ROAD WHICH SKIRTS SHORE OF PLACID SYLVAN LA KE, ONE OF MANY IN YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK. Motor Succeeds Mule in Yellowstone National Park Scenic Beauties of Uncle Sam's Celebrated Pleasure Ground May Now be Enjoyed From the T HERE is every indication of a heavy tide of motor travel westward to the national parks and mountain resorts during the summer of 1917. The vastly increased number of automobiles in service, the certainty of congestion on the main touring routes, the opening of all national parks, the widespread improvement of Western roads, the popularity of transcontinental touring and the general awakening to the scenic resources of our parks and mountainous sections-each is helping to turn the great flow of motor traffic in this direction. The first objective of tourists from the East and Middle West naturally will be the Rocky Mountain and the Yellowstone National Parks which are nearest to the population centers. The 1917 season at the Yellowstone will witness the passing of the stage coach. Six hundred or more of these picturesque vehicles have been withdrawn from service. To take their places and transport the thousands who do not drive their own motor cars, 175 White motor cars will be placed in service by the Yellowstone Park Transportation Co. The tourist may use either one of three main entrancesnorth, east or West-depending upon the direction from which he approaches the park. The motorist from the East usually enters by the northern gateway at Gardiner or the eastern entrance which is approached from Cody, Wyo. The western entrance at Yellowstone Station is accessible for motorists from the Coast or Salt Lake sections. The Yellowstone's greatest attractions are linked up by a motor route which forms the main artery of travel within the park. In entering the park from either of the main entrances the tourist comes upon and follows, naturally, the route that is known as the Circle Trip. Near the Mammoth Hotel may be seen a group of phenomena famed throughout the world. A night arrival at this hotel usually spends the following morning viewing the beautiful springs and travertine terraces all of which can be seen from the veranda of the hotel. These consist principally of Liberty Cap. Pulpit, Jupiter, Angel and Cleopatra terraces with their accompanying springs: Cupid's Cave, the White Elephant, Bath Lake, Orange Geyser and many smaller steam fissures. They rise tier after tier and form a wonderful array of springs on the side of Terrace Mountain. They are beautifully colored by a low form of vegetable life that will grow in hot water up to 180° F. and change its color with the temperature of the water. Three miles from Mammoth on the road to Norris, are Silver Gate and the Hoodoos. These massive blocks, piled up in utmost confusion, cover several acres once violently shaken by an earthquake. One mile farther the road passes through Golden Gate, where a concrete viaduct will be noted as one of the most remarkable engineering achievements in the park. Bunsen Peak is on the left, Terrace Mountain on the right and at the head of the Gate is Rustic Falls. Immediately after passing the Falls, the road leads into Swan Lake Basin and a city of peaks come into view. They are called Gallatin Range, Electric Peak, Antler Peak, the Dome, Mt. Holmes, Bannock Peak and others. Proceeding to Norris, the first geyser basin, the route passes such interesting places as the Obsidian Cliff, a mountain of volcanic glass; Beaver Lake, formed by dams built by these industrious little animals; Twin Lakes, one a deep blue and the other green in color; Roaring Mountain and the Frying Pan. Norris gives the tourist his first glimpse of the geysers, prominent among which are the Constant, Monarch, Pearl, New Crater, Inkstand, Minute Man, Congress and Vixen. The Broiler, Black Growler and the Hurricane are only small apertures in the earth's crust through which steam rushes with tremendous force high into the air with a roar that may be heard for miles around. Leaving Norris the road follows the famous Gibbons River, then crosses a slight divide and runs along the Firehole River to the Fountain Hotel. The Gibbon Falls, 80 feet high, and the Cascades of the Firehole are beautiful. The Lower Geyser Basin offers many wonders in the form of the White Dome, Surprise Pool, the great Fountain geyser and the celebrated Paint Pots. This remarkable mud caldron has a basin 40x60 feet, with a mud rim on three sides and is about five feet high. In this basin a mass of fine white substance is in a state of constant agitation. It looks like a vast boiling pot of paint or bed of mortar. There is a constant bubbling that produces a popping sound. It is but a short distance to the Midway Geyser Basin. A small bridge over Firehole River enables the visitor to see Excelsior, the crater of the largest of all geysers. Between this point and the Old Faithful Inn there are so many geyser and wonderful formations that it is almost impossible to name them. Prismatic Lake, Turquoise Spring, Biscuit Basin, Sapphire Pool, Mystic Falls, Morning Glory Spring, the Punch Bowl and the Sprouter Geyser are noteworthy, but the Sponge geyser, the Grotto, the Castle and the Giant geyser stand out more prominently than all the others. Eruptions occur at different intervals and it is impossible to make this trip without seeing several of them "playing." Old Faithful spouts every 70 minutes. The Giant geyser, while not as well known as Old Faithful, is the highest geyser in the world. It plays 250 feet for a period of 11⁄2 hours, every seven to twelve days. The cone is ten feet high. One side is partly broken off, exposing to view its channel, which is 4 feet across. The Grotto has the most extraordinary formation of any geyser in the park. The Castle is at once recognized by its large cone resembling an old feudal castle. It can be seen from the Old Faithful Hotel and is 20 feet across the top of the crater. Old Faithful Inn is one of the most attractive hotels in the park. It is built entirely of logs and the rustic idea is maintained throughout. From one of its balconies can be seen a wonderful panorama of the upper geyser basin. The Old Faithful geyser is not more than 100 feet from the "OLD FAITHFUL," PLAYING TO A HEIGHT OF 150 FEET. front of the hotel. On the top of the building is a giant searchlight which shines on the geysers when they play at night. The trip from Old Faithful to the Thumb Hotel takes the motorist through the heart of the Rocky Mountains, crossing the Continental Divide twice at elevations of 8,240 and 8,345 feet. Shoshone Point gives a grand view of Shoshone Lake and the Tetons, 55 miles distant. A few miles from the Thumb the road touches Yellowstone Lake and leads to the Thumb lunch station. At the Thumb is found the much-talked-of Fish Cone, where a man standing on the edge of the lake may catch a trout and by only turning around boil it in the cone without removing it from its hook. Here also are some highly-colored pools of boiling water, ever-bubbling paint pots, different in size, shape, and character from the Mammoth and Fountain paint pots. Leaving the Thumb, the road follows the shore of Lake Yellowstone for five miles. As it passes around Thumb Bay, an excellent view of Mt. Sheridan to the south is obtained. At the Lake Hotel one receives his first introduction to the park bears. In the rear of the hotel is located the famous bear pits. The hotel is built on the bank of Yellowstone Lake, which is twenty miles wide and with one exception the largest lake at its altitude-7,741 feet-in the world. The snow-covered mountains of the Absaroka Range rise from the water's edge to an altitude of nearly 11,000 feet. Several islands dot the surface of this icy sheet. From the veranda of the hotel the mountain range on the east side of the lake reveals the "Sleeping Giant," formed by the peaks of Saddle Mountain. Sixteen miles from the Lake Hotel on the road which hugs the banks of the Yellowstone River is the Grand TUNNEL ON THE CODY ROAD IN SHOSHONE CANYON. Canyon. Seven miles from the hotel there are platforms for tourists who wish to see Mud Volcano, Grotto Spring. Dragon's Mouth and other phenomena. The volcano is a funnel-shaped crater, 30 feet deep. It is partly filled with a lead-colored mass of mud in violent agitation. Dragon's Mouth is a small crater in the side of the mountain, expelling a 15-foot stream of boiling water every few seconds. Between this point and the head of Yellowstone Rapids one's attention is attracted by numbers of seagulls, pelicans, geese, duck, crow, pheasant, eagles, magpie, and various other species of fowls. Wild duck are frequently seen in the roadways. At the head of the rapids, across the Chittenden bridge, leads a road 21⁄2 miles to the east, to Artist Point. From almost any point along this route, 1,000 feet above the foaming river, there is an excellent view of the Upper Falls, 109 feet high, the Lower Falls, 308 feet high (twice as high as Niagara Falls) and the Grand Canyon. Words and pictures alike fail to give any conception of this magnificent and inspiring spectacle. The steep, fretted. sculptured sides of the canyon are like a painter's palette upon which is daubed and smeared in disorderly beauty every color and shade of color except blue. This color the heavens supply. Kipling wrote: "All that I can say is that, without warning or preparation, I looked into a gulf 1,700 feet deep, with eagles and fish hawks circling far below. All the sides of that gulf were one wild welter of color-crimson, emerald, cobalt. ochre, amber, vermilion, lemon and silver gray in wide washes. So far below that the sound could not reach us, the Yellowstone River ran, a finger-wide strip of jade green." After visiting Artist Point the tourist returns to the main road and resumes the circle trip. The Canyon Hotel, Pacific Coast, its appetite whetted by the initial dose, toward the roads cause was brought out in the California state election in the fall of 1916, when a bond issue of $15,000,000 for good roads was passed, without a single county turning in a contrary vote. Six years before this California made its first great offering to the cause of highway extension and improvement in the form of $18,000,000 in bonds. The question was left to a referendum at the annual election. In the election of 1910 forty-three counties voted in favor of it and fifteen declared against it. In Los Angeles County the average vote was 3.52 to one against and the entire state was won by only 1.08 to one. When the additional bond issue last fall came up to be decided, not one county turned in a dissenting vote. Los Angeles County polled an average vote of 3.20 to one and the entire state averaged up a decision of 3.96 to one against. Good roads have the peculiarity of finally becoming self-supporting in the fight for public approval. Washingtonians on National Park Highway Board At the third annual meeting of the National Parks Highway Association, David D. A. Outcalt, president of the Tacoma Automobile Club, was re-elected as a member of the board of organization. Other members of the executive committee are C. L. Morris, of Seattle and Frank M. Guilbert, Spokane. C. L. Morris occupied the chair in the absence of President W. G. Edens, of Chicago, and recommended that the National Parks Highway be kept in repair as it is a means of bringing to the State of Washington at least 5000 motor tourists every year. A resolution recommending the National Parks Highway as a military highway was adopted, and it was decided to extend the highway to Crater Lake, Ore. The matter of placing sign posts of concrete from Chicago to Crater Lake, bearing the initial N.P.H. was taken under advisement, and this in all probability will be done within the next year. Calendar of June 9-Chicago Speedway, Annual. *A. A. A. Championship Award Event. Northwest Seeks Tourist Travel That the Pacific Northwest fully realizes the benefits to be derived from tourist travel is apparent in the funds being raised by the different states for publicity. Washington and Oregon have each voted $45,000 and British Columbia, $25,000, which will be expended to attract tourists from all parts of the United States to the Pacific Northwest this summer. There is working out of San Francisco just at the present time a man named "Kinselle" (perhaps an assumed name), who is taking subscriptions to "Motor West'' without authority. He has no credentials from this office, but he is securing many subscriptions, if we may judge from the number of complaints reaching us. "Kinselle," not being equipped with the official "Motor West'' subscription blanks, had some of his own printed. Above we show one of his blanks, filled out and signed "Kinselle," and opposite it is shown the proper blank. We would be glad to have this fellow apprehended and held until we can put him where he belongs. He takes his victims' money with the intention of defrauding them, for he does not even condescend to send their names to this office. All he wants is the money. We especially urge motorists who are approached by any solicitor selling Motor West" to insist on seeing his credentials, which are furnished to our authorized solicitors every month. If he cannot show such, he is a fraud and is securing money under false pretenses. The Car of Commerce Ford as a Farm Power Planting and harrowing were repeated with the same success. Test of Tractor Devices Proves That TH -Marked Economy Shown HREE small, sturdy tractor devices, built each upon a Ford car chassis, dragged plows through the dry, compact soil in a large field on Santa Fe Ave., Los Angeles, recently in a friendly demonstration to show the unlimited possibilities that await the light plow tractor in small farm work. They represented the product of three manufacturers of tractor-making devices-the Tracford, represented in Southern California by Hughson & Merton, Inc.; the Ford-Mule, manufactured by the Ford-Mule Co., of Los Angeles; and the L. A. tractor, built by the Los Angeles Auto Tractor Co. The demonstration was promoted by the Rural World, a prominent Southern California publication, and was very well managed. The soil at the demonstration grounds was hard-packed, which rendered it difficult to keep the plows at the required depth, but the three phases of plowing, disking and harrowing were performed by each tractor with notable success. Quite a considerable crowd flocked to the scene of the demonstration, some from idle curiosity, but the majority through practical interest in the light tractor as the solution of farming problems. The success of the demonstration has been proven by the fact that one of the companies which was represented at the demonstration has since sold twenty-one tractors to interested spectators. The demonstration of the tractors' plowing powers began in the morning at 10 o'clock, when the L. A. tractor started off down the field, dragging a single walking plow. The machine moved easily over the landscape, with occasional halts to adjust the plow to the required depth. Frequent measurement was made of the furrow and it was found to average about from 6 to 7 inches in depth. After plowing a return furrow, the plow was detached and turned over to the Ford-Mule tractor, which started off down the field with the shifting crowd in its wake. Much comment was created by unusual position of the operator's seat at the rear of the car. Next in turn the Tracford was put through its plowing paces, rooting up a furrow for about half the distance and then turning aside to show the straight, cleancut furrow about 7 inches deep. A Sanders disk plow was attached to the L. A. tractor, which started off and turned over the soil to a depth of about 7 inches. The Ford-Mule and the Tracford took their turns with the disk, and the three tractors averaged each a 7-inch furrow. In the same order they took on and dragged a disk harrow and none had difficulty in showing its ability and power to meet the plowing conditions. Plowing halted at 12 o'clock and was resumed at 2. The afternoon was spent in hard, consistent work, in which the operations of plowing, disk The ease with which the tractors leisurely launched into their work and turned up the long furrows was a surprise to the average spectator. The approving comments sum |