This idea, in the course of the next ten years, grew in my mind. It was, I think, the first suggestion, in words, of the Glacier National Park. About the year 1893 indications of copper were found in the foothills. It was believed that the country contained mines, and before long strong pressure was brought to bear on Congress to purchase the land from the Indians and throw it open to settlement. The mountain region was not used by the Indians. They lived on the plains. In 1895, Secretary of the Interior Hoke Smith sent out Commissioners W. C. Pollock, George Bird Grinnell, and W. M. Clements, to treat with the Blackfeet for this territory, and a majority of the commission went into the mountains and made a hasty inspection of the region. An agreement was made with the Indians, and was ratified by Congress, and about two years later the territory was thrown open to settlement.... Soon after 1902 I spoke to Senator T. H. Carter about setting aside this recently purchased tract as a National Park, and found that he was disposed to favor the suggestion. I then took up the matter with friends in Montana, and induced them to write to Senator Carter about the project. The result was that a little later he introduced a bill, which passed the Senate once or twice, and at last, in 1910, passed both houses, and was signed by President Taft, May 12, 1910, and the Glacier National Park became a fact. Certainly the most striking fact in the history of this Park is the rapidity with which it has been developed and opened to travelers. L. W. Hill has given this region a large share of his time, and in it has spent enormous sums of money. There is more than commercialism behind his work. It has been done with happy hands. He has made this a part of his life-work. He has endeavored to create on artistic lines. What he has done for this Park has stimulated interest in the other Parks and will greatly help to bring about their development. VII MESA VERDE NATIONAL PARK Weirdness, romance, and mystery dominate the Mesa Verde National Park. Towering high and dry above the surrounding country, carrying in places squatty, scattered growths of piñon pines and cedars, it stands silently up in the sunlight. Combined with these things, the deserted prehistoric cliff dwellings give to the Mesa a strangeness and peculiar appeal. These monuments of a departed race tell but little of the story of their builders. They are the ruins of an ancient civilization that stood its day and vanished; that-- "Like snow upon the desert's dusty face, Lighting a little hour or two--is gone."