tigated by representatives of the department and the National Park Service, and approved, as being in an outlying portion of the park where the scenery would not be adversely affected, where the visiting public would not have a superior right, and where the projects were established as meritorious in every way. In such cases this procedure should always be followed, and such small areas found to be more valuable for economic purposes should be eliminated from the parks rather than permit the development within the boundaries of the parks.

ADVERSE REPORT ON YELLOWSTONE DAM BILL

The only other project proposed for the utilization of park areas was a bill, S. 311, Sixty-eighth Congress, first session, introduced by Senator Walsh, of Montana, " for the erection and maintenance of a regulating weir across the Yellowstone River in the State of Montana," which had been previously proposed in similar form and reported on adversely by the department. Your report of May 23, 1924, to Senator McNary, Chairman of the Committee on Irrigation and Reclamation of the United States Senate, read as follows:

I have your request of December 31 last for a report on S. 311, Sixty-eighth Congress, first session, a bill for the erection and maintenance of a regulating weir across the Yellowstone River in the State of Montana.

The primary purpose of this bill is to dam and control the waters of Lake Yellowstone so they could be used in connection with irrigation of lands in the Yellowstone Valley outside the boundaries of that park.

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When the Yellowstone National Park, the first member of our world-famous system of national parks, was created by act of March 1, 1872, Congress specifically reserved and withdrew the area from "settlement, occupancy, or sale under the laws of the United States," and dedicated and set it apart as a public park and pleasuring ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people." The act also prescribed that all persons who locate, or settle upon, or occupy any part of the land thus set apart as a public park, except such as may be considered necessary to render service to the traveling public, should be considered trespassers and removed therefrom, and furthermore that the Secretary of the Interior should make and publish regulations that shall provide for the "preservation from injury, or spoliation, of all timber, mineral deposits, natural curiosities, or wonders, within the park, and their retention in their natural condition."

It is probably inevitable that settlement and development of areas adjacent to and surrounding the Yellowstone will carry with them impulses to utilize natural resources of the park for local benefit. This may then extend not only into the utilization of lakes and streams for water power and irrigation purposes, but also to lumbering and other industries. However, absolute preservation should be the unwavering policy of Yellowstone administration, for inestimably valuable and precious as this great park now is to the nation, it will prove of increasingly greater value with each passing year as the common heritage of coming generations. The intent of Congress in all legislation affecting the Yellowstone has been to keep this splendid wilderness area intact in its natural state, untouched for all time by the inroads of modern civilization, and 50 years of administration have served only to emphasize the importance of such a consistent policy of protection. Such also is the consistent policy of the whole national park system and we can not overlook the fact, from experience, that the use suggested by this bill for Yellowstone National Park, if adopted, will in practice become a dangerous precedent for similar industrial uses of other national parks. Any plan for the commercial exploitation of the park must therefore, in my opinion, by the very nature of its aims and purposes, immediately be foredoomed to failure, and I, therefore, can not recommend favorable consideration of the pending measure.

EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES ADVANCED

While it is not possible to put into immediate practice all our plans for enlarged public service, I am particularly pleased with the gratifying advances made in the development of the educational opportunities offered within our national parks.

The historic phrase " for the benefit and enjoyment of the people," first used by the National Congress in the organic act of 1872 creating the Yellowstone National Park, means a great deal more than mere physical recreation or even conservation.

The parks in themselves present the range of American land forms. Volcanic, granitic, and sedimentary rocks are exhibited in the most extraordinary examples. The origin and development of river systems, deserts, plains, and mountains, and other processes of world-building-erosion in the fullest range and dramatic presentation-the wild animal life for scientific study; the forests and other floral exhibits under the untouched handling of Nature; all these can be studied to unusual advantage in these primeval wilder

ness areas.

MUSEUM EXPANSION

By far the greatest advance was made in the expansion of the museum service. With the exception of a small adobe museum at the Casa Grande National Monument in Arizona, erected some years ago at a cost of $1,200, Congress has not granted funds for the construction and equipment of museums in the national parks. We have been able to appoint a few naturalists in several of the larger parks, and also a limited number of ranger nature guides, helped out by occasional private donation of funds for such purposes, but most of the museum construction, equipment, and materials that we now have has been secured with the aid of private funds.

What will be probably the most remarkable example of museum construction in the entire park system is developing in the Mesa Verde National Park under the supervision and guidance of Supt. Jesse Nusbaum. A born organizer and doer, with excellent training as archeologist, he brought with him upon his appointment as superintendent in 1921 a record of achievement in museum construction and archeological research work that might be envied by many older scientists. Located in the midst of a rich field of museum material as yet practically untouched, Mr. Nusbaum interested Mrs. Stella Leviston, of California, in the possibilities of a modern structure to house the precious relics of the ancients that are gathered from time to time from the burial grounds and ruined cliff dwellings within the park. Mrs. Leviston advanced funds with which a beginning could be made on a wing of the structure, and construction on this has been under way during the summer. In his museum design, and in fact in all the new buildings constructed from year to year in the park, Mr. Nusbaum is using an adaptation of the early pueblo, which harmonizes well with the old ruins and the general spirit of things and leaves an impression of true fitness with the surroundings that is at once satisfying and real. Mrs. Leviston's donation has been augmented from another private source to enable the completion of the wing and its equipment.

In the Yellowstone National Park Superintendent Albright has prepared space in one of the large Government buildings at headquarters and started his park naturalist on the collection of exhibits and the preparation of botanic, mineral, and animal specimens, which has already resulted in a very remarkable museum collection. The space available, however, is already overcrowded and can not house all the important exhibits, including historical, that could be made available for the enjoyment and study of the visitors.

Small beginnings have been made in several of the other parks, that the next few years will see augmented to large proportions, particularly in the Sequoia, Grand Canyon, Mount Rainier, and Rocky Mountain Parks.

Several years ago, to test out the popularity of museum development, I authorized the beginning of a small museum in the Yosemite National Park. No funds were available except for the payment of the services of a ranger-naturalist who in addition to his duties as naturalist had to be available for any ranger duties that might be required of him. A small building was turned over to him and he at once set about collecting what material he could secure by donation. At the end of the first season, with what little time he could devote to the purpose, he had collected exhibits that were conservatively valued at $30,000. Last year 58,811 people went through the museum. This year the visiting list was 52,816. His enthusiasm resulted, furthermore, in the donation of some $6,000 or $7,000 from private funds toward a new and adequate museum and its equipment. Donations of exhibits have been promised from many quarters as soon as a fireproof building is erected to house them safely.

ASSISTANCE OF LAURA SPELMAN ROCKEFELLER MEMORIAL

Realizing the great importance of emphasizing the educational value of the national parks, serving thousands of visitors as they could by an intelligent introduction to what they would be able to find within the parks, the American Association of Museums made a careful study of these opportunities and developed certain concrete plans looking toward the establishment of small natural-history museums in a number of the larger parks. The association succeeded in interesting the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial in this work and secured an initial grant of $70,500 for the construction of an adequate fireproof museum building, including equipment and other important accessories, in the Yosemite National Park. In view of the great importance of this project the American Association of Museums appointed a committee to further the movement. In making their address to the memorial, this committee at a meeting held June 18, 1924, said:

If a museum (installed and supervised by a trained scientific staff) should be located in each of the more important national parks, and would take upon itself the preparation of the visitor for a profitable sojourn within the reservation, thus enabling him the better to understand the physiography, the fauna, and the flora, and, in short, preparing him to use these parks and their resources as instruments of instruction, it is conceived that an important educational need would be met and the plan would meet with such universal approval as to lead to its general adoption.

This will be but the start in the installation of such facilities under expert private assistance. There is no doubt that the museums al

ready begun or contemplated for construction will prove beyond peradventure of doubt the tremendous value of such institutions in parks where thousands of people annually gather for recreation and entertainment. A museum is a most valuable factor in drawing visitors, in awakening their interest, and in prolonging the length of their stay. It serves the visitors, and it serves the community as well. Knowledge creates interest. Interest adds to enjoyment. With this splendid start of the present year it will not be long before such exhibition places will be available in other parks and some of the monuments to place this educational work where it will enable the visitor to absorb the local scenery, local history, and natural history, and make his park visit truly entertaining and mentally profitable.

PARK LIBRARY IMPORTANT DETAIL OF MUSEUMS

One of the most important details of museum equipment is the development of an adequate library covering the park, its history and attractions, and in every museum there will consequently be space reserved for a collection of books covering these interesting details. Offers of donation of much valuable material have already been received and there is no doubt, once fireproof structures are provided, that the library shelves will be quickly filled with well

selected material.

NATURE GUIDE SERVICE

The park museums will also serve as the starting points for the nature-guide expeditions. Though our nature-guide service has as yet merely passed the initial stages, it has established itself as effective and popular. The trained guides take the interested visitors into the field, explaining the various kinds of flowers, birds, and animals encountered along the trail, and giving scientific interpretation of the geologic formations or natural curiosities. As practically all the guides are recruited from the universities of near-by States the dependable quality of the information given is assured.

This service has proven intensely popular in Yosemite Park. In the Yellowstone personally conducted trips across the geyser formations always draw an enthusiastic following. Anyone who sees the interest displayed by the questions asked and the quiet attention given to the words of the lecturer can not fail to acknowledge the real value of this unique service. In the evening these guides make regularly scheduled lecture tours to various points in each park. The lectures are attended by hundreds who keep the guides busy after their talks answering questions on the subjects treated. In Glacier, Mount Rainier, and Rocky Mountain Parks the work of the nature-guide service was well conducted and proved exceptionally popular with visitors. In the Mesa Verde it has long been necessary, because of the seemingly inevitable vandalism that resulted in the marking of the walls of rooms and the pilfering of the ancient relics of the cliff dwellers, to insist that the visitors be accompanied by a competent guide, and as a result the visitors to that park do not leave before they have learned much of the life and history of the

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ancient inhabitants. In the evenings regularly conducted talks around a blazing camp fire by the superintendent or some visiting scientist add to the distribution of information and the entertainment of guests.

At the Casa Grande National Monument the visitor is taken on a personally conducted tour of the ruin by the custodian, who explains the life and history of the old inhabitants as indicated by the Great House itself and the artifacts found in the land adjacent to the ruin.

I should like to see this nature-guide service extended to every national park and several national monuments as soon as practicable.

OUR PARK WILD LIFE AND ITS PROTECTION

All the national parks are absolute sanctuaries for wild animals except a few species of predatory ones which are annually reduced by the ranger forces on patrol. Every effort has been made during the past year to improve the condition of the animals, and in general they have done unusually well.

That the welfare of our native wild life is being seriously considered by various States is evidenced by the establishment of many State game refuges for breeding purposes and particularly the recognition that has been given to this important phase of conservation by some of the States within which the national parks lie, in the establishment of game preserves to assist in the protection of park animals such as elk and deer, when strenuous winters force these animals from the high altitudes of the parks into lower areas outside where they would become the ready victims of hunters. There is a natural overflow of game from the parks into outlying territory as this game in the park area becomes abundant. This is to be expected, and is one of the important factors wherein the national parks contribute economically to the surrounding territory. It is, however, when winter storms causing shortage of feed drive elk in great numbers outside the park boundaries, thereby giving opportunities for slaughter of almost entire herds, that such State game refuges contribute their important share in preserving the nucleus herds. The Yellowstone illustrates perhaps to the best advantage the results that may be obtained from complete game conservation. The buffalo and elk, the antelope, deer, and bear are steadily increasing and only extremely unfavorable winter conditions or uncontrollable epidemic diseases are likely to check their progress. Some fear is felt at this writing, however, that due to the serious drought that has existed this past season, thereby causing serious shortage of feed, we may encounter difficulties in maintaining our Yellowstone herds through the winter.

WILD LIFE PROTECTION IN MCKINLEY PARK STILL A PROBLEM

Mount McKinley National Park continues to present a real difficulty in game conservation since it has been impracticable, with the small funds we have for its administration and protection, to prevent much of the unlawful killing that is going on there, principally of the sheep. In my report of last year I referred to the provision in the law creating the park that permitted bona fide prospectors