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Show r " " """"" ' " ! i ! I ! GLiM OF BEAUTY . . . Once a fiery volcano, Crater lake in Oregon Ore-gon now ranks as one of the beauty spots In national parks of the West. The lake, which gives the park its name, is the deepest on the North American continent; its color Js a mysterious blue. Sheer sides rise 500 to 2,000 feet to the rim rom the lake surface. Llao rock, on the rim of the lake, is shown in this picture, with Mount Thielson in the background. NATURE'S HANDIWORK Pacific Coast Parks Show Results of Volcanic Action WNU Features. Volcanoes have been a dominant factor in shaping the American landscape, especially in many parts of the West. Three of the major volcanic exhibits of California, Oregon and Washington have been incorporated into the national park system. It was 40 years ago that Theodore Roosevelt, using the authority au-thority granted by congress the preceding year, established Lassen peak and nearby Cinder Cone as national monuments. TTinti itapo' Tvni 4Viaca tllfrt attmr-i) ' seen in all his wanderings throughout through-out the mountains of the West. The most extensive and colorful displays dis-plays are found in the mountain "parks" which lie between the long rivers of ice and above the dense forests which clothe the lower elevations eleva-tions of the park. The forests themselves, them-selves, virgin stands of gigantic Douglas fir, western red cedar and western hemlock, are a distinguished distin-guished feature, particularly attractive at-tractive to eastern and midwest-ern midwest-ern visitors. ALL THREE of these parks are almost as popular during the winter win-ter as in summer. All of them have very heavy snowfall and all have open slopes that offer the skier every variety of skiing experience, which extends into late spring and even early summer. Roads are kept open in each park to permit winter sports enthusiasts to reach them, although the expense of plowing out the roads after every snowstorm is. rather high. IN LASSEN Volcanic National park there are public accommodations accommoda-tions near Manzanita lake, close to the northwest entrance of the park. At Crater lake, similar accommodations accommoda-tions are situated within a short distance of the rim. At Mount Rainier Rain-ier they are found at Longmire, about 2,750 feet above sea level; at Paradise valley, 5,557 feet elevation, and at Ohanapecosh hot springs in the southeast corner of the park. Public campgrounds, for, which no fee is charged, are to be found at a number of points in each of these parks. As in most of the other national parks, National Park service provides pro-vides staffs of ranger-naturalists whose job it is to help the visitor gain a better understanding of the plant and animal life of the parks and of the geological phenomena found in them. tions of nature were incorporated into Lassen Volcanic National park, containing 103,269 acres. Greatest single .distinction of the park is the fact that it contains the only recently I active volca- National Parks no in the r ,1 United States. t-OUrtn. starting May In a Series 3. 1914 a se- ries of eruptions erup-tions continued contin-ued until February, 1921. Most spectacular in the seven-year-long series were the 1915 eruptions, which were accompanied by extensive flows of hot lava. These created the "devastated area," which still ranks as one of the park's points of principal interest to tourists. The great cone of Lassen peak rises 10,543 leet above sea level. As in the "devastated area," the Cinder Cin-der Cone, which was last active about 100 years ago, and its immediate imme-diate surroundings are almost wholly whol-ly devoid of vegetation. Underground fires have been ac-' ac-' . tive in this region for a long time and they have exerted their power in a variety of ways. This is suggested sug-gested by Bumpas Hell, a colorful hot springs area; Boiling Springs lake; Red Cinder Cone; Crater butte, and the privately owned sulphur sul-phur works, which lies within the park. AT CRATER LAKE National park, 1n southern Oregon, on the crest of the Cascade range, is presented the spectacie of a lake of deepest blue in the crater of Mount Mazama, an extinct volcano. Many geologists have concluded that the basin occupied occu-pied by the lake, which has neither inlet or outlet, resulted from collapse col-lapse of the volcanic cone of the ancient an-cient peak. The lake is supplied with water by rainfall and snowfall as well as by snow which is blown into it from the rim. Collapse of the mountain's summit did not mean the end of its volcanic activity; Wizard island, a symmetrical cinder cone, was formed later and rises 780 feet above surface of the lake. Covering an area of 20 square miles, Crater lake is 6 miles across; it has a shore line of 20 miles and the multi-colored cliffs of the crater's rim rise 500 to '2,000 feet above it. The park contains con-tains 160,200 acres. HIGHEST OF ALL volcanic peaks of the western United States is Mount Rainier, 14,408 feet in elevation, eleva-tion, which is the central and dominant domi-nant feature of Mount Rainier National Na-tional park. Although it has long been dormant, steam still issues from vents on its summit, and several sev-eral hot springs are found nearby at picturesquely named Ohanapecosh i . 1 RIVER OF ICE . . . Nisqually glacier flows down the south side of Mount Rainier, focal point in Mount Rainier National park in Washington. hot springs. From the lofty central cone radiates the greatest single-peak glacier system in the United States, with 20 active rivers of ice. On of these, the Emmons, which starts from the summit of ice and snow fields, is 5 miles in length, the longest glacier in the United States. Most of them extend far below the tim-bcrline. tim-bcrline. John Muir, who perhaps did as much as any one person to further the spread of the nationul park idea, considered the wilddower fields of Mount Rainier the finest he had ever |