An analysis of Lafayette National Park: A report

Yard, Robert

From the foreward: "Except for Lafayette National Park in Maine, the United States east of the Mississippi is still unrepresented in our National Park System. The reason is that Congress does not purchase land for National Parks, and all eastern lands are privately owned except certain Appalachian forests recently acquired under the Weeks Act for the protection of stream sources and the conservation of growing timber. All other public lands are in the far West. Lafayette National Park was the gift of the people to the United States. It required years of labor and personal sacrifice to acquire it. If our national system of scenic masterpieces is to be completed, it must represent eastern scenery and wild life by National Parks of quality as distinguished, relatively, as those of the west. The System must remain consistently magnificent, which does not mean that it must contain only gigantic elements; a collection of great masters of painting will include both Michelangelo and Whistler. The following study of Lafayette National Park shows that we have begun well in the east. The one eastern representative of the National Parks System upholds to the full, under the different conditions of landscape and flora, the best standards set by the ruggeder West. Let Lafayette, therefore, serve as the standard bearer for the other eastern National Parks which it is the people's business to procure. And let the remarkable story of the acquisition of its lands for the nation serve as the model for our endeavors."