Your National Parks, with Detailed Information for Tourists

By Enos A. Mills

    YOUR NATIONAL PARKS. Illustrated.
    THE STORY OF SCOTCH. Illustrated.
    THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN WONDERLAND. Illustrated.
    THE STORY OF A THOUSAND-YEAR PINE. Illustrated.
    IN BEAVER WORLD. Illustrated.
    THE SPELL OF THE ROCKIES. Illustrated.
    WILD LIFE ON THE ROCKIES. Illustrated.

  HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
  BOSTON AND NEW YORK




YOUR NATIONAL PARKS




[Illustration: JOHN COLTER, THE DISCOVERER OF YELLOWSTONE PARK]




  A Guide to the National Parks

  YOUR
  NATIONAL PARKS

  BY

  ENOS A. MILLS

  WITH DETAILED INFORMATION
  FOR TOURISTS

  BY

  LAURENCE F. SCHMECKEBIER

  _And with Illustrations and Maps_

  [Illustration]

  BOSTON AND NEW YORK
  HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
  The Riverside Press Cambridge
  1917




  COPYRIGHT, 1917, BY ENOS A. MILLS
  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  _Published June 1917_




  TO

  GEORGE W. PERKINS

  AND

  WILLIAM A. WELCH


    WHOSE STATESMANSHIP, ENERGY, IDEALS, AND COURAGE ARE MAKING THE
    PALISADES INTER-STATE PARK "THE GREATEST PARK IN THE WORLD"




PREFACE


St. Louis had a memorable "flag day" a little more than a century ago.
Within twenty-four hours the yellow and red flag of Spain was run down
and the tricolor run up; this hauled down and the Stars and Stripes
run up. The Louisiana Territory thus became a part of the United
States. In a flash, the western boundary of this country was changed
from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains.

Scarcely were the Stars and Stripes flying, before Lewis and Clark
were on their way to explore the vast and mysterious Louisiana
Territory--the West. Theirs was one of the most comprehensive and
successful exploring expeditions on record--one of the greatest of
outdoor expeditions. There were adventures and hardships, but after
two years the party returned to civilization with the loss of only
one man. The resources of the great West were definitely placed before
the world.

This expedition revealed the extraordinary resourcefulness of Lewis
and Clark and brought out also two other characters who are worthy of
a place in American literature and whose achievements might well be a
source of inspiration in American life. These are John Colter, who
afterwards discovered the Yellowstone, and Sacagawea, the "bird
woman." Sacagawea was the one woman of the Lewis and Clark expedition.
She rendered remarkable service, and her name will be forever
associated with exploration, with woodcraft, and with the
National-Park wildernesses.

Just before the returning Lewis and Clark expedition reached St.
Louis, it met trappers starting up the river--going into the great
West. This was the real beginning of the trapping industry, which for
nearly two generations was the dominating influence of the West.

The West was thoroughly explored by the trappers. In a number of
States they formed the first permanent settlement. The trappers
harvested the furs of lakes and streams throughout the mountains and
built up the "Commerce of the Prairies." We are indebted to them for
the Oregon and Santa Fé trails. All history shows no more picturesque
or resourceful character than the trapper. Among them were such great
men as John Colter, James Bridger, and Kit Carson.

The trapper was followed by the prospector. The trapper did not search
for gold. The prospector did not look for furs or fertile lands. In a
different way the prospector exploited the same territory as the
trapper and thus placed the resources and the romance of the West
before the public.

Closely following the trapper and prospector was that rugged and
aggressive character, the cowboy. He had a definite part in the
forward movement of the frontier. The cowboy cared nothing for furs,
or gold, or fertile lands. He was interested in the rich grasses for
his cattle. He, too, had his short day. These characters--the cowboy,
the prospector, and the trapper--tarried for a brief moment on the
frontier when the farmer, the first lasting settler, arrived. All
these armed and vigorous people, the wearers of buckskin, were people
of individuality and power. They made great changes throughout the
West, and hastened its final development.

Pioneer men and women are among the great and influential figures in
history. They were human, they were honorable, and we do honor them.
They did not want or need sympathy. They were getting much, perhaps
the most, from life; they were happy. We think of theirs as being a
life of sacrifice, but it really was a life of selection. They were
away from the crowd--from the enemies of sincerity and individuality.
Of all people they were most nearly free. But the pioneers are gone.

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.