enable the visitor to penetrate and
live among nature's secrets. Hunting is excellent in some of our
national forests, but there is no game in the national parks; in these,
wild animals are a part of nature's exhibits; they are protected as
friends.

It follows that forests and parks, so different in spirit and purpose,
must be handled wholly separately. Even the rangers and scientific
experts have objects so opposite and different that the same individual
cannot efficiently serve both purposes. High specialization in both
services is essential to success.

THE NATIONAL PARKS AT A GLANCE

[Number, 18; total area, 10,739 square miles]

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NATIONAL PARKS | | AREA IN|
IN ORDER | LOCATION | SQUARE | DISTINCTIVE CHARACTERISTICS
OF CREATION | | MILES |
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hot Springs, | Middle Arkansas | 1-1/2 | 46 hot springs possessing
1832 | | | curative properties--Many
| | | hotels and boarding houses--20
| | | bath-houses under public
| | | control.
| | |
Yellowstone, | Northwestern | 3,348 | More geysers than in all rest
1872 | Wyoming | | of world together--Boiling
| | | springs--Mud
| | | volcanoes--Petrified
| | | forests--Grand Canyon of the
| | | Yellowstone, remarkable for
| | | gorgeous coloring--Large
| | | lakes--Many large streams and
| | | waterfalls--Greatest wild bird
| | | and animal preserve in world.
| | |
Sequoia, 1890 | Middle eastern | 252 | The Big Tree National
| California | | Park--12,000 sequoia trees
| | | over 10 feet in diameter, some
| | | 25 to 36 feet in
| | | diameter--Towering mountain
|