National Park Service Recreational Use of Land in the United States

1. FEDERAL LANDS

Lands Administered By National Park Service

Functions.—The primary function of the National Park Service is to provide an administration for national parks, monuments, and reservations with the objects of preserving their scenery, natural and historic objects and wildlife, and of providing for the public enjoyment of the same in such manner as to leave them unimpaired for the future.

The Executive order of June 10, 1933, greatly increased the work of the National Park Service by transferring to it (with certain exceptions) the parks, monuments, cemeteries, and memorials from the War Department, national monuments from the Department of Agriculture, and, further, increased its primary functions by charging it with the administration of public parks within and contiguous to the District of Columbia and (with exceptions) public buildings, both within and outside the District, and the duties and responsibilities of the former Public Buildings Commission, including control and allocation of space.

Scientific Data Available.—(a) There is careful planning in the subdivision of land uses within each park and monument, and master plans are used to control development in such manner that proper use of each class of land will be assured.

(b) Systematic surveys are made of the many new locations that are constantly being proposed for national park or monument status and for addition to existing parks. An adverse report of such investigation frequently carries a recommendation as to suitability of the area for inclusion in a State park system.

(c) Responsibility for the supervision of Emergency Conservation Work on State, county, and metropolitan parks and recreation areas is vested in the National Park Service. This has resulted in close association with all parks planning activities throughout the country.

(d) The National Park Service is further invested with authority to select the submarginal lands and prescribe the development thereon within the scope of the Submarginal Lands Acquisition Program where these are to be used for recreation purposes.

Relations to Other Federal Agencies.—There are formal cooperative agreements with the Bureau of Public Roads, Bureau of Fisheries, Bureau of Entomology, Bureau of Plant Industry, and the Public Health Service whereby specialized advisory services are rendered to the National Park Service. The Bureau of Public Roads actually carries on road construction, and the Bureau of Fisheries maintains and operates fish production plants in the parks.

Advisory assistance from other Federal bureaus is sought informally as the occasion demands. In addition there are local cooperative agreements such as those between certain parks and adjacent national forests for fire protection.¹

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¹ National Resources Board, National Land Planning Activities, July 1934 (mimeographed), 34 pp. (see pp. 13 and 14.)

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FIGURE 22.

History.—The first national park, Yellowstone, was set aside by Congress in 1872 for the dual purposes of protection and use. Other areas were later withdrawn for similar purposes, and it became an unwritten policy that public-domain areas of outstanding scenic value should be retained in public ownership as national parks.

The national parks, from the first, have been administered by the Department of the Interior. The National Park Service was established by act of Congress in 1916 as a bureau of the Department of the Interior for the administration of these areas. The organization of the bureau was effected the following year. At that time there were 16 national parks, 1 of which has since been abolished, and 1 has been reclassified as a national monument.

The early national parks comprised public domain which had been withdrawn from entry. All of the early national parks were located in Western States for the reason that the public domain existed only in those States.

Later the policy was expanded to permit the establishment of national parks on areas of outstanding scenic value which might be returned from private to public ownership. In general, Congress has adopted the policy that such lands should not be purchased with Federal funds, but that suitable areas may be established as national parks, provided they are deeded, without cost, to the Federal Government.

In 1906, Congress passed "an act for the preservation of American antiquities", authorizing the President to set aside, as national monuments, areas of special interest or value for scientific, prehistoric, or historic purposes.

The following is an extract from the act (Public, No. 209):

That the President of the United States is hereby authorized, in his discretion, to declare by public proclamation historic landmarks, historic and prehistoric structures, and other objects of historic or scientific interest that are situated upon the lands owned or controlled by the Government of the United States to be national monuments, and may reserve as a part thereof parcels of land, the limits of which in all cases shall be confined to the smallest area compatible with the proper care and management of the objects to be protected: Provided, That when such objects are situated upon a tract covered by a bona fide unperfected claim or held in private ownership, the tract, or so much thereof as may be necessary for the proper care and management of the object, may be relinquished to the Government, and the Secretary of the Interior is hereby authorized to accept the relinquishment of such tracts in behalf of the Government of the United States.

For 18 years, Yellowstone was the only national park in the world, and its origin and early history are therefore the origin and early history of the national park movement.

In 1932, Hon. Louis C. Cramton made a study of the early history of Yellowstone National Park, including its exploration, its establishment in 1872, and its hater history. The following extract from Mr. Cramton's work summarizes the first 25 years of Yellowstone's history with particular reference to the development of existing policies:

During that period of time, there was fought out in the Congress of the United States and gradually crystallized in the Nation that fairly definite code of policies which now obtains in the administration of the national parks and monuments under your charge. The history of the first quarter century of Yellowstone National Park is in fact the history of the development of our present national park policies.

Some of these policies are so universally concurred in that it does not occur to us now that they ever could have been questioned. Others, not so universally accepted, have become thoroughly established as our national policy in connection with the areas under your administration through the trials of Yellowstone. Among these policies may be noted the following:

1. That the Federal Government may, under proper circumstances, itself undertake the administration of a reservation of land "dedicated and set apart as a public park or pleasuring ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people."

It is true that in 1872 this region was a part of the public domain of the United States within certain of its Territories and, therefore, the question of turning it over to a State for administration was not at that time directly an issue. That course had been followed a few years previously in the case of Yosemite, and the brief debate in the Senate, January 30, 1872, in connection with the passage of the Yellowstone bill shows that the experiment of turning great scenic regions over to the State for administration was not deemed successful. The merits of Yellowstone as a park project and its outstanding importance did much to establish a general policy of Federal control in such cases. After the Territories concerned became States, demand for transfer of control to the States could, as to Yellowstone, make no headway.

2. The twin purposes of such a reservation are the enjoyment and use by the present, with preservation unspoiled for the future. The act of March 1, 1872, set the area apart as a "pleasuring ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people", and at the same time required "the preservation, from injury or spoliation of all timber, mineral deposits, natural curiosities or wonders within said park and their retention in their natural condition." There has never been any serious controversy in Congress concerning the wisdom of each of these.

3. The parks are to be administered primarily for the enjoyment of the people. The early and long-continued contest concerning leases and concessions in the park has always revolved around the determination of Congress that the welfare of the visitor shall be the first consideration in park administration.

4. Enjoyment of these areas shall be free to the people. The preface to Dunraven's "Great Divide" voices protest against the fee system universal in Europe which was securing widespread foothold in the United States and popular appreciation of a nonfee system in the national parks.

The park came into being within a few years after the close of the Civil War when the national debt was large, taxation was onerous, and economy in Federal expenditures was necessary. Very soon came panic and years of depression. But at no time was there any proposal for adoption of a fee system in Yellowstone. All the debate stressed the idea that this wondrous land be free to the public. At first there was the theory that revenues from leases of needed utilities would be sufficient for the development and maintenance of the park. But as it became clear that this would not be the case and the needs became understood, the policy of appropriations from the Federal Treasury began, 1878, and has never been seriously challenged.

5. Administrative responsibility shall be civil rather than military. The act of March 1 provides, "Said public park shall be under the exclusive control of the Secretary of the Interior."

With negligible appropriations and resulting lack of administration, attended by alarming reports of game destruction and park spoilations, Congress in 1883 directed the Secretary of War, upon the request of the Secretary of the Interior, to make necessary details of troops for park protection. It was also provided that the construction of roads should be under the supervision and direction of an engineer officer detailed by the Secretary of War. In 1886 the appropriation for the park carried the provision that thereafter a company of cavalry should be stationed there for the protection of the park and eliminated any appropriation for civilian administration. Complete transfer of the administration to the War Department was proposed in bills introduced and in congressional debates. Because of the presence of troops on the frontier and the need for economy in Federal expenditures this same military administration continued for some years, but at no time did the complete transfer of the administration to the War Department make any headway in Congress. Eventually Congress eliminated the military protection and became definitely committed to civilian administration and civilian protection.

6. The welfare of the public and the best interests of the park visitors are conserved by protective permits for needed utilities. In the early days there was much fear, probably well-founded, that some monopoly would secure leases of land at strategic points which would enable them to hold up the public. No feature of park administration has had the amount of debate in Congress that there has been about Yellowstone leases. Through the insistence of Congress that the welfare of the visitor be the first consideration and through gradual growth of understanding of the necessities of the situation, the policy of protective permits with Government control of rates, service, and the extent and character of improvements has been developed.

7. The park area is to constitute a game preserve and not a hunting reservation. When the bill was under consideration in the Senate, it being observed that the destruction of game and fish for gain or profit was forbidden, Senator Anthony urged that "Sportsmen going over there with their guns" were not wanted, that the park ought not be used as a preserve for sporting. Senator Tipton urged a prohibition against their destruction for any purpose. They were satisfied with assurance that hunting would not be permitted, and that the policy has remained unquestioned.

8. No commercial enterprise in a park is to be permitted except so far as is essential to the care and comfort of park visitors.

9. The national interest shall be supreme in the park area, and encroachments for local benefit shall not be permitted. The fight to maintain and establish this policy in Yellowstone was spectacular with well-financed and influential private interests supported by some official sanction determined to secure a right-of-way in the park area for a railroad connection, ostensibly for mining development, but actually in considerable degree at least, for speculative purposes. Failing to secure such a right-of-way, the effort was made to eliminate from the park the area involved, in return adding to the park much larger areas desired elsewhere. For years the House was amenable to the desires of these private interests, and the Senate was the stronghold of opposition under the leadership of Senator Vest. It is interesting to note how in this critical period so many men of the greatest caliber in the Senate rallied to defense of the public interests. And when the Senate lost hope and was prepared to accept the inevitable the House reversed its attitude. Finally the time came that any railroad right-of-way proposal or park segregation scheme brought definite adverse report from congressional committees. The disintegration of national park areas to meet local demands has been made impossible through the struggles that revolved around the Yellowstone.

10. Recreation is an essential purpose of park use even though secondary or incidental.² The Yellowstone Act sets the area aside as "a pleasuring ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people." Senator Pomeroy in urging the bill in the Senate said, January 23, 1872, that it was proposed to "consecrate and set apart this great place of national resort, as it may be in the future, for the purposes of public enjoyment." The park then 500 miles from any railroad and its nearest railroad point so remote from centers of population under existing modes of travel, it is surprising that any large park travel could have at that time anticipated.

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² Cramton uses the term "recreation" in its more restricted sense. Recreation, as throughout this report, connotes all that is re-creative, including spiritual and stimulation as well. In this broader sense, recreation is the primary purpose.

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The Montana Legislature, in its memorial in 1872, asked that this area "be dedicated to public use, resort, and recreation." The Hallett Phillips report, which had much influence with Congress in 1886, said the first object accomplished by Congress in the establishment of the park was "a pleasuring ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people." Preservation of these areas for scientific study, or for the enjoyment of the aesthetic taste in looking upon the beauties of nature, or the preservation of the great species of game from extermination, or the protection of an important watershed, are all purposes that have had congressional support. But the simple idea of the common people going to these regions and enjoying themselves—recreation—has always had strong appeal to Congress.

11. "In a national park the national laws and regulations should be enforced by a national tribunal." These are the words of Joseph Medill, the great publisher, and was his verdict after he had observed at first hand the workings of the attempt to enforce laws of the State of Wyoming through local officials in the Yellowstone. When the park was s created, its nearest boundary was 140 miles from the nearest civil authority. The country loudly demanded park protection, but Congress was loath to give substantial appropriations. Finally, the State of Wyoming passed a law specifying offenses and punishments, and its enforcement was attempted. The best legal authorities questioned any such authority in the State, and the effort was abandoned.

Vest fought for years to secure an enactment of needed legislation prescribing offenses with penalties therefor and sought a Federal organization to administer the park. Because of the deadlock which ensued as to railroad and boundary legislation, the needed park legislation was not secured until 1894, when the Lacey Act became effective, May 7, 1894. This act followed debate and controversy of a score of years. It declares that the Yellowstone National Park shall be under the sole and exclusive jurisdiction of the United States; that the park, although portions of it are in Montana amid Idaho, shall constitute a part of the United States judicial district of Wyoming and the district and circuit courts of the United States shall have jurisdiction of all offenses committed within the park; that any offense committed which is not punishable by Federal law shall be subject to the punishment provided by the law of Wyoming; that the United States circuit court shall appoint a commissioner who shall reside in the park and try persons charged with offenses in the park, an appeal being possible from his decision to the Federal court; that one or more deputy marshals may be appointed to reside in the park, but that arrests may be made by any officer or employee in the park of any person taken in the act. This whole structure of Federal control through existing Federal courts supplemented by a resident commissioner was worked out after 20 years of debate. Once enacted, its wisdom is generally accepted.

12. In the national parks nature is to be preserved and protected and not improved. The act of March 1 requires "retention in their natural condition." The report of the subcommittee of the committee on appropriations by Representative Holman in 1886 reads: "The park should so far as possible be spared the vandalism of improvement. Its great and only charms are in the display of wonderful sources of nature, the ever-varying beauty of the rugged landscape, and the sublimity of the scenery. Art cannot embellish these."

The above are the principal policies of a legislative character, or affected by legislative influences, which now governs in our park system. I have no doubt that many of our present policies and practices of a more purely administrative character in vogue today in various parks were likewise evolved through experience in Yellowstone.³

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³ Louis C. Cramton, U. S. Department of the Interior, Early History of Yellowstone National Park and Its Relation to National Park Policies, U. S. Government Printing Office, Washington, 1932, pp. 1—4.

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Policy.—The establishment of national parks was, for a long period of time, governed by an unwritten policy, indicated by the action of Congress. Some areas were established as national parks and other areas were rejected, without any written specification as to what qualifications were requisite. It came to be understood that superlative areas, of national value, are eligible to be established as national parks.

In 1918, when the National Park Service had been in operation for 1 year, Secretary Lane prepared a statement of policy for the guidance of the service, from which the following extracts are taken:

This policy is based on three broad principles:

First, that the national parks must be maintained in absolutely unimpaired form for the use of future generations as well as those of our own time.

Second, that they are set apart for the use, observation, health, and pleasure of the people.

Third, that the national interest must dictate all decisions affecting public or private enterprise in the parks.

In studying new park projects, you should seek to find scenery of supreme and distinctive quality or some natural feature so extraordinary or unique as to be of national interest and importance. You should seek distinguished examples of typical forms of world architecture.⁴

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⁴Letter from Franklin K. Lane, Secretary of the Interior, to Mr. Stephen T. Mather, Director, National Park Service, May 13, 1918.

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Other statements of policy have been made since that time, one of the most complete being the following, which was approved by the Director of the National Park Service in 1932:

1. A national park is an area maintained by the Federal Government and "dedicated and set apart for the benefit and enjoyment of the people." Such Federal maintenance should occur only where the preservation of the area in question is of national interest because of its outstanding value from a scenic, scientific, or historical point of view. Whether a certain area is to be so maintained by the Federal Government as a national park should not depend upon the financial capacity of the State within which it is located, or upon its nearness to centers of population which would insure a large attendance therefrom, or upon its remoteness from such centers which would insure its majority attendance from without its State. It should depend upon its own outstanding scenic, scientific, or historical quality and the resultant national interest in its preservation.

2. The national park system should possess variety, accepting the supreme in each of the various types and subjects of scenic, scientific, and historical importance. The requisite national interest does not necessarily involve a universal interest, but should imply a widespread interest, appealing to many individuals, regardless of residence, because of its outstanding merit in its class.

3. The twin purposes of the establishment of such an area as a national park are its enjoyment and use by the present generation, with its preservation unspoiled for the future; to conserve the scenery, the natural and historic objects and the wildlife therein, by such means as will insure that their present use leaves them unimpaired. Proper administration will retain these areas in their natural condition, sparing them the vandalism of improvement. Exotic animal or plant life should not be introduced. There should be no capture of fish or game for purposes of merchandise or profit and no destruction of animals except such as are detrimental to use of the parks now and hereafter. Timber should never be considered from a commercial standpoint but may be cut when necessary in order to control the attacks of insects or diseases or otherwise conserve the scenery or the natural or historic objects, and dead or down timber may be removed for protection or improvement. Removal of antiquities or scientific specimens should be permitted only for reputable public museums or for universities, colleges, or other recognized scientific or educational institutions, and always under department supervision and careful restriction and never to an extent detrimental to the interest of the area or of the local museum.

4. Education is a major phase of the enjoyment and benefit to be derived by the people from these parks and an important service to individual development is that of inspiration. Containing the supreme in objects of scenic, historical, or scientific interest, the educational opportunities are preeminent, supplementing rather than duplicating those of schools and colleges, and are available to all. There should be no governmental attempt to dominate or to limit such education within definite lines. The effort should be to make available to each park visitor as fully and effectively as possible these opportunities, aiding each to truer interpretation and appreciation and to the working out of its own aspirations and desires, whether they be elementary or technical, casual or constant.

5. Recreation, in its broadest sense, includes much of education and inspiration. Even in its narrower sense, having a good time, it is a proper incidental use. In planning for recreational use of the parks, in this more restricted meaning, the development should be related to their inherent values and calculated to promote the beneficial use thereof by the people. It should not encourage exotic forms of amusement and should never permit that which conflicts with or weakens the enjoyment of these inherent values.

6. These areas are best administered by park-trained civilian authority.

7. Such administration must deal with important problems in forestry, road building and wildlife conservation, which it must approach from the angles peculiar to its own responsibilities. It should define its objectives in harmony with the fundamental purposes of the parks. It should carry them into effect through its own personnel except when economy and efficiency can there by best be served without sacrifice of such objectives, through cooperation with other bureaus of the Federal Government having to do with similar subjects. In forestry, it should consider scenic rather than commercial values and preservation rather than marketable products; in road building, the route, the type of construction, and the treatment of related objects should all contribute to the fullest accomplishment of the intended use of the area; and, in wildlife conservation, the preservation of the primitive rather than the development of any artificial ideal should be sought.

8. National park administration should seek primarily the benefit and enjoyment of the people rather than financial gain, and such enjoyment should be free to the people without vexatious admission charges and other fees.

9. Every effort is to be made to provide accommodations for all visitors, suitable to their respective tastes and pocketbooks.

Safe travel is to be provided for over suitable roads and trails. Through proper sanitation the health of the individual and of the changing community is always to be protected.

10. Roads, buildings, and other structures necessary for park administration and for public use and comfort should intrude upon the landscape or conflict with it only to the absolute minimum.

11. The national parks are essentially noncommercial in character and no utilitarian activity should exist therein except as essential to the care and comfort of park visitors.

12. The welfare of the public and the best interests of park visitors will be conserved by protective permits for utilities created to serve them in transportation, lodging, food, and incidentals.

13. The national interest should be held supreme in the national park areas, and encroachments conflicting therewith for local or individual benefit should not be permitted.

14. Private ownership or lease of land within a national park constitutes an undesirable encroachment, setting up exclusive benefits for the individual as against the common enjoyment by all, and is contrary to the fundamental purposes of such parks.

15. National parks, established for the permanent preservation of areas and objects of national interest, are intended to exist forever. When, under the general circumstances such action is feasible, even though special conditions require the continuance of limited commercial activities or of limited encroachments for local or individual benefit, an area of national park caliber should be accorded that status now, rather than to abandon it permanently to full commercial exploitations and probable destruction of its sources of national interest. Permanent objectives highly important may thus be accomplished and the compromises, undesired in principle but not greatly destructive in effect, may later be eliminated as occasion for their continuance passes.

16. In a national park the national laws and regulations should be enforced by a national tribunal. Therefore, exclusive jurisdiction of the Federal Government is important.

17. National monuments, under jurisdiction of the Department of the Interior, established to preserve historic landmarks, historic and prehistoric structures, and other objects of scientific or historical interest, do not relate primarily to scenery and differ in extent of interest and importance from national parks, but the principles herein set forth should, so far as applicable, govern them.⁵

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⁵ National Park Service, Annual report of the Director to the Secretary of the Interior for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1932, Washington, D. C., Government Printing Office, pp. 7—9.

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Various organizations that are interested in recreation and conservation have taken a keen interest in the policies governing the establishment and administration of the national parks. For example, the Camp Fire Club of America issued a small pamphlet entitled "National Park Standards", which has been adopted or endorsed by 37 other organizations.

Inventory of National Park System.—Prior to 1933 the areas administered by the National Park Service were classified under only two designations, national parks and national monuments. The Forest Service administered a number of areas classified as national monuments. The War Department administered a number of areas, two of which were classified as national parks, several as national monuments, and others as military parks, battlefield sites, cemeteries, and miscellaneous memorials. An area at Morristown was established in 1933 as a national historical park and placed under the administration of the National Park Service. Since the Executive order of June 10, 1933, became effective on August 10, 1933, the areas administered by the National Park Service have included the following classifications:⁶

⁶ Editor's note: See Book Four, section on National Park Service, for National Capital Parks System.

The total area of the principal groups is as follows:

The total area administered by the National Park Service, exclusive of Alaska and Hawaii, comprises 9,288,610 acres, or approximately 14,513 square miles.

The national parks have been set aside primarily because of superlative features which are of great national value. Some of the chief features that are represented, and examples of parks containing these features, are as follows:

Topography:

Mountains: Mount McKinley, Glacier, Yosemite, Sequoia, Rocky Mountain, Grand Teton, and Mount Rainier National Parks.

Canyons: Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Zion, and Yellowstone National Parks.

Lakes: Crater Lake, Yellowstone, and Glacier National Parks.

Geology:

Volcanic: Hawaii, and Lassen Volcanic National Parks.

Caves: Carlsbad Caverns National Park.

Biology:

Animals: Yellowstone, Mount McKinley, Yosemite, and Glacier National Parks.

Forests: Sequoia, General Grant, Yosemite, Glacier, and Mount Rainier National Parks.

The national monuments and areas of other designations may be classified as historic, prehistoric, and scientific. Various subclassifications, and examples of areas containing these features, are as follows:

Historic:

Exploration and discovery: Verendrye, Cabrillo, El Morro.

Settlement: Scotts Bluff, Tumacacori, Gran Quivira.

Military: Colonial, Morristown, Gettysburg, Chickamauga and Chattanooga, Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania, Appomattox.

Famous persons: George Washington's birthplace, Abraham Lincoln's birthplace.

Invention and industry: Kill Devil Hill.

Prehistoric:

Ruins: Casa Grande, Navajo, Montezuma Castle, Bandelier.

Mounds: Mound City Group.

Scientific:

Geologic:

Volcanic and igneous: Katmai, Sunset Crater, Devils Tower, Craters of the Moon.

Erosional: Cedar Breaks, Rainbow Bridge.

Caves: Oregon Caves, Lehman Caves.

Mountains: Holy Cross, Mount Olympus.

Paleontologic: Dinosaur, Petrified Forest.

Biologic: Muir Woods, Saguaro.

Ethnologic: Old Kasaan, Sitka.

All of the national parks and monuments are sanctuaries for wildlife, and several of them are noted for the species that may be seen. Yellowstone National Park is widely known as a wildlife sanctuary because of its buffalo, elk, black bear, grizzly bear, mountain sheep, antelope, and other species. Mountain goats are found in Glacier and Mount Rainier National Parks. Elk are numerous in Rocky Mountain and Yellowstone Parks. Moose are found in Glacier, Grand Teton, and Yellowstone Parks. Mount McKinley is celebrated for its Dall sheep and caribou.

The forested areas of the national parks are not lumbered, but are kept in their primitive condition. There are notable forests in several of the national parks. Big trees (Sequoia gigantea) are found in Sequoia, General Grant, and Yosemite National Parks. Yosemite and Sequoia also have outstanding forests of sugar pine, ponderosa pine, and numerous other species. Mount Rainier has splendid forests of fir and cedar.

Mount McKinley National Park contains the highest peak in North America. Mount Whitney, the highest peak in continental United States, is on the boundary of Sequoia National Park. Death Valley National Monument includes spectacular desert scenery, with interesting exhibits of plant and animal life, together with the lowest land elevation on the continent. Carlsbad Cavern is unduplicated in the United States. Hawaii has the most active volcanic area within the Nation's possession. Grand Canyon is a stupendous example of the power of erosion.

National parks offer a wide variety of recreational opportunities, including opportunity for many outdoor activities as well as features that are inspirational and educational in character.

In the appendix, pages 250 to 251, will be found two statistical tables containing a list of national parks, national monuments, and areas with other designations, administered by the National Park Service. These tabulations show for each reservation the State in which it is located, area, the special characteristics of the reservation, detailed information regarding its establishment, extent of development, and other data.

Administration and Development.—At the time of the organization of the National Park Service the volume of travel to the national parks was small, totaling less than one-half million people. As the use of automobiles increased and as the national parks became more widely known, they became more and more the destinations for vacation trips. In the 3 years from 1918 to 1921 the number of visitors to national parks increased from one-half million to a million people. In the next 5 years the number of visitors increased to nearly 2 million. The 5 years following brought the park travel to more than 3 million persons by 1931. During 1932 and 1933 the depression caused a decrease in travel, but in 1934 the total had again risen and reached a new record of 3-1/2 million visitors. The travel to national parks showed a steady increase every year from 1918 to 1931, and the present indications are that future years will show further annual increases.

Figures are not available for the travel to all of the national monuments, but the annual travel to certain national monuments from 1927 to 1934 is shown graphically on the accompanying chart (fig. 23). This travel has increased from less than 400,000 persons to more than 800,000. These figures do not include travel to the national monuments formerly administered by the Forest Service or the areas formerly administered by the War Department.

FIGURE 23.

The development of facilities for visitors to national parks has increased with the increase in travel, but in many cases it has lagged behind the actual needs. The extent of the development in the various national parks varies with the volume of travel to the park, and with the character of the area.

The Government builds and maintains the roads and trails, ranger stations, museums, quarters for employees, free public campgrounds, and facilities available to the public without charge.

In general, the hotel and restaurant accommodations, transportation, and other services for which a charge is made, are provided by privately owned companies operating under a franchise or contract with the Department of the Interior. Such franchises provide for the operation of hotels, lodges, motor camps, automobile transportation lines, stores, and similar facilities necessary or convenient to the public.

The operating companies make annual reports to the Department; their books are audited by the National Park Service; and the rates charged are subject to regulation by the Department.

At one time it was the practice for each park to collect an automobile license fee from automobiles and other vehicles entering the park. This revenue was at first available for expenditures in the park, including maintenance of roads. Legislation now provides that these fees, and all other park revenues, be turned into the Treasury as miscellaneous receipts. The automobile license fee has been continued in most of the older national parks, though the scale of charges has been reduced. In a number of the newer parks no such fee is collected. This fee varies in different parks, ranging from 50 cents to $3 per car, and is approximately proportionate to the number of miles of road in the park.

The fee applies to the vehicle and not to the passengers. The permit issued is an annual one, and no further charge is made for additional trips during the year.

In Carlsbad Caverns National Park a fee is collected from each visitor for guide service through the cave.

In general it is the intention of Congress that the national parks should be available for public use, and it has not been expected that they should be self-supporting. Exceptionally, however, as in the case of Carlsbad Caverns National Park, the revenues collected exceed the expenditures.

Public utilities, such as water supply, sewer systems, power plants, and telephone, are furnished by the Government in some instances, and by the operators in other instances.

The policy of development in national parks is that the areas shall remain as nearly as possible in their original condition, and that buildings and other construction shall be limited to those facilities necessary or desirable for the needs of the public. No building may be constructed, either by the National Park Service or by operators, except upon plans approved in advance by the Director. Utility buildings are kept out of sight of public travel or in locations as inconspicuous as possible. The type of architecture of public buildings is not standardized, but is chosen to blend harmoniously with the surroundings. Special attention is paid to road construction, in order to avoid unnecessary scars.

The Government constructs roads and trails in the national parks and monuments in order to serve the visitors and to make the principal features of the areas accessible. In the national parks and monuments the road systems comprise a total of 2,049 miles of road, of which 1,764 miles are in national parks and 330 miles are in national monuments and other areas. The trail systems comprise a total of 5,145 miles of trail, of which 4,999 miles are in national parks and 146 miles are in national monuments and other areas. The telephone systems owned by the Government in these areas comprise 2,313 miles of line, of which 2,260 miles are in national parks, and 53 miles are in national monuments and other areas.

Nineteen museum buildings have been constructed. In seven of the parks, museum exhibits are housed in headquarters buildings. Museum displays have been developed in at least six of the national monuments, and a number of new projects are proposed. Most of the museum buildings have been constructed with donated funds.

Development work in national parks and monuments has included, in areas of historic and archeological importance, the restoration of portions of existing structures in order to prevent extensive deterioration and loss. Some of the cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde have been strengthened, and partially reconstructed in order to save portions of the structures. Similar work has been done at Montezuma Castle and several of the national monuments whose chief feature is archeological remains.

The work of preserving and restoring historical structures has been accomplished in a number of the historical national monuments. At Wakefield, the birthplace of George Washington, a building has been constructed, illustrating, with as much accuracy as possible, the type of home in which George Washington was born. At Yorktown, the Moore house has been remodeled to put it in approximately the same condition as it was at the close of the Revolutionary War.

The administration of each national park is in charge of a superintendent, who reports to the Director of the National Park Service. In each park the personnel is organized into a number of departments. The ranger department is responsible for the protection of the park and its visitors. It consists of a chief ranger, assisted by the permanent rangers and by temporary rangers, who are usually employed for the summer season. The naturalist department is responsible for the informational and educational services; it consists of a park naturalist and temporary ranger naturalists. A park organization usually includes a clerical department, engineering department, sanitary department, electrical department, mechanical department, and other functions. The organization of the different parks varies with the number of personnel and with special activities which may be carried on, appropriate to the character of the area.

The administrative organization of national monuments is similar to that of national parks, though often on a smaller scale. The custodian is the executive officer. The organization is adapted to fit the objectives for which the area has been reserved.

PHOTO 5.—Another example of the destruction of archeological material.

PHOTO 6.—Mound B—One of 34 mounds at Moundville State Park, Ala., is 58-1/2 feet high and covers about 1-3/4 acres of ground.

Field of the National Park Service in Historic Sites.—The growth of the field of the National Park Service in the preservation and development of historical and archeological sites, clearly evident in the 60-odd areas now represented in the park program of that Bureau, has come about as a result of the gradual adaptation of an organization to function over a period of years.

In their inception, and for a considerable period thereafter, the methods developed and the agencies used by the Federal Government in handling the problems of national, historical, and archeological sites took diverse and unrelated courses. Beginning in 1890, and extending over a period of 40 years, the activities of organizations of war veterans and private historical societies brought about the development of national military parks, including such areas as Guilford Courthouse, Chickamauga, Gettysburg, Shiloh, and Vicksburg. At the time it did not seem unnatural that these areas should all be placed under the administration of the War Department. But the partial character of this movement and its shortcomings as a national program were revealed in a natural reluctance to take account of sites other than military. Some of the best of our national sites have been passed by or left entirely to unaided private initiative because there seemed to be no Federal agency willing to take the responsibility for sponsoring their preservation and control.

At the same time activities were under way in the field of archeological discoveries. Near the end of the nineteenth century, the Smithsonian Institution undertook some of its earliest and most famous investigations in archeological materials found in the cliff dwellings and pueblos of the Southwest and the mound sites of the Ohio Valley. This work was carried further by such agencies as the National Geographic Society and the Carnegie Institution, and more recently by universities and museums.

Unfortunately, awakening public interest led to the exploitation of many invaluable sites. The necessity for legislation to preserve these, and other irreplaceable areas of historic and archeological interest, became apparent. Thus occurred the first general Federal law in 1906, sometimes called the Antiquities Act, which provided for the creation of national monuments to preserve historic and other scientific areas. Although this act was an important step forward, in the light of experience it proved inadequate to meet the public responsibility involved. The sites which have been preserved under the act came to be administered by different agencies of the Government; in the Agriculture, Interior, and War Departments.

Although perhaps not clearly perceived at the time, the fundamental tendencies looking toward a better governmental administration were more truly indicated when, in 1916, the National Park Service was created for the care and development of national parks, monuments, and reservations of scenic, natural, wildlife, or historic character. To this agency were transferred, at that time, certain historical and archeological sites such as Mesa Verde, then under the general control of the Department of the Interior. Afterward, additional areas were placed under this administration, notably certain archeological areas in the Southwest and such historical sites as George Washington's Birthplace in Wakefield, Va.

In order properly to evaluate and develop this growing program, and to provide machinery for its administration, an important step ahead was taken in 1931 with the appointment of a chief historian within the National Park Service. In the next two years a significant program was developed for the historical areas then under the control of the Service, with a more suitable personnel and a more comprehensive point of view. Already equipped with administrative and technical facilities for dealing with problems of physical development, the National Park Service was now prepared to deal professionally with the historical program, and to develop a more far-reaching policy for the handling of all Federal historical sites.

In 1933, two developments of outstanding importance occurred. One was the transfer to the National Park Service, during the general reorganization of Federal administration, of all historical and archeological sites formerly administered by various bureaus and boards of the Agriculture and War Departments. The second was the creation in the Service of an historical and archeological division to take care of problems relating to these areas.

With 60 national historical and archeological areas now under a single administration, for the first time an adequate and unified national program became possible, stressing preservation and development of an educational philosophy under which national historic sites come to have a definite cultural use.

It was not unnatural that, coincident with these developments, there should come the appointment of the Director of the National Park Service as the representative of the United States on the newly formed International Commission on Historic Monuments.

PHOTO 7.—White House Ruin at Canyon de Chelly National Monument, Ariz. From cliff dwellings within this 83,846-acre monument it is possible to trace the cultural of aboriginal occupation from savage nomadism to a relatively advanced stage of civilization recorded in the vast deposits of refuse and building remains.

Authorized Projects.—Congress has authorized the establishment of the following national parks and national monuments, when the lands involved have been deeded to the United States, without cost to the Federal Government:

1. Shenandoah National Park project, located in the Blue Ridge Mountains, Va. Authorized by Congress May 22, 1926. The area involved comprises 521,000 acres, of which 176,420 acres have now been acquired. It is anticipated that the remainder of the area will be acquired, and that the transfer to the United States will be completed within a year. The area was recommended for a national park by a committee appointed by the Secretary of the Interior. The committee was asked to recommend an area in the Appalachian Mountains most suitable for a national park, and instead recommended two—the Shenandoah area and the Great Smoky Mountains in Tennessee and North Carolina. Lands for a considerable portion of the latter have been transferred to the United States.

2. Mammoth Cave National Park project, Kentucky. This area was authorized by Congress May 25, 1926. The area comprises from 35,000 to 70,000 acres of which about 35,000 acres have now been acquired. Establishment of the park was authorized by Congress upon the recommendation of the Congressional delegation of Kentucky. The proposed park includes the historic Mammoth Cave and also several additional caves in the immediate vicinity.

3. Isle Royale National Park project, Michigan. Establishment of this park was authorized by Congress on March 3, 1931. The area comprises Isle Royale in Lake Superior, and a few adjacent smaller islands. This is the home of numerous moose, and primitive conditions prevail in much of the area. Area is approximately 133,200 acres. A local committee has been appointed to acquire the land when practicable, but under the economic conditions that have prevailed in recent years little progress has been made.

4. Everglades National Park project, in Florida, was authorized by Congress on May 30, 1934. The boundaries have not been definitely determined, but the area lies within a region approximately 50 miles square. It may comprise as much as 2,000 square miles, or more than a million acres. The proposed park includes Cape Sable, the most southerly point of the mainland of the United States, as well as a considerable area of the southwestern portion of the Florida Peninsula and neighboring keys. The features of the area are its remarkable bird life, many species of palms, orchids, mangrove trees, and other subtropical plants, and a great variety of fish, including both salt water and fresh water species. The interesting Seminole Indians live in this region, most of which is a primitive wilderness. It is anticipated that the land for the park will be acquired by a State committee to be appointed by the Governor. The area was recommended by a State association, with the endorsement of the members of Congress from Florida and was approved by the National Park Service, following an inspection by the Director and other officers and advisers of the Service.

5. Badlands National Monument project, South Dakota, was authorized by Congress on March 4, 1929. The area involved is approximately 246 square miles, or 157,000 acres. Most of the area is public domain. Options have been acquired on most of the land in the area that is in private ownership. The State of South Dakota has agreed to build certain approach roads, and these will be completed in 1935. The features of the area are delicately tinted, fantastically shaped formations carved by erosion out of the comparatively soft shales and clays. Fossil remains are abundant in parts of the region and are of high scientific value.

6. Grandfather Mountain project, North Carolina. A clause in the Sundry Civil Act of June 12, 1917 (Public, No. 21, 65th Cong.), reads as follows:

Hereafter the Secretary of the Interior is authorized to accept for park purposes any lands and rights-of-way, including the Grandfather Mountain, near or adjacent to the Government forest reserve in western North Carolina.

No action has been taken under this authority.

7. Palm Canyon National Monument project, California. An act of Congress, approved August 26, 1922 (Public, No. 291, 67th Cong., H. R. 7598), authorized the Secretary of the Interior to establish as a national monument certain lands in Riverside County, Calif., comprising 1,600 acres, provided that the consent and relinquishment, of the land by Agua Caliente Indians shall first be obtained, and that the lands shall be paid for at a price to be agreed upon, with funds to be donated for such purpose. None of the preliminary requirements has been fulfilled. This area is referred to elsewhere as suitable, if available.

8. Monocacy National Military Park project, Maryland. An act of Congress, approved June 21, 1934 (H. R. 7982), authorized the development of this area for park purposes and the preservation of its historical features.

9. Ocmulgee National Monument project, Georgia. Authorized by act of Congress, approved June 14, 1934 (H. R. 7653). Comprises an area of some 2,000 acres in and around Macon and contains Indian mounds of great historical importance.

10. Pioneer National Monument project, Kentucky. Authorized by act of Congress, approved June 18, 1934 (S. 3443). This project embraces four historical points, Boonesborough, Boones Station, Bryans Station, and Blue Licks Battlefield, which is the accredited site of the last battle of the Revolution on August 19, 1782.

Lands Administered for Game and Other Wildlife

Bureau of Biological Survey.—The Biological Survey is authorized to acquire areas to be administered as sanctuaries for the purpose of restoring and conserving various forms of wildlife. The objective is to preserve or develop on these areas favorable environmental conditions as to food, water, and cover; to protect the valuable species from man, and to control the natural enemies when necessary to do so. It is definitely known that any species—migratory game, upland or big game, song and insectivorous birds, fur bearers, and fishes—will increase wherever a suitable environment is available, and some of the more serious hazards are removed.

Refuge areas now administered by this Bureau and those planned for future acquisition are of two classes: In the first class are included those lands acquired by purchase or lease under the Migratory Bird Conservation Act, those set aside by Executive orders, or those tracts purchased under the authority of special acts of Congress. Lands in this class are selected primarily because of their known suitability as wildlife sanctuaries. This purpose is the determining factor in the examination, purchase, and withdrawal of this class of land.

There are 878,854 acres administered by the Biological Survey properly classified in group 1.

In the second class are those lands acquired by the Government for any other purpose, but placed under the administration of the Survey for wildlife uses. This class will include submarginal land acquisitions or areas in drought zones, etc., which can be developed for wildlife and which will be more profitable when so administered than when put to any other use.⁷

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⁷ National Resources Board, Federal Agencies, Their Organization and Research Accomplishments in the Field of Land-planning, pp. 25 and 26.

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There are 1,131,586 acres administered by the Biological Survey properly classified in this second group, making a total of 2,010,440 acres administered by the Biological Survey in 1934.

Field.—Whereas all the organized Federal lands give some degree of protection to wildlife and some of them such as the national parks, are true sanctuaries, those Federal hands where the primary use is that of providing refuge for wildlife are administered by the Bureau of Biological Survey.

The principal value of these refuges is recreational. Though no hunting is allowed on them, they exist to conserve wildlife in order that it may be hunted outside the reserve, or otherwise enjoyed. The refuge areas themselves are not recreation areas, but by protecting wildlife they provide recreation elsewhere.

The following statements are taken from a tabulation of land in the United States dedicated to migratory bird and upland game refuges.⁸

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⁸ Land in the United States Dedicated to Migratory Bird and Upland Game Refuges, prepared by the U. S. Biological Survey and transmitted by letter from Mr. J. N. Darling, Chief, under date of Aug. 30. 1034.

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The wildlife refuges administered by the Biological Survey number 104, of which 65 are maintained primarily for migratory waterfowl, all located in the continental United States. The total area of refuges devoted to migratory waterfowl as nesting, resting, and feeding grounds is 1,152,079 acres.

There are under Federal jurisdiction 24 areas in various States—under the control of the Forest Service, War Department, and Navy Department—totaling 1,638,748 acres devoted to the protection of upland game mammals and birds. In addition to this acreage there are many thousands of square miles of land embraced within national parks and monuments under the Department of the Interior on which the various forms of wildlife find sanctuary.

The most recent available information on land under local and State jurisdiction shows 7,342,427⁹ acres dedicated to migratory birds and 34,940,372⁹ acres affording sanctuary to upland game.

It will be noted that there are 104 federally owned wildlife refuges administered by the Biological Survey, of which 65 are migratory bird refuges. The remaining areas are principally for the protection of other species of birds and mammals and are not included in the above totals.

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⁹ Includes some Federal lands. Extract from tabulation, Land in the United States Dedicated to Migratory Bird and Upland Game Refuges, op. cit.

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In addition, the National Association of Audubon Societies administers 32 wild fowl refuges. For map see appendix, p. 250.

Bureau of Fisheries.—The primary function of the Bureau of Fisheries is the conservation of aquatic resources by means of— (1) artificial restocking; (2) biological investigations of habitat and life history of aquatic animals; (3) technological studies of marketing, preservation, and the collection of statistics; (4) regulation of the Alaska fisheries.

Of these, the first two functions have a relationship to land utilization programs. The production of fish at the hatcheries is a means of restocking public waters, particularly areas within the public domain such as national parks and national forests. These plants of food and game fish amount to several billions each year and are important from the standpoint of recreation and the maintenance of commercial fisheries. The stocking program does not ordinarily become effective except in existing waters already suitable for fish life, or in the stocking of impounded waters established through the activities of some other agency. Hence this feature has not previously been of importance in preliminary planning.¹⁰

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¹⁰ National Resources Board, Federal Agencies, etc., op. cit., p. 32.

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Field.—The number of Americans who enjoy fishing for sport has been increasing rapidly, and it is estimated that there are about 10 million anglers in this country today.

In order to maintain the supply of game fish in the inland waters of the United States, fish hatcheries are operated by private enterprise, by sportsmen's organizations, by most of the State game and fish departments, and also by the Federal Government through the Bureau of Fisheries.

The work of the Bureau of Fisheries includes the production and distribution of fish for two purposes—the maintenance of commercial fisheries (marine, Great Lakes, and inland waters), and the culture of noncommercial game fish of inland fresh waters.

As of June 30, 1934, the Bureau of Fisheries administered 87 fish cultural stations and substations. (For map see appendix, p. 252.) During the preceding 12 months, a total of 4-1/2 billion fish was distributed, while for the year ended June 30, 1933, the number was in excess of 7 billion.¹¹ Forty species were propagated, and a total of 46 species was handled.¹²

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¹¹ Leach, Glen C., Propagation and Distribution of Food Fishes, 1933, Bureau of Fisheries, Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C., 1934, p. 453.

¹² Ibid., p. 452.

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The Bureau of Fisheries cooperates closely with the various State hatcheries so as to coordinate the work and secure the best results from the combined activities. The Bureau also cooperates with the Forest Service, the National Park Service, the Bureau of Reclamation, Bureau of Biological Survey, and other Federal bureaus, supplying fish where they are most needed, The Bureau of Fisheries also assists sportsmen's groups by rendering advice on fish cultural problems, making inspections, and by other means.

The game fish propagated include several species of trout, grayling, pike, pickerel, crappie, bass, sunfish, perch, and others. In the fiscal year 1933 the output of the Bureau hatcheries was 115,000,000 game fish.¹³

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¹³ Leach, Glen C., Propagation and Distribution of Game Fish, 1933, Bureau of Fisheries, Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C., 1934, p. 471.

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Of the hatchery production and distribution for the fiscal year 1933, game fishes accounted for approximately 2 percent of the total, five marine species amounted to about 87 percent of the total, commercial species of the interior waters represented over 8 percent; fish which migrate from salt to fresh water for spawning, and are largely of a commercial classification, represented about 3 percent of the total.¹⁴

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¹⁴ Leach, Glen C., Propagation and Distribution of Game Fish, 1933, op. cit., p. 454.

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Although the game fish produced are only about 2 percent of the total fish production of the Bureau of Fisheries, it is estimated that about 65 percent of the Bureau's funds and activities are devoted to game fish production and only about 35 percent to the production of commercial fish. Commercial fish are distributed at a comparatively small size a short time after hatching, but with game varieties the present practice is to rear them for as long a period as feasible, so that when planted they are exposed to natural enemies for only a short period before being large enough for the angler. The retention of game fish requires added facilities, expenses for food and care, and transportation costs are larger.

The United States Forest Service

Functions.—The principal function of the Forest Service is to bring about the best use of the forest land of the United States, including approximately 615 million acres now classed as forest land and an indeterminate area (upward of 50 million acres) of potential forest land no longer needed for agriculture. Three lines of action and responsibility are involved:

(a) Administration and use of the resources (timber, forage, recreation, wildlife, water) of 165 million acres of national forests, including extension of these forests through purchase, exchange, or otherwise.

(b) Promotion of the best use of the forest lands not in Federal ownership, through cooperation with and education of the owners (public and private).

(c) Research to develop the scientific bases for the best utilization of forest lands and the products thereof, regardless of ownership.¹⁵

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¹⁵ National Resources Board, op. cit., p. 24.

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Objectives.—The following is a statement of the objectives of the national forests:

The national forests are managed on the principle of providing "the greatest good to the greatest number in the long run." Under this policy the Forest Service recognizes that some lands are so valuable for recreation that no commercial exploitation should be permitted on them. Other lands are much more valuable for the timber, forage, and water power which they can produce, and on these lands recreation receives no consideration. On still a third sort of area some of the recreational values are safeguarded at the same time that the development of commodities is permitted.

In national forest recreational development the stress is laid not on preserving the primeval but in providing healthy outdoor recreation. Camping, the development of health resorts, and general frolicking are encouraged. As a result national forests in addition to providing some superlative areas and primeval areas, provide wilderness areas, camp grounds, residence areas, and outing areas for millions of people.¹⁶

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¹⁶ U. S. Forest Service, A National Plan for American Forestry, op. cit., p. 483.

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The Forest Service Manual makes the following statement:

National forests have for their objects to insure a perpetual supply of timber, to preserve the forest cover which regulates the flow of streams, and to provide for the use of all resources which the forests contain in the ways which will make them of the largest service. Largest service means greatest good to the greatest number in the long run. It means conservation through use, with full recognition of all existing individual rights and with recognition also that beneficial use must be use by individuals; but without the sacrifice of a greater total of public benefit to a less. In other words, the forests are to be regarded as public resources to be held, protected, and developed by the Government for the benefit of the people.¹⁷

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¹⁷ U. S. Forest Service, Forest Service Manual, Washington, D. C., Government Printing Office, p. 3—A.

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The Recreation section of the Manual reads in part as follows:

It is not the purpose of the Forest Service to duplicate within the national forests the functions, methods, or activities of national, State, or municipal park services, nor to compete with such parks for public patronage or support. Recognition must, however, be given to the occurrence within the national forests of mountains, cliffs, canyons, glaciers, streams, lakes, and other landscape features; natural formations such as caves or bridges; objects of scientific, historic, or archeological interest; timber, shrubs, and flowers; game animals and fish; and areas preeminently suited as sites for camps, resorts, sanitoria, picnic grounds, and summer homes. These utilities which singly or in combination afford the bases for outdoor recreation, contributing to the entertainment and instruction of the public or to public health, constitute recreation resources of great extent, economic value, and social importance. No plan of national forest administration would be complete which did not conserve and make them fully available for public use. Their preservation, development, and wise use for the promotion of public welfare is an important and essential feature of forest management which adequately should be coordinated with the production of timber and forage and the conservation of water resources. The areas now constituting the national forests have been used for recreational purposes since the first settlement of the country, and such use naturally will grow as the population increases and as wild land is converted to cultivation.

The circumstances prevailing upon a given area must necessarily determine whether recreation shall be dominant, equal, or subordinate in relation to other forms of use. Major timber, grazing, or water values should not be sacrificed to minor recreation values. On the other hand, major recreation values should never be sacrificed to minor timber, grazing, or water values. Where recreation and other forms of use conflict, the first step should be to determine whether careful planning will not secure maximum utilization of one resource with minimum injury to the other. In timber sales, for example, the leaving of protective strips along roads and surrounding parks and camp grounds may make it possible to utilize practically all the marketable timber without impairing the scenic or recreational values. Rigid protection of an area from grazing during the summer camping season may make possible its use for grazing purposes before camping begins or after it ends. Proper sanitary facilities and requirements may render unobjectionable the recreational use of a watershed constituting a municipal water supply. If, however, a conflict between two forms of use cannot be reconciled, then the use of greatest importance should take precedence over the others, and where recreational utilities are clearly of minor importance they may be disregarded or suppressed.

Existing national, State, and municipal parks are important primary elements in any comprehensive regional plain of recreational development. The relation of forest recreational development to other national, State, county, municipal, organizational, or private activities in the same field should be systematically analyzed and correlated so as to enhance rather than compete with such activities.¹⁸

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¹⁸ U. S. Forest Service, Forest Service Manual, op. cit., p. 98—L.

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The forested areas have always been the recreational field of the people living nearby, and with better roads and increasing use of automobiles, they are now extensively used by people in an ever-widening circle. Recreation in the national forests has been a process of natural evolution and sought for by the public without, at first, much stimulation by the Forest Service. The early annual expenditures for recreational use were small, about $10,000 a year up to 1924, but they are now increasing.¹⁹ In 1933 there was appropriated $28,000 for recreational surveys and plans; more than $100,000 for recreational development; $135,000 for fish and game propagation, and $16,000 for fish and game surveys and plans. Other recreational expenses, such as road and trail construction and maintenance, are paid out of other appropriations.²⁰

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¹⁹ U. S. Forest Service, Report of the Forester, 1925, Washington, D. C., Government Printing Office.

²⁰ U. S. Forest Service, Report of the Forester, 1933, p. 22.

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Several different types of recreational forest areas are recognized:

Superlative areas include national parks and areas in the national forests that meet similar standards.

Primeval areas (sometimes called natural areas) are tracts of virgin timber in which human activities have never upset the normal processes of nature. Thus they preserve the virginal growth conditions, which have existed for an inestimable period.

Wilderness areas are regions which contain no permanent inhabitants, possess no means of mechanical conveyance, and are sufficiently spacious that a person may spend at least a week or two in travel in them without crossing his own tracks.

Roadside areas refer to the timbered strips adjoining the more important roads, and also include strips of timber left along lakes, rivers, and boat routes.

Camp-site areas include areas specially designated for the use of camping.

Residence areas provide space for private homes, hotels, and resorts, group camps, stores, and services of various sorts. These sites are usually leased, with an annual rental.

Outing areas are intermediate between primeval areas acid commercially operated timber tracts.²¹

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²¹ S. Doc. No. 12, op. cit.

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The terms actually in use by the Forest Service differ from the above designations and include "Natural areas", "Primitive areas" (corresponding with "Wilderness areas") and "Recreational areas."

The following concise statement of recreational use of the national forests is made by the Forest Service:

The national forests are rich in scenic beauty. They have the double attractiveness of a country that is largely wilderness yet is easily accessible because of thousands of miles of good roads and trails. They are the home of game and fish; the refuge and breeding grounds of much of the wildlife that remains. Their wide distribution and extent, and their proximity to thousands of communities make them natural centers of summer recreation. Within their boundaries travelers by motor, by wagon, on horseback, or on foot, campers, hunters, and fisher men, amateur photographers, hikers, naturalists—in fact all who wish to come—have equal opportunity. Care with fire and cleanliness in camp are all that are necessary to make the visitor and the vacationist welcome.

The Forest Service looks upon the recreational possibilities of the forests as public resources, to be wisely used and carefully safeguarded, along with the timber, water, and other resources for the conservation and management of which the forests were established. Everything possible is done, within the limits imposed by available time and funds, and by the necessity of giving first attention to the primary purposes of the forests, to develop the recreational resources and to make them available for public use.

For the erection of summer homes, hotels, resorts, and other structures for recreational purposes, individuals, associations, or commercial companies may secure special-use permits. These are usually granted for an indefinite period, but where the proposed development involves a considerable investment by the permittee the permit may be granted for a term of not more than 30 years. In most cases it has been found that the indefinite period permit is entirely satisfactory to the permittee. Not more than 5 acres may be allowed to any single person or association.²²

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²² U. S. Forest Service, Vacation in the National Forests, Washington, D. C. Government Printing Office, 1930, p. 1.

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Recreational Use of the National Forests.—The national forests have a high value for recreation. The recreational use as a rule is secondary to the primary objective of forestry.

There are more than 160 million acres of national forests in the United States. They are located in 33 States, Alaska, and Puerto Rico. While some of these national forests are in Eastern States, by far the largest areas are in Alaska and the public land States of the West, and are composed principally of areas reserved from the public domain.

Many of the national forests are in mountainous areas, many are scenic, and most of them offer a variety of recreational opportunities, such as motoring, camping, hunting, fishing, trail trips on foot and on horse back, mountain climbing, winter sports, and other outdoor activities.

It is necessary that the recreational use of the national forests be supervised in order to reduce the fire hazard created by camping, smoking, and other activities of forest users. Camp grounds must be kept sanitary in order to prevent stream pollution.

In most of the national forests, hunting and fishing are permitted under State laws. Some Federal game refuges have been established and numerous State game refuges have been created. All of the national forest area is available for the propagation of wildlife. Game is protected on about 15 percent of the national forests, and hunting is permitted, under State laws, on about 85 percent of the forest area.

Table IX shows the total area of the national forests, including lands approved for purchase, as 167,000,000 acres, on June 30, 1934; the area of the Federal game refuges as 4,000,000 acres, more than half of which is in Alaska; the total area of State game refuges as 21,000,000 acres, most of which is in the Western States.

The total area of national forests and purchased units in the 48 States is 145,905,773 acres (1934).

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¹ Figures furnished by the U. S. Forest Service.

² Includes lands approved for purchase under the Weeks and Clarke-McNary laws.

³ Included in the net area national forest and purchase units.

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About 3,000,000 acres of national forests have been closed to domestic livestock in the interest of wildlife production.

The Senate Committee on Conservation of Wildlife Resources estimated the number of hunters and fishermen in the United States, in 1929, at 13,000,000, and it is estimated that this figure constitutes an increase of approximately 400 percent over the preceding decade.²³

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²³ Wildlife Conservation, S. Rept. 1329, 71st Cong., 3d sess.

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The value of forest recreation is not susceptible of exact appraisal, but the following quotation from The People's Forests, by Robert Marshall, is of interest in this connection:

An evaluation of forest recreation may be attempted upon either a monetary or a social basis. In terms of dollars and cents, there are two especially suggestive ways of estimating the recreational worth of the forest. One is to determine the number of people who visit the forest annually, ascribe some average value to the pleasure which each one gets from it, and multiply. The other is to calculate the amount of money which recreationists spend in visiting the forests.

It seems distinctly an understatement to hold that each all-day visitor to the forest derives as much pleasure from it as he would derive from a 2 hour motion picture show. I have estimated that in the United States approximately 250 million man-days a year are devoted to forest recreation. If the admission price to a movie averages 25 cents, this gives the annual American-forest recreation a value of $62,500,000. This is the minimum that people probably would pay for the privilege of using the forest if the price were asked. The incidental fact that people have to pay for admission to the movies and do not usually have to pay for admission to the forests does not mean that the outdoor recreation is any less valuable.²⁴

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²⁴ Robert Marshall, The People's Forests, Harrison Smith and Robert Ross, New York, 1933, pp. 65—67.

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The economic value of forest recreation has been treated previously in Economic Aspects of Recreation, section II, chapter 6.

As stated above, the Forest Service has established two classes of special areas within the national forests; these are known as natural areas and primitive areas.

The natural areas are usually small, averaging one or two thousand acres, and are established to protect primitive growth conditions. Twenty-three of these natural areas have been established (as of July 6, 1934), with a total area of 29,058 acres. In the appendix, page 256, will be found a tabular statement prepared by the Forest Service showing the location of these natural areas.

The primitive areas are usually large; they average about 150,000 acres in size; 64 primitive areas have been established by the Forest Service (July 1, 1933), with a total area of nearly 10 million acres. Two of the primitive areas exceed a million acres each in size. Logging and grazing are sometimes permitted, and sometimes prohibited, according to local conditions; in general, transportation in these areas is limited to trails, and such developments as roads, hotels, and summer homes are either prohibited or are kept to a minimum.

The establishment of primitive areas is a matter of administrative procedure, and the degree of protection of the areas may be increased or decreased by the Forest Service if changing conditions indicate that a change is desirable. These classifications, therefore, may not be permanent.

In the appendix, page 254, will be found a tabulation of the primitive areas which have been established, showing their location, area, and the proposed principles of management of each area.

Recreation areas are designated by the regional foresters in localities where the recreation uses pre dominate over other forest uses.

The roads and trails of the national forests are all available for recreational use, and are extensively used. The following tabulation shows the mileage of road and trail systems within national forest boundaries, and indicates the mileage which has been constructed and the mileage of proposed future construction:

The number of visitors to national forests cannot be accurately determined, but may be estimated approximately. This number was estimated at 3 million persons in 1917, at 6 million in 1922, at 18 million in 1927, and at 35 million in 1933.²⁵ In recent years about three-quarters of the national forest visitors have been transients who merely drove through the forest area, but whatever the correct number of visitors, the steadily increasing use of the national forests for recreation is apparent.

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²⁵ Senate Doc. No. 12, 73d Cong., op. cit., p. 465.

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The present area of national forests is approximately equal to the area of the unappropriated and unreserved public domain.

The subject of recreation in the national forests is comprehensively dealt with in A National Plan for American Forestry, Senate Document No. 12, Seventy-third Congress. This publication comprises a report of the Forest Service on the forest problem of the United States, and includes sections entitled "The Forest for Recreation" and "A Program for Forest Recreation."

Bureau of Reclamation

Functions.—This Bureau is charged with the investigation and survey for, and the construction and maintenance of, irrigation works for the storage, diversion, and development of waters for the reclamation of arid and semiarid lands in the States west of the one hundredth meridian, and with the development and use of hydroelectric power in connection with such projects.²⁶

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²⁶ National Resources Board, op. cit., p. 14.

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Field.—The Federal reclamation projects provide water for the irrigation of large tracts of land which otherwise would not be suitable for agriculture. The irrigated lands are offered to settlers, upon the basis of repayment to the Federal Government of the cost of the project. These payments may be extended over a period of years.

Reclamation projects are unsuited for national parks and monuments because the works of man predominate over the works of nature. Recreation is a secondary consideration to reclamation projects, and no very extensive development has been made for the recreational use of these projects.

Recreational use, however, does exist. The projects, including the great dams and other structures, are of general interest because of their engineering features. They are visited each year by thousands of people who take a natural pride and interest in these large Federal projects. In addition to the sightseeing use, the large reservoirs have recreational uses such as fishing, boating, and bathing. Facilities for these recreational uses are not provided by the Government, but by private enterprise, and the extent of the developments is proportionate to the amount of public use.

The reclamation projects are located in Western States, where rainfall is inadequate to produce agricultural crops without irrigation. In many of these arid regions lakes are few, and opportunities for those forms of recreation which are dependent upon water are scarce.

The use of the waters of these reservoirs for irrigation results in a variation of the water level of the impounded lakes. As a rule the reservoirs are filled to their full capacity during the months of spring run-off. When the irrigation season comes, the water is drawn off, and by fall the reservoirs are low and may be almost entirely empty. During the period of maximum recreational demand, usually the summer months, the reservoirs are likely to be in an intermediate stage of water level.

Because of this fluctuation of water level, the banks of a partly filled reservoir are sometimes not scenically attractive, which tends to reduce the use of the lakes for recreation. Bathing may be available, but any extensive development of beaches is impracticable. Fishing is usually available at any stage of the water line in reservoirs, but the installation of docks and other development is rendered difficult by the rise and fall of the lake level.

It seems probable that the recreational use of reclamation projects could be stimulated, either by development by the Federal Government or by the issuance of liberal permits for private parties to engage in the business of supplying recreation, and using Government lands, by lease, for these purposes.

The lands irrigated by the reclamation projects are, as a rule, chiefly valuable for agricultural purposes, and, being under cultivation, they are not generally available for any extensive recreational use.

In 1934 the area proper irrigated with water from the Government works was 1,463,843 acres, exclusive of areas covered by the Warren Act. The area covered by the Warren Act is annually in the neighborhood of 1,500,000 acres.

In order to call attention to the recreational features of the reservoirs of reclamation projects, the Bureau of Reclamation published a pamphlet entitled "Federal Irrigation Reservoirs as Pleasure Resorts." The foreword of this publication calls particular attention to the reservoirs as a source of recreation for the project settlers. It reads as follows:

With the more complete settlement and development of the Federal irrigation projects, constructed by the Bureau of Reclamation, Department of the Interior, under the act of June 17, 1902, and acts amendatory thereof and supplemental thereto, the reservoirs created by the construction of the larger storage dams have assumed more and more importance in the social life of the project settlers, aside from their primary function as basins for the storage of irrigation water. They are entering increasingly into the life of the people as pleasure resorts and playgrounds, as bird sanctuaries, and as excellent fishing grounds, thanks to the work of the Federal Bureau of Fisheries and the State fish hatcheries in stocking these great artificial lakes with many varieties of fish.

Believing that these byproducts of Federal reclamation have a unique advertising value for the projects, and if properly exploited would aid materially in their future development, this booklet has been prepared, describing the principal Federal project reservoirs as pleasure resorts, with special reference to their present development and future possibilities.²⁷

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²⁷ U. S. Bureau of Reclamation, Federal Irrigation Reservoirs as Pleasure Resorts, Washington, D. C., Government Printing Office, 1928, p. II.

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The pamphlet deals with recreational possibilities of 15 of the reclamation projects. With reference to fish planting in the reservoirs, the following statement is made:

Every year the Federal Bureau of Fisheries furnishes fish in considerable numbers for stocking various waters on Government reservations, and many of the storage reservoirs of the Bureau of Reclamation have been stocked. * * * In addition, large numbers of fish are planted in the reservoirs by the State fish hatcheries.

Not all the waters involved in the extensive reclamation work are suitable for trout. For the warmer waters of Roosevelt Reservoir and the Elephant Butte Reservoir, black bass, large-mouth bass, rock bass, crappie, sunfish, catfish, buffalo fish, and yellow perch have been supplied in large numbers, a few of them being adults. The species furnished for the other projects mentioned have been the eastern brook trout, the black-spotted trout, rainbow trout, and hake trout. The fish are delivered by means of the Bureau of Fisheries cars or by airplane at the railroad station nearest the waters for which they are intended, and from there are transported by motor truck or other conveyance by representatives of the Bureau of Reclamation.²⁸

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²⁸ Federal Irrigation Reservoirs as Pleasure Resorts, op. cit., p. 49.

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The pamphlet mentions other forms of recreation in addition to fishing, such as boating, duck hunting, bathing, camping, use of the adjacent areas for motoring, and other recreational activities.

In 1931 the Reclamation Service administered 28 irrigation projects. These projects included 60 reservoirs, having a total area of 657,750 acres and a total storage capacity of 45,858,800 acre-feet of water.²⁹

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²⁹ Figures furnished by the Bureau of Reclamation.

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Office of Indian Affairs

Functions.—The Office of Indian Affairs is charged with the administration of all matters relating to the Indians while they remain on the reservations set aside for them. It has recently acquired several new functions, as regards Indian land administration, through emergency legislation or through the Wheeler-Howard Act of June 18, 1934. It has received allotments for subsistence homesteads and for submarginal-land purchases. Under the Wheeler-Howard Act it must plan land purchases for landless Indians of $2,000,000 yearly; and it must map out sustained-yield forest units for forest lands acquired under that program as well as for the large acreages it has been administering trust under earlier legislation. It must everywhere set up programs of economic land development by Indians. All these new functions will require special surveys on a far larger scale than is possible at present.³⁰

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³⁰ National Resources Board, op. cit., p. 36.

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Lands Administered.—The net areas of the public domain which have been set aside as Indian reservations (1934) comprise 48,131,000 acres.

The total area of allotted and unallotted lands of Indian reservations in 1929 was as follows:

The Indian Service encourages beneficial recreational activities of the Indians. Games and other forms of recreation are important in the social development of the Indian children, and also of the adults.

The Indian reservations are set aside primarily for the benefit of the Indians. The reservations are their homes and are used for agriculture and for the grazing of livestock. The recreational use by the Indians is one of many secondary objectives.

The general public has no claim to any use of the Indian reservations conflicting or interfering with the use of the lands by the Indians. In some cases hunting and fishing are reserved for the sole use of the Indians. In most of the reservations visitors are welcome, and the Indians benefit from the sales of their handicraft to visitors and from other revenue derived from them. There are some recreational uses which the public may enjoy on Indian reservations, such as motoring and a limited amount of camping. Some ceremonial dances which were originally held by the Indians for themselves are now held for the public, and from this source the Indians derive considerable revenue.

In general, the Indian reservations do not offer a field for recreational use by the general public, except under such provisions as may be permitted by the Indian Service.

Many people are keenly interested in the Indians, their traditions and folklore, their art, their handicraft, and their mode of life. To these people, a visit to an Indian reservation is intensely interesting. Many of the reservations are highly scenic in character and present a combination of features fascinating to the visitor. For example, the great Navajo Reservation in Arizona contains outstanding scenic features, such as Monument Valley, a desertlike area with great sandstone monoliths rising from a flat surface. Then there is exceptional archeological interest in the reservation, as for example, the ruins of Keet Seel and Betatakin (Navajo National Monument). The reservation is dominated by Navajo Mountain, the sacred mountain of the Navajos, which forms a conspicuous landmark for a large area. Canyon de Chelly and Canyon del Muerto (Canyon de Chelly National Monument), rich in both scenic and archeologic interest, are in the Navajo Reservation, as is also the remarkable Rainbow Bridge (Rainbow Bridge National Monument).

The Indian pueblos near Santa Fe, such as Taos, with its large, many-storied pueblos, are a great attraction to visitors. Puye, with its important archeological remains, draws many visitors each year.

Some of the pueblos, such as Acoma, "The City of the Sky", the Hopi villages, and the Zuni pueblos, combine archeology, history, scenery, and ethnology in their strong appeal to visitors.

Palm Canyon in Riverside County, Calif., on the Agua Caliente Indian Reservation, has the finest groves of native palms to be found in the Southwest.

Other reservations have features of outstanding interest which could be made objectives of national recreational travel, if it proves to be in the interest of the Indians to feature them for this purpose.

General Land Office

Functions.—The General Land Office supervises the survey, management, and disposition of the public lands and public mineral lands, the granting of railroad and other rights-of-ways and easements, and furnishes certified copies of land patents and records, plats, and papers on file in the Office. It performs the same function for national forest lands, thus complementing the administrative and technical work of the United States Forest Service of the Department of Agriculture. The work of the Office is carried on by 11 divisions designated as Accounts, Administrative, Homestead, Indian Lands, Law, Mails and Files, Mineral, Patents, Posting and Tract Book, Reclamation and Land Grant, and Survey.

The public domain or original public-land States im the United States proper contains 1,442,200,320 acres. The 378,165,760 acres of Alaska are also a part of the public domain. The area in the United States proper has been disposed of as follows to June 30, 1933:

As a practical proposition the work of this Office is mainly with the "pending entries", "withdrawn lands", "unappropriated lands", and with surveying and mapping the Government lands. On June 30, 1933, there were 136,266,570 acres of unsurveyed land in the United States proper and nearly all of Alaska is still unsurveyed.³¹

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³¹ Ibid, p. 19.

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The Public Domain.—The term "public domain", as used by the General Land Office, embraces all of the area that was once public land or in the control of the Federal Government, including Alaska. In popular use, however, this term usually means vacant, unreserved, and unappropriated Federal lands.

The lands, for which title has passed from the United States, were disposed of as follows:

Approximately 70 percent of the public domain has passed into private, corporate, and State ownership. Title to the remaining 30 percent is in the United States, but about 60 percent of this area, or 18 percent of the original public domain, has been withdrawn for national forests, Indian reservations, national parks, monuments, and other purposes, so that at present only about 12 percent of the original public domain is now unappropriated and unreserved.

The unappropriated and unreserved public lands, as of July 1, 1934, were distributed, by States, as follows:

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¹ Figures from the Commissioner of the Land Office.

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The area of 8,370,989 acres of the public domain reserved for national parks and monuments in continental United States (June 30, 1933), represents about 5 per cent of the area of the remaining unappropriated and unreserved public domain, and only about one-half of 1 percent of the area of the original public domain.

In general, recreational use of the unappropriated public domain is rather thinly spread out over a great area, and there are comparatively few areas where the recreational use is concentrated. Most of the unappropriated and unreserved public domain consists of areas unsuited for agriculture, forestry, and other commercially profitable enterprises. Free grazing has resulted in the overgrazing of parts of the area. Much of the area is arid, untimbered, and low in recreational possibilities. Parts of the remaining public domain available for general use are, however, suitable for camping, hunting, and other recreational uses. This use is unregulated, except that State game laws regulate hunting and fishing. The Federal Government has done nothing to stimulate recreational use of the public domain.

The summary of that National Conference on with the public domain, portion of the report to the Outdoor Recreation, dealing is as follows:

The recreational values of the public domain are indeterminate. The vacant lands east of the one-hundredth meridian may be dismissed from consideration from a national viewpoint though they may well embrace values, particularly for wildlife conservation, worthy of inquiry and possible acquisition for State or county administration under the provisions of the Recreation Act of June 14, 1926. The vast area of unreserved and unappropriated public lands west of the one-hundredth meridian are included in every Western State and vary in extent from a little over 2 percent of the area of Washington to over 75 percent of Nevada. Approximately 40 percent of these vacant lands of the West are as yet unsurveyed and much is unclassified. So much of this land is arid or barren that opportunities for recreational use for popular enjoyment is very restricted as compared to the opportunities afforded by the well wooded and watered national forests and national parks. There are areas in southern Utah and northern Arizona of unusual scientific or prehistoric interest worthy of inclusion as national monuments. There are, too, timbered areas which should be added to the national forests as contemplated by the Clarke-McNary Act instead of being left for mutilation under the existing but archaic working of the Timber and Stone Act. The Secretary of the Interior has urged the repeal of this act as a measure for the protection of the remaining timber of the public domain, but pending the action of Congress, advantage should be taken of the positive provisions of the Clarke-McNary Act already authorized which permit the reservation of these areas. Aside from these areas and regions which should be reserved for the protection of types of big game of national importance such as the antelope and mountain sheep, the recreational values of the public domain will, in the main, find their development under State or local administration.

As the West develops in population, and use of its resources becomes intensive, there is no doubt but that numerous tracts, while relatively small compared to the great national reservations, will serve their highest usefulness for State or local recreation needs, and particularly to supplement the wildlife refuges already established. The Secretary of the Interior has authority to classify unreserved public lands when found chiefly valuable for recreation, and he has exercised this power from time to time pending disposition to States or subordinate political units under the Recreation Act of June 14, 1926. The Interior Department has no funds or personnel for field work of this character, and action is dependent upon expression of local public opinion. In addition to the recreation resources developed through this enactment of Congress, local recreation resources can and are being developed in conjunction with the development of power sites and reclamation projects.³²

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³² Joint Committee on Recreational Survey of Federal Lands, Recreation Resources Federal Lands, Washington, D. C., National Conference on Outdoor Recreation, 1928, p. 43.

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Some parts of the unappropriated and unreserved public domain are highly scenic, and, since their value for agriculture or grazing is low, it seems that their chief future value is likely to be for recreational purposes. As examples of areas of this type may be mentioned the Yampa Canyon and Canyon of Lodore in northwestern Colorado, and several canyons of the Green River in Utah, from the Flaming Gorge to Split Mountain. In southeastern Utah and northern Arizona, the Colorado River traverses a wilderness, almost uninhabited, that is spectacular in scenery and abounds in great canyons, gorges, and cliffs. As an indication of the rough topography of this area, it may be mentioned that it is impossible for automobiles to cross the Colorado River at any point between Moab, Utah, and Lees Ferry, Ariz., a distance of about 170 miles. This is one of the great wilderness areas of the United States. The San Juan River, a tributary of the Colorado, is also rich in spectacular scenery.

Areas of the public domain, such as the above regions, are now available for reservation from entry, and they may be retained in public ownership for present and future recreational use.

Other portions of the public domain would be valuable for wildlife production if the present overgrazing by domestic stock were prevented.

Federal Lands in Territories and Insular Possessions

The total area of Alaska is 378,165,760 acres.³³ Of this area about 30 million acres are reserved as national forests, national parks, and national monuments. The amount of patented land is small. The unreserved and unappropriated public domain comprises 346,174,242 acres, or about nine-tenths of the total area of Alaska.

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³³ General Land Office, Vacant Lands on July 1, 1933, Circular No. 13011.

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The total area of the Hawaiian Islands is 4,127,360 acres. There is no public domain in the islands. There are, however, territorial lands, comprising 1,588,550 acres, or more than one-third of the total area of the islands. These are administered by the Commissioner of Lands of the Territory.

The Hawaii National Park, on the islands of Hawaii and Maui, has an area of 156,800 acres. There are also naval and military reservations.

The Hawaiian Islands offer a variety of opportunities for outdoor recreation, throughout the entire year, including swimming, tennis, hiking, horseback riding, the hunting of boar, goat, and sheep, and organized athletics, such as baseball and football.

Other insular possessions include Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, Samoan Islands, and Guam. There is a national forest in Puerto Rico, as well as military and naval reservations in most of these insular possessions, but there is little or no public domain available for general recreational use.

All of these territorial areas offer some forms of recreational use to the local residents, and most of them offer the opportunities of pleasure travel to the people of the continental United States.

2. STATE AND INTERSTATE SYSTEMS

State Lands

Provision of outdoor recreational facilities by the several States has a history which far antedates the establishment of national parks. State properties dedicated wholly or partly to recreational use now accommodate a total number of annual visitors which exceeds those of the national parks and monuments and the national forests. In point of acreage, they are still considerably below the national parks and monuments. State parks, which bear the bulk of the recreation burden, contain only about 3 percent as great an area as the national forests. Although national forest areas are now being purchased in a number of regions which had none until the start of the recent purchase program, and though it is to be expected that there will be some extension of holdings of the types now administered by the National Park Service, it is likely that State properties will always receive a much greater number of visitors each year than those owned and operated by the Federal Government.

The State Recreation Situation Today.—Today 46 of the 48 States possess State parks or areas differently named, but set aside wholly or primarily for recreational use—Colorado and Montana being the exceptions. Their holdings total approximately 3,755,985.49 acres. Accurate figures on attendance are not procurable, since few States take them, but in 1930 the National Conference on State Parks estimated, on the basis of reports received from nearly all of the States, that it was approximately 45,000,000 in that year. Figures submitted to the National Resources Board in August of this year indicate a 1933 attendance of approximately 61,297,683 persons. In addition, it is estimated that State forests and game and fish properties in 23 States have approximately 5,000,000 visitors each year.

Since State parks are created for recreation, and since the amount and variety of recreation they supply far surpasses that supplied by other State holdings, any detailed consideration of the place of the State in the field of outdoor recreation will naturally concern itself primarily with State parks.

History of State Parks.—The history of the State park movement from the establishment of Yosemite up to the present is briefly presented in the foreword of the State Park Anthology, as follows:

It was not until automobiles became fairly numerous, and sufficient good or fair roads had been built to permit ready access to areas at a distance from centers of population, that the State-park movement may be said to have been fairly launched. Such State parks as had been established in the meantime had generally been created to preserve some outstandingly scenic area, such as the Niagara Reservation in New York or the Yosemite Valley in California, and resulted from a strong public opinion that was concerned as a rule only with a single project, and that had little or no vision of a day when most of our States would be building up systems of State parks.

It is during the past decade that the establishment of State park systems has become a widely recognized function of our State governments. In the old days park advocates would say, "Here is an area so outstanding in its beauty that it ought to be saved for the public." Today we say, "Here is a public, vast in numbers, with modern means of transportation, good roads, and leisure, more and more cramped by the growth of cities, to whom contact with the beauty of nature and opportunity for the simple types of outdoor recreation are inure and more necessary for a healthy mind and a healthy body. Let us find and preserve some of what is left of our unspoiled out-of-doors, so that our people today and tomorrow may have a chance to know what it is like and to enjoy it." ¹

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¹ Evison, Herbert, editor, A State Park Anthology, National Conference on State Parks, Washington, D. C., 1930. (See p. 7.)

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Relative Adequacy of Areas Provided.—Among the 46 States having State parks, or areas, of similar character there is an extremely wide variation in the extent to which such areas have been provided. This is expressed by a range of .02 acre per thousand inhabitants in Delaware to 200 acres in New York State. The comparatively low acreage in many Western States is largely compensated by the fact that excellent outdoor recreational opportunities are provided for them by national parks and national forests, although these do not fully meet the needs of their people.

Public Support.—In a few States, notably New York, Iowa, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Connecticut, and California, regular and reasonably adequate funds are made available for acquisition, development, and maintenance of recreational areas, though these funds have been considerably curtailed during the past 5 years. In most others this field of State activity is still struggling for some reasonably adequate recognition.

Selection of Sites.—Selection of State recreational areas, chiefly State parks, has been based in varying degree on comprehensive surveys conducted in the following States: Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and California. Though a few other States have built up systems excellently balanced, most of them, either because of failure to establish standards, or because of their lack of knowledge of their recreational resources, have included in their systems areas too small, of slight value scenically or for active recreation, unduly expensive to develop and operate, or crowded too closely on one another.

FIGURE 24.

Types of Properties.—The bulk, in number and extent, of State properties which have been established primarily for recreation are called State parks. Familiar as that term is, it is well-nigh meaningless, or perhaps it may be said to have a slightly different meaning in each of the 46 park States. It is applied, for example, to the spectacular, 60,000-acre Custer State Park in South Dakota, and to an, Indian mound on an acre of land in Columbus, Ohio (Campbell State Park); to a 7-acre picnic ground crowded on a lonely brook in an old stand of hemlock in Connecticut (Humaston Brook) to a 15-acre beach on Lake Michigan (Mears State Park) and to a beach without hinterland in California. Only a few States have distinguished between their scenic and active-recreative properties, and those primarily of historic or scientific importance by designating the latter as monuments.

In contrast with this general confusion are certain States which have established definite and high standards for their parks which insist, generally, on areas of considerable extent and scenic distinction and which decline to include properties which are commonplace or almost wholly local in character of use. Notable among these are New York, Indiana, Illinois, and California. No system, however, appears to be wholly free from undesirable or incomplete properties.

Also by contrast with the low-grade holdings which many States have accepted into their park systems are a number which embrace features of superb beauty and of genuinely national importance. Examples of this type of park are the Niagara Reservation in New York, the Humboldt and other redwood parks in California, the forests of giant hardwoods in Turkey Run and Spring Mill Parks in Indiana, and Custer State Park in South Dakota.

Administrative Machinery.—The machinery of administration for State recreation areas—chiefly State parks—is of nearly as many varieties as there are park-owning States. Of the numerous kinds, however, there are two types which are most general in those States which have had parks for some years. One is the commission or board, concerned almost wholly with parks, such as is found in Kentucky, Rhode Island, Iowa, New Mexico, Texas, Washington, and South Dakota. The other is the conservation department headed either by a single conservation commissioner, as in New York and Massachusetts, or by a conservation commission, but having charge of several divisions, of which parks is one.

The commonest type of administration is that which places parks under the State forester or State forestry commission. This has occurred in most cases because the forestry branches were established before the parks, and appeared the most logical agencies under which to place park administration until a separate agency had been set up. Two States in this group—South Carolina and Florida—have recently decided to establish distinct branches in charge of parks. In a number of others, parks are pretty definitely subordinated to the forests, with not much distinction between the two in treatment of their resources.

Ohio has an anomalous administrative organization, with the State forester administering a group of excellent forest parks a park division in the conservation department administering a group of reservoir lakes; and the Ohio Archeological and Historical Society in charge of a group of historical and archeological sites. Pennsylvania has a number of park commissions, loosely connected with the department of forests and waters, which also administers a group of so-called forest parks. In New Jersey, although most of the parks are under the Conservation Commission, one is administered by an independent commission, while another administers the New Jersey portion of the Palisades Interstate Park. In Massachusetts, a number of State park reservations are under county-supported commissions.

New York's system is unique, with her several park regions, each under a separate commission, all united in, and under a considerable degree of fiscal control of, a State council of parks, which in turn is nominally subject to control by the conservation commissioner.

FIGURE 25.

Powers of Park Administrators.—While there is considerable variation in the extent of authority granted to park administrators, certain powers are found to be common to most or all of them. The following powers are generally possessed:

(a) To purchase lands for use as parks.

(b) To accept gifts of park lands or of funds for the purchase of such lands.

(c) To exercise the right of eminent domain.

(d) To construct necessary roads, structures, and other facilities in the parks.

(e) To employ persons needed for operation of parks, and to expend such funds as may be available for other necessary expense of operation.

(f) To promulgate and enforce rules and regulations governing use of the parks and protection of their resources.

(g) To make necessary studies of the scenic and potential or actual recreation areas within the State on which to base selection of sites for inclusion in a State system.

A few States have not yet granted their park authorities the right to exercise the power of eminent domain. On the other hand, certain of the New York regional commissions have the power of appropriation, taking the land when it is needed, and settling for it afterwards through the Court of Claims.

The power of eminent domain has been exercised with varying success in the several States which possess it. Awards considered by the condemning authority to be unjustifiably high are found usually in those States where the award is made by juries selected in the locality in which the property being condemned is situated, they are generally considered fairly satisfactory in those States in which the jury or court is otherwise selected.

Planning of Recreation Areas.—The States of New York, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, California, and perhaps a few others which have been concerned with park administration over a considerable period of years, have long recognized that parks present difficult and complicated problems of planning, requiring the services of men of technical training and an appreciation of the special considerations which should govern the development of lands of this type. On the other hand, the idea that the natural area requires no particular planning at all has died hard—is not, in fact, dead everywhere yet—but it has left in its wake scores of parks in which irreplaceable features of high quality have either been destroyed, badly maarred, or modified by unplanned and uncontrolled public use.

The park planning problem, in general, stripped to its essentials, is that of making usable a natural and relatively unspoiled area, which has remained that way in most cases because it has never been subjected to much use, and at the same time to preserve those scenic or other features which are either the principal reason or one of the principal reasons for establishment of the park.

Park Facilities and Their Operation.—As previously noted, Connecticut operates all facilities provided in its parks. While camp and picnic grounds are generally operated directly by the State, overnight lodgings in hotels or cabins, stores, restaurants, bath houses, boats and canoes, rental of riding horses, and other special facilities are usually or frequently handled by concessionaires.

Concessions are awarded in two different ways. Under one arrangement the State's return and the conditions of operation are fixed in advance, and the concessionaire who is supposed to be best fitted for the task is selected. Under the other, the terms of operation are fixed in advance, but the award is made to the highest bidder. In some cases, prices, methods of operation, standards of service, and limitations on the placing of advertising signs are set forth in great detail in the concession agreement; in others, these are covered in very general terms.

Exclusive Use Privileges.—The practice of turning over to individuals for their exclusive use small portions of State park lands has, fortunately, never become widespread. It has been permitted in Custer State Park, S. Dak., in Devils Lake State Park, Wis., and in one or two other locations. Most State park authorities are strongly opposed to it. Senator Norbeck, Chairman of the Custer State Park Board, has said, "We have leased about 100 sites for cottages in the State park, but are not encouraging any more of it. It brings its own complications and many of them. Suitable locations can be found outside the park for these cottages." ²

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² Letter from senator Norbeck to National Resources Board, Aug. 22, 1934.

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The practice is indulged in to a somewhat greater extent on State forests, chiefly in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, but is being eradicated in the latter State as rapidly as possible.

Nature Education.—Use of State holdings for nature education cannot be called extensive. The outstanding undertaking of this sort is found in the Palisades Interstate Park, where it is a joint project of the park commission and the American Museum of Natural History. The Buffalo Museum of Sciences occupies a somewhat analogous position with respect to the nature-education work and to the Allegheny School of Natural History at Allegheny State Park, in western New York. Indiana has had organized nature-education service in several of her State parks for some years. Nature guide service, partly on a basis of volunteer leadership, neither regular nor organized, has been offered from time to time in Iowa parks and in Pennsylvania.

Museums are found in a considerable number of State parks. A few are expertly handled, on the basis of modern museum science, for the sole idea of enlarging public understanding of these parks and their immediate surroundings. The majority have been established without any particular policy, and tend to be heterogeneous and badly organized, suffering chiefly from excessive generosity of donors. The establishment and arrangement of the occasional small zoological collections found in State parks have been undertaken on somewhat the same unscientific basis, with a few notable exceptions, such as that at Bear Mountain, in the Palisades.

Generally speaking, educational effort in State parks has been of very limited extent and value; it offers a wide field of opportunity that few State park authorities appear as yet to have grasped.

Preservation of Natural Conditions.—In most State parks, the preservation of the native landscape and of native animal and bird life is accepted as a primary objective. The cutting of trees and shrubbery is in general prohibited on most of these areas; animals and birds likewise are accorded special protection. Important exceptions are the Adirondack and Catskill parks in New York, where cutting is more strictly prohibited than in almost any other parks—even the national parks—but where hunting is permitted during the season.

The degree of preservation actually attained varies greatly among the several States and among the several hundred parks. In areas too small for the active-recreation load they are required to carry, it is almost a complete failure. The same is equally true in areas which have been badly planned, and in which, as a consequence, there has been no adequate assertion of control over public use. It has been largely defeated in a number of parks by the construction of a needlessly large mileage of roads and trails. It has been impaired by the frequent tendency to overdo clean-up—elimination of ground cover, removal of standing dead trees (snags) which are valuable habitats for many bird species—and other forms of interference with natural conditions. It has been hindered even in the case of expertly planned development by failure to ascertain the effects of such development upon wildlife conditions.

State Holdings of the Monument Type

Widespread Lack of Definitions.—As has been previously stated, many holdings which do not meet the popular and fairly definite concept of what a State park should be have been accorded State park status. Many of these do contain features or objects of considerable historic, prehistoric, or scientific importance, which would undoubtedly merit national monument status.

Connecticut, Ohio, Kentucky, Virginia, Texas, Missouri, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Washington, and Oregon are among the States which make no particular distinction between properties of this sort and their larger scenic and active recreation areas, New York, Massachusetts, Indiana, Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, and California have set up separate classifications for them—monuments, memorials, preserves, or reservations.

The Properties Themselves.—A number of States have included properties of extraordinary interest and value. California's State monuments are valuable reminders of her colorful and exciting history. Ohio has acquired such prized possessions as the Great Serpent Mound, reputed to be the greatest effigy mound in existence; the extensive prehistoric earthworks of Fort Ancient; and a considerable group of mound-builder and more recent sites of significance. Most of Pennsylvania's State parks—Fort Necessity (the fort itself is Federal property), a battlefield site; Washington Crossing; Bushy Run; and Valley Forge—are primarily of historical importance. New York has an extensive collection of properties which help to make vivid her part in history—particularly Revolutionary history. North Dakota's State parks are largely of the historical monument type, as are several of Minnesota's. Indiana has a group of memorials, small but of considerable variety, in which the Lanier Home—the restored and completely furnished home of an Indiana banker of the middle of the last century—is unique. Illinois' historical and archeological properties are fairly numerous and varied.

Administration.—In every State but one, Ohio, properties of this sort are administered by the same agency as administers State parks. This is true in New York, where the State Council of Parks in 1929 made the following recommendation:

"Sites which are primarily historical and scientific should not be administered by the State park authorities which lack the interest and knowledge to care for them." They "should be transferred to the education department as soon as the legislature can make provision for a bureau of historic and scientific places in that department." ³

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³ Principles Governing the New York State Park and Parkway System and Rules for the Extension of the System Adopted by the State Council of Parks, New York State Conservation Department, 1929, p. 6.

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In interesting contrast with this recommendation is the declaration of Richard Lieber, that the man who lacks a lively sense of history is unfitted to administer State parks⁴—a conclusion based on the conviction that almost any State park possesses some historical values which need to be brought out, if the park is to be of greatest usefulness.

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⁴ City Planning, the American City Planning Institute, the National conference on State Planning, quarterly publication, Augusta, Maine, October 1934, vol. 10, no. 4, p. 154.

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In general, the technique of handling historical, archeological, and scientific properties is still in its infancy in addition, it must be said that there is considerable lack of interest in them by many of those entrusted with their administration. There appears to be, with a few exceptions, little disposition on the part of the States to recognize the special problems they present, and to provide specially qualified personnel to handle them and to bring out their public values.

Recreational Use.—Lack of distinction between holdings of the monument type and State parks has naturally resulted in lack of distinction in use. This has shown itself particularly in the tendency to place active recreation uses on monument areas which are badly suited to them. These tend all too often to lower or to overshadow the chief values of such properties. Such use also is not unlikely to result in neglect of the needs of the surrounding population for genuinely adequate recreational facilities.

Holdings of the monument type have a high recreational or leisure-time value, but it is one that is derived from seeing and studying. The stimulus they provide should be primarily intellectual and spiritual.

State Trails

Albert M. Turner, 10 years ago, called State trails a "corollary of State parks." He defined a "State trail" as follows:

For the phrase "state trail" we shall understand a carefully selected strip of land over which the State has acquired a right-of-way for pedestrians, or to which it holds complete title, and upon which it maintains a cleared footway, suitably marked and signed for public use.⁵

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⁵ A State Park Anthology, op. cit., p. 390.

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Massachusetts is thus far the only State which has established and maintained State trails, as distinct from trails located on State parks, forests, or other State land. The Bay State, in 1924, placed authority over this function with the Commissioner of Conservation. Progress in that field has been slight.

Trail construction has been conducted on a much larger scale by organizations such as the Appalachian Mountain Club, in New England the various outing organizations united in the Appalachian Trail Conference, and the New England Trail Conference, the Connecticut Forest and Park Association, the Sierra Club, etc. The most notable undertaking of this type is the Appalachian Trail, extending along mountain ranges from Maine to Georgia. Many miles of this 2,053-mile trail—all but 115 miles of which have been constructed and are open to public use—cross private property by sufferance of the owners, who can halt this use of their property at any time.

In spite of public insistence on walkways along the routes of public highways, which, dependent on the character of the country and the width of the State's right-of-way, could be made to serve to greater or less degree the purpose for which Massachusetts has authorized State trails, little progress has been made in this field.

Quoting a saying of the late George A. Parker, of Connecticut—"When you are in a park, all that you see is in the park"—and carrying that wise observation over to the field of State trails, Mr. Turner advocates:

* * * State trails on the ridges, because from their tops a few acres of legal title may include 50 square miles of park, if we only remember that all we see is in the park. The blue distance is always pleasing he who looks on it owns it as much as anyone can.

But in a wrinkled State there are always hollows between the ridges, and for both convenience and contrast our trails will in many places follow watercourses, as trails always have. The mountain stream needs no special advocate it has always been able to sing its own song. * * * ⁶

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⁶ A State Park Anthology, op. cit., p. 391.

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State Forests

Recreational Use and Value.—Investigation by the Recreation Section of the National Resources Board discloses the fact that, out of 25 States which possess State forests, all offer active recreation which ranges from hikers' use of protection trails to a variety of uses comparable to that of the good, well-selected, and well-developed State parks.

State forests have been established largely in those areas which, while not particularly suited for agriculture, are excellently suited for the growing of trees. Selection of them has been based on this capacity, plus their importance in stream-flow control. That has meant inclusion in them of much hilly or mountainous terrain, many streams so close to their sources as to be free from silt and pollution, and hundreds of thousands of acres of land which bear timber still far from maturity, and yet of definite and considerable beauty both as individual trees and in the mass. On the other hand, Michigan has been establishing State forests on tax-delinquent lands, many of which have been completely cut over and repeatedly burned. Even those have a definite value to the recreationalist, however, for streams flow through them there are many lakes and ponds, and fish and game are there in greater or lesser abundance to attract the hunter and fisherman.

In all the States, there were, in 1932, 6,333,933 acres of lands designated as State forests.⁷ They contain recreational values comparable with their economic values they occupy an important place in the whole recreational scheme and will continue to do so.

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⁷ Editor's note: These are U. S. Forest Service figures. They show a total of 8,527,561 acres in the state-forest classification, but include 2,193,628 acres of Adirondack and Catskill Forest Preserves in New York. These are not State forests in the ordinary sense of the word, since all tree cutting is strictly prohibited by the state Constitution. They are listed as State parks by the New York Council of Parks.

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In general, the State forest is a considerably more extensive area than the State park. Though the tendency is definitely in the direction of larger, more nearly complete and adequate State parks, few of the States have as yet felt that it is either necessary or possible to devote areas to the State park type of administration, comparable in extent to the State forests. Primarily, the purpose of establishing State forests has been the production of a continuous supply of forest products, whereas, park usage involves, or should involve, allowing the natural processes of growth, maturity, and decay to function undisturbed. Silvicultural thinnings and the harvesting of all classes of merchantable timber result in constant disruption of the natural character of the forests. Yet in spite of these things the hiker finds in their roominess a chance to get away by himself in the out of doors in surroundings generally attractive. His camp beside a stream or lake gives him pleasure; many of the forest lakes and streams offer him an opportunity to fill his creel. In general, perhaps, he feels a greater sense of freedom than in a State park, but the conditions which encourage that feeling are changing. In few forests today can he enjoy complete freedom to do as he pleases to do as the pioneer did in his westward progress.

Administration of the commercial resources of the forests compels the imposition of many of the same restrictions as are necessary in the well-selected park. Indiscriminate camping and building of camp fires are as dangerous in one as in the other, which explains the increasing insistence of forest authorities on the building of camp fires in definitely designated locations, where safety is combined with convenience. Prepared camp grounds with running water and sanitary toilet facilities are becoming as characteristic a feature of State forests as of State parks. Even scattered public use compels the visitor to look to specially safeguarded water supplies for his drinking water. He, in turn, is equally under the necessity of refraining from pollution of lakes and streams. His use of the forest is compelling much the same type of planning for that use as is needed in a State park.

New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and Michigan are preeminent among the forest-owning States in the extent to which their State forests are used for recreation they are also leaders in the establishment and administration of forests. Many of the forest camp grounds are roadside affairs, for both day and overnight use many of them lie needlessly close to the roads many of them are unskillfully laid out, unattractive in appearance, and grow progressively more unattractive under the wear and tear of use. They perform, nevertheless, on the whole, a valuable and desirable public service.

Pennsylvania is unique among the States in having established a group of forest monuments. These include not only groves of old-growth forests, which are kept in completely natural condition, but also areas of special interest in the history of the State.

Pennsylvania and Massachusetts have both followed the United States Forest Service example of leasing summer home sites in the State forests both may be said to have made the mistake of permitting exclusive occupancy of places of high recreational value. Massachusetts is not only discontinuing the practice, but is endeavoring to cancel leases at as early a date as possible.

In many States possessing State forests, these holdings offer especially valuable fishing and hunting opportunities, as they are increasingly restricted on private lands. Pennsylvania, notable for her successful handling of game management problems, has established a large number of game refuges in her forests, surrounded by extensive forest areas which serve as public shooting grounds.

Protection of Public's Right to Fish.—Although in most States access to fishing streams is allowed by owners of adjacent property, a few States have found it necessary or desirable to assure access to them by means of easement agreements.

Rhode Island in 1927 authorized the commissioners of inland fisheries to acquire by gift, lease, or purchase, any land, freshwater stream, lake, pond, or part thereof for this purpose, but lack of funds has precluded use of this authority. New Jersey has leased 1 mile of Big Flat Brook. The Ohio Conservation Division is favorable to the practice, but has not yet undertaken it. North Dakota is executing easement agreements in connection with dams being constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps. Similar action is being taken in Kansas. By allotting 25 cents out of each fishing license fee, Colorado is accumulating a fund of $20,000 to be used in acquiring stream easements. The Connecticut State Board of Fisheries and Game has leased public fishing rights on 32 streams for a length of about 200 miles. In Iowa, whenever stream improvement has been undertaken, agreements have been obtained from the bordering property owners assuring public access for a short period of years.

Since 1911, California county boards of supervisors have had authority to declare sloughs, rivers, or streams which do not run through cultivated land to be public highways. It has been little used, except as a threat to keep the streams open. Idaho's fish and game department has tried several times to obtain authority to take easements on streams, but without success. Most of her good streams have been posted against fishing.

The Pennsylvania Commissioner of Fisheries reports that some waters in that State have been declared public highways, and also that no permits are given for construction of dams without providing for public fishing rights. "Fortunately for Pennsylvania", he writes, "it has thousands of miles of open streams and hundreds of lakes and ponds which are being stocked yearly by the Fish Commission, which have always remained open to the public."

The director of the division of fisheries and game for Massachusetts reports that his division is authorized to lease or purchase fishing rights on streams, and now has such leases on 75 miles of the best fishing waters in the State. Their lease provides for an easement on the stream and on a 10-foot strip on each side, for which an annual rental of $20 a mile is paid.

With the exception of the States noted, there is, in general, a disposition to meet this particular problem when it arises without much forethought or planning.

Partial Recreation Survey of Representative State Parks

During a few weeks in the late summer of 1934, questionnaires were distributed in 46 representative State parks from among the 907 such parks in the country. Over 25,000 questionnaires were filled out, and from these the following information has been compiled.

On the trips then being taken the travelers reporting were going an average distance of 541 miles at an average cost of $42.90 for the trip (practically 8¢ per mile). In some of the parks, which offer primarily neighborhood recreation or a chance to be out of doors, the average distance of travel is as low as 36 miles (Palisades Park, New Jersey). In those parks which are along trunk highways, where they serve as stopping points for through tourists, the average distance of the trips reported runs as high as 788 miles in Massachusetts, (Mount Greylock State Park) and 2,192 miles in South Dakota (Custer State Park).

Where a State park contains a feature of widely famed interest—the type of attraction more characteristic of the national park—the reports show average distances of travel such as 1,717 miles (Humboldt Redwood State Park, California). Famous recreation grounds bring visitors from equal distances: Mackinac Island State Park, Michigan, was reached on trips averaging 1,193 miles in length; Itasca State Park, in Minnesota, on trips averaging 1,242 miles.

These widely known recreation grounds also have more visitors from a higher-salaried group than have the parks of more localized reputation.

The total length of the trips reported on the 25,832 questionnaires was 13,088,829 miles. The total cost of these trips, as estimated by the travelers, was over a million dollars ($1,037,154).

To get a more complete idea of the recreational or semi-recreational travel which these figures indicate, it must be realized that they are from about one twentieth of the State parks, that they were compiled over a short period and that each questionnaire represents one party rather than one person, the average size of party being 3.34.

The visitors were asked about the number, length, and cost of their trips during the entire year, and estimated that they would make:

12,500 yearly vacation trips averaging 706 miles.
69,000 week-end trips averaging 131 miles.
150,000 day outings averaging 64 miles.

This would make the yearly recreational travel of these parties total 27,516,979 miles. The recreational interests and occupations shown on these 25,832 questionnaires are depicted in figures 28 and 29.

FIGURE 26.

FIGURE 27.

FIGURE 28.

FIGURE 29.

3. LOCAL SYSTEMS

Metropolitan Recreation Areas

A metropolitan region or district, as defined by the Federal Census of 1930, comprises a central city (or cities) and all adjacent and contiguous civil divisions having a density of not less than 150 inhabitants per square mile, and also, as a rule, those civil divisions of less density that are directly contiguous to the central cities, or are entirely or nearly surrounded by minor civil divisions that have the required density.¹

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¹ U. S. Bureau of the Census, Metropolitan districts; Population and Area, Fifteenth Census, 1930) Wash., pp. 5—6.

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Ninety-six metropolitan districts were established in 1930, each having an aggregate population of 100,000 or more, and containing one or more central cities of 50,000 or more population.²

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² Ibid.

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For the purposes of metropolitan park planning, the determining factor is not density of population, but accessibility for frequent recreational use by the inhabitants, particularly of a central city (or cities). Under modern methods of transportation, especially by automobile, such accessibility for comparatively frequent recreational use may be secured in a metropolitan region within a radius of approximately 50 miles from the center of the central city (or cities). Such a region is considerably larger than the metropolitan district, as defined by the Census Bureau.

Recreational areas in a metropolitan recreation system are sometimes located within the central city and in smaller cities within the metropolitan region. As a rule they are located in the more open, rurallike parts of the region, since the primary purpose of the metropolitan park is to provide an area of large extent, preserving a naturalistic landscape and opportunities for such active forms of recreation as fit harmoniously into a natural landscape as, for instance, picnicking, hiking, riding, boating, fishing, camping, winter sports, and nature study.

There are, however, numerous exceptions to this rule among the properties owned and administered by authorities controlling metropolitan recreation areas. Among such areas may be found children's playgrounds, playfield parks, areas devoted specifically to golf, bathing beaches, stadia, boulevards, and parkways; in short, such areas and facilities as are characteristic of municipal recreational area systems.

There is no single plan or method of providing metropolitan recreational areas in the United States. Lying within 50 miles of a central city (or cities), there are examples of recreational areas owned and operated by the Federal, State, county, township, and municipal governments, and by special metropolitan districts.

There are only six special metropolitan park districts in the United States: Boston, Rhode Island, Cleveland, Akron, Toledo, and Cincinnati. Tacoma is included in a metropolitan park district, but this is primarily a city system. Most of the special park districts in Illinois have jurisdiction over an area larger than the central city, but these likewise are essentially city systems.

Available data indicate that in 1930 four metropolitan park districts controlled park acreage as follows: Boston Metropolitan Park District, 11,500 acres; Cleveland Metropolitan Park District, 9,369 acres; Akron Metropolitan Park District, 1,450 acres; Toledo Metropolitan Park District, 215 acres.

Many municipalities own and administer recreational areas outside their boundaries. In 1925—26 the number of cities reporting metropolitan parks owned by them was 109, with 245 separate areas.³ In 1930, 186 cities reported owning a total of 381 parks in their metropolitan regions with a total of nearly 90,000 acres.⁴

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³ Park Recreation Areas in the United States, Bulletin No. 462, May 1928.

⁴ U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Park Recreation Areas in the United States, 1930, Bulletin No. 565, May 1932.

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During the 5-year period, this marked increase in the number of cities owning and administering recreation areas in their metropolitan regions, and the increase in the number of such areas, indicates a tendency in municipal recreation planning to include the region. Many of the municipal park and recreation departments operate under laws specifically giving them authority to acquire and administer lands for recreational purposes both within and without the boundaries of their respective cities.

Another important governmental agency in metropolitan park planning is the county. The majority of the 74 counties reporting one or more county parks in 1930 lie in the metropolitan regions of cities. Two counties (Cook and Du Page) in the metropolitan region of Chicago, four counties (Essex, Hudson, Passaic, and Union) in New Jersey, and one county (Westchester) in New York, owned and administered 61,177.3 acres in 1930, or over 56 percent of the total county park areas in the United States.

Twelve counties in the metropolitan regions of 10 cities controlled 83,043.7 acres or over 76 percent of the total county park area in the United States.⁵

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⁵ Park Recreation Areas in the United states, 1930, op. cit., p. 37—43.

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Many of the State recreation areas are within the metropolitan regions of cities (radius of 50 miles of central city), and serve these cities as metropolitan a parks or recreation areas. No comprehensive study or analysis of the numbers of State recreation areas located within metropolitan regions of cities has been made. In Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Massachusetts practically all of the State recreation areas are within the metropolitan regions of one or more cities. In New York 6 of the Long Island State parks, the Palisades Interstate Park, and some of the State parks of New Jersey are within the metropolitan region of New York, Newark, and Jersey City; 12 in the metropolitan region of Syracuse; 4 in the metropolitan region of Rochester; 5 within the metropolitan region of Albany; as well as 7 in Massachusetts, which are found in the same region; and 1 within the metropolitan region of Buffalo. In Michigan nine State parks are in the metropolitan region of Detroit, and five in are the metropolitan region of Grand Rapids. The Indiana Dunes State Park is within the metropolitan region of Chicago. There are other examples of the relation of State recreation areas to the metropolitan regions of cities, but the cities cited show that one of the important functions of many State park areas is to provide a comparatively frequent recreational service to the population of central cities and their metropolitan regions.

Falling within a 50-mile radius of certain cities are some national recreational areas controlled by the National Park Service. These serve more or less as metropolitan recreation areas to the adjacent cities. Examples of cities having national recreation areas within a 50-mile radius are Knoxville, Tenn. (Great Smoky Mountains National Park); Chattanooga, Tenn. (Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park); Richmond, Va. (Petersburg National Military Park); Washington, D. C. (Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park); Little Rock, Ark. (Hot Springs National Park); Baltimore, Md. (Gettysburg National Military Park); Denver, Colo. (Rocky Mountain National Park); and Seattle, Wash. (Mount Olympus National Monument). Nearly 700,000 acres of park lands are comprised in the areas within the metropolitan regions of the above cities, but the bulk of the total acreage is within the metropolitan regions of two comparatively small cities—Denver and Knoxville.

Some of the national forests in the West and in the East are now providing certain recreational services usually provided by the larger metropolitan parks. Such cities as Los Angeles, San Diego, Sacramento, Seattle, Tacoma, Portland, Salt Lake City, Denver, and many smaller cities in the West now enjoy such recreation advantages in the national forests; while in the South and East, Little Rock, Jacksonville, Knoxville, Chattanooga, Erie, and many smaller cities are within metropolitan-use range of national forests. As the full plans of the United States Forest Service mature, the possibilities of the national forests as metropolitan recreational areas will no doubt become much more important.

Municipal Recreation Areas

Because of the present high concentration of the population of the United States in urban communities, and the apparent continuance of the tendency toward urban growth, the utilization of lands and waters within or very near the boundaries of cities for recreational purposes is of special importance to any national recreation plan. The chief burden of year round recreation service must fall upon areas readily accessible for daily or very frequent use.

Two studies of municipal recreation areas have been made during the present decade, which give fairly accurate and adequate statistical data concerning the extent to which municipalities have utilized the lands within or very near their boundaries for recreational purposes.⁶ The first of these studies was made in 1925—26 by the National Recreation Association in cooperation with the American Institute of Park Executives at the request of the National Conference on Outdoor Recreation. A summary of the findings of this study is presented in the table following:

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⁶ Park Recreation Areas in the United states, Bulletin No. 462, op. cit.

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¹ Park Recreation Areas in the United states, 1930, Bulletin No. 565, op. cit.

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The total population of these 9 groups of cities in 1920 was 54,304,603 (United States Census). The average ratio of park acreage to population was 1 acre to every 223 persons.

FIGURE 30.

There was a marked deficiency in areas for children's playgrounds, and in areas for playflelds in practically all the cities.

In 1930 another study of municipal recreation areas was made by the National Recreation Association. A summary of the findings of this study is presented in Table XII.

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¹ Park Recreation Areas in the United States, 1930, Bulletin No. 565, op. cit.

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The total population of these 8 groups of cities in 1930 was 64,237,233.⁷ The average ratio of park acreage to population was 1 acre to every 208 persons as compared with 1 acre to every 223 persons in 1925—26. A remarkable increase in municipal recreation areas was shown during the period 1925 to 1930. This increase in cities of 5,000 population and above was approximately 30 percent.⁸

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⁷ U. S. Bureau of the Census, Fifteenth Census of the United States, 1930, Population, Vol. 1, Number and Distribution of Inhabitants, (See p. 14, table 8.)

⁸ Park Recreation Areas in the United States, Bulletin 565, p. 8.

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Comparable statistics in the studies of 1925—26 and 1930 of the growth of park acreage for 534 cities are shown in the following table:

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¹ Average increase.

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The total park acreage is a fair yardstick by which to measure the extent to which a city has provided recreation areas, but this does not indicate the adequacy of the recreation service of any given city's recreation area system. This may be better indicated by the types, and the number of each type, of recreation areas comprising the system. In the 1930 study by the National Recreation Association an attempt was made to classify areas by types with the result shown in Table XIV.

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¹ Park Recreation Areas in the United States, 1930, Bulletin No. 565, p. 11.

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The total number of cities included in Table XIV is 1,763; the number of different areas in the 10 types, 9,258; and the total acreage, 227,113.79.

The most numerous types in the park-recreation systems of these cities are small areas (ovals, triangles, etc.) and neighborhood parks. The next most numerous are children's playgrounds, but the acreage devoted to this purpose is comparatively small. It is interesting to note that the number of large parks is more than twice the number of neighborhood playfields; whereas, in well-planned systems, the latter type would be most numerous. It is especially noteworthy that the number of educational-recreational areas and the total acres devoted to this purpose is very small.

Over 75 percent of the total area is in large parks and outlying reservations or forest parks. Eliminating the acreage of the forest parks, over 66.8 percent of the 175,783.36 acres remaining within the boundaries of the cities is in large parks.

In general, this table shows the lack of balanced planning in municipal park-recreation systems. The number of areas and acreage devoted to children's playgrounds and neighborhood playflelds is without a doubt very inadequate.⁹ The same may be said of the areas devoted to educational-recreational purposes.

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⁹ If the 172,801.26 acres within these 572 cities had been distributed as to types according to the principles of a balanced plan, no less than 20,000 acres would have been devoted to children's playgrounds and from 20,000 to 25,000 acres to playflelds.

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These statistics have not included school sites nor playground and playfield areas in large parks, and do not, therefore, present a true picture of the actual situation with respect to the adequacy of service for the children and youth therein. There is a marked tendency on the part of boards of education to secure larger areas for sites of grade, junior, and senior high schools, and to a liberal use of such areas as children's community playgrounds and as playflelds. Nevertheless, the implication of this table as to the inadequacy of areas for children's playgrounds and neighborhood playflelds may be accepted as showing a condition prevalent in the majority of the cities of the United States, but especially in the larger cities.

The inadequacy of areas for children's playgrounds and of areas for the sports and games of youth and active adults, and of certain other types of areas, is partly due to the general inadequacy of the area in municipal recreational systems. If the general standard of 1 acre of recreation area to every hundred of the population in cities be accepted as a reasonable one, and it is generally so accepted, cities of 5,000 population and upwards in the United States have less than half of the desirable minimum acreage of recreation space. As noted above, these cities, in 1930, had an average of 1 acre of park land to every 208 inhabitants.

Studies of the Recreation Section of the National Resources Board (1934) indicate that this gap between the existing condition and the desirable minimum total area of recreation space is gradually being lessened. The total recreational area in municipalities of 5,000 and over is larger than in 1930.

Summary.—On the basis of the minimum standard of 1 acre of recreational area to every 100 inhabitants in cities of 10,000 and over and 1 acre to every 75 people in cities of 5,000 to 10,000, the cities of the United States are now equipped with less than 50 percent of the desirable gross recreation acreage.

2. There is a lack of balanced planning as to types of desirable recreational areas. This is especially noticeable in the lack of a sufficient number and acreage of children's playgrounds and playflelds. Inadequate attention has also been given to areas for educational-recreational purposes, such as botanical gardens, arboretums, areas for natural trails, and educational gardens of other types.

3. Comparatively few cities of the United States have comprehensive plans for the utilization of land within their borders for recreation. The formulation of such comprehensive plans is one of the outstanding needs in the present situation. An auxiliary need is that of continued educational activity by national and local recreation-planning organizations to the end that inhabitants of cities may be brought to an appreciation of the nature and value of civic recreation planning.

County Recreation Areas

In 1925—26 there were 33 counties reported as having one or more parks with a total in 30 counties of 67,464.71 acres.¹⁰

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¹⁰ Playground and Recreation Association of America: County Parks, A Report of A Study of County Parks in the United States, New York, 1930, p. 1.

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Five years later the number of counties having one or more parks had increased to 74, with a total park area of 108,484.94 acres, or an increase of approximately 60 percent. The number of counties having county parks had increased approximately 52.7 percent.

Reports received by the Recreation Section of the National Resources Board, 1934, shows the number of counties having one or more parks to be 113, with a total of 121,957.6 acres, an increase of 12.4 percent over the acreage in 1930.¹¹

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¹¹ Report Recreation Division, National Resources Board; Recreational Use of Lands in the United States. 1934.

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As has been shown in discussion of metropolitan parks, page 94, the majority of the county parks and park systems are in counties within the metropolitan regions of cities. This is because of the increasing desire of the people in cities to seek their outdoor recreation outside the congested city, and because the county is a practical, political unit to acquire, develop, and administer areas which the central city and the smaller municipalities in the county would find difficult to provide for themselves. It is reasonable to expect, therefore, a continuance of the development of county parks and park systems in metropolitan regions. Moreover, the county is probably the most practical political agency of local government to provide some of the necessary recreation areas for the rural population of the Nation and for the urban places up to 8,000 or 10,000 inhabitants outside of metropolitan areas of cities.

The recreation services provided in county parks are in many systems, especially in the metropolitan regions of cities, almost identical with services rendered in park recreation systems in cities. These include children's playgrounds, playflelds, swimming pools, bathing beaches, golf courses, shooting ranges, riding and hiking trails, athletic fields, floral displays, picnic facilities, boating and canoeing, tennis, and many other games and sports facilities. Many county parks are also as carefully designed from a landscape viewpoint as are city parks. In general, however, the greater portion of the acreage in county parks is in large areas, kept in a more or less naturalistic condition, and developed only to the extent necessary to enhance the natural condition of the areas, and to provide active recreation opportunities which readily fit into a naturalistic landscape. These include hiking and riding trails, streams and lakes for boating and canoeing, fishing, skating, picnic sites, organized camp areas, nature study centers comprising nature trails and trailside museums, skiing, sliding, and tobogganing centers.

A prominent feature of the larger county park systems is the parkway. Parkways are really elongated naturalistic parks with a pleasure driveway running through their entire length, but they not infrequently provide some of the recreational features of the large naturalistic park areas, such as hiking and riding trails, picnic sites, fishing in streams, and similar facilities.

Township Recreation Areas

Outside of New England the township is a comparatively unimportant unit in planning the utilization of land for recreation purposes. In New England the town recreation areas are, as a rule, not considered for statistical purposes separately from municipal recreational systems. Throughout the remainder of the United States examples of recreational areas owned and administered by townships are few, although the laws of Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, and some other States specifically authorize township officials to acquire, develop, and administer park or other recreation areas. A large park of approximately 1,800 acres, owned and administered by a township park board near Youngstown, Ohio, and another large park administered by a township park board near Hammond, Ind., are the two outstanding examples in the United States (except New England) of effective recreation service by townships. These areas provide such services as golf, picnicking, hiking, riding, motoring, nature study, and opportunities for rest, relaxation, and enjoyment of beauty of a natural environment; in short, the combined services ordinarily provided in large parks in cities and in the larger metropolitan parks.

The tendency toward a decrease of the powers of townships throughout approximately all the United States, except New England, indicates that this type of local government will never become an important agency in the utilization of land for recreation.