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National Geographic : 1919 Apr
Contents
THE TEN THOUSAND SMOKES NOW NATIONAL MONUMENT The President of the United States Sets Aside American People the Extraordinary Valley Dis covered and Explored by the National Geographic Society THE members of the National Geo graphic Society have occasion for much gratification in the fact that President Wilson has created the Katmai National Monument, embracing an area of 1,700 square miles in Alaska, as the result of the five expeditions which the Society sent to this region for the pur pose of studying the effects of the great Katmai volcanic eruption in 1912. The findings of the National Geo graphic Society's expeditions, published in the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE for February, 1913, January, 1917, and February, 1918, comprise all that is known about this remarkable region which Prof. Robert F. Griggs, leader of the 1915, 1916, and 1917 expeditions, has described as one of the greatest won ders, if not the greatest, of the natural world. The Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes, an awe-inspiring phenomenon, where the processes of Nature in the creation of areas suitable for man's habitation may be studied as they can be in no other spot on earth, was discovered and named by Professor Griggs' party in 1916. The next year it was partially explored. Dur ing 1919 it is hoped that this monumental research work can be completed (see page 366). AMERICA'S GREATEST NATURAL-WONDER PLAYGROUND OF THE FUTURE Realizing that when means of trans portation are improved, the Katmai terri tory will become the great natural-won der playground of America, President Wilson, on the recommendation of the Secretary of the Interior, Franklin K. Lane, and of the Director of the National Park Service, Stephen T. Mather, has set it aside for all the people for all time in the following proclamation: WHEREAS, There exists upon the southern coast of Alaska a belt of un usual volcanic activity which has during the last several years exhibited at various points energy of a violence which at tracts the special attention of scientific watchers, AND WHEREAS, Mount Katmai, one of the volcanoes in this belt, has proved upon investigation to have unusual size and character, and to be of importance in the study of volcanism, inasmuch as its eruption of June, 1912, was one of excessive violence, ranking in the. first order of volcanic explosive eruptions and emitting several cubic miles of material during its first three days of activity, AND WHEREAS, The results of this eruption are still fresh, offering excellent opportunities for studying the causes of the catastrophe and its results and af fording a conspicuous object-lesson in volcanism to visitors interested in the operation of the great forces which have made and still are making America, AND WHEREAS, The volcanic neigh borhood is shown by the explorations of the National Geographic Society to con tain many other striking features of an active volcanic belt produced so recently that they are still in the formative stage; and in particular The Valley of the Ten Thousand Smokes, a valley of hot springs in a condition of development toward a possible future geyser field, in distinction from the present dying geyser field of the Yellowstone, AND WHEREAS, This wonderland .;ay become of popular scenic, as well a, sci entific, interest for generations to come, inasmuch as all its phenomena exist upon for the
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