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26 chapters
PREFACE
PREFACE
In offering the American public a carefully studied outline of its national park system, I have two principal objects. The one is to describe and differentiate the national parks in a manner which will enable the reader to appreciate their importance, scope, meaning, beauty, manifold uses and enormous value to individual and nation. The other is to use these parks, in which Nature is writing in large plain lines the story of America's making, as examples illustrating the several kinds of scenery
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ON THE APPRECIATION OF SCENERY
ON THE APPRECIATION OF SCENERY
T o the average educated American, scenery is a pleasing hodge-podge of mountains, valleys, plains, lakes, and rivers. To him, the glacier-hollowed valley of Yosemite, the stream-scooped abyss of the Grand Canyon, the volcanic gulf of Crater Lake, the bristling granite core of the Rockies, and the ancient ice-carved shales of Glacier National Park all are one—just scenery, magnificent, incomparable, meaningless. As a people we have been content to wonder, not to know; yet with scenery, as with a
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THE NATIONAL PARKS OF THE UNITED STATES
THE NATIONAL PARKS OF THE UNITED STATES
T he National Parks of the United States are areas of supreme scenic splendor or other unique quality which Congress has set apart for the pleasure and benefit of the people. At this writing they number eighteen, sixteen of which lie within the boundaries of the United States and are reached by rail and road. Those of greater importance have excellent roads, good trails, and hotels or hotel camps, or both, for the accommodation of visitors; also public camp grounds where visitors may pitch their
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GRANITE'S PART IN SCENERY
GRANITE'S PART IN SCENERY
T he granite national parks are Yosemite, Sequoia, including the proposed Roosevelt Park, General Grant, Rocky Mountain, and Mount McKinley. Granite, as its name denotes, is granular in texture and appearance. It is crystalline, which means that it is imperfectly crystallized. It is composed of quartz, feldspar, and mica in varying proportions, and includes several common varieties which mineralogists distinguish scientifically by separate names. Because of its great range and abundance, its pre
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YOSEMITE, THE INCOMPARABLE
YOSEMITE, THE INCOMPARABLE
Yosemite National Park, Middle Eastern California. Area, 1,125 Square Miles T he first emotion inspired by the sight of Yosemite is surprise. No previous preparation makes the mind ready for the actual revelation. The hardest preliminary reading and the closest study of photographs, even familiarity with other mountains as lofty, or loftier, fail to dull one's first astonishment. Hard on the heels of astonishment comes realization of the park's supreme beauty. It is of its own kind, without comp
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THE PROPOSED ROOSEVELT NATIONAL PARK
THE PROPOSED ROOSEVELT NATIONAL PARK
Including the Present Sequoia National Park, West Central California. Area, 1,600 Square Miles W here the lava billows of the Cascade Mountains end in northern California the granite knobs of the Sierra begin. Sharply differentiated in appearance and nature a few miles further in either direction, here their terminals overlap, and so nearly merge that the southern end of the one and the northern beginning of the other are not easily distinguished by the untrained eye. But southward the Sierra Ne
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THE HEART OF THE ROCKIES
THE HEART OF THE ROCKIES
The Rocky Mountain National Park, North Central Colorado. Area, 398 Square Miles T he Sierra Nevada Mountains of California and the Cascade Range of California, Oregon, and Washington have each three national parks which fully represent their kind and quality. The great central system of the United States, the Rocky Mountains, which also possess three national parks, are represented in kind by only one, for Yellowstone is an exceptional volcanic interlude, and Glacier is the chance upheaval of s
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McKINLEY, GIANT OF GIANTS
McKINLEY, GIANT OF GIANTS
Mount McKinley National Park, Alaska. Area, about 2,200 Square Miles T he monster mountain of this continent, "the majestic, snow-crowned American monarch," as General Greeley called it, was made a national park in 1917. Mount McKinley rises 20,300 feet above tide-water, and 17,000 feet above the eyes of the beholder standing on the plateau at its base. Scenically, it is the highest mountain in the world, for those summits of the Andes and Himalayas which are loftier as measured from sea level,
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LAFAYETTE AND THE EAST
LAFAYETTE AND THE EAST
Lafayette National Park, Maine. Area, 10,000 Acres I t has been the policy of Congress to create national parks only from public lands, the title to which costs nothing to acquire. It may be many years before the nation awakes to the fact that areas distinguished for supreme scenery, historical association, or extraordinary scientific significance are worth conserving even if conservation involves their purchase. The answer to the oft-asked question why the national parks are all in the west is
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ON THE VOLCANO IN SCENERY
ON THE VOLCANO IN SCENERY
T he volcanic national parks are Lassen Volcanic, Crater Lake, Mount Rainier, Yellowstone, and Hawaii. Though several of them exhibit extremely high mountains, their scenic ensemble differs in almost all respects from that of the granite parks. The landscape tends to broad elevated surfaces and rolling hills, from which rise sharp towering cones or massive mountains whose irregular bulging knobs were formed by outbreaks of lava upon the sides of original central vents. The Cascade Mountains in W
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LASSEN PEAK AND MOUNT KATMAI
LASSEN PEAK AND MOUNT KATMAI
The One a National Park in Northern California, The Other a National Monument in Alaska B ecause most of the conspicuous volcanic eruptions of our day have occurred in warmer climes nearer the equator, we usually think of volcanoes as tropical, or semi-tropical, phenomena. Vesuvius is in the Mediterranean, Pelee in the Caribbean, Mauna Loa and Kilauea on the Hawaiian Islands. Of course there is Lassen Peak in California—the exception, as we say, which proves the rule. As a fact, many of the worl
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MOUNT RAINIER, ICY OCTOPUS
MOUNT RAINIER, ICY OCTOPUS
Mount Rainier National Park, West Central Washington. Area, 324 Square Miles M ount Rainier , the loftiest volcano within the boundaries of the United States, one of our greatest mountains, and certainly our most imposing mountain, rises from western central Washington to an altitude of 14,408 feet above mean tide in Puget Sound. It is forty-two miles in direct line from the centre of Tacoma, and fifty-seven miles from Seattle, from both of which its glistening peak is often a prominent spectacl
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CRATER LAKE'S BOWL OF INDIGO
CRATER LAKE'S BOWL OF INDIGO
Crater Lake National Park, Southwestern Oregon. Area, 249 Square Miles C rater Lake is in southwestern Oregon among the Cascade Mountains, and is reached by an automobile ride of several hours from Medford. The government information circular calls it "the deepest and bluest lake in the world." Advertising circulars praise it in choicest professional phrase. Its beauty is described as exceeding that of any other lake in all the world. Never was blue so wonderful as the blue of these waters; neve
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YELLOWSTONE, A VOLCANIC INTERLUDE
YELLOWSTONE, A VOLCANIC INTERLUDE
The Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, Northwestern Wyoming. Area, 3,348 Square Miles J ohn Coulter's story of hot springs at the upper waters of the Yellowstone River was laughed at by the public of 1810. Jim Bridger's account of the geysers in the thirties made his national reputation as a liar. Warren Angus Ferris's description of the Upper Geyser Basin was received in 1842 in unbelieving silence. Later explorers who sought the Yellowstone to test the truth of these tales thought it wholesom
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THREE MONSTERS OF HAWAII
THREE MONSTERS OF HAWAII
Hawaii National Park, Hawaiian Islands. Area, 118 Square Miles I f this chapter is confined to the three volcano tops which Congress reserved on the islands of Hawaii and Maui in 1917, wonderful though these are, it will describe a small part indeed of the wide range of novelty, charm, and beauty which will fall to the lot of those who visit the Hawaii National Park. One of the great advantages enjoyed by this national park, as indeed by Mount McKinley's, is its location in a surrounding of enti
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THE SEDIMENTARY NATIONAL PARKS
THE SEDIMENTARY NATIONAL PARKS
[Pg 246-247]...
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ON SEDIMENTARY ROCK IN SCENERY
ON SEDIMENTARY ROCK IN SCENERY
T he national parks which are wrought in sedimentary rocks are Glacier, Mesa Verde, Hot Springs, Platt, Wind Cave, Sully's Hill, and Grand Canyon. Zion National Monument is carved from sedimentary rock; also several distinguished reservations in our southwest which conserve natural bridges and petrified forests. Sedimentary rocks have highly attractive scenic quality. Lying in strata usually horizontal but often inclined by earth movements, sometimes even standing on end, they form marked and pl
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GLACIERED PEAKS AND PAINTED SHALES
GLACIERED PEAKS AND PAINTED SHALES
Glacier National Park, Northwestern Montana. Area, 1,534 Square Miles T o say that Glacier National Park is the Canadian Rockies done in Grand Canyon colors is to express a small part of a complicated fact. Glacier is so much less and more. It is less in its exhibit of ice and snow. Both are dying glacial regions, and Glacier is hundreds of centuries nearer the end; no longer can it display snowy ranges in August and long, sinuous Alaska-like glaciers at any time. Nevertheless, it has its glacie
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ROCK RECORDS OF A VANISHED RACE
ROCK RECORDS OF A VANISHED RACE
Mesa Verde National Park, Southwestern Colorado. Area, 77 Square Miles M any years, possibly centuries, before Columbus discovered America, a community of cliff-dwellers inhabiting a group of canyons in what is now southwestern Colorado entirely disappeared. Many generations before that, again possibly centuries, the founders of this community, abandoning the primitive pueblos of their people elsewhere, had sought new homes in the valleys tributary to the Mancos River. Perhaps they were enterpri
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THE HEALING WATERS
THE HEALING WATERS
Hot Springs Reservation, Arkansas. Platt National Park, Oklahoma F rom a hillside on the edge of the Ozark Mountains in central Arkansas issue springs of hot water which are effective in the alleviation of rheumatic and kindred ills. Although chemical analysis fails to explain the reason, the practice of many years has abundantly proved their worth. Before the coming of the white man they were known to the Indians, who are said to have proclaimed them neutral territory in time of war. Perhaps it
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ON THE SCENERY OF THE SOUTHWEST
ON THE SCENERY OF THE SOUTHWEST
T o most Americans the southwest means the desert, and it is true that most of Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah, and portions of Colorado and southern California, are arid or semiarid lands, relieved, however, by regions of fertility and agricultural prosperity. In popular conception the desert has been the negative of all that means beauty, richness, and sublimity; it has been the synonym of poverty and death. Gradually but surely the American public is learning that again popular conception is wr
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A PAGEANT OF CREATION
A PAGEANT OF CREATION
Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona. Area, 958 Square Miles T here is only one Grand Canyon. It lies in northern Arizona, and the Colorado River, one of the greatest of American rivers, flows through its inner gorge. It must not be confused with the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, or with any of the grande cañons which the Spaniards so named because they were big canyons. The Grand Canyon is 217 miles long, 8 to 12 miles wide at the rim, and more than a mile deep. It is the Colossus of canyons,
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THE RAINBOW OF THE DESERT
THE RAINBOW OF THE DESERT
Zion National Monument, Southern Utah. Area, 120 Square Miles W hen , in the seventies, Major J.W. Powell, the daring adventurer of the Grand Canyon, faced Salt Lake City on his return from one of his notable geological explorations of the southwest, he laid his course by a temple of rock "lifting its opalescent shoulders against the eastern sky." His party first sighted it across seventy miles of a desert which "rose in a series of Cyclopean steps." When, climbing these, they had seen the West
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HISTORIC MONUMENTS OF THE SOUTHWEST
HISTORIC MONUMENTS OF THE SOUTHWEST
E leven national monuments in the States of Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado illustrate the history of our southwest from the times when prehistoric man dwelt in caves hollowed in desert precipices down through the Spanish fathers' centuries of self-sacrifice and the Spanish explorers' romantic search for the Quivira and the Seven Cities of Cibola. The most striking feature of the absorbing story of the Spanish occupation is its twofold inspiration. Hand in hand the priest and the soldier boldl
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DESERT SPECTACLES
DESERT SPECTACLES
T he American desert, to eyes attuned, is charged with beauty. Few who see it from the car-window find it attractive; most travellers quickly lose interest in its repetitions and turn back to their novels. A little intimacy changes this attitude. Live a little with the desert. See it in its varied moods—for every hour it changes; see it at sunrise, at midday, at sunset, in the ghostly night, by moonlight. Observe its life—for it is full of life; its amazing vegetation; its varied outline. Drink
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THE MUIR WOODS AND OTHER NATIONAL MONUMENTS
THE MUIR WOODS AND OTHER NATIONAL MONUMENTS
N ational monuments which commemorate history, conserve forests, and distinguish conspicuous examples of world-making dot other parts of the United States besides the colorful southwest. Their variety is great and the natural beauty of some of them unsurpassed. Their number should be much greater. Every history-helping exploration of the early days, from Cortreal's inspection of the upper Atlantic coast in 1501 and Ponce de Leon's exploration of Florida eleven years later, from Cabrillo's skirti
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