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, a ... Read more

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. The 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 the 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 [xiii]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 wildlife will be perpetuated. Chains of mountain-peaks will ever stand—"the silent caravan that never passes by, the caravan whose camelbacks 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 are 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. Your National Parks: With Detailed Information for Tourists, The Yellowstone National Park, The Yosemite National Park, The Sequoia and the General Grant National Parks, Mount Rainier National Park, Glacier National Park, The Olympic National Monuments Less