Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 184, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 August 1911 — WONDERS OF THE GREAT WEST [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

WONDERS OF THE GREAT WEST

EVERY year the great resorts of Europe are visited by thousands of tourists who apparently have no knowledge of the great national parks which have been treated by congress for the. benefit of the people and in which there are natural features and views that cannot be surpassed. ' If the traveler seeks Alpine glaciers he has only to go to the Glacier National Park, where there are more glaciers in the same area than in Switzerland; if he desires to travel in comfort over finely built roads that rival those of France, Switzerland and Germany, the Yellowstone Park extends its invitation to him. If he is attracted to Europe-tar the mystery of the Black Forest, he can 2nd more majestic and Impressive forests on the slopes of the Sierra Nevada, in the Yosemite, Sequoia and General Grant porks. If his thoughts turn to the clear blue lakes of Switzerland, he can find their counterparts in the Glacier and Crater lake national parks. Should he be apxious to risk his life in scaling snow-clad peaks, he has only to repair to Mount Ranter in Washington, whose steep slopes and ice-covered top-will furnish sport exciting enough for the most daring of mountaineers. If he is interested in the ruins of prehistoric pebple, the Casa Grande ruin in Arizona and the Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado will Bhow him how the aboriginal* inhabitants of America lived hundreds of years before its discovery by Europeans.

Yellowstone Is Best Known. The Yellowstone National Park in northwestern Wyoming is the oldest and the best known of all the parks and reservations. It was created by an act of congress in 1872, and ever since that time, the government has been constructing roads and cutting trails, until now the park Is in a high state of development and all parts of it are accessible to the traveler. In the park may be seen natural phenomena the like of which is found nowhere else in the world. lure are guysers that throw jets of steam and hot water into the air, great terraces formed from deposits of mineral matter In the water thrown up by the geysers, and the great falls of Yellowstone river which traverses a beautiful multi-colored canyon that is second only to the Canyon of the Colorado. In this park may be seen the deer, the bear, the antelope and the bison on their native range, because hunting 1b prohibited and the bands of deer and antelope roam through the valleys and over the slopes as they did years before they were practically exterminated In the greater part of the west. The Glacier National Park in northern Montana on the Canadian border is the newest of the parks controlled by the federal government. Tbis park has an area of about 916,000 acres and has a maximum length of sixty milei. Yosemite In Class by Itself. When one speaks of California the Yosemite Park naturally comes, to mind. As long ago as 1864 an act of congress granted the Yosemite valley and the Mariposa big tree grove to the State of California for public use and recreation. The legislature of California by the act approved March S, 1906, re-ceded the Jurisdiction and ownership of this tract to the United States, and only since June U, 1906, has the management of the Yosemite National Park been under the control of the federal government. The entire park baa an area of about 36 by 40 mfiea. The Yosemite valley, which ia the most frequently visited place ia about 7 miles long and %, mile wMe. In the center of this valley la a level, parkllke meadow, through which runs the Merced river, while on either side the mountains rise steep and precipitous to a height of 4,000 feet above the floor of te valley.

Numerous streams drop from the edge of the cliff to the valley below. The first of these ss the tourist enters the valley is the Bridal Veil Falls. A stream folly thirty feet wide falls a distance of 600 feet, then rushes over a sloping pile of debris, and then drops perpendicularly 300 feet more. The great waterfall in this park, however, Is the Yosemite Falls. This

is a stream thirty-five feet wide, and In the spring and early summer when the snow is melting upon the high Sierra its roar can be heard all over the valley, and the shock of the descent rattles the windows a mile away. -This fall is conceded by all critics to be one of the most wonderful and beautiful cascades in the world. Its first fall is about 1,600 feet' sheer drop, then come a series of cascades partly hidden in which the fall is over TSOO feet, and finally a vertical drop of 400 feet. „

From the cliffs surrounding the valley the scene is one of remarkable inspiration and beauty. At the foot o fthe traveler lies the valley floor — the green trees and meadows and the winding riv§r giving the effect of a rich velvet carpet over which a line' of silver has been drawn; here and there one gets glimpses of the foaming white waters hurling themselves to the valley below; on both sides of the valley rise the great walls of rock, sculptured by the elements into various fantastic shapes and figures. Trees Twenty Centuries Old.

In the Yosemite the Sequoia and the General Grant National parks are found the groves of big trees the like of which are seen nowhere else in the world. These trees grow to a height of 340 feet and have a circumference of over 100 feet at the base, the bark sometimes exceeding 40 inches in thickness.

The rings in the trunks of, these trees show that many of them are over 2,000 years old. Cathedrals and castles have been built and fallen into

decay, empires have come and gone, but these grizzly giants of the western slopes still raise their hoary heads and spread their grateful shade as they did in the days of the Caesars. - The largest glacial system in the world radiating from any single peak is situated on Mount Ranter in western Washington. The Mount Ranter National Park includes the mass of this great mountain and all the approaches to it. The Crater Lake National Park in Oregon has within Its borders a lake that is unique among the natural wonders of the world. This lake, into which no streams flow and which has ©o .visible outlet, lies In what is left to the caldera of a great mountain that rose to an elevation of over 14y 000 feet above the sea. It is almost forty years sinoe congress laid the beginning of the great national park system by passing the act creating the Yellowstone National Park, approved March 1, 1872. Other parks have been created since, until at present the area embraced in these pleasure grounds of the people amounts to over 4,000,000 acres. _

The policy of establishing national parks has resulted in preserving from private exploitation and gain great areas which are characterized by magnificent scenery and which are used as vacation resorts by thousands of people , * \ v

Falls of the Yellowstone.