Narrator: Since federal help for the creation and further development of recreation areas became available through the Emergency Conservation
Work Program, begun in 1933, it has become obvious that there is a very definite factor in the park and recreation movement which may be called
“park consciousness.” In some sections of the country, as in Minnesota, the […] avid use of such outdoor recreational facilities as have […] provided.
And this very publicly-expressed enthusiasm inevitably results in a more rapid development of park systems. Indeed, the development of parks may be said to
be in direct ratio to their use. It is estimated that nearly a quarter million people visit eight of the principal Minnesota state parks during the three months which
constitute each summer season. Parks near the large centers of population in which winter sports are possible are active throughout the […] months of the year.
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Preferred park settings are those which induce complete relaxation and rest, settings in which nature can work her magic of mental and physical healing.
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Parks are a call to the people to rest and play in family groups, a cure that has been seriously advocated for most of our social difficulties.
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Many of our emotions are instinctive. Certainly the thrill that comes from a boat ride is one of these. It lasts from childhood to old age.
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In state parks in all parts of the country there are simple but adequate facilities for camping available, sometimes for small charges, sometimes for no charge at all.
I will leave the dust of the city street and the noise of the busy town For the windy moor and the high hill and the peat stream flowing brown.
I will keep my watch by the campfires where the white cliffs lean to the sea, And dawn shall wake me with golden hands and the rain shall walk with me.
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Fishing and golfing are the hobbies of more Americans than are any other pastimes. To the fisherman the nationwide conservation recreation movement
means more places to go, more vacation hopes fulfilled, more happiness. Protection and propagation of wildlife are important parts of the program.
Every living thing, not just game in the popular sense, is considered and development plans are drawn with this in mind. In the state parks alone, the
Conservation Corps has built or improved more than 300 lakes or parks. Many of these will be stocked with fish at regular intervals,
and those parks left with natural bodies of water will be given the same attention. Minnesota needs few dams to form her glistening pools.
Nature made them centuries ago and today men go there from all corners of the country to rest and play in this Land of Ten Thousand Lakes.
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States laying the foundations for systems of parks will do well to exert every effort to so maintain and administer their recreation areas and so
educate the people in their use that to them will come also the happiness of the new leisure which is so precious in this land of the sky-colored water.