The Book of the National Parks

Transcriber’s Note
The punctuation and spelling from the original text have been faithfully preserved. Only obvious typographical errors have been corrected.
The photograph The Rainbow Natural Bridge, Utah , facing page 8, is missing from the source document even though presented in the List of Illustrations.
THE BOOK OF THE NATIONAL PARKS

From the painting by Chris Jorgenson
ROBERT STERLING YARD
CHIEF, EDUCATIONAL DIVISION, NATIONAL PARK SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR AUTHOR OF THE NATIONAL PARKS PORTFOLIO THE TOP OF THE CONTINENT, ETC.
WITH MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS
NEW YORK CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 1919

In offering the American public a carefully studied outline of its national park system, I have two principal objects. The one is to describe and differentiate the national parks in a manner which will enable the reader to appreciate their importance, scope, meaning, beauty, manifold uses and enormous value to individual and nation. The other is to use these parks, in which Nature is writing in large plain lines the story of America's making, as examples illustrating the several kinds of scenery, and what each kind means in terms of world building; in other words, to translate the practical findings of science into unscientific phrase for the reader's increased profit and pleasure, not only in his national parks but in all other scenic places great and small.