XIII Other National Parks
1. Wind Cave National Park
The Wind Cave National Park consists of about sixteen square miles of pine-covered hills in the southwestern corner of South Dakota. It is about twelve miles north of the town of Hot Springs and about the same distance southeast of Custer. The altitude is between four thousand and five thousand feet. It was created in 1903. The scenery is typical of the picturesque Black Hills region, which the Indians especially loved.
The Park’s special attraction is a large natural cavern. This has recesses said to have been traced for ninety-six miles, but never thoroughly explored. Its name is due to the strong air-currents noticeable at the entrance, which sometimes blow one way and sometimes another. Bridges, stairways, landings, and paths through the cave’s mysterious passageways permit visitors to reach its natural splendors, which are seen by the light of burning candles or magnesium ribbon.
The cave was discovered in 1881. Its temperature varies only between forty and forty-seven degrees the year round. Some of its known passages are almost five hundred feet below the surface of the earth, and wind over, under, and around one another. The formations are mostly of limestone. Among the features of this interesting underground world are a spring and a miniature lake, beautiful calcite crystals, exposed geodes, boxwork forms, and other attractive natural formations.
The Park is the permanent home of a herd of buffaloes, presented to the Government by the American Bison Society. Herds of elk and antelope are also found in an inclosed section. Many white-tailed deer running wild in the region annually seek shelter within the Park from the attacks of hunters. Grouse and quail are increasing in numbers under National-Park protection.
2. Sully’s Hill National Park
Sully’s Hill National Park was established in 1904. Its area is only seven hundred and eighty acres. It is on the south shore of Devil’s Lake, in northeastern North Dakota, near Fort Totten.
Lack of an appropriation for the care and protection of the Park makes it necessary (1917) for the Superintendent of the Government Industrial School for Indians, which is about one mile east of Fort Totten, to act as Superintendent of the Park. It is badly in need of conveniences—as roads, trails, clearings, etc. Although money has been appropriated for the establishment and maintenance of a game preserve on the tract, not a cent has ever been set aside for development and improvement.
It is well wooded and has many rugged hills, including Sully’s Hill. Another of its natural beauties is Sweet Water Lake. The Park is popular as a picnic-ground and Devil’s Lake affords a good bathing-beach and fine opportunities for yachting. It is one of the beauty-spots of North Dakota, and its scenery is of the restful and delightful character.
3. Casa Grande Ruin Reservation
The most important prehistoric Indian ruin of its type in the Southwest is now protected and preserved, for the study and enjoyment of the people, in the Casa Grande Ruin Reservation. This contains four hundred and eighty acres, set aside in 1892. It is near Florence, Arizona, about eighteen miles northeast of Casa Grande railroad station. The ruins are of undetermined antiquity. A Jesuit missionary discovered them in 1694. As excavated so far, a great house built of puddled mud moulded into walls and dried in the sun is the main structure of the group. As it is of perishable character, the walls have been gradually disintegrating, and a corrugated iron roof has been put over the ruins to protect them from the elements so far as possible. Considerable more repair and protection work is needed.
The main building was originally five or six stories in height and covered a space fifty-nine by forty-three feet. Surrounding Casa Grande proper is a rectangular walled inclosure. A number of buildings or clusters of rooms have been excavated in this, and others as yet unexcavated are known to be there. One hundred rooms with plazas and surrounding walls now open on the ground floor of the reservation. These ruins are of great historic and scientific interest, and have strong claims for archæological study, repair, and preservation.
4. Hot Springs Reservation
Although the Yellowstone was our first scenic National Park, the honor of being the oldest national recreation place falls to the Hot Springs Reservation, in the mountains of central Arkansas. It was created in 1832. Forty-six springs of hot water possessing radioactive properties, and also some cold-water springs of curative value, are embraced within the tract of nine hundred and twelve acres, fifty miles west by south from the city of Little Rock. The waters flow from the sides of Hot Springs Mountain. Rheumatism and other bodily ills are relieved or remedied by the waters. Eleven bathhouses on the reservation, and a dozen more within the little city of Hot Springs, are under government regulation.
As early as 1804 the power of the waters was known to white men, and a settlement had already begun there at that time. Tradition says that the Indians knew of the springs long before the Spanish invasion, and that they warred among themselves for their possession. Finally a truce was made, and thereafter all the tribes availed themselves of the healing waters.
5. Platt National Park
The Platt National Park contains many sulphur and other springs possessing medicinal value. It includes one and a third square miles in southern Oklahoma, and was created in 1906.
6. Mount McKinley National Park
The Mount McKinley National Park, Alaska, was established early in 1917. It is in the approximate center of Alaska and embraces twenty-two hundred square miles. Mount McKinley is known to many Indians as “The Great One.” Its summit is 20,300 feet above sea-level. On the north this stupendous mountain is exceedingly precipitous and rises 18,000 feet in a distance of thirteen miles. It is doubtful if there is a peak in the world that rises so high above the limits of tree growth. And no mountain that I know of has slopes so completely snow-covered. Its snow-line is at the altitude of 7000 feet, and from this altitude upward only a few crags and rocky ridges show. The upper 14,000 feet of steep slopes appears a vast towering white mass of glaciers and snow. The largest glacier is the Muldrow. It is thirty-nine miles long. The summit of this peak and a part of its slopes are embraced in the Mount McKinley National Park.
This Park is a wild-life refuge. Its slopes are the greatest known big-game range on the continent. Here are mountain sheep and caribou by the thousand. Moose are common. Beaver are plentiful. And there are grizzly, brown, and black bear. Many kinds of birds use the region for their summer nesting-land. Brilliant wild flowers abound. Spruce, birch, cottonwood, and willow are the more common trees, but none of them grow large.
In 1902, D. L. Raeburn, of the Geological Survey, explored this territory and brought out much valuable information concerning it. Mr. Raeburn determined most of the boundary-line of the present Park. In 1903, James Wickersham attempted to scale the peak. It was first conquered in March, 1913. The creation of this Park was brought about chiefly through the efforts of Charles Sheldon. When completed, the Alaskan railroad will be within fifteen miles of the Park boundary-line.