Colorado -- Description and travel; Natural history -- Outdoor books; Rocky Mountain National Park (Colo.) -- History; Rocky Mountains
There is in this country a splendid array of Nature's masterpieces to
lure and reward the traveler. In mountain-peaks there are Grand Teton,
Long's Peak, Mt. Whitney, and Mt. Rainier; in cañons, the vast Grand
Cañon and the brilliantly colored Yellowstone; in trees, the unrivaled
sequoias and many matchless primeval forests; in rivers, few on earth
are enriched with scenes equal to those between which rolls the
Columbia; in petrified forests, those in Arizona and the Yellowstone
are unsurpassed; in natural bridges, those in Utah easily arch above
the other great ones of the earth; in desert attractions, Death Valley
offers a rare display of colors, strangeness, silences, and mirages;
in waterfalls, we have Niagara, Yellowstone, and Yosemite; in
glaciers, there are those of the Glacier and Mount Rainier National
Parks and of Alaska; in medicinal springs, there is an array of
flowing, life-extending fountains; in wild flowers, the mountain wild
flowers in the West are lovely with the loveliest anywhere; in wild
animals of interest and influence, we have the grizzly bear, the
beaver, and the mountain sheep; in bird music, that which is sung by
the thrushes, the cañon wren, and the solitaire silences with
melodious sweetness the other best bird-songs of the earth. In these
varied attractions of our many natural parks we have ample playgrounds
for all the world and the opportunity for a travel industry many times
as productive as our gold and silver mines--and more lasting, too,
than they. When these scenes are ready for the traveler we shall not
need to nag Americans to see America first; and Europeans, too, might
start a continuous procession to these wonderlands.
In the nature of things, the United States should have a travel
industry of vast economic importance. The people of the United States
are great travelers, and we have numerous and extensive scenic areas
of unexcelled attractiveness, together with many of the world's
greatest natural wonders and wonderlands which every one wants to see.
All these scenes, too, repose in a climate that is hospitable and
refreshing. They should attract travelers from abroad as well as our
own people. The traveler brings ideas as well as gold. He comes with
the ideals of other lands and helps promote international friendship.
Then, too, he is an excellent counter-irritant to prevent that
self-satisfied attitude, that deadening provincialism, which always
seems to afflict successful people. Develop our parks by making them
ready for the traveler, and they will become continuously productive,
both commercially and spiritually.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account