The cover design of this issue represents a snow covered Douglas Fir. One of these beautifully symetrical trees stands in front of the Administration Building at Longmire. Each year it is decorated with a multitude of colored electric lights and illuminated suring the Christmas holidays.

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Raccoons, always quite abundant about Longmire but rarely seen by the park visitor due to their nocturnal habits, are now more in evidence. They are now quite common about the rear entrances of many homes here and in the vicinity of the mess hall where "handouts" of left-overs generally await them. Quite often they are seen during the day and may be readily photographed and workmen, living in the dormitory, tell many amusing tales of these animals that result from their casual strolls about the building. Len Longmire, while reading a magazine late one evening, was startled when one of the visiting raccoons silently walked into his room and suddenly hopped upon his lap.

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Near Longmire is a well developed system of beaver dams. The pools which have been formed by the water that has accumulated there support some fish of small size and this fact, in turn, has served to attract a number of Kingfishers to this point. These birds which are not abundant in the park may be readily seen in this vicinity.

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Visitors to the park next summer will be pleased at the improvements made in the Ramparts and Shadow trails spring the past fall. The former was re-located and improved so that now it offers one of the finest three-hour loop trails in the park. The latter is the short "nature trail" - along which the trees, flowers and other interesting natural history objects are marked during the summer- and this has been improved, drained and otherwise made more pleasant as a short walk for the Park visitor at Longmire. The old Longmire Homestead Cabin, the only remaining building of the original structures at this point, was also repaired and put in its original condition by Lafe and Len Longmire - grandsons of James Longmire, who discovered these springs and established his claim here in 1883.