There are trees here that stood before our forefathers came to this continent; there are brooks that will run as clear as on the day the first pioneer cupped his hand and drank from them. In this park, we shall conserve the pine, the redwood, the dogwood, the azalea, the rhododendron, the trout and the brush for the happiness of the American people.
The old frontier that put the hard fibre in the American spirit, and the long muscles on the Americana back, lives and will live in these untamed mountains to give future generations a sense of the land from which their forefathers hewed their homes.
Dangers Were Many
That hewing was hard. The dangers were many. The rifle could never be far from the axe. The pioneers stood on their own feet, got their own game and fought off their own enemies. In time of incident or misfortune, they helped each other. In time of Indian attack, they stood by each other. Today we no longer face Indians and hard and lonely struggles with future — but also — we have grown fit in many ways.
If we are to survive, we cannot be soft in a world in which there are dangers that threaten Americans — dangers far more deadly than were those the frontiersmen had to face.