Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 102, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 April 1916 — INDIANA RICHES ARE BEING UNCOVERED [ARTICLE]

INDIANA RICHES ARE BEING UNCOVERED

State Park Pians to Preserve Beauty Spots as Centenr.lil Memorial. T “Know Indiana” is the watchword of this Hoosier Centennial year of 1916. And we are learning of it In many ways. For practically the first time we are uncovering one of ‘its choicest riches —the beauty spots. We are finding that it has untold riches in the form of scenic, treasures which, if they are to be preserved until we can become better acquainted with their charm and until we can pass them on to the Hoosier generations that are to come, these beauty spots must be sought out and prompt and definite action taken to perpetuate them. How many of these regions of natural grandeur Indiana has no one person knows, but there are two hundred or more. Most of them are in the wild state as Nature created them. They have alluring charm for all who explore them and they only await to be taken over from private ownership and converted into permanent public-use as parks. The consensus of opinion among Indiana people is that the Centennial year should be marked in some dignified and lasting way; that the memorial should take a form in which all the people may participate, not only by contributing their means, but to obtain some enduring civic worth out of it; that the memorial should be of such permanency that the people of the next Hoosier century will know that civic patriotism was very much alive in Indiana in the year 1916. State Pgrks fill all of these requirements. With the development of Indiana’s other rich resources, like agriculture, mining and transportation, and all of them well advanced, the second century of Hoosier Statehood can be marked by the development, through preservation, of still another great resource of public value— natural scenery, and those historical spots that have been handed down to us in the last one hundred years. An attractive folder giving much information on the state parks can be obtained free of the Indiana State Park Memorial Committee, room 80, State House, Indianapolis.

The State Park movement is one In which every person may participate. Subscriptions in any sum will be received by the state committee, and a« time goes by every contributor to tiie park fund will find civic pride in the thought that they helped to make this immense enterprise a successhelped to create a park system that through the centuries to come will reflect gloriously upon the generation es today that was thoughtful and generous enough to provide it