Play Areas
(Continued)
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civilization might eventually over
whelm even their wild mountains.
Those campers resolved to fore
stall the blight of hot-dog stands and
pizza palaces, whose predecessors
were already spreading across the
prairies. With their combined influ
ence and resources, they caused Con
gress to reserve those acres for
public use, to be held for the benefit
of future generations. The land they
saved is now the Yellowstone Na
tional Park.
It was the first of its kind.
From that beginning, your system
of parks expanded until a depart
ment called the National Park Serv
ice was established in 1916 under the
Secretaiy of the Interior. The law
called those parks "pleasuring
places," and so they are and will re
main as long as we who visit them
remember what those natives of the South Pacific under
stood so well that no generation owns its natural resources
but merely uses them for a little while.
As fellow trustees of these vast resources, all Americans
share various burdens. It is timely, I believe, to name some
of them.
The matter of litter is one. Litter is a nuisance. Attend
ants at most park entrances offer visitors a litter bag. If .
it is available, please use it. Do your share to tidy up.
Souvenir hunters abound, particularly in the Petrified
Forest of Arizona. Where huge tree trunks from a pre
historic age exhibit the miracle of wood turned to stone,
petrified chunks lie invitingly on the ground. Park rangers
and signs request visitors not to disturb them. Inspect
their odd beauty, ponder their enigma, but leave them in
their resting place to delight those who follow you.
In Yosemite National Park, an ancient Jeffrey pine leans
away from the wind at the summit of Sentinel Dome, 8,000
feet above the sea. It has fought for its life against gale
and blizzard until it is bent like a humpbacked crone. No
other tree in the world is like it. Each line of root and
branch proclaims such tenacity that the human spirit is
lifted. Again, Park Service signs ask the public to protect
it. Yet some vandal has cut a step into the trunk the better
to climb it. Another drove an iron spike into its heart for
motives unknown, and the scar is still visible. Thoughtless
children abrade its bark with their heels, and this is done
in full view of their parents.
Other desecrations mar our trusteeship. I know of giant
Sequoias that are sick from the carving of linked initials
in their bark. I know of a lady called Miss Liberty whose
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Visitors to a Montana cavern pause by a
whipped-creamJiho wonder of nature.
torch lights up New York harbor
but whose skirt is smeared with lip
stieked names and phrases.
Another affront is the thoughtless
person who would introduce amuse
ment establishments into primeval
settings. In every mail, Park Service
permission is sought for setting up
bowling alleys, miniature golf
courses, and soft-drink machines.
We who are today's trustees must
stand foursquare against these de
structive invasions.
Summer is around the corner, and
the open highway leads to the world's
greatest outdoor school, our park
system. Why not enroll and redis
cover your heritage.
Visit Mesa Verde and view the
Cliff Palace from whose 200 living
rooms an Indian race vanished with
out a trace.
Or take a long stride into our history and visit James
town, Va., where our park commemorates the first perma
nent English colony in America, established 13 years before
Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock.
Or visit Coronado National Memorial in Arizona and
the Cabi-illo Monument in California, named for intrepid
Spaniards who, a half century ahead of the English, had
already explored much of our Southwest and Far West.
See Independence Hall and the jewel of a park around
it that has emerged from the rubble of old Philadelphia.
Through events that took place there, this free nation
was born, and the fetters of tyranny were shaken around
the world.
Join the bands of Civil War buffs who wander over
memorable battlefields : Chickamauga, Fort Sumter,
Gettysburg, Manassas, Shiloh, Vicksburg. Each name echoes
with heroism and glorious sacrifice. Each park is a link in
our chain of history.
From such visits come fragile stirrings of the human
spirit that are called knowledge, refreshment, and esthetic
enjoyment. These are profound experiences essential to
mortal welfare. ' '
. Your help will protect these values for those to whom
we leave them ; your neglect will diminish them. Already,
the elk are gone from Rocky Mountain and Glacier Parks,
the Bighorn sheep have vanished from Big Bend and Mesa
Verde, and the rare bird life of the Florida Everglades is
not what it was.
With your aid, your Government can conserve and re
store. As John Milton once said, "Accuse not nature ; she
hath done her part. Do thou but thine."
Family Weekly, May 21, 1961