The Home Front
BOHN, WILLIAM E.
THE HOME FRONT By William E. Bohn The Wonders of Cape Hatteras OUR NATIONAL PARK Service is one of the most efficient and useful institutions in the country. Last summer, Edith and I followed the...
...Herbert Evison, Chief of Information in Washington, soon set me right: "Preservation of liberal and representative samples of the seashore has been a major concern of the Director, Conrad L. Wirth, ever since I first knew him—and that was a long time ago...
...We visited Grand Canyon, Crater Lake, Yellowstone and three or four more of those magnificent recreation and natural wonder spots...
...Bird-watchers are visiting this refuge in increasing numbers...
...Late one afternoon—after his last "walk"—we wandered with him from the bathhouse down to the beach...
...He had just returned from planting 20 acres of millet for the benefit of Canadian geese which are expected to come flying in...
...Last summer, Edith and I followed the track of some of its activities in the West...
...At Mesa Verde, they described the life of the American Indians...
...At Yellowstone, they explained the geysers...
...At the Grand Canyon, the naturalists discussed geology...
...The principal question which I put to Gibbs was the obvious one: "What can the Camp Service do to help people get more pleasure out of the beaches and the ocean...
...The Park Naturalist is W. Verde Watson, a fine and lively young chap...
...Right in the middle of the park is the bird refuge...
...To set people to asking questions—especially during vacation time—that is real education...
...Immediately after our return, we spent a week at a popular seaside resort on the New Jersey coast...
...He uses this to scoop up whatever the retiring waves have to offer and explains whatever he takes...
...Within that short distance four tourists, two of them youngsters, eagerly stopped him in order to get explanations of things which they had found on the sand...
...There was the Atlantic Ocean, certainly as beautiful and impressive as the Grand Canyon or Crater Lake, but nothing was being done with it or for it...
...With 10 or 20 inquirers he goes along the beach morning and afternoon armed with what looks like a dustpan made of wire screening...
...So last week Edith and I pointed our car toward Nag's Head, North Carolina: that is the road-map way of approaching the Cape Hatteras National Recreational Area...
...He started in the Virginia forest service, in the war became foreman of a CCC camp and from there went into the Camp Service...
...They all have the same objectives, the same sense of devotion and the same wide intelligence...
...Phillips, the director, told us that 170 species of birds have been listed as visitors...
...You keep wondering how this narrow spit of sand you're riding on has remained solid enough through the ages to resist the weight of the waves and to support its burden of sand dunes and its exciting variety of plant life...
...The head man at Cape Hatteras is Robert F. Gibbs, who belongs conspicuously to the National Park guild...
...As we motored along, we soon discovered that walks have been constructed to the tops of some of the mountainous dunes so that sightseers can easily take in the magnificent seascapes...
...Among the chief attractions at the Western parks were the informal but informative talks about natural features of the surroundings...
...now there is only one, but it is the most beautiful swimming establishment I have ever seen...
...When you start south from Nag's Head toward the famous Cape, you are almost, but not quite, out at sea...
...He was responsible for a study of American seashores in the early '30s...
...They are a fine lot of men, these park superintendents...
...Why couldn't the National Park Service do something to save the beaches...
...The next morning, when we started down toward the Cape, we quickly began to understand his meaning...
...Out of that study developed the Cape Hatteras National Seashore project, now approaching completion...
...I, of course, had to raise a protesting voice...
...On the right you have Currituck Sound and Pamlico Sound, and on the left is the open sea...
...Eventually there are to be ten bathhouses...
...Information and help are afforded fishermen...
...So he has spent his life in the National Park system...
...He recently started what he calls shore-walks...
...This struck us as being dirty, sleazy and strictly low-class...
...The impressive thing about it all was that the ordinary American tourists who swarmed over these places listened with real interest and asked intelligent questions...
...This, it seems to me, justifies the whole experiment...
...Gibbs grew up in Virginia, near Shenandoah National Park...
...At Oregon Inlet, where the bridge of sand finally gives way, you are carried by a handsome free ferry furnished by the state of North Carolina...
...I wanted to know whether anything like this was going on at this experimental seashore camp...
...As a Boy Scout he was taken there on camping trips and early got the idea that to be the boss of such a wonderful place would be just about the finest job in the world...
...He answered : "We have 70 miles of beach as beautiful and as exciting as any in the world—and it is our business to help people enjoy it and understand it...
Vol. 41 • October 1958 • No. 32
