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a wil ewrn
emingly set aside
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     at the creation. But as a national park
the oldest and largest in the Nation
Yellowstone measures its age, and 1972 marks
a century.
During these hundred years, more than 48
million persons have visited the vast federal
preserve in northwest Wyorning. For millions
of others, the name alone has offered a sense
of identity with America, No matter that,
among all the national parks, attendance is
higher at Great Smoky Mountains, and that
the scenery, many claim, is more spectacular
at Glacier. Yellowstone continues to stand as
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and, indeed, in the world. V
 As I drove through the west entrance of the
park on a day stifled by August heat, my
thoughts were of a time, years ago, when an 0
aunt returned from a vacation and, as aunts
are given to do, distributed souvenirs of
places she had visited. For me there was a
coin bank in the shape of a moose, with the
name "Yellowstone" burned into its wooden
base. The bank is still among my belongings,
having become, like bronzed baby shoes, one
of those possessions kept through sentiment.
Such mementos of the park are found in
homes across the country: pictures of Old r-'%.jT'k
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