OCR Text |
Show U. S. Tourists Take Vacations in Nat'l Parks I Rocky Mountain National Park. J Colo., Importance of the national parks in American life, especially during times of unsettled . world conditions, was shown to advantage advan-tage during the travel year just ended by the increasing numbers of visitors to these 27 federal recreation rec-reation areas, Newton B. Drury, director of the National Park Service, Ser-vice, said here during a current visit. "Recreation and relaxation close to Nature afford opportunities for citizens to break away from the stress and problems of the work-a-day world," Mr. Drury said. "The wonders of the outdoors have come much closer to the urban dwellers during the past few years by the improved accessibility of the national parks as a far reaching result of modern highways andi transportation. "But yet, once inside a nation-1 ' al park," he continued, "the visitor vis-itor is pleased to find that the many advances of civilization have not encroached upon the wildernesses wilder-nesses that here he can find vacation va-cation joy amid mountains and forests unchanged by the tide of years since the coming of white man. This is a primary reason why increasingly more people are 'discovering' the national parks as the ideal regions to rest and to enjoy genuine recreation. "Only such improvement as absolutely ab-solutely necessary have been introduced in-troduced into the national parks and these are restricted to certain areas to assure the preservation of pristine splendors for the many generations in the distant future so they may, too, thrill to the scenic wonders which people of today are beginning to so thoroughly thoro-ughly appreciate." Mr. Drury also stated that practically prac-tically every national park has shown a substantial gain over 1939 and in most areas visitors have been inclined to linger longer rather than rushing through to encourage maximum vacation mileage mi-leage in a minimum of time. The director visitor Rocky Mountain National Park while en route to Washington, D. C, following an inspection tour through the West. |