Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 143, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 June 1918 — CAMPING PLACE OF NATION [ARTICLE]

CAMPING PLACE OF NATION

That Seems to Be the Manifest Destiny of the Sequoia National Park. Analysis shows that'the very large Increase in visitors to the Sequoia National park last summer amounting to nearly 60 per cent over the record attendance of the summer before, a fact which strongly emphasizes what has been called the “manifest destiny of the Greater Sequoia as the future summer camping place of the nation. The report of the director of the national park service says: “It was a most pleasing sight to stand in the midst of the Giant Forest during the summer and gaze upon the attractively situated and tastefully decorated camps nestled each at the base of an enormous sequoia. It was a peaceful scene and a beautiful one. There was nothing to do in the forest but rest, breathe the healthrestoring air, drink the clear, cold water, and contemplate the dignity and beauty of the biggest and oldest living things. Fishermen came and went, and the hikers and horseback riders took the trails and returned from the higher altitudes of the park, .but the peacefulness and quietude of the forest was never disturbed. Camping In the Giant Forest is all that anybody has written about It and more. It is a glorious experience.

“The enormous increase in travel to the park early in the summer disclosed the fact that it would only be a matter of a year or two before all available camping space would lie taken long before the height of the season; also that the streams of the park, unless carefully . stocked each year, would be fished out before the summer would be half gone. Anticpating the inevitable need of more camping grounds, the Giant Forest boad has been continued from Wolverton to the Marble Fork river, where a splendid opportunity for the development of a fine big camp area exists. There are no sequoia trees here, but there is a fine forest of pines and firs, and the ground is covered with a clean white gravel that will toake camping especially satisfactory. This new; camp area will be near the best fishing waters that are at all times accessible, and an effort will be made to keep those waters well stocked with trout”