OUR NATIONAL PARKS AND RESERVATIONS

BY WILLIAM ELEROY CURTIS,

Washington Correspondent of the Chicago "Record-Herald."

Within the last few years three kinds of reservations have been authorized upon the public domain which now include 199,672,240 acres, and fifty-four game and bird reservations under the control of the Agricultural Department for the protection and preservation of the wild game and feathered denizens of our land. Several other reservations are proposed, including one for the permanent pasturage of the last large herd of elk which have been evicted from their hereditary winter grazing grounds in Wyoming, south of the Yellowstone Park, and find it difficult to get food enough upon the ranges that have not been taken up by farmers or eaten off by domestic stock.

There are four kinds of reserves: the National Forests, which embrace 194,505,325 acres in the United States proper, Alaska and Porto Rico; the national parks, which include 3,624,472 acres; national game preserves embracing about one million acres; national monuments which include 1,542,443 acres, and the numerous small bird preserves which have not been surveyed except in a few cases.

After years of labor by the American Institute of Archæology, the Geological Survey, the General Land Office and patriotic individuals, an act of Congress was passed in 1906 authorizing the President "to declare by proclamation, historic landmarks, prehistoric structures and other objects of historic and scientific interest situated upon the lands controlled or owned by the United States, to be national monuments, and to reserve, as a part thereof, parcels of land, the limits of which in all cases shall be confined to the smallest area compatible with the proper care and management of the objects to be protected." All persons are forbidden, under heavy penalty, to injure, destroy or excavate at such places except for the benefit of museums, universities, colleges and other scientific or educational institutions, under proper permits from the proper officers. Under this law twenty-three national monuments have been created.

National Forests

Until a few years ago the great timber areas of the United States were everybody's field for plunder, and the mountains and plains were rapidly stripped of trees. The consequences, as shown by the floods and droughts along the water courses that were fed by springs formerly sheltered by this timber, as well as the appalling wastage by forest fires and timber pirates, finally impressed Congress so that a law was passed authorizing the President to withdraw from sale and settlement such forest areas as in his opinion should be protected and preserved.

Under the authority of that act National Forests have been created in the several states as follows:

In addition to these reserves within the boundaries of the United States proper, there are two in Alaska with a total of 26,761,626 acres, and one in Porto Rico of 65,950 acres, making a grand total of 194,505,325 acres in one hundred and fifty National Forests.

For the convenience of administration this vast territory is divided into one hundred and forty-nine national forests, each in charge of a supervisor. In all cases the supervisor is selected for his wide practical knowledge of the West, and of the lumbering and grazing particularly.

For each of the many lines of work to be carried on in the forest, men with special experience are required. Those who prepare and tend the nurseries must be experienced in raising and caring for young trees. The lumberman, who cruises and estimates timber, helps to plan logging operations, sees that the scaling is correctly done and that the rules for logging are properly observed, must be an experienced and capable woodsman. The ranger patrols his district of the forest and sees that fire and trespass are prevented, that the range is not overgrazed, that logging regulations are enforced, and that the privileges granted by permit for the use of the various forest resources are not abused. He also must be hard-headed, practical, and thoroughly honest, an able-bodied citizen of the West, with plenty of experience in all the problems with which he may have to deal.

The National Forests are administered by the Forest Service, a branch of the Department of Agriculture. The forester, with an assistant forester in charge of each of the four branches, timber sales and planting, grazing, accounts and timber testing, has general supervision, while for field administration the western half of the United States is divided into six districts under district foresters, with headquarters at Missoula, Denver, Albuquerque, Ogden, San Francisco, and Portland.

National Parks

The national parks and reservations under the jurisdiction of the Interior Department are as follows:

The twelve national parks above enumerated are made by act of Congress, and include the big trees of California, a health resort at Hot Springs, Ark., several ruined cities in the southwest, a collection of prehistoric cliff dwellings, and several scenic wonders and natural phenomena which should be forever preserved from desecration; Mount Rainier in Washington; and Crater Lake, in the southern part of the Cascade range of Oregon, which is the deepest

body of fresh water known. It occupies the crater of an extinct. volcano at the top of a mountain 9,000 feet high, and is encircled by a continuous wall of cliffs from one thousand to two thousand feet in height. There is no break in the wall, which is so nearly perpendicular that it cannot be scaled except in a few places.

Wind Cave, in the southwestern part of South Dakota, east of the Black Hills, near the town of Hot Springs, is a remarkable natural curiosity as well as a health resort. The interior of the cave has never been thoroughly explored. It is like a honeycomb with more than three thousand rooms or cells and more than a hundred miles of corridors. Some one has likened it to a sponge, several miles in length, depth and breadth, composed of narrow passages connecting at different points with caverns large enough to enclose the capitol of the United States, and beautifully decorated with feathers and crystals of gypsum, that glisten like diamonds. The atmosphere in the cave is so dry that it is recommended as a specific for diseases of the throat, nose and lungs.

The Casa Grande Ruins, in Arizona, are the largest and best example of prehistoric architecture in this country. Although partially destroyed by vandals and the tooth of time, fifty-seven large rooms still remain, which have been put in order under the direction of the National Museum.

The Yosemite Valley now belongs to the national government, having been receded by the State of California in May, 1905. It was accepted by Congress that year in a clause inserted in the sundry appropriation bill, but some of the California state commissioners, who had been opposed to the recession, refused to surrender the property until formal resolution of acceptance was adopted by Congress, June 11, 1906.

Since the government took possession of the Yosemite a steam railroad has been built to connect with the Southern Pacific and the Sante Fe lines at the town of Merced. It carries visitors to a station called El Portal, at the boundary of the park. A traveler can leave San Francisco in the morning, reach El Portal without change of cars in the evening, stay over night at a comfortable hotel and take a stage ride of fourteen miles through the valley to the Sentinel Hotel in about four hours. It is also possible to go in from Raymond by stage via Wawona in two days as formerly. Since the railway was opened in 1907 there has been a very large increase