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 SpringsMiddle1-1/246 hot springs possessing (1832)Arkansascurative properties--Manyhotels and boarding-houses--20 bathhouses under publiccontrol.
YellowstoneNorth-3348More geysers than in all rest (1872)westernof world together--BoilingWyomingsprings--Mud volcanoes--Petrified forests--GrandCanon of the Yellowstone,remarkable for gorgeouscoloring--Large lakes--Manylarge streams and waterfalls--Vast wilderness inhabitedby deer, elk, bison, moose,antelope, bear, mountainsheep, beaver, etc.,const.i.tuting greatest wildbird and animal preserve inworld--Alt.i.tude 6000 to11,000 feet--Exceptionaltrout-fishing.
Yosemite (1890)Middle1125Valley of world-famed beauty--easternLofty cliffs--RomanticCaliforniavistas--Many waterfalls ofextraordinary height--3groves of Big Trees--HighSierra--Large areas of snowypeaks--Water-wheel falls--Good trout-fishing.
Sequoia (1890)Middle252The Big Tree National Park--eastern12,000 sequoia trees over 10Californiafeet in diameter, some 25 or36 feet in diameter--Toweringmountain-ranges--Startlingprecipices--Finetrout-fishing.
General GrantMiddle4Created to preserve the (1890)easterncelebrated General GrantCaliforniaTree, 35 feet in diameter--6 miles from Sequoia NationalPark and under samemanagement.
Mount RainierWest324Largest accessible single (1899)centralpeak glacier-system--28Washingtonglaciers, some of largesize--48 square miles ofglacier, 50 to 500 feetthick--Wonderful sub-alpinewild-flower fields.
Crater LakeSouth-249Lake of extraordinary blue in (1902)westerncrater of extinct volcano, noOregoninlet, no outlet--Sides 1000feet high--Interestinglava-formations--Finetrout-fishing.
Mesa VerdeSouth-77Most notable and best (1906)westernpreserved prehistoric cliffColoradodwellings in United States,if not in the world.
Platt (1906)Southern1-1/8Many sulphur and otherOklahomasprings possessing medicinalvalue, under Governmentregulation.
Glacier (1910)North-1534Rugged mountain region--250westernglacier-fed lakes--60 smallMontanaglaciers--Peaks of unusualshape--Precipices thousandsof feet deep--Finetrout-fishing.
Rocky MountainNorth400Heart of the Rockies--Snowy (1915)middlerange, peaks 11,000 to 14,250Coloradofeet alt.i.tude--Remarkablerecords of glacial period.
Hawaii (1916)Hawaiian117Vast volcanoes--Craters--IslandsTropical plants and birds.
La.s.sen VolcanicNorthern123Active volcano, volcanic (1916)Californiarecords, lakes, hot springs,and forests.
Mount McKinleyCentral2200"The Great One"; highest peak (1917)Alaskain North America, 20,300feet; vast big-animal range;enormous glaciers; wildflowers.
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 CanonArizonaThe Grand Canon.
Mount EvansNear Denver,Magnificent peak, primevalColoradoforests, lakes, and alpine flora.
Mount Baker (theNorthwesternExtinct or sleeping volcano; Indian Kulshan)Washingtonthirty square miles of glaciers,forests, and wild flowers.
SawtoothCentral IdahoPrecipitous mountains, alpine Mountainslakes, heavy forests, flowerymeadows, clear streams.
Ozark MountainsNorthernRare river and mountainArkansaslandscapes.
Mount McGregorNortheasternRare combination of river, hill,Iowaforest, bluff, and plains.
Pajarito CliffPajaritoMany vast prehistoric ruins of CitiesPlateau, nearwonderful Indian civilization.
Santa Fe, NewMexico.Mount Mitch.e.l.lWestern NorthHighest peak east of the Rockies,Carolina6711 feet high; quiet scenery ofthe South Appalachians.
Pike"s PeakCentralThe most frequently climbedColorado14,000-foot peak in the world;excellent view-point, risingabruptly from the plains.
DunesNorthernLake Sh.o.r.e; extraordinaryIndianaaggregation of plants from warm,cold, wet and dry zones.
San JuanSouthwesternMagnificent mountains, individualColoradoin form and color, with largescene-commanding plateaus.
Grand MesaWesternLake-dotted plateau that towersColoradonear splendid horizons.
BighornNorthernA towering, rocky, scenic MountainsWyomingalpine-island area in the seaof plains.