It had its beginning in the walks of beasts that prowled the solemn primeval forests. Over it our half-lost ancestors painfully advanced.

A fallen tree was their first bridge and a floating log their first boat. They wondered at the strange alternating day and night at which we still wonder. With joy they watched the shining dawn, and with fear and dread they saw the dusk of dying day. They learned the endless procession of seasons. The mysterious movements of wind and water aroused their curiosity, and with childlike interest they followed the soft and silent movements of the clouds. The wide and starry sky appealed strangely, strongly, to their imagination, and in this luminous field of s.p.a.ce their fancy found a local habitation and a name for the thousand earthly fears and factors of their lives. They dared the prairie, climbed the hills, but long kept close to the forest.

After hard and fearful ages--after "a million years and a day"--the camp-fire came at last. This fragment of the Immortal Sun conquered the cold and the night, and misery and dread gave way to comfort and hope. No more the aspen trembled. It became a dancing youth, while the strange, invisible echo was a merry hiding child. The fireflies changed to fairies, and Pan commenced to pipe the elemental melody of the wild.

Nature ever showed her pictures and interested her children in fairylands. Winter, cold and leafless; spring, full of song and promise; the generous wealth of summer; and autumn with its harvest and color, came and disappeared, and came again through all the mysterious years. Lightning, the echo, with roar and whisper of the viewless air, the white and lonely moon, the strange eclipse, the brilliant and fleeting rainbow,--Nature's irised silken banner,--the mystery of death, these seeds of thought bloomed into the fanciful, beautiful myths and legends that we know.

Once, like a web of joy, trails overspread all the wild gardens of the earth. The long trail is gone, and most others are cut to pieces and ruined. The few broken remnants are but little used.

The traveler who forgets or loses the trail will lose his way, or miss the best of life. The trail is the directest approach to the fountain of life, and this immortal way delays age and commands youth to linger. While you delay along the trail, Father Time pauses to lean upon his scythe. The trail wanders away from the fever and the fret, and leads to where the Red G.o.ds call. This wonderful way must not be buried and forgotten.

APPENDIX

APPENDIX

A

ACT OF DEDICATION OF THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK

AN ACT TO SET APART A CERTAIN TRACT OF LAND LYING NEAR THE HEADWATERS OF THE YELLOWSTONE RIVER AS A PUBLIC PARK.

_Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress a.s.sembled_,--That the tract of land in the Territories of Montana and Wyoming lying near the headwaters of the Yellowstone River and described as follows, to-wit: Commencing at the junction of Gardiner's River with the Yellowstone River and running east to the meridian, pa.s.sing ten miles to the eastward of the most eastern point of Yellowstone Lake; thence south along the said meridian to the parallel of lat.i.tude, pa.s.sing ten miles south of the most southern point of Yellowstone Lake; thence west along said parallel to the meridian, pa.s.sing fifteen miles west of the most western point of Madison Lake; thence north along said meridian to the lat.i.tude of the junction of the Yellowstone and Gardiner's Rivers; thence east to the place of beginning, is hereby reserved and drawn from settlement, occupancy, or sale under the laws of the United States, and dedicated and set apart as a public park or pleasuring ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people; and all persons who shall locate, or settle upon, or occupy the same or any part thereof, except as hereinafter provided, shall be considered trespa.s.sers and removed therefrom.

SEC. 2. That said public park shall be under the exclusive control of the Secretary of the Interior, whose duty it shall be, as soon as practicable, to make and publish such rules and regulations as he may deem necessary or proper for the care and management of the same. Such regulations shall provide for the preservation from injury or spoliation of all timber, mineral deposits, natural curiosities or wonders within said park, and their retention in their natural condition.

The Secretary may, in his discretion, grant leases for building purposes, for terms not exceeding ten years, of small parcels of ground, at such places in said park as shall require the erection of buildings for the accommodation of visitors; all of the proceeds of said leases, and all other revenue that may be derived from any source connected with said park, to be expended under his direction in the management of the same and the construction of roads and bridle-paths, and shall provide against the wanton destruction of fish and game found within said park and against their capture or destruction for the purpose of merchandise or profit. He shall also cause all persons trespa.s.sing upon the same after the pa.s.sage of this act to be removed therefrom, and generally shall be authorized to take all such measures as shall be necessary or proper to fully carry out the objects and purposes of this act.

_Approved March 1, 1872._

Signed by:

JAMES G. BLAINE, _Speaker of the House_.

SCHUYLER COLFAX, _Vice-President of the United States and President of the Senate_.

ULYSSES S. GRANT, _President of the United States_.

B

THE NATIONAL PARKS AT A GLANCE

ARRANGED CHRONOLOGICALLY IN THE ORDER OF THEIR CREATION

(Number, 17; total area, 9776 square miles)

----------------+------------+----------+--------------------------------

_Area in

_National

_Location_

square

_Distinctive Parks_

miles_

characteristics_ ----------------+------------+----------+--------------------------------

Hot Springs

Middle

1-1/2

46 hot springs possessing (1832)

Arkansas

curative properties--Many

hotels and boarding-houses--

20 bathhouses under public

control.

Yellowstone

North-

3348

More geysers than in all rest (1872)

western

of world together--Boiling

Wyoming

springs--Mud volcanoes--

Petrified forests--Grand

Canon of the Yellowstone,

remarkable for gorgeous

coloring--Large lakes--Many

large streams and waterfalls--

Vast wilderness inhabited

by deer, elk, bison, moose,

antelope, bear, mountain

sheep, beaver, etc.,

const.i.tuting greatest wild

bird and animal preserve in

world--Alt.i.tude 6000 to

11,000 feet--Exceptional

trout-fishing.

Yosemite (1890)

Middle

1125

Valley of world-famed beauty--

eastern

Lofty cliffs--Romantic

California

vistas--Many waterfalls of

extraordinary height--3

groves of Big Trees--High

Sierra--Large areas of snowy

peaks--Water-wheel falls--

Good trout-fishing.

Sequoia (1890)

Middle

252

The Big Tree National Park--

eastern

12,000 sequoia trees over 10

California

feet in diameter, some 25 or

36 feet in diameter--Towering

mountain-ranges--Startling

precipices--Fine

trout-fishing.

General Grant

Middle

4

Created to preserve the (1890)

eastern

celebrated General Grant

California

Tree, 35 feet in diameter--

6 miles from Sequoia National

Park and under same

management.

Mount Rainier

West

324

Largest accessible single (1899)

central

peak glacier-system--28

Washington

glaciers, some of large

size--48 square miles of

glacier, 50 to 500 feet

thick--Wonderful sub-alpine

wild-flower fields.

Crater Lake

South-

249

Lake of extraordinary blue in (1902)

western

crater of extinct volcano, no

Oregon

inlet, no outlet--Sides 1000

feet high--Interesting

lava-formations--Fine

trout-fishing.

Mesa Verde

South-

77

Most notable and best (1906)

western

preserved prehistoric cliff

Colorado

dwellings in United States,

if not in the world.

Platt (1906)

Southern

1-1/8

Many sulphur and other

Oklahoma

springs possessing medicinal

value, under Government

regulation.

Glacier (1910)

North-

1534

Rugged mountain region--250

western

glacier-fed lakes--60 small

Montana

glaciers--Peaks of unusual

shape--Precipices thousands

of feet deep--Fine

trout-fishing.

Rocky Mountain

North

400

Heart of the Rockies--Snowy (1915)

middle

range, peaks 11,000 to 14,250

Colorado

feet alt.i.tude--Remarkable

records of glacial period.

Hawaii (1916)

Hawaiian

117

Vast volcanoes--Craters--

Islands

Tropical plants and birds.

La.s.sen Volcanic

Northern

123

Active volcano, volcanic (1916)

California

records, lakes, hot springs,

and forests.

Mount McKinley

Central

2200

"The Great One"; highest peak (1917)

Alaska

in North America, 20,300

feet; vast big-animal range;

enormous glaciers; wild

flowers.

Other National Parks are:--

Sully's Hill (1904) North Dakota Wooded hilly tract on Devil's Lake.

Wind Cave (1903) South Dakota Large natural cavern.

Casa Grande Ruin (1892) Arizona Prehistoric Indian ruin.

For National Park booklets and other Park information address The Director, National Park Service, Department of the Interior, Washington, D.C.

C

PROPOSED NATIONAL PARKS

-----------------+---------------+------------------------------------ _Region_

_Location_

_Characteristics_ -----------------+---------------+------------------------------------

Grand Canon

Arizona

The Grand Canon.

Mount Evans

Near Denver,

Magnificent peak, primeval

Colorado

forests, lakes, and alpine flora.

Mount Baker (the

Northwestern

Extinct or sleeping volcano; Indian Kulshan)

Washington

thirty square miles of glaciers,

forests, and wild flowers.

Sawtooth

Central Idaho

Precipitous mountains, alpine Mountains

lakes, heavy forests, flowery

meadows, clear streams.

Ozark Mountains

Northern

Rare river and mountain

Arkansas

landscapes.

Mount McGregor

Northeastern

Rare combination of river, hill,

Iowa

forest, bluff, and plains.

Pajarito Cliff

Pajarito

Many vast prehistoric ruins of Cities

Plateau, near

wonderful Indian civilization.

Santa Fe, New

Mexico.

Mount Mitch.e.l.l

Western North

Highest peak east of the Rockies,

Carolina

6711 feet high; quiet scenery of

the South Appalachians.

Pike's Peak

Central

The most frequently climbed

Colorado

14,000-foot peak in the world;

excellent view-point, rising

abruptly from the plains.

Dunes

Northern

Lake Sh.o.r.e; extraordinary

Indiana

aggregation of plants from warm,

cold, wet and dry zones.

San Juan

Southwestern

Magnificent mountains, individual

Colorado

in form and color, with large

scene-commanding plateaus.

Grand Mesa

Western

Lake-dotted plateau that towers

Colorado

near splendid horizons.

Bighorn

Northern

A towering, rocky, scenic Mountains

Wyoming

alpine-island area in the sea

of plains.