the frontier when the farmer, the first lasting settler, arrived. All these armed and vigorous people, the wearers of buckskin, were people of individuality and power. They made great changes throughout the West, and hastened its final development.

Pioneer men and women are among the great and influential figures in history. They were human, they were honorable, and we do honor them. They did not want or need sympathy. They were getting much, perhaps the most, from life; they were happy. We think of theirs as being a life of sacrifice, but it really was a life of selection. They were away from the crowd—from the enemies of sincerity and individuality. Of all people they were most nearly free. But the pioneers are gone.

The frontier no longer exists, and the days of the wilderness are gone forever. Yet, in our magnificent National Parks we still have a bit of the primeval world and the spirit of the vigorous frontier. In these wild parks we may rebuild the past, and in them the trapper, the prospector, the cowboy, and the pioneer may act once more their part in the scenes that knew them.

These wilderness empires of our National Parks have been snatched from leveling forces of development. They are likely to prove the richest, noblest heritage of the nation. Here the world is at play, here are scenes ever new and that will greatly help to keep the nation young.

In the words of John Dickinson Sherman: "It is as if Nature in these places had in self-defense devoted all her energies to scenery, proclaiming to the nation, 'Here I will make playgrounds for the people. Here is nothing for commerce or industry. Here is natural beauty at its wildest and best. Elsewhere man must live by the sweat of his brow. Here let him rest and play. Here I will rule supreme for all time.'"

There are seventeen National Parks. New ones will early be made and there are at least twenty other scenic regions which should at once be added. No nation has ever fallen for having too much scenery. Scenery is, indeed, one of our most valuable resources, and these Parks will enable us to build up a scenic industry of magnitude. Already they are being developed with roads and trails, and before long there will be in all of them hotels and camps for visitors of every taste, together with special camps

and provision for school-children.

I have tried to describe a few of the wonders of the Parks and to suggest the larger, fuller use of them. Through most of the Parks described I have had happy excursions afoot, alone and unarmed. Not only do the Parks contain some of the world's sublimest and most beautiful scenes, but each Park is a wild-life reservation, a place where guns are forbidden. Thus protected, these wildernesses will remain forever wild, forever mysterious and primeval, holding for the visitor the spell of the outdoors, exciting the spirit of exploration. Within them will survive that poetic million-year-old highway, the trail. Among their pathless scenes wild life will be perpetuated. Chains of mountain-peaks will ever stand—"the silent caravan that never passes by, the caravan whose camel backs are laden with the sky"—with purple forests, mountain-high waterfalls, vast and broken cañons, wind-swept plateaus, splendid lakes, and peaks and glaciers often touched with cloud and sunshine.

Our National Parks will continue for generations to come to be the No Man's Land, the Undiscovered Country, the Mysterious Old West, the Land of Romance and Adventure. My great hope and belief is that they will become a marked factor in public education. Surely, these wonderlands mean much for the general welfare, and will help to develop greater men and women—to arouse enthusiasm for our native land, and for nature everywhere.

E. A. M.

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CONTENTS

tag="{http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}a">137 VI. Glacier National Park 148     History of Glacier National Park 157 VII. Mesa Verde National Park 161 VIII. Rocky Mountain National Park 175 IX. The Grand Cañon 190 X. Lassen Volcanic National Park 211 XI. Hawaii National Park 221 XII. Three National Monuments     1. The Olympic National Monuments 230     2. The Natural Bridges and Rainbow Bridge National Monuments 236     3. Mukuntuweap National Monument 239 XIII. Other National Parks 242     1. Wind Cave National Park 242     2. Sully's Hill Park 244     3. Casa Grande Ruin Reservation 245     4. Hot Springs Reservation 246     5. Platt National Park 248     6. Mount McKinley National Park 248 XIV. Canadian National Parks 251     1. Jasper Park 252     2. Rocky Mountains Park 254     3. Yoho Park 256     4. Waterton Lakes Park 258     5. Revelstoke Park 260     6. The Animal Parks 260     7. St. Lawrence Islands Park 261     8. Fort Howe Park 262 XV. Park-Development and New Parks 264 XVI. The Spirit of the Forest 282 XVII. Wild Life in National Parks

296 XVIII. In All Weathers 317 XIX. The Scenery in the Sky 340     1. Timber-Line 340     2. Above the Timber-Line 345     3. The Work of the Ice King 351     4. High Peaks 356 XX. John Muir 360 XXI. National Parks the School of Nature 366 XXII. Why We need National Parks 378 XXIII. The Trail 388 APPENDIX     A. Act of Dedication of the Yellowstone National Park 397     B. The National Parks at a Glance 400     C. Proposed National Parks 403     D. National Monuments 405     E. Dominion National Parks of Canada 412 BIBLIOGRAPHY 415 GUIDE TO THE NATIONAL PARKS     Introduction 425     Yellowstone National Park 433     Yosemite National Park 444     Sequoia National Park 455     General Grant National Park 459     Mount Rainier National Park 460     Crater Lake National Park 470     Glacier National Park 475     Mesa Verde National Park 488     Rocky Mountain National Park 491

    The Grand Cañon 495     Lassen Volcanic National Park 500     Hawaii National Park 502     Mount McKinley National Park 505     Hot Springs of Arkansas 506     Minor National Parks Casa Grande Ruin 508 Wind Cave National Park 508 Platt National Park 509 Sully's Hill Park 509     National Monuments 510     Canadian Parks Rocky Mountains Park 515 Yoho Park 516 Glacier Park 517 Jasper Park 518 Revelstoke Park 518 Waterton Lakes Park 519 Buffalo Park 519 Elk Island Park 520 St. Lawrence Islands Park 520 Fort Howe Park 520 INDEX 521

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ILLUSTRATIONS

tag="{http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}a">46 Adapted from an illustration of the United States Geological Survey Bird's-Eye View of Yosemite Valley 66 Half Dome, Yosemite 70 From a photograph by George R. King Upper and Lower Yosemite Falls 84 From a photograph by the Pillsbury Picture Company Lake Tenaya, Yosemite National Park 88 From a photograph by the Desmond Company The Four Brothers, Sequoia National Park 104 From a photograph by Lindley Eddy, Ranger, Cal. Stage Road, Mount Rainier National Park 118 From a photograph by Curtis & Miller, Seattle, Wash. Mount Rainier from Paradise Valley 124 From a photograph by Curtis & Miller Crater Lake and Wizard Island 138 From a photograph by the Kiser Studio Phantom Ship, Crater Lake 144 By permission of the National Park Service McDermott Falls and Grinnell Mountain, Glacier National Park 150 From a photograph by Haynes, St. Paul Spruce Tree House, Mesa Verde National Park 166 From a photograph by Arthur Chapman Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park 176 From a photograph by Enos A. Mills. Loch Vale, Rocky Mountain National Park 180 From a photograph by W. T. Parke, Estes Park, Colo. Fern Lake, Rocky Mountain National Park 188 From a photograph by H. T. Cowling Looking West from North Side of Grand Cañon, showing Point Sublime and Isis Temple 192 By permission of the Department of the Interior Lassen Peak in Eruption 214 From a copyright photograph by B. F. Loomis Mount St. Helens from the Timber-Line Trail on Mount Rainier 234 From a photograph by A. H. Barnes Rainbow Natural Bridge, Rainbow National Monument 238 From a photograph by the Geological Survey Illecillewaet Valley, with Mount Sir Donald in the Distance, Glacier Park, Canada 252 From a photograph taken for the Commissioner of Dominion Parks Teton Mountain Region: Proposed Addition to Yellowstone Park 266 From a photograph by J. E. Stimson Mount Baker from the West 270 From a copyright photograph by W. H. Wilcox, Port Townsend, Wash. Mount St. Elias from East Side of Agassiz Glacier, Alaska 274 From a photograph by J. C. Russell On the Road to Sherman Tree,

Giant Forest, Sequoia National Park 282 From a photograph by George F. Belden Elk in Jackson Hole 296 From a photograph by S. N. Leek Black Bear Cubs, Sequoia National Park 304 From a photograph by Lindley Eddy Long's Peak, from Chasm Lake, Rocky Mountain National Park 320 From a photograph by Enos A. Mills Above the Timber-Line in the Rocky Mountain National Park, showing Long's Peak 346 From a photograph by H. T. Cowling John Muir in Muir Woods 360 From a photograph by Herbert W. Gleason Trail near Timber-Line, Indian Henry's Park, Mount Rainier 388 From a photograph by Curtis & Miller Map of Yellowstone National Park 436 Map of Yosemite National Park 446 Map of Glacier National Park 476 Map of Rocky Mountain National Park 492

The maps and bird's-eye view are used by permission of the National
Park Service, Department of the Interior.

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