The Home Front
BOHN, WILLIAM E.
THE HOME FRONT By William E. Bohn Farewell to the National Parks I have now written about five of our national parks. This has been a labor of love. These areas of beauty, charm and scientific...
...But each of them has some special quality which makes it worth preserving and developing...
...These areas of beauty, charm and scientific interest would inspire enthusiasm in the dullest visitor...
...By 1966, Director Wirth plans to renovate it, resuscitate it, bring it abreast of the most progressive features of our life...
...The sums required to bring about all these improvements are unbelievably small—at least compared with the figures for our defense program or even our educational system...
...Others, like the historical sites, are comparatively small...
...I heard one desirable improvement mentioned frequently in public places...
...I feel especially guilty about Rushmore...
...In Yosemite, for example, there is a good deal of complaint about crowding...
...I feel especially negligent because I have failed to look into some of the most famous of our national reservations...
...It implies the training and employment of thousands of administrators and employes...
...We are told in a beautiful brochure sent out to explain "Mission 66": "The National Park System that we have today was developed to care for the 21 million visitors of 1941, but in 1955 the system had to cope with 50 million...
...The literature published about them suggests that a traveler could have a wonderful time if he could cover the whole gamut of parks, monuments and historical sites...
...It bears this name because 1966 will mark the golden anniversary of the Park System...
...It is said that people are treading on one another's toes...
...But interested citizens can help make success doubly certain by registering...
...That is, of course, if the funds contemplated in "Mission 66" become available...
...I was thrilled by Muir Woods, the Painted Desert, Wind Cave, the Grand Canyon, the Badlands and Mount Rushmore...
...After talking with a good many of the men involved, I can testify that good use will be made of every cent which Congress makes available in accordance with "Mission 66...
...It means, too, the development of superintendents of the highest intelligence and devotion...
...a vote with their members of Congress...
...Mission 66" embodies the ideas they developed...
...But, while the Park Service has been loyal to the public, the public has neglected its parks...
...Some of them, like Yellowstone, are of vast extent...
...But, as I bring this little series of essays to a close, I feel apologetic to the Park Service and to the fine and generous men who have given me their help...
...Similar plans are being drawn up throughout the system...
...If thousands of visitors tramp along broken-down roads and raise clouds of dust, they cannot be expected to get the full spiritual lift out of Bridalveil Falls...
...From 1957 to 1966, it is planned to ask Congress for less than $50 million per year for capital investment...
...The way in which the Park Service is developing the area about that great monument is something for which we should all be thankful...
...After visiting a number of our parks and talking with their superintendents and rangers, I can testify that no department of our Government with which I am acquainted receives more devoted service or is more consistently run for the public good...
...I have never seen Bryce Canyon, Carlsbad Caverns, Great Smoky or Glacier...
...This system of beauty spots and recreation centers includes 181 areas...
...In giving a brief account of five parks, I have hardly made a beginning...
...The administrators of the park have worked out plans which will increase the number of visitors that can be received and make their stay both agreeable and profitable...
...Visitors from the East are often frightened by the exigencies of mountain motoring...
...It was in the year 1916 that Congress set this feature of our national life on its feet...
...I have been roused to a high pitch of enthusiasm by the thought that they are public property, that they belong to all of us...
...I understand that the chances of having this scheme supported are excellent...
...This means that roads have broken down, buildings are outmoded and inadequate, staffs have not been increased in proportion to the demand...
...Moreover, I have visited a number of charming and interesting spots without rendering any report on them...
...This requires the construction and maintenance of countless roads, buildings and other facilities...
...To meet this challenge, Director Conrad L. Wirth called together a group of key people and asked them to draw up a program which would bring the whole system up to a high standard...
...In 1956, the park entertained 1.1 million visitors with approximately the same facilities with which it took care of 500,000 in 1946...
...It always helps to let the man in Washington know what you think...
...Our 181 areas of scenic beauty, scientific importance and historic significance are to be preserved and simultaneously made available to the people for recreation and refreshment...
...It is said that the number of Easterners at the parks would greatly increase if there were more fences or walls on the drop-off edges of mountain roads...
Vol. 40 • September 1957 • No. 36
