pass it. "Narada" is an East Indian
word meaning "peace." The name was given many years ago by a party of
Theosophists who visited the falls. Happily, the effort to change the
name to "Cushman Falls" has failed.]

The new government road to Paradise and the trails {p.058}
connecting with it have, however made only a fraction of the Park
accessible. The most important work for the conservation of this great
alpine area and its opening to the public still remains to be done.
Congress is now asked to provide funds for the survey and gradual
extension of the road to the other plateaus on all sides of the peak.
Pending the construction of the road, it is highly important that, as
soon as the surveys can be made, bridle trails be built on the easy
grades thus established. Not only are these roads and trails much
needed for the convenience of visitors to the Mountain, but, with the
closer approach of logging operations, they are year by year becoming
more necessary to the proper policing of the Park and its protection
against forest fires. For want of them, great sections of forest
within the Park are liable to be swept away at any time, before the
rangers could find their way over the scant and broken trails now
existing. The request for better access to the other sides of the
Mountain has received the earnest indorsement of the Washington
legislature, the commercial organizations of the entire Coast, and the
several mountain clubs in different parts of the country. Only
Congress remains blind to its importance.

Congressional action affecting this immediate area began in 1899. A
tract eighteen miles square, 207,360 acres, to be known as "Ranier
National Park,"[4] was {p.059} withdrawn from the 2,146,600 acres of
the Pacific Forest Reserve, previously created. The area thus set
apart as "a public park for the benefit and enjoyment of the people"
(Act of March 2, 1899) was already known to a few enthusiasts and
explorers as one of the world's great wonderlands. In 1861 James
Longmire, a prospector, had built a trail from Yelm over Mashell
mountain and up the Nisqually river to Bear Prairie. This he extended
in 1884 to the spot now known as Longmire Springs, and thence up the
Nisqually and Paradise rivers to the region now called Paradise Park.
Part of this trail was widened later into a wagon road, used for many
years by persons seeking health at the remarkable mineral springs on
the tract which the Longmires acquired from t