Sanitation of Recreational Areas

Abstract

areas in California are as full of interest for the historian, geologist, or lover of the outdoors as the mountain range which extends across the central portion of Los Angeles County. Recently formed by the vertical uplift of a huge block of once gently sloping plain, it is still undergoing the rapid change of appearance that we associate with the period of infancy. Its steep boulder-strewn canyons terminating in broad alluvial cones, and its barren rocky slopes all bespeak a mountain range not only of striking beauty but one of sudden terrible floods and tremendous erosion possibilities. This area was too large and inaccessible to be carried along with the wave of development which swept over the valley area to the south where early mission life has long since given way to the bustle of cities. In the mountain area may be found the unchanged homes of settlers of the time before the Gold Rush, occupied by people who still practice and preserve the charm of life of an earlier day. When an area such as this is situated immediately adjacent to a huge metropolitan district made up largely of pleasure-loving outdoor people, it is only natural that it should be widely used for recreational purposes, especially when good roads make all parts of it easily reachable in a short time. The picture presented by the mountain area today, therefore, is one of contrast. The early bona fide settlers of the mountain region are still there but have been so far out numbered as to be almost obscured by the thousands of people who weekly use the mountains as a playground. Some of these people occupy the 6,000 private cabins in this area, others patronize the many commercial resorts and children's summer camps, but the largest proportion of this huge crowd of pleasure seekers, numbering several