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OUR_
FEDERAL LANDS

ROBERT STERLING YARD

From the collection of the

z m

o Prelinger
v Jjibrary

San Francisco, California
2006

OUR FEDERAL LANDS

From a photograph by K. D. Swann, courtesy of the U. S. Forest Service

IN THE BITTERROOTS OF MONTANA

OUR FEDERAL LANDS

A Romance of American Development

ROBERT STERLING YARD

EXECUTIVE SECRETARY, NATIONAL PARKS ASSOCIATION

"THE TOP OF THE CONTINENT," ETC.

NEW YORK

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
1928

Printed in the United States of America

MARY BELLE

FOREWORD

BY HUBERT WORK, SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR

IN a hundred and fifty years a virile, resistless,
acquisitive people have swept our country from the
Atlantic to the Pacific Coast. From Jamestown and
Plymouth they have pushed the frontier before them
until it has disappeared. The wild turkey vanished
before the domestic hen. Sheep replaced deer. The buf-
falo gave way to better beef breeds; grains and fruits
have been substituted for nuts and wild berries. The
Conestoga wagon, the canal, the steam railway, the
automobile, and the airplane have followed each other
in rapid procession — all within the memory of father
and son. Towns and cities have been built, many of
them among the world's largest, and more than half our
people live in them. We win wars for other nations and
lend them money with which to mend their wrecked
fortunes.

We are admittedly the richest, most powerful Na-
tion in the world and we took this power of wealth out
of the ground. Now, we must invoice our resources
and determine how we should proceed from here. For
a nation begins but once.

April, 1928.

CONTENTS

PAGE

FOREWORD, BY THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR . vii

INTRODUCTION, BY THE AUTHOR xiii

CHAPTER

I. OUR NATIONAL ESTATE 3

II. THE STORY OF OUR PUBLIC DOMAIN ... 17

III. THE STORY OF OUR NATIONAL FOREST . . 83

IV. RECLAIMING THE DESERT 153

V. WATER POWER AND OTHER CONSERVED RE-
SOURCES 184

VI. OUR INDIAN WARDS 200

VII. NATIONAL PARKS SYSTEM A UNIVERSITY OF

NATURE 229

VIII. NATIONAL MONUMENTS SYSTEM A SCIENTIFIC

MUSEUM 284

IX. DEPLETION AND RESCUE OF OUR AMAZING

HERITAGE OF WILD LIFE 301

X. A HALF CENTURY OF NATURE CONSERVATION 327

INDEX 351

ILLUSTRATIONS

In the Bitterroots of Montana Frontispiece

FACING PAGE

The early colonists faced mountain ramparts 24

Characteristic grazing land in public domain 25

Pioneering in the nation's westward movement 44

Of such stuff was made America 45

The Oklahoma prairie on August 5, 1901, and twenty-four

days later 56

Home-making on the prairies in 1894 57

Famous Cripple Creek gold fields, Colorado 68

The Great American Desert 69

Adirondack white pine seeding neighboring meadow . . 90

White pine plantings in Virginia National Forest .... 91

Grazing in Idaho National Forest 118

Counting sheep entering National Forest 118

Winter logging, Pine Island, Minnesota 119

A National Forest in North Carolina 126

National Forest in the high Rockies 127

Foresters marking timber for cutting 132

Fall of a giant yellow pine 133

At the top of the world 146

Big falls of the Snake River, Idaho 147

Famous Elephant Butte Dam, New Mexico 160

Profitable orchards where once was desert 160

Strawberries and cottonwoods grow on Nevada deserts . 161

East Park Dam, Orland Reclamation Project 1 74

xii ILLUSTRATIONS

FACING PAGE

Irrigation ditch in the city of Phoenix, Arizona 175

Mitchell Dam on the Coosa River, Alabama 188

Harnessing a mountain stream 189

Power dam on the Spokane River, Washington 196

Grandeur of the high Sierra 197

Prosperous Indian farmer at his Washington home ... 212

Primitive Indians in Havasupai Indian Reservation, Ari-
zona 213

Indian School at Yakima, Washington 222

Southern Navaho school boys 222

Blackfoot Reservation women are up to date 223

National Park scenery 234

Trick Falls in Glacier National Park 235

Nature guide class in Yosemite National Park 260

Huggins Hell, Great Smoky National Park 261

Loch Vale and Taylor Glacier, Rocky Mountain National

Park 278

Characteristic National Park motor camp 279

Mount Olympus, Washington 288

Ruins of prehistoric Pueblo Bonito, Chaco Canyon Na-
tional Monument 289

The first apartment house 294

Casa Grande National Monument, Arizona 295

Antelope, swiftest of wild animals 310

The end of a wilderness elk . . * 311

Mountain-goat in full winter coat, Montana 320

Young bull moose, Yellowstone 321

Summer motor campers in New Hampshire 336

Boy Scouts' camp in National Forest, Colorado .... 337

INTRODUCTION

THE first federal land I ever stepped foot upon, as
a small child, was probably the post-office in Newark,
New Jersey. No doubt the next was a lighthouse reser-
vation near Sandy Hook, and the third must have been
either the Brooklyn Navy Yard or the fort on Bedloe's
Island from which rises the Statue of Liberty. Later I
visited the Custom House because it was national. As
an older boy I hunted up all the forts around New
York, and on one of these Saturday explorations won-
dered why the great United States Government should
bother to own a tide-washed islet pointed out to me by
a fisherman.

As a busy man I knew there were "public lands"
somewhere, and occasionally read of "land agents,"
"land offices," and "land grabs" in newspaper des-
patches from Washington. I knew that people "took
up" land "out West," presumably for farming, but
under what conditions or precisely from whom I would
have been hard put to it to say. I had heard Yellow-
stone called " the national park," and supposed the Gov-
ernment owned the Indian Reservations, concerning
which scandals were occasionally alleged by excited per-
sons seeking names to petitions. Gettysburg Battlefield
in Pennsylvania was national, I somehow knew, and I
supposed that "national monuments" were other me-
morials to the historic dead. I had read of fires in

xiii

xiv INTRODUCTION

"national forests," of which my more definite ideas,
together with all my knowledge of the romantic beings
known as forest rangers, derived from Stewart Edward
White's early novels.

None of these and other isolated concepts of simi-
lar kind were related in my mind, nor do I recall ever
grouping national land facts nor hearing them grouped.
Reclamation when it was new, raising grain by the
square mile when this was a novelty, mining copper on
a great scale, and other showy Western achievements
reported in the press were often referred to in conver-
sation among the men I went with. But never, until I
first explored Yosemite and Glacier National Parks on
horseback in 1915 and two years later rode High Sierra
trails for many miles did the diversity, inestimable
value, and interrelation of our national land holdings
as a system dawn upon me.

What I then first discovered existed was an un-
suspected organized empire of famous history, vast size,
colossal wealth, unbelievable opportunity, vast intri-
cate problems, and physical beauty and diversity be-
yond imagination. Living intimately with it for a dec-
ade since, searching its past which is that of America,
dealing with its problems which by now have ceased
to be sectional, I am impressed with nothing so much
as the necessity for detailed knowledge of their coun-
try and its problems on the part of all its people alike
and for nation-wide vision in perspective of the whole.

Suddenly we have entered a new era in which the
destinies of the world, whether we will or not, directly

INTRODUCTION xv

or indirectly are in some part in our hands. First, and
without delay, we must know ourselves. The localism
with which the East has always justly charged the
West, is disclosed as its own greatest weakness, also.
The swift rush of events and swifter achievements of
science in practical application have annihilated tune
and space. East and West exist no longer, but the
sectionalism and misunderstandings which character-
ized their former existence remain. The facts and
problems of each are now equally the business of the
other. Reclaiming, for one example, the exhausted
farmlands of the East and the potential farmlands of
the West are equally the nation's business if it is to
perform its duty to itself and its people, and accom-
plish its destiny among nations. The initial condition
for national and international achievement in the fu-
ture immediately before us is self-knowledge.

As my contribution to this end I offer here neither
a history, a handbook, nor a treatise; the literature of
detailed information available to students is sufficiently
large and complete. This book, remarkable chiefly per-
haps for its omissions, addresses only those, West as
well as East (but they are millions), who know their
national estate little if any better to-day than I did a
dozen years ago, but upon whom the new future of the
nation depends. It outlines, not details. It sketches
the great whole in perspectives, which it fills only with
facts that clarify. It will have achieved its purpose if
it imparts the vision of the whole which emerged in
my own mind out of the studies of a decade, if it makes

xvi INTRODUCTION

usefully for broader public conception and understand-
ing, if it inspires personal participation in the intimate
problems of the nation as a whole.

In last analysis, a nation, like its people, stands
solidly on land.

So far as possible, the statistical information in
this book is that of the last fiscal year before publi-
cation. If later readers want the latest figures, a note
to one or more of the Departments of the United States
Government in Washington will secure the last annual
report, from whose tables changes may easily be iden-
tified. If readers become interested enough to keep
abreast of the deliberate growth of the Government,
one of the chief objects of this book will have been
accomplished. When its citizens think nationally, this
nation's future is secure.

OUR FEDERAL LANDS

CHAPTER I
OUR NATIONAL ESTATE

ASKED the total area of the public lands, an
official of one of the largest land administering
bureaus of the Federal Government replied :

"I don't know because I have nothing to do with
them. Ask the General Land Office, which adminis-
ters them."

"But you administer two or three hundred thou-
sand square miles of public lands yourself," was the
surprised reply.

"No," he rejoined. "Our National Forests con-
sist of public land but not of Public Lands. There's
a difference. The Public Lands or Public Domain
constitutes a land division by itself, consisting of the
unappropriated and unreserved lands which are sub-
ject to homesteading, and of open grazing ranges."

It is important to grasp this official distinction
at the outset. No other terms are so loosely used,
even perhaps in Congress, as "public lands" and
"public domain." In departments of the national
government which are not directly concerned with
land administration, they are little understood; and
press and public constantly misuse them, with, of
course, corresponding confusion of ideas.

Many different government organizations con-
trol many classifications of Uncle Sam's real estate.

4 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

Besides the General Land Office which controls the
Public Domain or Public Lands as defined above,
others administer National Forests, Reclamation
Projects, National Parks, National Military Parks,
National Monuments, Indian Reservations, Light-
house Reservations, and Federal Game Preserves.
And, besides these conspicuous land classes, other
classes less distinctive are administered by the War,
Navy, Post Office, Commerce and Treasury Depart-
ments. Then there are Water Power, Oil and Min-
eral Withdrawals; that is, lands reserved tempo-
rarily from other uses until these special uses can be
realized.

There is no generic name for federal lands as
a whole because the United States government has
not, for many decades, considered its lands as a
whole. No administration bureau controlling any
one class of lands officially knows the extent of any
other class of lands, or much about the problems,
methods and policies concerned in administration
of other land classes. Of course special problems
frequently involve two or more bureaus in some
common activity. But, until the private organiza-
tions of the country concerned in outdoor recreation
effected national organization in May, 1924, and
called on the national government for co-operation,
no common objective had for many years united all
land administrations. There is no government
agency to correlate the groups.

.With organization of out-door recreation, how-

OUR NATIONAL ESTATE 5

ever, has dawned a new national land era based upon
a new use common to all. The National Forests, for
example, which were created and are operated to
conserve our lumber resources, also furnish wilder-
ness recreation to many millions of persons. The
Reclamation Projects, whose purpose is irrigation of
arid lands for agriculture, may also become pleasure
resorts of high degree. Waste swamps everywhere
may become migratory bird refuges, unused mili-
tary and naval lands may become parks, unused Post
Office sites make excellent city play-grounds, and
abandoned light-house reservations may be the best
of excursion resorts. There is seemingly no end to
the beneficent new uses to which Uncle Sam's real
estate may be applied without diverting it in the least
from original industrial uses.

To these suggestions government officials have
eagerly responded, and there is in progress the be-
ginning of an approachment which, in the years,
unquestionably will produce increased effectiveness
in other directions than only the one which is bring-
ing about this new co-operation. For the first time
in many years there is need for an official generic
term to cover all. The name Federal Lands is com-
ing into use as that generic term. It is sound, de-
scriptive and concise.

Originally, of course, there was no classifica-
tion of government lands. All were then known as
public lands, or the Public Domain. Uncle Sam first
became a large land holder under a resolution of the

6 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

Congress of the Confederation in 1780 granting
power to receive and take care of land. Seven states
at that time presented to the nation nearly two hun-
dred and sixty million acres, or 405,000 square
miles. Thereafter, the Public Domain has been in-
creased by the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the
Florida Purchase in 1819, the Oregon occupation in
1846, the Mexico Cession in 1848, the Texas Pur-
chase in 1850, the Mexico Purchase in 1853 and the
Alaska purchase in 1867, besides lands in the Phil-
ippines, the Hawaiian Islands and Porto Rico; also
the island of Guam in the Pacific. Also in lands
bought back by the government for special uses,
like building sites, forts, camp-grounds and eastern
National Forests. Also in lands presented to the
nation, like National Parks in the East.

At the outset of its land owning, the young
nation had no other income than was derived from
selling its wealth of lands, parcel by parcel, to all
comers, in order to procure cash for public enter-
prise. Land was its most plentiful possession, al-
most its only possession, and was apparently limit-
less. The Board of Treasury made sales of public
land as early as 1785. Its duties were transferred
in 1789 to the Secretary of the Treasury, who then
became the nation's sales manager. In 1812 land
sales assumed such dimensions that a special bureau
was organized in the Treasury Department to take
over the growing business. Thus was created the
General Land Office.

OUR NATIONAL ESTATE 7

Other sources of national income developed,
and, during the thirties, land was perceived to pos-
sess higher and very different values in the national
economy than merely a source of cash income. Ag-
riculture assumed growing importance in the out-
look of the future. Population was needed, and set-
tlement became recognized as sufficient compensation
for award of land. The General Land Office was
reorganized to meet these ideas in 1836, and in 1849
was transferred to the Interior Department, where
later it became the government's principal agency in
the swift development of the West. Its operations
broadened and became exceedingly complicated, in-
cluding extensive surveys, sales, grants, and the ex-
ercise of judicial powers in the settlement of private
claims. In 1862 the homestead system was adopted,
and thereafter lands have been awarded on condi-
tion of citizenship and occupation.

It will be seen that during these early decades
the Public Domain increased enormously faster than
it could possibly be lessened by sales and homestead-
ing. Even the tremendously rapid development of
the West, once it began, and the increase of home-
steading entries from 160 acre units in the fertile
prairies to square mile units in the semi-arid lands
west of the Rockies failed to keep pace with increase.

But with national growth came new needs
which, while not decreasing the nation's gross hold-
ings, built up new land classifications at expense of
the Public Domain, which thereafter has decreased

8 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

steadily until to-day, while still the largest of the
various classifications of Federal Lands, it is only
slightly larger than the next in size, which is the
National Forest.

One of the earliest methods of dispersing land
was making liberal donations to new states as they
were admitted to the Union. Just as the original
states which had owned practically all the land
started the nation as a land holder by gifts, so now
the nation equipped its new states with lands. These
grants were made for support of schools, for inter-
nal improvements, for reclamation, and for railroad
construction. The nation also encouraged railroad
building by making private companies liberal grants
of land, some of them unnecessarily liberal, so that
suits are now pending for recovery of large holdings
through which several railroad companies are mak-
ing very large earnings in other lines of business
than railroading.

The complicated mining policy of the United
States has resulted in withdrawal from the Public
Domain, for private claims and actual operation, of
areas extremely large in the aggregate, and, in later
years, under the theory of conservation of natural
resources, of immense areas bearing coal, potash,
oil, sodium and other mineral deposits to be subject
to the disposition of the future.

In due time, also, the nation undertook large
reclamation projects which lessened the Public Do-
main. It also withdrew large areas for Indian res-

OUR NATIONAL ESTATE 9

ervations. In 1872 it began to withdraw areas for
National Parks and in 1906 for National Monu-
ments. In 1911 it established the National Forests,
now embracing an area of 286,000 square miles.
And meantime, dating back to the beginning, there
have been constant withdrawals of army lands, navy
lands, lands for migratory bird and wild animal
conservation, lands for post offices, light-houses,
national hospitals, federal courts, and many other
public uses, none very great in area but aggregating
probably several thousand square miles.

Considered as a whole, it is impossible accu-
rately to measure our Federal Lands to-day ; the na-
tional government itself does not know the total.
Some of the administrative bureaus have not had
occasion to total their own possessions, and the Pub-
lic Domain is never exactly the same size for two
consecutive weeks. From the information we can
gather from the several administrative agencies in
the national government, it is safe to say that Fed-
eral Lands of all kinds, Public Domain, National
Forests, National Parks, Wild Life Sanctuaries,
reservations of every kind, exceed seven hundred
thousand square miles in area, not including the
vast wilderness of Alaska and island possessions.

But how much is seven hundred thousand
square miles ? Such a figure means as little to most
of us as the distance from the earth to the moon.
Let us assume these lands collected and fitted to-
gether into the northeastern corner of the United

io OUR FEDERAL LANDS

States. Beginning with Maine, inclusive, they would
stretch westward to the Mississippi River, and
southward from the Canadian boundary to the
southern boundaries of Tennessee and South Caro-
lina with some to spare. For still clearer concep-
tion let us name the states within this imaginary il-
lustrational area: Maine, New Hampshire, Ver-
mont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut,
New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware,
Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, South
Carolina, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Il-
linois, Kentucky and Tennessee.

An empire!

Most federal land, of course, is in the far west.
The group called the Public Lands States are eleven
in number and all of them large. Two thirds of
Utah is in national possession. But every state in
the United States, and every territory and other pos-
session, contains Federal Lands under several dif-
ferent administrative organizations.

So far as I can discover, there is no organiza-
tion in the United States government whose busi-
ness it is to collect the facts concerning Uncle Sam's
real estate holdings, or to value them. At current
land prices, their value would be enormous. But
combined market values, if it would be possible to
appraise these lands, would be absurdly below their
real value to the American people. It might not be
impossible to guess shrewdly the billions in oil and
metal concealed in the withdrawal areas, or compile

OUR NATIONAL ESTATE n

potential crop values in undeveloped irrigation op-
portunities, or estimate future lumber values in Na-
tional Forests. But who can estimate the worth of
the National Forest as an organized, scientific and
finely administered machine for conservation of the
nation's all time future lumber resources? Or that
of National Parks in health, sanity, education, prop-
agation of pride of country and inspiration? Or
that of the extraordinary outdoor museum system
which we call our National Monuments ?

Thinking of values, it is only possible to say at
this time that the new concentration upon the unin-
dustrial uses of our Federal Lands discloses already
a horizon vastly greater than even the most opti-
mistic of the men and women who have been looking
ahead during a few years past have dared to predict.
With recreational organization of people and govern-
ment effected, however lamely yet, we are entering
a new Land of Promise with feelings akin, perhaps,
to those of our fathers of the forties and fifties when
they looked westward at their possessed but little
known wilderness empire.

This full fledged era of new uses arrived on
wheels at high speed. The automobile had been with
us for many years, but long distance touring began
on a national scale only about 1915. Not only has it
invested our Federal Lands with new uses and new
values impossible of estimation, but it has changed
their very face. Some one has yet to estimate what
the motor has cost the national, state, county, and

12 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

city governments of the United States in new roads
alone. The sum will be colossal; it might even have
reorganized and refinanced Europe.

A network of ever closer mesh has been drawn
across the continent from ocean to ocean, including
our Federal Lands. Even the desert southwest is
crisscrossed with highly surfaced roads and alive
with the new invasion.

National Forests and National Parks, because
of the charm of their woods, waters and scenery,
naturally bear the brunt of road assault, but all Fed-
eral Lands contribute heavily and increasingly to
this new draft upon unexpected resources. Camp-
ing out, once the sport of boys, is now the pleasure
of adult hundreds of thousands of westerners and
eastern people who tour west. The western type
of mountain hotel-camp, consisting of a "grub-
house" surrounded by tents or rough cabins for
sleeping, has become nationalized and is developing
luxuriance.

The enormous majority of pleasuring motor-
ists, however, are in no real sense out-door livers,
but rapid sightseers, flitting like butterflies from
flower to flower. This is true even in National
Parks, which are popularly but erroneously supposed
to draw millions of worshipping students. Several
hundred thousand, possibly, cover all of these; the
millions drive carelessly through on tour, with stops
of an hour or two or a day or two to see the sights,
just as between parks they drive through National

OUR NATIONAL ESTATE 13

Forests and cities and private resorts to glance about
in passing. It is important to recognize this.

Attempting to present the supposedly dull sub-
ject of land in its actually dramatic and often thrill-
ing aspects, this book sees long distance touring the
principal factor of recent great enlivenment and
mighty change. It would need a book of its own
adequately to present the visible changes the auto-
mobile has made on the face of our country, to say
nothing of its effects upon the human view-point and
character. In these pages we can give this fascinat-
ing influence little space, but its effects, far more
than those of any other dictating factor, will con-
stantly appear. The motor cannot be overlooked nor
forgotten for a moment in any modern consideration
of lands of any kind. It is at once the most benefi-
cent and the most destructive of tyrants, one of our
greatest hopes and greatest perils. And what will
the history of two decades hence say of the airplane,
which already threatens our National Parks.

History will celebrate the last decade also be-
cause it has brought together into national co-op-
eration all the many popular movements of the past
toward conservational achievement. Beginning un-
der George Bird Grinnell more than fifty years ago,
a single national movement for conserving wild
life in Yellowstone National Park has begot thou-
sands of organizations, great and small, for con-
serving, developing and wisely using our wild lands
and their non-industrial products, Literally millions

14 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

of citizens are interested in one or more depart-
ments of nature conservation to-day. Organization
of the organizations themselves was inevitable. Be-
ginning informally in defense of National Parks
threatened by water power in 1915, it acquired form
and initiative in 1924.

The National Conference on Outdoor Recrea-
tion, created on invitation of President Coolidge,
was badly named. No other word than Recreation
was found broad enough to cover the great range of
objectives, principally land conservational, then
brought together. Many of these, like wild life pro-
tection, stream purification, and maintenance of Na-
tional Park standards, had little to do with "diversion
after labor" which is the popular and dictionary
meaning of the word recreation, but it couldn't be
helped. The inclusive word does not yet exist. By
twinning together a council of public-minded private
organizations and a special committee of the Presi-
dent's cabinet, a body was created which has
achieved much and points to better organization and
greater achievement in the future.

It was the Federal Lands which brought to the
surface the policy of conservation of natural re-
sources for economic use ; the long and bitter war of
Cleveland's and Roosevelt's times centering upon
national possession of the federal forests made that
a formal national policy. It was the Federal Lands
which nationalized the principle of conservation for
preservation; struggles for many years over wild

OUR NATIONAL ESTATE 15

life laws and refuges, and especially the recent bitter
war for National Park standards, made that a na-
tional policy. Because they are the property of all
the people, these lands are by common consent the
particular battle-ground of conflicting policies.
Here are now evolving the fate of our remnant of
wild bird and wild animal life. Here will work out
the answer to the question whether we shall carry
down to posterity a few distinguished examples of
our noble original wilderness as God made it.

Federal Lands have developed a very large spe-
cial literature, largely economic. Problems in for-
estry, reclamation, mining and many other depart-
ments of the subject are set forth in numberless vol-
umes, essays and reports. Books on exploration,
travel and sports are also many. But little can be
found bearing popularly on the subject as a whole
which is the purpose of this book, and on the inter-
relation of its many subdivisions. No such consid-
eration is possible to-day without giving motoring
and nature conservation their due place with eco-
nomics in the picture of the whole.

For many reasons, then, the national gaze to-
day centres upon the remnant of what once included
practically all our country from ocean to ocean — a
small remainder compared even with the wilderness
of the sixties, but vastly greater in recognizable
values. It is to study it a little, to estimate profits
whose kinds had not been conceived then, to get it
into perspective with the developments around it,

1 6 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

with the genius of our times and with the national
life of to-day, and to consider, glancing back at his-
tory, the movements and influences which will bend
it to its new uses, that this book is written. It is to
help the thinking of multitudes who are deeply con-
cerned in these new problems.

A joint committee, of which the author was
secretary, of the American Forestry and National
Parks Associations surveyed in 1925-27 the recrea-
tional opportunities of federal lands for report to
the National Conference on Outdoor Recreation.
The long studies for the report, the first in a fasci-
nating new field, have helped in preparation of this
book, which, however, unlike that, also visions Fed-
eral Lands from the historic and economic points of
view. The report was published in 1928.

CHAPTER II
THE STORY OF OUR PUBLIC DOMAIN

BUILDING THE NATION

N any consideration of Federal Lands, the Public
Domain is basic. Not only was it, originally,
the nation's sole land possession, sum of all potential
land possessions, but later it became parent of many
great land divisions. Sales of its lands provided the
national income for many years. Gifts of its lands
brought settlers, whom it fed, clothed, housed and
supplied with farms, water, fuel, lumber, power, and
material for industry. It furnished roads for travel,
railroads for transportation, material for manufac-
ture and commerce. It set apart ample reserves for
the future of all that mineral, soil and water provide.
Out of the Public Domain the nation was built
and shaped. Its function of creation began in 1/80,
and for more than a century it was the great original
source of prosperity, the spring and reservoir of na-
tional progress. To-day, its lands shrunken to culls,
its greater work of the future carried forward by
younger specialist land organizations carved out of
its vitals, its national importance departed like the
glory of a day at dusk, nevertheless, it remains the
largest of the subdivisions of our Federal Lands, and
busier in many directions in its impoverished decline

OUR FEDERAL LANDS

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jS O^iO^O ^vO t^ tN.O \ooOO lO^-ioOvO

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OOvOOO*O ^f^O OO OO O ^OO O ^ ^ ^ ^OO O

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t^MOOOMMr)- OO«O VOO COVOCO^O <-< COM VOOO VOO t» t^OO CO

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^ oo QQ ^o t^ IH" ^ tC d\ w* T?O* tCoo" lo^o^OHrc^cT^tCd^Hr 1000" r^ 10 di

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I-^'O C000_ O^ VO CO t>; O_ H^ CO »-^ t^. l>-'0^ OJ »0 M^ f^ t>.

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M OO

^ cooo

THE STORY OF OUR PUBLIC DOMAIN 19

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co t>» 1OO O O t COO t^ OO O tO O <N CM OO CM O

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t>* M tOO O COO O CM HI ^ X** CO TfOO Tf CO W HI OO CO

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lililiil

Ilflaelll

1 Including adjacent islands.

20 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

than ever it was in its years of swollen wealth. Its
present potential value has been estimated in billions
not including those lands in which the United States
has recently reserved minerals; but any estimate is
the merest guess work. Even after all its remaining
lands, now largely desert, shall have been given
away, if ever they are given away, the existence of
the General Land Office is guaranteed by the mineral
leasing act which has retained national ownership
of non-metaliferous minerals found in lands there-
after to be homesteaded.

The total area of the United States, exclusive
of Alaska and island possessions, is 1,937,144,960
acres, or 3,026,789 square miles. Once the Public
Domain consisted of 1,400,00,000 acres or 2,187,400
square miles. To-day, much the most of it having
passed into private possession and more than half
the remainder having been withdrawn for conserva-
tion, it contains about 194,000,000 acres or 303,-
125 square miles, an area practically equal to the
New England and Middle States with Virginia,
West Virginia and North Carolina. How these
lands were acquired and how they passed, and still
are passing, is the story of the Public Domain.

The lands in the original thirteen states, Con-
necticut, Delaware, Georgia, Maryland, Massachu-
setts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York,
North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South
Carolina and Virginia, also in Texas, never formed
a part of the Public Domain, though areas for spe-

THE STORY OF OUR PUBLIC DOMAIN 21

cial purposes have been acquired by purchase since.
There are no original Public Lands in Kentucky and
Tennessee, and none can longer be identified in Il-
linois, Indiana, Iowa, Missouri and Ohio. Small
areas remain in Alabama, Kansas, Louisiana, Mich-
igan, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Wisconsin in
widely scattered tracts, much of it unlocated.

The great bulk of it of course is thoroughly
well known. The General Land Office quoted the
unappropriated and unreserved Public Lands cover-
ing seventeen states as totalling, in 1927, 193,737-
588 acres or 302,715 square miles, of which 53,850,-
590 acres are still unsurveyed. They are distributed
according to the accompanying table.

AREAS OF PUBLIC LAND IN ACRES

SURVEYED

UNSURVEYED

TOTAL

Arizona

0,326,000

7,63^,100

16,961,100

Arkansas

227 ^20

227 C2Q

California

14. 84.7,607

5,763,270

2O.6lO 877

Colorado

6,4.88, <QQ

724,701

7,2I3,3OO

Florida

<!%73o

8,132

13,862

Idaho

8,81^,037

2,O3I, Q4<

10,847,882

Minnesota

24.8,740

248,740

Montana

6,7^0,447

212}o8o

6,042. ^27

Nebraska

30,001

^O.OOI

Nevada

3O.8(?'?.l?Q8

22.2'?6,87<

C-2-H2 473

New Mexico

IC,«;7£ ,OQO

I,e2Q,844

17,06^,843

North Dakota

133,814

I33,8l4

Oregon .

13,06^,803

IIO,23I

13,176.034

South Dakota

383,800

Utah

13.633,032

12,626,140

26,259,172

Washington

O22 I2O

O 424

O3I "?44

Wyoming

l8,636,242

042,848

10. ^70 OOO

Grand total

130,886,008

<3,8(;o,'\QO

103, 737, ^SS

Public Lands constitute twenty-six per cent of
the total areas of the seventeen states therein named,

22 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

and a trifle more than ten per cent of the total lands
in all the United States together, not including
Alaska and our island possessions.

The following eleven far western states, because
of their large proportion not only of Public Domain
but other classes of Federal Lands besides, are fre-
quently called "the Public Land States": Arizona,
California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada,
New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyo-
ming. Considerably more than half of Nevada is
Public Domain. Several states are still more than
half in mixed federal ownership of various kinds,
and their slender populations bitterly resent their
inability to tax all lands within their borders, es-
pecially as the National Forests may comprise about
their best lands.

"The United States/' we sometimes read in the
local press and even hear said in Congress, "grabs
all our productive land, dealing us semi-starvation.
It is not fair."

This view ignores the fact that every acre of
all of these states was once national property, private
owners possessing their semi-arid farms of to-day
only by gift of the nation, which has "grabbed"
nothing from its citizens, ever. The inhabitants of
these states, or their parents from whom they in-
herit, moved into them originally of their own free
will, knowing their condition, with all the United
States to choose from, applying for and accepting
the government's gifts. The lands in these states

THE STORY OF OUR PUBLIC DOMAIN 23

which, originally national, the government has with-
drawn from settlement and reserved for special pur-
poses remain the property of all the people. Na-
tional Forests, National Parks, Wild Life Refuges,
Reclamation Projects, Mineral, Oil, Potash and a
dozen other highly specialized reserves are necessa-
rily national properties. Indian Reservations are the
properties of Indians. The great majority of these
reserved lands occur in the remote western states,
whereas the eastern portion of the Public Land
states are practically all privately owned and subject
to taxation. It is this inequality which excites most
of the criticism in the far west. To equalize this,
certain definite parts of the revenue derived from
Forest Reserves are given to these states as a sub-
stitute for the power of taxation.

Many of us are surprised on first learning that
the policy of this government since 1862 has been to
give away as fast as possible its vast possessions of
land. A large proportion of the actual and potential
wealth of America was presented, in the first in-
stance, free to its citizens.

"Imagine," some one once said to me, "acquir-
ing the heart of Pittsburgh at the cost of living
awhile on the property."

Could our forefathers have previsioned even a
hint of the future, how differently some of the na-
tion's wealth might be distributed to-day!

In early colonial times land was too plentiful
to have quotable value. Colonists squatted where

24 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

they pleased, often on land reserved for Indians,
provoking wars. New settlers on land claimed by
old settlers invited bitter and often lasting quarrels.
Later, as settlement made some localities more de-
sirable than others, land was sold, originating
prices. Out of these conditions arose the need of
government land control ; and the need of income led
governments to sell their own extensive lands. Thus
began land offices, first in the colonies and the states
which succeeded colonies; later also under the new
national government.

Following a resolution of acceptance by the new
Congress of the Confederation on October 10, 1780,
the states of New York, Virginia, Massachusetts,
Connecticut, South Carolina, North Carolina and
Georgia made the United States a landowner by
presentation of 259,171,787 acres. Little of this
land had quotable value at the time. Little of it had
even been explored. Almost none of it was surveyed.
Yet sales had to be made to meet government ex-
penses. With three classes of ownership, private,
state and now national, most boundaries in dispute,
and the young nation pledged since 1776 to reward
soldiers with grants of land, the duties of the first
national land administrator, the Secretary of the
Treasury, in 1789, and of his several successors, be-
came complex and strenuous. It is interesting to
note in passing, as a flash-back from our late war to
that of the Revolution, that fifty acres had been of-
fered to every soldier in the British army, including

From a photograph by Thompson Brother

THE EARLY COLONISTS FACED MOUNTAIN RAMPARTS
This example of the Great Smoky country is typical of all the Appalachians

THE STORY OF OUR PUBLIC DOMAIN 25

hired Hessians, as a reward for deserting and set-
tling in the new country; and that liberal grants
were offered to all American soldiers who should
serve throughout the war. There were many bene-
ficiaries of both classes.

The war was followed by vigorous emigration
into the Northwest Territory, of which Ohio was
the central and most popular part, and vigorous ex-
pansions of settlement in all the states. Sales for
government support were specially satisfactory in
Ohio, great areas of whose finest land, much of it
yielding later fortunes in white pine and black wal-
nut, to say nothing of prosperous farms and settle-
ments, brought thirty cents an acre; but it was a
high price for the times. In 1787, Jefferson wrote:
"I am very much pleased that our western lands sell
so successfully. I turn to this precious resource as
that which will in every event liberate us from our
domestic debt, and perhaps too from our foreign

one."

Real estate speculating began early. One sale
of 240,540 acres is recorded to John Cleve Symmes
of New Jersey, another of 822,900 acres to the Ohio
Company.

On April 25, 1812, Congress created the office
of the Commissioner of the General Land Office in
the Treasury Department, relieving the Secretary
of duties which had become burdensome in the ex-
treme. In 1836, the Commissioner's office was made
a bureau of the Treasury Department, and this in

26 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

1849 was transferred to the Interior Department, in-
augurating the system of to-day.

Meantime, in 1803, the Louisiana Purchase had
added most of the western drainage basin of the
Mississippi to the prospective wealth of the nation,
pushed "the west" many miles farther back, and in-
creased the sales of the new Commissioner to "land-
office business" proportions, originating that still-
current phrase. The Louisiana Purchase, acquired
from France, cost $27,267,621.98. Florida, which
was bought from Spain on February 22, 1819, cost
$6,489,768.

In 1841, the young nation changed its policy
from selling land to all purchasers for cash income
to using it to acquire a farming population whose
industry would benefit the nation permanently. The
Pre-emption Act then passed gave the right to pur-
chase 1 60 acres to actual settlers only. This logi-
cally led to the Homestead Act of May 20, 1862,
which President Lincoln so highly approved; it
awarded 160 acres free to any able bodied citizen of
good character who should agree to live on the prop-
erty and develop it. Upon this policy grew the rapid
settlement and much of the prosperity which has at-
tended our national growth since. When the rich
prairies of the Mississippi Valley were exhausted,
homestead entries in semi-desert lands farther west
were enlarged to 320 acres. With nearly all agri-
cultural lands gone and remaining arid lands fit for
little except to raise hardy stock, one to half a dozen

THE STORY OF OUR PUBLIC DOMAIN 27

animals to the acre, the limit was again lifted, now
to 640 acres.

Meantime the Public Domain was meeting in-
creasing demand by rapid additions.

Title to Oregon was established in 1846 on the
basis of exploration and occupation. In this tract
were also included the lands which now constitute
Washington and Idaho.

From Mexico came, by treaty of Guadaloupe
Hidalgo at the close of the Mexican War in 1848,
what later became the states of California, Nevada,
Utah, a part of Colorado, and parts of Arizona and
New Mexico. Payment to Mexico was $15,000,000.

From Mexico came, by purchase of 1853 for
$10,000,000, lands to rectify the southern boundary
of the United States, now divided between New
Mexico and Arizona.

From Russia, by purchase of $7,200,000 in
1867, came all Alaska, adding 378,165,760 acres or
590,876 square miles more.

The United States was then complete and fill-
ing rapidly with people who earned their land by set-
tling upon it and improving it. The sixty years since
have seen marvellous development in growth, enter-
prise, achievement in every conceivable activity, per-
sonal, corporate and national, in wealth, in position
and in power. Roughly speaking, the eighteen hun-
dreds were devoted to territorial expansion and ag-
ricultural development and consolidation, and the
nineteen hundreds to achievement of many kinds

28 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

built solidly upon the substantial foundation thus
created. It was the later eighteen hundreds that
gave the farmer that immense political prestige and
power that lasts over into the far different grouping
of national conditions which prevails to-day. It is
the far west, where farming still remains a control-
ling occupation, which concerns our story.

Meantime, during the increase in national area,
the over-lapping ultimate purpose of land distribu-
tion was progressing with ever increasing rapidity.
Three new acts became paramount in speeding the
swift dissipation of our enormous wealth of land.

One of these was the Desert Land Act of
March 3,1877, which allowed one person without
residence to take up 640 acres provided that it should
be reclaimed by the introduction of water within
three years. In 1891, this was reduced to 320 acres.
Nevertheless it vastly stimulated reclaiming western
deserts, bringing into them permanent populations.
Under this act, 8,648,373 acres have, to the time of
writing, passed into private hands.

The second was the Timber and Stone Act of
June 3, 1878, which permitted any citizen to acquire
1 60 acres of non-agricultural and non-mineral land
if chiefly valuable for timber or stone. Under this,
13,800,030 acres of land have passed into the hands
of 107,358 applicants.

The third was the Carey Act of August 18,
1894, granting certain states the privilege of taking
up to a million acres each of desert land upon con-

THE STORY OF OUR PUBLIC DOMAIN 29

dition that the states should guarantee reclamation.
Under this, 1,168,276 acres have been patented up
to this writing.

Through all of these and other operations,
homesteading steadily progressed. This, which is
the real story of the great distribution and its accom-
panying nation-building, is far more eloquently told
by the accompanying table than would be possible in
any other way.

HOMESTEAD ENTRIES FROM PASSAGE OF HOMESTEAD ACT
TO JUNE 30, 1927

FISCAL YEAR
ENDED
JUNE 30—

NUM-
BER

ACRES

FISCAL YEAR
ENDED
JUNE 30 —

NUMBER

ACRES

1868
1869

2,772

3,965

355,086.04
504,301 .97

1899
1900

22,8l2
25,286

3,134,140.44
3,477,842 71

1870

4.O4I

519,727 . 84

IQOI

37,568

1871
1872

5,087
5,917

629,162.25
707,409.83

I9O2
I9O3

31,627
26,373

4,342,747.70
3,576,964 14

1873

IO,3II

1,224,890.93

I9O4

23,932

3,2^2 7l6 7?

1874
187=;

14,129
18,293

1,585,781.56
2,068,537.74

1905
igO6

24,621
25,546

3,419,387.15

3 C26 74.8 <;8

1876

22,530

2,590,552.81

I9O7

26,485

3,740,567 71

l8?7

10 QOO

2 407 828 19

IOO8

20 6^6

1878

22,460

2,662,980.82

I9O9

25,510

3,699 466 79

1879 ....

17,391

2,070,842.39

I9IO

33,253

3,7QC 862 80

1880

1881

15,441

I5>O77

1,938,234.89
1,928,204 76

I9II
1912

25,908
24,326

4,620,197.12

A 306 O68 52

1882
1883

17,174
1 8 008

2,219,453.80
2 <O4. 4.14. *\I

1913

IQI4.

53,252
4.8 724.

10,009,285.16

1884. ...

21,843

2,945,574.72

1915

37,343

7,l8o,98l 62

1885
1886
1887

22,066
19,356
19,866

3,032,679.11
2,663,531.83
2,74.0 O^7 48

igi6
1917
1918

37,958
43,727

41,319

7,278,280.60
8,497,389.68

8 2^6 4.^8 18

1888

22,413

3,175,400.64

1919

32,623

6,524,759.68

1889

2f 1:40

3 68 1 708 80

I02O

2Q 774.

8 ^72 6o< 7O

1890

28,080

4,060,592 77

1921

33,889

7,726,740 44

1891 . .

27,686

3,954,587 77

1922

30,919

7,307,034 42

1892

22,822

•j 2^0 8o7 O7

1923

22,42O

e .CQA 2?8 60

1893

24,204

3,477,231 .63

1924

18,046

4,791,436.44

1894

20,544

2,929,947.41

1925

14,675

4,048,910.56

l8(K

20 922

2 980 809 30

1026

12 244

34."?! IOS ^1

1896

20,099

2,790,242.55

1927

9,315

2,583,627.48

1097

1898

22,281

2, 778,4O4 • 2O

3,095,017 75

Total

1,400,443

228,742,680 92

"Agricultural entry," says United States Geo-
logical Survey Bulletin 537, "may not be made on

30 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

lands containing valuable minerals, nor coal entry
on lands containing gold, silver or copper ; lands in-
cluded in desert entries or selected under the Carey
Act must be desert lands ; enlarged homestead lands
must not be susceptible of successful irrigation;
placer claims must not be taken for their timber
value or their control of water courses; and lands
included in building stone, petroleum or salt places
must be more valuable for these minerals than for
any other purpose. So through the whole scheme of
American land laws runs the necessity for deter-
mining the use for which each tract is best fitted."

As a natural outgrowth of our theory of devel-
opment of natural resources, Congress bestowed
large areas of land upon each new state as created.
Just as the thirteen original states had started the
national government in business by gifts of land, so
did the national government by similar action speed
each later state upon its way. The lands given were
of far differing kinds. The greater part were for
common school purposes and were designated school
lands; but they were granted without selection, so
many acres to the section. The state could use them
for what it chose, or exchange for lands more con-
veniently located as actual need developed. Lands
were also given for internal improvement, for stock
driveways, for water holes in desert tracts, for pub-
lic roads, very importantly for railroad development,
and for many other uses.

Besides these original gifts, Congress has al-

THE STORY OF OUR PUBLIC DOMAIN 31

ways been extremely generous in respect to all proj-
ects making effectively for growth of population or
state prosperity. In recent years, its gifts have in-
creased in number and value. In 1927, for example,
grants were made to states for the following pur-
poses : schools, including normal, scientific and min-
ing, universities, penitentiaries, public buildings, in-
sane asylums, educational, charitable, penal and re-
formatory institutions, deaf, dumb and blind asy-
lums, military institutions, public parks and inter-
nal improvements; also extensive swamp lands for
reclamation.

The railroad grant period between 1850 and
1872 saw vast areas of Public Lands given away for
the purpose of hastening facilities for transporta-
tion. According to the report of the Secretary of
the Interior for 1927, railroads had received up to
then the great total of 130,944,916 acres or 204,679
square miles of free land. Of this, nearly ninety-
four million acres were granted directly to ten rail-
road corporations including the Union Pacific,
Northern Pacific, Southern Pacific and Santa Fe,
thirty-nine millions going to the Northern Pacific
alone. Other railroad grants were made to states
upon their application.

Grants for railroads usually consisted of the
odd-numbered sections of townships within ten miles
on each side of the tracks. Later this was broad-
ened to twenty miles, and then thirty miles on either
side the road beds. Among lands passed over in

32 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

this informal fashion usually without survey and
often without exploration, railroads frequently ac-
quired properties which developed enormous values
later on. Great areas of timber, and in the earlier
days valuable mining properties passed in this man-
ner into railroad ownership. Some of these have
been re-acquired by the nation since; in other in-
stances suits for restoration to national ownership
are still pending. A typical instance is related by
FranklynW. Reed:

"About 1860," he writes, "a grant of 2,386,000
acres was made to the Oregon and California Rail-
road Company for the construction of a line from
the Columbia River southward through the Wil-
lamette and Rogue River Valleys to the California
line. In accordance with standard practice, the
grant was composed of alternate sections for an
even width on each side the right of way.

"The law required the railroad company to re-
sell the lands in small units of 160 acres to bona fide
settlers at not more than $2.50 an acre. In the be-
ginning some few thousand acres were sold at this
price; but the Company soon discovered that their
lands, being heavily timbered, were worth far more
than $2.50 an acre; and that a large proportion of
them were nonagricultural in character even after
the removal of the timber. They then took the re-
maining lands off the market to hold for a rise in
value. After the Oregon and California Railroad
had become a part of the Southern Pacific System,

THE STORY OF OUR PUBLIC DOMAIN 33

that Company, about 1913, decided to hold the lands
permanently as a railroad forest reserve and per-
manent source of supply for ties, construction tim-
bers, etc.

"The Government brought suit against the rail-
road for failure to comply with the law and recov-
ered possession of all the remainder of the grant,
which was over 2,000,000 acres, with the proviso
that it should sell it and reimburse the railroad at the
rate of $2.50 an acre. The general Land Office then
proceeded to classify the lands as chiefly valuable
for homesteading, for timber, and for water power.
The soil and the timber were appraised separately.
If the soil value of a quarter section exceeded the
timber value, it was classified as homestead land and
offered for sale to the settler direct. If the timber
value was the higher, the stumpage was offered for
sale to lumbermen with the idea of selling the cut-
over land to settlers later.

"At the same time hydroelectric power sites
were classified and held for disposal for that pur-
pose. The classification of the whole area which
had reverted to the Government is summarized as
follows :

Homestead lands 1,000,400 acres

Timber lands 1,237,000 "

Water-power lands 112,000 "

2,349,400 acres

"So far something like 450,000 acres have been
disposed of as homestead lands. It will be noted

34 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

that in the land classification there has been no rec-
ognition of recreational values."

Which reminds me that Congress allows the
General Land Office only $25,000 a year for pro-
tection of all its forests from fire! This is in line
with too common a Congressional policy which
cheerfully spends any amount necessary to recover
the horse stolen for lack of a lock for the stable door.
A fatal policy this when applied to forests which,
once burnt, are beyond recovery for many years and
often forever. A fire lane which might cost a thou-
sand dollars to build and an annual trifle to keep up
might easily save $15,000 fire fighting costs and
$50,000 worth of timber.

In time many of the thousand inconsistencies
which have developed in the speed and complexity of
our development will straighten out. Perhaps then
the many forests in the Public Domain which are
more suitable for forest conservation than for agri-
culture will pass into control and care of our expert
Forest Service.

Lands recovered from railroads include many
great areas of fertile woodland and meadow which,
had they not been lying safely in corporation owner-
ship awaiting the top of the market, would have
been homesteaded many years ago. Much of this,
as Mr. Reed suggests in respect to the old Oregon
and California Railway grant, may possess high
values for unindustrial uses which have only been
recognized during the last several years. Notwith-

THE STORY OF OUR PUBLIC DOMAIN 35

standing that these values cannot be expressed in
dollars and cents, nevertheless they are as real and
beneficial as, say, that of education and physical re-
cuperation.

It may be that the future will find some new
method of accounting which will recognize intangi-
ble land valuations ; otherwise, in the era we enter,
our most precious national possessions will have no
adequate rendering in the national budget.

II
LAND OFFICE METHODS AND PROBLEMS

The strenuous history of the inefficiently
equipped, always over-worked and often berated
General Land Office has been related, at least in
parts, many times in more or less technical works.
From the beginning, its job has been colossal. Eu-
ropean precedents were of little value because con-
ditions here were so different, our problems so in-
volved, and the magnitude of our lands so great.
Our speed of nation making, also, was extraordi-
nary. Its sins, as we glance back over the bureau's
extraordinary career, we see largely those imposed
upon it by successive Congresses ever changing in
personnel and never fully even with progress.

The growth of the General Land Office has
largely been of its own initiative. During the swift
years it could seldom await action of a deliberate

36 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

Congress, and it waited as seldom as it dared. So
far as growth was concerned, the part of Congress
was usually to confirm rather than to initiate change.

"The Commissioner," to quote Milton Conover,
author of the admirable monograph on the General
Land Office published by the Institute for Govern-
ment Research, "is at once an executive officer, a
collector of revenue, an auditor, a legislator, a prose-
cutor and a judge." "Upon him," says Sato the
Japanese investigator of American land problems,
"rests the responsibility of the faithful execution of
the settlement laws. From him springs directly the
title to land. Upon him depends the economic safety
of the pioneer settler who struggles to create a home.
He must fight the lawless land grabbers. He must
keep a watchful eye upon the condition of railroad
corporations to which land grants have been made.
Public interest requires him to avoid introduction
into the United States of English landlordism and
other forms of land monopoly."

Many eminent men have been Public Land
Commissioners.

For years, land legislation clogged the machin-
ery of Congress at every session. The accumula-
tions of federal land laws became enormous and the
totals complicated in the extreme. To review the
laws, treaties, proclamations and regulations in pur-
suit, say, of decisions and bearings upon some given
case, one might have to search through thirty-five
volumes of United States Statutes at Large, fifty

THE STORY OF OUR PUBLIC DOMAIN 37

volumes of Land Decisions, hundreds of Federal
and State reports and more than a thousand cir-
cular regulations.

Laws are of two classes, public land laws and
land grants. The first are general in character pro-
viding for disposition of lands to persons willing to
meet certain conditions; the second are special laws
granting stated tracts to individuals, corporations or
state governments. The volume of the records is
appalling. The old Land Office building in Wash-
ington was burdened with them from attic to cellar.
Cases filled all available corners in all rooms and
lined both sides of halls and passage ways. Under
the orderly rearrangements of to-day, an extraor-
dinary system is necessary to have all always acces-
sible. Details of lands are kept in local land offices,
saving helpless confusion at headquarters.

From first beginnings, surveying was one of
the most difficult problems facing the Commissioner.
In early days of excessive poverty, with lands of
little value, to save establishments, salaries, and ex-
pense accounts, Congress began farming out its sur-
veying by contract. The practice once established
lasted until 1910, proving many times more expen-
sive in the end than survey by a permanent responsi-
ble government service possibly could have been.
Often surveyors failed to mark section corners, or
the marks were destroyed by fire. More than half
the surveyed lands have had to be resurveyed; and
the costs to governments and property owners for a

38 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

century of law suits resulting from error and dis-
putes growing out of error would no doubt prove
colossal if it were possible to compute it. Some idea
of the grossness of such a system's inaccuracy is
shown by Commissioner Spry's discovery as late as
1926 of 14,432,940 acres of Public Domain which
the government did not know it possessed. The con-
tract survey system passed in 1910.

Since organization of the cadastral engineering
service, the bulk of surveying, notwithstanding de-
creasing Public Lands, has constantly increased. An
aggregate of 5,160,072 acres of surveys and resur-
veys was applied for in 1927 alone. This contradic-
tory situation is due primarily to decrease in agri-
cultural settlement owing to exhaustion of the sup-
ply of good farming land and the consequent move-
ment of population and activity back into regions
covered by the faulty surveys of years ago, which
now must be done over.

Last year's surveying, for example, besides the
run of usual work, corrected thirty-eight erroneous
or fictitious surveys in California, Colorado, Idaho,
New Mexico, Oregon, Washington, and Florida;
determined riparian rights to define swamp lands
and omitted lands in Colorado, Oregon, Wyoming,
Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas, Missis-
sippi, Louisiana, and Florida; surveyed ten town
sites in Alaska, Idaho, New Mexico, Oregon, and
Florida together with forty-five islands in Califor-
nia, Nebraska, Idaho, Montana, Washington, Wy-

THE STORY OF OUR PUBLIC DOMAIN 39

oming, Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois,
Kansas, and Florida ; reported upon thirty-one light-
house reservations, seventeen isolated homesteads,
and one cemetery site in Alaska. There was a lake
segregation in Nebraska to be surveyed, twenty-
three mineral segregations, twenty-one isolated
tracts spotted over the far west, four military res-
ervations, three Spanish grant boundaries, a hold-
ing claim in New Mexico, and an Indian village.
Regular programmes were also carried out includ-
ing road, mineral, and other withdrawals, and oil and
oil shale land examinations on a large scale in Utah
along the Colorado, San Juan, and Green Rivers.

Besides all of which, extensive surveys were
made for other governmental agencies covering Na-
tional Forests, National Parks, mining lands for the
Bureau of Mines and Indian reservations. There
was also much connecting work with the Coast and
Geodetic Survey and Geological Survey, a bird res-
ervation in Florida for the Biological Survey, and
one hundred and forty-nine applications for island
and water front summer homes along the coast.

A man of to-day desiring to acquire a given
piece of wild country whose application to county
and state records fails to locate ownership is ad-
vised to try the nearest federal land office. Perhaps
the tract belongs to the nation. Unless it is evidently
a part of the great unappropriated and unreserved
domain or of some conspicuous reserve like the Na-
tional Forest, the chances are that his inquiry will

40 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

meet a blank stare at the land office. The official
doesn't know. Where, precisely, is this parcel?

The man locates and describes it. Perhaps the
two get into a car and run out to examine it. Per-
haps that particular parcel will have to be searched
back through a century of records in half a dozen
offices. Eventually it is identified and the title
proved to be federal. Then, after survey, it is trans-
ferred by one of several methods, usually settlement
or sale, to its would-be possessor. By this means the
Land Office is constantly locating possessions which
often it supposed it owned and wasn't sure about,
but often hadn't the least idea was even government
property. Examining and surveying on application
occasional tracts of a few acres each within say
half a state, many of which are sold for cash as
a result of the searches, is quite a different matter
from searching the half a state to discover once for
all where a few government tracts may hide, most of
which, if indeed there are any, may not come into de-
mand for a quarter century. For economy's sake,
therefore, Uncle Sam is content not to know exactly
where a few of his remaining scattered lands are lo-
cated till some one applies for a patent.

During the recent land boom in Florida, every
stretch of barren sandy beach or outlying islet well
above tide became potentially a shore resort, a specu-
lative town lot site, or a rich man's estate. Prospec-
tive prices jumped to extraordinary figures. Every
few weeks tracts or islands scarcely known to exist a

THE STORY OF OUR PUBLIC DOMAIN 41

few months before were quoted at many thousands,
or perhaps actually sold. Much of the barren shore
and innumerable small islands near shore were sup-
posed to be or known to be federal property, and
some were filed upon under the homestead act and
even thereafter sold for speculation occasionally at
high prices.

The Land Office determined to withdraw this
property from homestead entry so as to save profits
for the Treasury, but surveying for discovery was
unthinkable. It would take too long and cost far too
much. It was known that about 15,000 acres of
public lands subject to entry remained in the state,
but location of most of it was unknown. The land
records of Florida are very old, voluminous, in
places illegible, and often wholly independable.

The problem was solved with a blanket with-
drawal by executive order covering all federally
owned lands that might exist in a strip three miles
wide along the coast, inclusive of islands. As the
boom was extending at this time, the order was made
to cover the Alabama and Mississippi coasts, also.

Uncle Sam profited little by this invasion of the
field of speculation, however, for soon afterward the
boom attained its peak and rapidly subsided.

Similarly, along the beautiful lake shores of
Michigan and Wisconsin, and elsewhere off the
shores of Lakes Michigan, Huron, and Superior,
the government owns many beautiful islands and
bits of water front mainland which are acquiring

42 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

comparatively high potential values for summer
homes. Every one knows that a few of the very
many are federal, but no one knows precisely which.
Here and there speculation has found its prey and
taken toll. But for the last time. By executive
order of April, 1926, all were withdrawn unidentified
in a three mile coast strip, Florida fashion, from
homestead entry. All of these the government now
wants disposed of.

Probably a quarter million acres, or five hun-
dred square miles, all told, now total the govern-
ment's unidentified or lost real estate.

Essential to sound conservation policy naturally
is knowledge of what it is proposed to conserve, but
before 1878, no attempt was made to classify the
Public Domain and its resources for the reason that
Congress could not then be made to see the useful-
ness of appropriations to this end. The Geological
Survey now performs this important work. A sys-
tematic effort is being made to determine the values
that each tract contains and the uses to which it may
be put, whether mineral development, water power,
farming, grazing, or a combination of some of these
and others.

Announcement of the discovery of a valuable
resource, a new coal field, for example, results in
immediate search of the land records to determine
whether any portion of it lies within the Public Do-
main. Or it may be that application for a particular
tract may precipitate search at that point. The Geo-

THE STORY OF OUR PUBLIC DOMAIN 43

logical Survey passes on proposed irrigation and
power projects and stock raising applications, but
not metalif erous mineral entries and coal, homestead
and desert applications. It restores to entry lands
formally set apart under improper classification,
and those set apart which fail to qualify. It acts as
general adviser to the Land Office.

"Classification," writes Milton Conover, "is re-
quired in the matter of agricultural lands, mineral
lands, coal lands, and lands used for public and
quasi-public purposes. The agricultural lands in-
clude those used for homesteads, forest homesteads,
enlarged homesteads, desert lands, reclamation lands,
isolated tracts, and timber and stone lands. The
mineral lands embrace those containing veins of
quartz or other rock in place, or lodes, building stone,
oil deposits, salines, and other lands which are valu-
able chiefly because of their mineral deposits,
whether those deposits are metaliferous or not.

"The coal land is classed separately because the
laws regarding it are so different from the other
mineral laws, the coal lands being administered un-
der special legislation rather than under the general
mining laws.

"Public and quasi-public lands include rights of
way granted to railroads to the extent of one hun-
dred feet on either side of the centre line of the road
bed; rights of way for canal and ditch companies
which are formed for irrigation purposes ; pipe lines,
flumes, tunnels, water plants, conduits, dams, reser-

44 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

voirs, and such accessories used for irrigation;
rights of way for power development on national
forests, and for milling, mining, and municipal pur-
poses ; and rights of way for electric plants and lines.
The grants to railroads do not include any minerals
except coal and iron. These may be granted because
of their utility in the building and operation of the
railroad."

Granting patents alone is a large item in Land
Office detail. These guarantee possession, corres-
ponding to deeds in civil procedure. They cover an
extraordinary variety of uses, as will be seen by the
accompanying table numbering and classifying those
of the year ending June 30, 1927.

The list reveals the range, nature, and propor-
tions of Land Office business to-day as nothing else
could. Considered with the table, on another page,
of Final Homestead Entries from 1868 to the pres-
ent, one gets a remarkably clear historical and eco-
nomic picture. United States patents are the basis
of all titles in the Public Land states.

Consistent in the main, Public Land policy has
passed through many phases under changing condi-
tions. Different Congresses have held varying
ideas, and the government has initiated and occa-
sionally instituted ideas of its own. Development of
various resources by private interests under gov-
ernment regulation has been established since 1896
when water power was put on that basis. In 1914,
the same idea was applied to coal in Alaska, in 1920

From photographs in the files of the General Land Office

PIONEERING IN THE NATION'S WESTWARD MOVEMENT

THE STORY OF OUR PUBLIC DOMAIN 45

PATENTS GRANTED FOR YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 1927

CLASS

NUMBER

OF
PATENTS

AREA

Commuted homestead 357

Timber and stone 308

Public sale 466

Desert land 471

Cash miscellaneous 194

Desert-land reclamation i

Desert-land segregation 4

Town site 5

Town lot 410

Homestead 3»i°5

Enlarged homestead 2,020

Forest homestead 312

Indian homestead (reservation) 1,121

Reclamation homestead 154

Soldiers' additional homestead 54

Stock-raising homestead 6,152

Forest lieu selection 46

Military bounty land warrant 17

Mineral 475

Coal 4

Private land claim 26

Small holding claim 145

Swamp 26

Umatilla Indian land 2

Abandoned military reservation 23

Choctaw scrip 4

Valentine scrip i

Ware scrip i

Wyandotte scrip i

Cemetery site 5

Railroad 45

Timber culture 37

Timber sales 75

Forest exchange 27

Indian 6,408

Special acts 63

To complete record 211

Supplemental (act Apr. 14, 1914) 20

Total.

22,796

Acres

36,765-74

25,456.15

39,204.73

76,157.92

16,100.68

i 20.00

16,154-18

486 . 19

970.247

365,588.71

570,961.52

33,833.o8

217,248.206

12,398.93

1,660.70

2,400,604.81

6,395-53

970.48

56,429.92

240.00

10,593-85

1,743-838

12,632.35

80.00

5,649.77
589-82

•85

40.00

85.158

117,919.713

5,957.69

10,564.39

16,365.74

384,310.40

12,572.10

4,456,893.392

generally to mineral fuels, fertilizers, coal, phos-
phate, sodium, oil, oil shale, and gas, and in 1926 to
sulphur in Louisiana, and gold, silver and quicksil-
ver in the Southwest.

46 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

In 1920, the Federal Power Commission was
created, consisting of the Secretaries of War, Agri-
culture, and Interior, empowered to grant licenses
and leases for utilization of water resources on navi-
gable streams in Federal Lands of various classifi-
cations, including Public Domain. The Geological
Survey reported in 1927 that about 6,000,000 acres
of land in power site reserve under the Interior De-
partment would yield 15,000,000 continuous horse-
power, approximately half the power resources of
the United States. Companies holding permits
granted before creation of the Federal Power Com-
mission reported generation in 1926 of twelve per
cent of the country's public utility power supply.

The super-power movement is developing with
some certainty of eventual achievement. Water
power under government lease or control will take
its part in combination with state and private sys-
tems so as to combine, interchange and otherwise
regulate power in such manner as to apply, with-
hold, and concentrate supply with the maximum of
economy and result. Plants operated by water and
fuel in every part of the country, connected by wires,
will make power chains which in time may even
cross the continent.

Of deep interest to motorists will be the follow-
ing extract from the Geological Survey report of
1927: "The known oil and gas resources of the
United States are much more limited in extent than
the solid fuels. For years the maintenance of pro-

THE STORY OF OUR PUBLIC DOMAIN 47

duction has been dependent on new discoveries, and
the areas in which new discoveries can be made are
growing fewer and fewer year by year. The say-
ing that haste makes waste is nowhere more evident
than in present practices in the production of liquid
and gaseous fuels. The greed for gain or protection
therefrom compels each landowner or lessee not only
to obtain from the acreage he controls the oil or gas
found beneath its surface but to draw so far as prac-
ticable from that under his neighbor's land before it
can be reduced to possession by another. Not only
does this lead to wasteful practices in drilling and
production, but the balance between available sup-
ply and market demand is so evenly drawn that
slight overproduction results in economic confusion
and waste. From November, 1926, to March, 1927,
increase in production of some 200,000 barrels of oil
per day in Oklahoma resulted in a decrease of more
than $400,000 in the value of oil production in that
state and in similar loss to producers throughout
the country. Nor is the producer's loss reflected in
a gain to the consumer. Some slight temporary
gain to the consumer there has been, but in the long
run his loss will exceed that of the producer. A
measure of regulation by the industry itself, or, fail-
ing in that, legislation may be expected in the rea-
sonably near future.

"About six per cent of the oil produced in the
United States is under lease by the Government of
lands of the public domain or of its wards, the In-

48 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

dians. This department has endeavored to set an
example to other lessors by encouraging where prac-
ticable the cessation of drilling and production on
its lands. As a result productive capacity of 120,-
ooo barrels per day, or more than the entire current
daily production, is now shut in on public lands, and
drilling relief has been granted with extreme liber-
ality. Nevertheless, the Government is not free from
blame. Since the passage of the mineral-leasing law
on February 25, 1920, this department has granted
more than 40,000 permits to prospect for oil and gas
on about 80,000,000 acres of land.

"With respect to drilling and producing opera-
tions, the department, through its supervisory forces,
has continued its earnest efforts to reduce waste, at
all times subordinating its royalty returns to the
primary duty of conserving mineral values. In this
work it has had the hearty co-operation of many
lessees and operators. The cost of this supervisory
work has been small compared even to the immedi-
ate benefits of conservation in royalty returns. Ex-
tension of supervisory activities to cover more ade-
quately the field of operations would pay immediate
dividends in royalties as well as future benefits in
prolonging the life and increasing the ultimate pro-
duction of Government-owned fields. In the fiscal
year ended June 30, 1927, 25,648,101 barrels of oil
were taken from Government lands, and royalty
products valued at $6,006,455 were s°ld for the
benefit of the several states, the reclamation fund,

THE STORY OF OUR PUBLIC DOMAIN 49

the United States Treasury, and other beneficiaries
designated by law."

Naturally the General Land Office records are
a library of interesting and important facts concern-
ing the country as a whole as well as of its parts.
Who would have thought, for example, that origi-
nally the United States contained 125,000,000 acres,
or nearly 200,000 square miles of swamps, an area
as large as Germany or France, and three times as
large as New England?

"These wet lands were of two kinds," wrote
Palmer in 1915, "tide water or delta-overflowed
lands, and glacial swamps. Those of the first class
extended from Virginia to Texas. In Florida there
were about 19,800,000 acres; in Louisiana 10,316,-
ooo acres ; in Mississippi 5,760,200 acres ; in Arkan-
sas, 5,911,300 acres; and in North Carolina, South
Carolina, Alabama, Georgia, and Texas, 3,122,000
to 1,500,000 acres each. These lands include such
swamps as there are along the lower course of the
Mississippi River ; the Jersey marshes and the Dis-
mal Swamp of North Carolina and Virginia. The
wet lands of the second class, that is, the glacial
swamps, were most extensive in Minnesota, which
had 7,332,308 acres; Michigan 4,547,439 acres; Il-
linois, 4,421,000; and Wisconsin 2,560,000.

"Because of the abundance of drier and better
lands even in the eastern part of the United States,
it was not until the middle of the nineteenth century
that these wet lands received any attention from

SO OUR FEDERAL LANDS

either state or federal government. Until 1850 all
the great swamp tracts except those included in the
thirteen original states (Dismal, Okefinokee, eastern
seaboard plane, Jersey marshes and tidal lands of
New England) remained in the national estate.

"Not only is this work of reclamation of great
importance to the health and prosperity of the United
States as a whole, and immense sums of money be-
yond the ability of states or individuals to furnish
needed to carry on operations until returns com-
mence to come in from the reclaimed lands, but the
drainage problem offers better opportunities from a
practical economic standpoint than does that of irri-
gation. The average cost of irrigation is thirty dol-
lars an acre; that of drainage is about five or six.

"Swamp areas are more generally in the midst
of populous territory with already developed trans-
portation facilities, the engineering problems as a
rule are more simple and the land is usually richer in
itself than arid land. Then, too, the federal govern-
ment is already well prepared to undertake such ac-
tivities, for the United States Geological Survey, as
the result of hydrographic and topographical sur-
veys covering nearly a million square miles for sev-
eral years, has been gradually accumulating a great
mass of maps, charts, statistics, and information re-
lating to rainfall, drainage and water sheds.

"There is a considerable number of large
swamps that lie* in river basins extending through
more than one state, and they cannot be drained ef-

THE STORY OF OUR PUBLIC DOMAIN 51

fectively or economically, or with justice to the in-
habitants of each state without the intervention of
some interstate authority. The Dismal Swamp oc-
cupies parts of Virginia and North Carolina. The
Savannah River on the northern border of Georgia,
and the Appalachicola on its southwestern border,
have great swamp and overflowed areas in South
Carolina, Alabama, and Georgia. Between North
and South Carolina there are extensive interstate
marshes. The Okefinokee swamp of Georgia must
have its drainage outlets across the state of Florida.
The Tombigbee Valley in Mississippi lies above the
same valley in Alabama. The Pearl River bottom
occupies parts of Mississippi and Louisiana. The
St. Francis Basin extends into both Missouri and
Arkansas, while the swamp areas of the Red River
of the North occupy Minnesota and North Dakota,
and those of the Kankakee both Indiana and Illinois.
In short, the greater part of our swamp reclamation
problem is interstate."

Few of the swamp lands mentioned by Palmer
remain in the Public Domain, which nevertheless
contains its innumerable smaller swamp lands pre-
senting nearly identical problems to-day. Applica-
tion for 164,745 acres of swamps were made to the
General Land Office in 1927, six times that of the
year before.

There are other sides of the Swamp question
to-day than recovery of agricultural land. We are
not so sure as we once were that all should be re-

52 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

claimed. Thousands of square miles of drained bot-
toms have proved useless for growing, lacking quali-
ties of soil. Swamps are often useful, like forests,
in conserving water sources for maintenance of
stream flow. One new fact that is causing deep con-
cern to many and increasing hundreds of thousands
of conservationists and sportsmen is the decline in
migratory bird fowl which necessarily follows de-
struction of their breeding and resting places en route
back and forth between the Gulf shores and Canada.
Even an economic argument based on the meat value
of millions of ducks, geese and swans shot annually
to help out the family larder as well as for sport is
brought into the discussions in succeeding Congres-
sional sessions.

Public Domain policies in Alaska are not dis-
cussed here because they are not yet recognized as
problems. The land is too new and vast. Condi-
tions are altogether different. It will be enough to
catalogue our territorial possessions:

AREA IN
ACRES

AREA IN
MILES

Alaska

378,165,760

590,884

Guam

131,840

206

Hawaii .

4,099,840

6,406

Canal Zone

351,360

549

Philippine Islands

73, 2l6,OOO

114,400

Porto Rico

2,108,400

3,435

American Samoa . ...

48,000

Virgin Islands ...

85,120

133

Total area of Territories . . ,

4 ^8, 206,3 20

716,088

Alaska, nearly a fifth the size of the United
States, is a great possession with a great future de-

THE STORY OF OUR PUBLIC DOMAIN 53

spite her northern position. Public Land surveys
of more than two million acres have been confined
to known agricultural areas, coal fields and lands
which in other ways may be attractive to settlers, be-
cause population is what Alaska needs most. Also
individual town sites, native allotments, trade and
manufacturing sites, and homestead entry claims
have been surveyed in widely separated parts of the
territory to focus growth at as many points as pos-
sible. Further to make settlement attractive, in
1918 Congress made provision for homestead sur-
veys without cost to claimants.

Congress has also extended to Alaska the prin-
cipal laws applicable to land in the state. The min-
ing laws, the coal-leasing acts of 1914 and 1921, the
homestead laws confined to entries of 160 acres, the
right-of-way laws, town site laws, entries for trade
and manufacture laws, and timber acquisition laws
apply also there.

Since April, 1926, timber may be exported from
Alaska. Indians may now own town site lots else-
where than in their own towns. Lands may be
leased for fur farming and this new type of enter-
prise has become one of the profitable businesses of
the country. Eighteeen establishments are engaged
in producing fur of the red and silver foxes. Rein-
deer farming has developed, at this writing, more
rapidly than its market. Increase of the herds, es-
pecially in the Seward Peninsula, is presenting seri-
ous questions. More than half a million animals

54 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

have descended from the 1280 which were brought
from Siberia between 1892 and 1902.

The solution of the reindeer problem is of
course a market. The meat is used extensively in
the cities of the Northwest, but has not been offered
persistently enough elsewhere to tempt departure
from meats to which the public is accustomed.
Alaska must develop a permanent population of its
own sufficient to create its own markets for all its
products before prosperity and growth will come
into view.

Home sites not exceeding five acres may now
be bought by Alaskan citizens engaged in trade ei-
ther as principals or employees. Grazing districts
may be established by the Secretary of the Interior
everywhere except on the Aleutian Islands.

In several of our island territories, laws in ex-
istence when they passed under our flag continue to
enable citizens to become possessed of homesteads
and acquire rights in other kinds to land. Upon
these our own system has not yet been imposed.

Ill
PROBLEMS OF CONSERVATION

Conservation of natural resources is commonly
said to have begun with Roosevelt, and this is in a
real sense true. The strong hand and the big stick
helped. Nevertheless it is a development, not an in-

THE STORY OF OUR PUBLIC DOMAIN 55

vention. Its sources are traceable to the royal char-
ters of the colonies, which usually reserved for the
crown a fifth of the gold and silver in grants of
land. The Virginia charter of 1606 reserved cop-
per, also, and the Massachusetts Bay charter of 1691
reserved certain oak groves for ship timbers. Prob-
ably none of these provisions ever produced prac-
tical results in colonial times, but it is important to
note so early official recognitions of the principle
which was to play so important a part in the nation.

Authorization to the President to create forest
reserves, which slipped through Congress in 1891 as
a rider to a bill of an entirely different purpose, en-
abled forest conservation to start on a large scale a
few years later through action of three consecutive
presidents. An act of 1902 authorized withdrawal of
lands for irrigation, beginning our great work of
reclamation.

At this writing, renewed demand for local pos-
session of the nation's natural resources is marching
steadily toward what looks like a new war in Con-
gress. Dangerous as the looming movement now
appears, it will be trifling in comparison with the
similar demand which, for some years before Roose-
velt, bent Congress to lavish distributions of our
national wealth, especially of forest lands, which at
times amounted practically to confiscation. It was
public revolt, in the closing years of the last century,
against wholesale looting of national possessions by
local interests which resulted in the creation, first,

56 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

of our national forests, and later of many other val-
uable reservations.

The great war which then established conser-
vation as a government policy began under Harri-
son and was won under Roosevelt. Its story comes
later on in the chapter on National Forests. It was
followed by many sharp counter attacks which
failed, in which by turn National Parks, National
Forests and very recently national grazing lands
have been the prize. In fact, scarcely a skirmish of
them all has succeeded, so far, though the stress of
battle has sometimes been severe.

But the greater movement to turn all national
properties over to the states within whose bounda-
ries they lie is nevertheless gathering headway.

In the East, persistent energetic attempts have
been making for several years to have local areas
created National Parks in order to profit locally by
the national values which it is hoped thus to build
up within state boundaries, at the same time provid-
ing upkeep, development, and administration charges
at the national expense. So far these have failed.
Congress, to be sure, has authorized eastern National
Parks, but the undeserving have not yet qualified,
and may not. The vigorous but poorly handled
movement to get national grazing lands virtually
into private possession has also failed, dismally.

Leaders of the local interests now seem to have
determined to bring on the main issue without fur-
ther preliminaries. Demand has been made for-

The Oklahoma Prairie on August 5, IQOI. In the tents across the border are camped the
thousands waiting for the hour of entrance

Twenty-four days later, the City of Lawson was photographed on the identical spot shown above
BIRTH OF LAWSON, OKLAHOMA, PUBLIC DOMAIN CITY

Reproduced from prints of photographs in the Public Land Report of IQOI, through courtesy of C. A.
Obenchain, who represented the Public Land Office at the opening

THE STORY OF OUR PUBLIC DOMAIN 57

mally in Congress that the Public Domain be re-
turned forthwith to the states within whose bound-
aries it lies. Judging from history, this may be the
beginning of a long hard- fought struggle between the
two ideas, dragging on perhaps for years. Few
wars between nations have had a richer prize than
the Federal Lands of the United States.

Signs are that, if this war develops, the Public
Domain will be the first objective. This won, local
interests would demand forthwith all other national
land possessions except only National Parks. This
kind of state sentiment is quite willing that the im-
mense annual sum spent to develop and administer
the parks shall be carried by the National Treasury.

Discussing, in an address in Denver in 1926,
the coming attempt on the Public Domain, Secre-
tary Work said :

"When legislation was passed which enabled
western territories to enter statehood, the Govern-
ment retained ownership of the public lands. The
land laws as now administered have been in effect
over half a century and have been sustained by the
Supreme Court of the United States when attacked.
Outspoken demands have been made that publicly-
owned lands should be returned to the States wherein
located. Our public lands never were owned by
States and, therefore, were not taken from them.
In 1787 the Confederate Congress passed an ordi-
nance establishing this fundamental policy for the
Government of the territory of the United States

58 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

Northwest of the Ohio River. I am quoting the ex-
act language of the ordinance dealing with this
question :

: 'The legislatures of those districts, or new
States, shall never interfere with the primary dis-
posal of the soil by the United States in Congress
assembled, nor with any regulations Congress may
find necessary for securing the title of such soil to
the bona-fide purchasers/

"To give to States the public land within their
boundaries would be a complete reversal of the pol-
icy of this Government from its beginning, a prece-
dent not set by any other nation, and a step which
should not be inadvisedly taken.

"Five years in the midst of Government opera-
tions have convinced me that the Federal Govern-
ment is administering more, and the States less, of
the activities of Government than they should. It
would be agreeable to recommend from an adminis-
trator's point of view that States might own and
control the public lands. That would, of course, re-
lieve the Government of the labor and expense of
administering them and would relieve the taxpayers
of an annual deficit in its net operating expenses.
The Department of the Interior expended last year
(1925) the sum of $2,949,337 f°r tne administra-
tion of the public domain, $2,370,170 of which was
spent by the General Land Office and $579,167 by
the Geological Survey. It collected $9,844,831, ex-
clusive of Indian land sales, and other public land

THE STORY OF OUR PUBLIC DOMAIN 59

areas administered under special acts of Congress.
Of this amount, $3,221,604 was paid back to the
State Governments and $4,979,547 was diverted to
the Reclamation Fund to be used in the reclamation
of arid and semi-arid lands of the West.

"This leaves an unencumbered balance amount-
ing to $1,643,680 actually placed in the United States
Treasury last year to offset the Federal Govern-
ment's expenditures of $2,949,337. The net deficit
or loss to the Federal Government in administering
the public lands was, therefore, $1,305,657. If the
State Governments should take over the public lands
within their borders, and distribute the receipts as
prescribed by present Federal laws, they would be
compelled to pay this deficit now met by the United
States Treasury. As far as the National Govern-
ment is immediately concerned financially it would
be an advantage to turn the remaining Public Do-
main over to the States.

"But what would probably become of the Pub-
lic Lands and their resources if administered by
States ? This question can best be answered by ask-
ing what has become of public lands already released
to them. Many of you men can answer that ques-
tion from your own personal knowledge. The ac-
tual title to the mineral contents of these lands would
pass from the Federal Government to the States to
be disposed of as these States see fit. It is claimed
by some of the States that, at the present time, when-
ever sales of former Public Lands are sold the States

60 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

are reserving minerals. In Colorado, all such land
contracts reserve these minerals to the State. But
when it is asked how the State purposes to handle
them in the future, there is no answer. The States
east of the Mississippi River regard the Public
Lands of the West and the natural resources in them
as the property of the United States, in reserve.

"The principal question now is whether the
United States as a central administrator, or segre-
gated States operating independently under differ-
ent State laws, would be the better agency to admin-
ister the remaining Public Lands and their mineral
deposits. Which would be least vulnerable to local
influence lending themselves to their disposition by
transfer at less perhaps than their potential worth?
Would any State having Public Lands prefer to ad-
minister them and pay the Government royalties in-
stead of the Government administering and paying
the royalties to the States ? How many of our newer
States could actually afford to own and administer
the public lands within their boundaries? Their
net financial income is greater now than if they
themselves administered them.

"The mineral industry is vitally interested in
whether the remaining public lands with their min-
eral contents are administered by the National Gov-
ernment or by the States. Within each State there
would then be a different law with which applicants
for mineral leases would have to comply. This would
result in a multiplicity of laws with which the min-

THE STORY OF OUR PUBLIC DOMAIN 61

ing industry would have to contend, instead of one
law applying everywhere. Some prospectors have
already expressed alarm over the development of
such a situation. I present this phase of the situa-
tion for the consideration of miners in the Western
country whose interests are directly affected/'

Secretary Work's assumption that, upon trans-
fer of Public Lands to states, ownership and min-
erals would still remain with the nation is not that
of many thinkers in the states themselves. It is not
merely administration of these lands that local in-
terests desire, but the lands themselves in sole pos-
session. This is not, mark you, the mental attitude
of state populations, but of those business interests
only which deal in national resources. To-day,
thinking nationally is spreading through the West
with great rapidity. It is this which will save our
national possessions.

In computing the losses of the Interior Depart-
ment, however, it is only fair to consider money put
into reclamation as investment. The total loss to
this fund over the reclamation period of twenty-five
years has not exceeded ten per cent, and the immense
increase in wealth in these areas has more than com-
pensated the Federal Treasury in income taxes since
the adoption of that method of taxation.

When the nation equipped each new state witH
lands, it turned over one or more sections in each
township for schools irrespective of fitness for that
purpose. They were known as "school lands." But

62 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

the minerals in school lands were reserved in na-
tional ownership. Fourteen bills in the Sixty-Ninth
Congress demanding release of the minerals to the
states show the trend of the coming uprising.

After the hundred and eighty-three million
acres of the National Forests were withdrawn from
the Public Domain, followed by withdrawals con-
tinually since of lands set apart temporarily or per-
manently for other special purposes, leaving little
more than grazing lands and poor agricultural lands,
the importance of the Public Domain to the develop-
ment of the country began rapidly to subside.

"The Federal Government," said Secretary
Work in 1926, "is still throwing open to homestead
entry large areas of land the character of which
makes the homesteading of them impractical. Yet
our citizens are being invited to waste their time and
savings in fruitless enterprise. From the Arkansas
River Valley in Colorado I have received complaints
regarding settlers who had filed entry on a number
of tracts of public land. Unable to obtain a liveli-
hood from the lands they had homesteaded, they
were making appeals for charity, from a neighbor-
ing town."

In no respect is the decline of the General Land
Office more simply and strikingly shown than in re-
cent sharp reductions of its visible equipment. A
dozen years ago its staff and records filled an impos-
ing building covering an entire Washington block
opposite the old Patent Office on F Street. In 1922,
the declining business of the bureau still engaged

THE STORY OF OUR PUBLIC DOMAIN 63

twelve hundred employees divided among the head-
quarters in Washington (now removed to the new
Interior Department Building) the field offices and
the ninety-four district offices among the states.

President Coolidge's era of administrative econ-
omy found here great opportunity for legitimate re-
duction. The report of the Secretary of the Interior
for 1927 shows only twenty-nine district offices re-
maining and a personnel reduced to seven hundred
and twenty-six. Whatever work remains to be done
in the many states in which district offices have been
abolished is now done at the Washington office.

But there is another view of this question. Per-
haps we are not watching the swift extinction of the
oldest institution of our government, as the General
Land Office has frequently been called, but its more
or less ruthless reorganization for a new career. It
will be many years before the remaining Public
Lands are surveyed, and decades before they all find
takers, if they ever do. As administrator of open
grazing lands under a policy now in evolution to
meet the new conditions of new times, the future of
the Public Domain has immense importance. And
as administrator of the mineral leasing act of 1920
under which minerals in lands thereafter patented
are held in national ownership under a percentage
of minerals mined, the Bureau's continuance and
growth are without predictable limit. Operations
under the Mineral Leasing Law during its first six
years including 1927 are shown in the table.

OUR FEDERAL LANDS

STATE

1921-1923

1924

1925

Alabama

$85,460.00

$920.00

California

$11,662,664.33

957,480.64

1,037,007.05

Colorado

26,4.04. 7^

33,^13 .46

71,284.73

Idaho

277 1:4

Louisiana

846 . 3Q

2.29S.7?

. O2«C.3I

Montana

^I 3.6O6. 2O

225,501.30

172,684.19

Nevada

720.00

New Mexico

3,081 . 24

4,784 . 2O

3,474.26

North Dakota

7.188 31

IO,"\87. 14

8,136.01

South Dakota

87. si

34.8l

168.15

Utah

6o,7Q2.4l\

35,4O2 . 58

26,821.99

Washington

7,87«;.84

6,280.09

3,065.49

Wyoming . .

I3,8l3,56O.49

12,270,500.75

6,953,501.44

Total

$26.IO(\,4.8l O?

$13,631,840.72

$8,278,708.62

STATE

1926

1927

TOTAL

Alabama

$920 oo

$I,<64. 7O

$88,864.70

California ....

1,002,4.02 65

1,104,08^ .6l

15,943,730.28

Colorado

04,418.40

109,046. 73

334,668.16

Idaho

023.62

1,963.16

3,260.32

Louisiana

882 . 73

14,215.85

19,166.03

Montana

249,690 . 59

188,897.36

1,350,379.64

Nevada

1,4.07 I"?

1,440.00

3,657.15

New Mexico

j 7,47 7 it

1^,301 . 77

44,168.82

North Dakota

8,630. 37

7,744.47

42,286.30

South Dakota

251 .66

18.83

560.96

Utah

32,740 -62

34,870.58

199,637.22

Washington

1,608.98

2,504. 28

21,424.68

Wyoming

6,883. i2<; s1?

<>,OQ7,77I> .42

45,018,463.65

Total

$8,384,718.76

$6,669,518.76

$63,070,267.91

There is, in fact, no bureau of the government
whose co-operation is necessary in so many govern-
mental functions as the General Land Office. Many
foresee its future as one of sure if not swift growth
to a position again of extended influence and rela-
tive great importance.

No official has yet guessed what future inccme
will be derived from the government's percentage

THE STORY OF OUR PUBLIC DOMAIN 65

under the Mineral Leasing Act. Since its enact-
ment in 1920, 76,950 applications have been re-
ceived; and the government has acquired rights in
the unknown mineral wealth in 17,500,000 acres pat-
ented under the stock raising homestead law and in
more than 12,500,000 acres of coal, oil and other de-
posits. It has been estimated that 200,000,000,000
tons of coal, at least, remain in the Public Domain,
8.000,000,000 tons of phosphate, and 60,000,000,000
barrels of oil.

Of the untold wealth of its mineral deposit,
Secretary Work wrote in 1927:

"While much of the gold, silver, copper, lead
and zinc lands once owned by the Government has
passed into the hands of private individuals, there
are undoubtedly large deposits of these ores remain-
ing in the Public Domain. The States of Colorado,
Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Wash-
ington, Oregon and California still contain areas in
which are metalif erous ores the quantity of which is
unknown. . . . These minerals can be mined by
individuals; oil and coal cannot to advantage. The
prospector has become a geologist; but wild-catting
is being prosecuted continuously, leading to the con-
clusion that much petroleum still remains in the pub-
lic estate uncaptured, the exact amount of which is
not ascertainable. There are also large quantities of
natural gas."

Not considering future earnings, the Public Do-
main's cash income is sufficiently promising. That

66 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

of 1927, increased over the year before, was $9,201,-
697.25. By law, this was distributed as follows : to
Reclamation Fund, $4,338,341.72; to Public Land
States, $2,550,200.24; to Indian tribes, $640,694.66;
and to the General Fund of the United States, $i,-
692,460.63.

Metal mining has reached "an interesting and
baffling stage," says the United States Geological
Survey report for 1927. "During the half century
of development that followed the discovery of gold
in California, one great bonanza after another was
discovered in the West. These poured into the cof-
fers of the world a wealth of metals which enriched
its finders, the Nation, and all mankind. The coun-
try was new. The western half of our continent
had. remained, in the mining sense, undiscovered.
Enterprising Americans in seventy-five years have
concentrated the exploration and development that
in the Old World was distributed over many cen-
turies. Viewed historically this development has
been startlingly swift; nevertheless it has been re-
markably thorough.

"Now the pioneer stage of mining has passed.
In an untouched country simple methods of pros-
pecting revealed great mineral deposits in quick suc-
cession, many of them exposed at the very surface,
awaiting merely the touch of the prospector's pick
and the assay to confirm his findings. Many of the
deposits thus discovered were developed into great
mines, which have passed through successive stages

THE STORY OF OUR PUBLIC DOMAIN 67

of cheap mining of rich oxidized ores at the surface,
more expensive but highly profitable mining of en-
riched sulphides at greater depth, and finally min-
ing of lean primary ores at lower levels, where costs
of recovery even with the best modern methods may
soon exceed the market value of the product.

"But as time has passed fewer and fewer new
deposits have been found. The hills have been pros-
pected over and over by the old-time methods from
base to summit, from Canada to Mexico, and from
the Great Plains to the Pacific. An occasional strike
has been made within the last third of a century —
Cripple Creek in 1891, Tonopah and other Nevada
camps in 1900 and later — but by far the greater
number of the big metal mines of the United States
were in operation within two generations after the
discoveries in California. The finding of new ore
bodies is becoming more difficult, and the difficulty
may be expected to increase. The problem of main-
taining production involves increasing skill in ore
finding and increasing use of lower-grade material.
The first is the problem of the geologist and the min-
ing engineer ; the second is the problem of the metal-
lurgist and the industrial organizer.

"The leaders in the mineral industry are acutely
aware of the necessity of finding more ore, even
though the rest of the world may be oblivious to
this need."

With revision of land office work and reduction
of offices and personnel to meet the altered condi-

68 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

tions of to-day, the Secretary of the Interior has
called for revision also of an enormous accumulation
of laws. It is eloquent of the tangles of past years
that one revision specially suggested was authoriza-
tion to enable the Secretary to sell and issue patents
for lands which have been occupied and used for
many years, perhaps sold and resold in good faith
under the belief that the title was good, whereas the
land still vested in government.

In particular, the Secretary desired that graz-
ing should be placed on an entirely new footing.
"We have no laws to conserve the native grasses on
public lands and protect their grazing values," he
stated recently, "The Public Domain is an unre-
stricted range for those who desire to use it. The
pre-empting of water holes and the fencing of
streams excludes range men who do not control these
first essentials for range stock. This situation in
many instances resulted in the conversion of this
theoretical grazing common into a private preserve.
With no tenure save force, the first to arrive with
his herd or flock, if sufficiently powerful, takes all
and moves on to other areas."

IV
ENTER: THE AUTOMOBILE

Into the huge, wide scattered, somewhat in-
choate empire of lands, the much-vaunted Era of

THE STORY OF OUR PUBLIC DOMAIN 69

Outdoor Recreation (which is only another phrase
to designate the era of the automobile) has brought
many unofficial changes. Of official changes, the
new conditions have inspired few in the Public Do-
main. There is a new point of view. The General
Land Office has withdrawn many small tracts from
homestead entry because apparently more suitable
for recreational use. Under the Recreation Act of
June 14, 1926, it has authorized acquisition of an
aggregate of 1,440 acres by states, counties and
cities. Also it co-operated with the Joint Commit-
tee on Survey of Federal Lands of the American
Forestry Association and National Parks Associa-
tion in surveying the Public Domain for recreational
opportunities.

Throughout the country, however, motor-
wrought changes are many and startling. Roads
sweep through vast deserts, through wildernesses of
many kinds. They penetrate impassable country,
cross mountain systems, bringing distant centres of
human activity into communication. They join
state and county roads across broad wastes and na-
tional forests, make isolated regions accessible, con-
nect farms and markets, develop rich valleys and
splendid scenic regions far from accustomed routes
of travel and commerce. Twenty-five thousand five
hundred miles of federal-aid motor road alone, not
counting the often much greater mileage of motor
roads built by the states themselves, have been con-
structed since the federal-aid law became operative

70 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

in 1921 in the seventeen states in which the Public
Domain is officially recorded. Corresponding road
expansion in those states where Public Lands are too
few and scattered for conspicuous record neverthe-
less open what are there to the uses of recreation as
well as of homesteading and business, and many of
these have high adaptability.

East of Colorado, comparatively little recrea-
tional opportunity offers. Public Lands in Florida
have much delightful shore land. And there are
shores in Louisiana and Mississippi which will find
occupation in the fulness of time. Alabama's public
lands will offer to the future a few pleasant resorts,
and Arkansas with its much greater diversity has
many small available spots in the foothills of the
Ozark Mountains, sharing opportunity with the Na-
tional Forest. Minnesota and Wisconsin will also
make their lesser contributions of Public Lands to
the Automobile Invasion.

On Isle Royale in Lake Superior, Michigan,
are 5,500 acres of Public Lands which appear des-
tined to pass into some permanent form of recrea-
tional use. The island, which is forty-five miles
long, has a gross area of 132,000 acres, partly in
state but nearly all in private ownership, the land
once having been thought to contain marketable cop-
per. It has lakes, streams and virgin forests, a Fed-
eral Bird Reservation, and several Light House Res-
ervations. Once it had moose. Enthusiasts think it
has National Park scenic grandeur, which we doubt.

THE STORY OF OUR PUBLIC DOMAIN 71

West of Denver, the situation alters. All the
Rockies, the Sierra, and the Cascades, with their
flanking and intermediate plateaus and deserts, once
solidly Public Domain, are now patchworked with
reserved federal lands of all varieties and kinds, to-
gether with private lands acquired by homesteading,
gift and purchase. Most of what is left is desert,
but roads have saved or developed for the motorist
much that is enjoyable for recreation and useful in
other unindustrial ways. The scenic, educational
and inspirational values of a great proportion of
these lands are extremely high.

In the eleven far western states of Arizona,
California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New
Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming,
11,378 miles of federal-aid roads have been con-
structed at a total cost of $182,363,675, nearly a
half from the national treasury. These are in ad-
dition to National Forest and National Park roads,
both of which have had generous annual pro-
grammes. Besides which, all the states have devel-
oped their own extensive road programmes, most of
them, notably California, having spent millions in
new highways and improved surfaces during the
same period.

Before we reach the Rockies travelling west-
ward, let us consider the Badlands region of the
Dakotas, Nebraska and Montana, most of which is
in the Public Domain. Except in river bottoms and
around widely separated water sources, this remark-

72 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

able country, fantastically carved by the erosion of
distant ages and torn in places by long-dead volca-
noes, its red rocks almost impassable here and there
for miles, is scenically striking, often gorgeous in
form and color, but rarely beautiful. Several mil-
lions of acres offer little variety.

William H. Bandy, engineer of the United
States Land Office, describes Badlands on the banks
of the Missouri River for three hundred miles below
Fort Benton, Montana:

"As a result of being forced by the continental
ice sheet in Pleistocene time to seek a new channel,
the Missouri here has cut a canyon 600 to 800 feet
deep. This intrenchment has given a steep gradient
to all its tributaries, and they also have cut deep
channels in their lower courses, producing a much
dissected region in which the highly folded and
faulted strata are strikingly exposed. This erosive
action is still taking place rapidly on the soft or sol-
uble sedimentary strata cutting deep gashes and fan-
tastic forms as it forces its chisel back into the for-
mation, uncovering an endless variety of fossil forms
that have been preserved deep in the ground. The
altitude of this area ranges from 2,100 feet to 3,500
feet above sea level.

"Many of these canyons and gorges are as much
as 600 and 700 feet in depth, with steep, almost per-
pendicular walls of clay and sandstone, of different
colors, which viewed from the buttes and plateaus
under different light conditions, offer studies in col-

THE STORY OF OUR PUBLIC DOMAIN 73

orings the equal of which, it is believed, will be hard
to find in any other place outside of the Badland
Country.

"Excellent views of this country are obtained
from ridges and hogbacks which extend out from
the main divides and ridges. Many of these ridges,
hogbacks or spurs have wood roads leading along
them, over which one may drive an automobile to
points overlooking the innumerable gorges, canyons,
and elevations, often looking down upon the Mis-
souri several hundred feet below. Most of the ridges
and plateaus are covered with scattering pine, and
scrub cedar timber."

Mr. Bandy has recommended that three areas
which he specified should be set apart for some ap-
propriate form of preservation, and Mr. Raney Y.
Lyman, another Land Office engineer, has recom-
mended that 21,000 acres on the Yellowstone River
south of Glendive, Montana, should also be pre-
served. In southwestern North Dakota residents of
a Badlands area on the Little Missouri River were
not so considerate of public opinion or government •
standards. Determining among themselves that,
willy-nilly, their specimen must be made formally a
National Park, they bombarded Congress session
after session to create a "Roosevelt Memorial Na-
tional Park" of 1,300,000 acres, an area nearly as
large as Yellowstone, including a ranch once owned
by Theodore Roosevelt. At this writing they are
still bombarding Congress — as scores of others have

74 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

done before whose favorite home areas have not
met the standards of the System. In this instance
the bill also demanded an appropriation of a million
dollars to buy private lands within the proposed area.

South Dakota has its Badlands national park
project, also. The hundred and eighty thousand
acres between the White and Cheyenne Rivers pro-
posed for the "Wonderland National Park" is less
than half federal land, the rest being state and pri-
vate land. The projectors of neither of these take
the least account of National Park standards or na-
tional public opinion. Their concern is local.

At least six other areas of Badlands have been
suggested for some form of permanent preservation.
In course of time, at least one characteristic and ap-
propriate example perhaps will be chosen as a Na-
tional Monument, and states may make what parks
they please with reasonable certainty that the nation
will contribute its lands.

Another Public Lands region rich in scenic and
recreational example, straddling the boundary of
Nevada and Idaho, is known as the Owyhee Coun-
try because drained by the Owyhee River. Several
hundred square miles, of altitude too high for agri-
culture but delightfully forested, are available for
special uses of this kind. A grazing country over-
grazed, invaluable for summer recreation, it will
in time become part of the co-operative state and na-
tional recreational programme which is destined in
time to replace the present habit of individual states

THE STORY OF OUR PUBLIC DOMAIN 75

attempting to force their way into the National
Parks System by use of political clubs.

Scenically, the Public Domain reaches its cli-
max in the Plateau Country of Southern Utah and
her adjoining states. Geologically, also, this coun-
try, which is a part of the drainage basin of the Col-
orado River and the upper portion of that part of
it of which the Grand Canyon is the scenic and ero-
sional climax, has extraordinary importance. From
the Wasatch Mountains it falls in great steps, miles
in breadth, to the Colorado gorge. Each step in-
cludes one or more of many strata of sandstone,
limestone and shale highly and variously colored,
each named usually for its particular color.

High in the series is the Pink Cliff in which is
located famous Bryce Canyon National Monument.
Lower down, cut in the White and Vermilion Cliffs,
is Zion National Park, the "rainbow of the desert."
The foundation stratum of Zion, known as the Kai-
bab limestone, is the identical stratum upon which
one stands, miles southward, to look down into the
gorgeous depths of the Grand Canyon, most cele-
brated natural spectacle of any kind in the world.

If we should refer this gigantic basin's moun-
tain origin back of the Wasatch Range to the crest
of the main Rockies in Colorado, of which the Wa-
satch is but a spur, thereby including the immense
erosional plateau in which is carved Mesa Verde Na-
tional Park, the huge natural bridges of Utah and
the Navajo Indian Reservation of Arizona with its

76 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

Canyon de Chelly, Rainbow Bridge, and Painted
Desert, all legitimately parts of the same great drain-
age basin, we shall have a picture of creation to tax
human imagination.

There are National Forests perched here and
there on these titanic brilliant steps. There are Na-
tional Monuments and large Indian Reservations,
also. The variety and richness of carving through-
out this magical country is unequalled. Here, dur-
ing future years, will develop a study in World Ar-
chitecture which may safely challenge competition,
for there is no other country of its general nature
which is nearly its equal in size, ruggedness, diver-
sity, richness and sheer beauty of form and color.
For minute detail and heroic example, it challenges
the world of erosional spectacles.

These are largely unreserved Public Lands.
Their condition is arid, often stark desert. The ex-
cessively rough surface makes travel over large parts
of it extremely difficult. Inhabitants are few,
grouped in widely separated spots where water may
be found. The country is full of surprises. Though
Zion Canyon in Zion National Park was known to
Mormon neighbors since 1858 and to exploring ge-
ologists in 1870, and was made the Mukuntuweap
National Monument within the seventies, it was not
"discovered" in any public sense till 1916, when
Gerrit Fort, general passenger manager of the
Union Pacific Railroad, led an exploring party there
on hearing a report of its wonders.

THE STORY OF OUR PUBLIC DOMAIN 77

While I was there in 1920, people were talking
of another great scenic discovery, "a canyon named
Bryce in the Pink Cliff," which also, we found later,
had been known to local Mormon dry farmers for
many years. A magnificent double natural bridge
in Arizona, discovered by Land Office officials half
a dozen years ago, had been really discovered years
before that and lost. In fact, it was lost twice.

We may only guess at the scenic and geologic
future of this part of the Public Domain, crediting it
with extraordinary values which may not be mea-
sured in dollars.

CONCERNING ANTELOPE AND OTHERS

In Nevada, Utah, Wyoming and other Public
Land states of the far West, States Game Depart-
ments have proclaimed rules extending far beyond
state lands into the Public Domain, where they may
be enforced only by courtesy. There is no doubt of
the benefit to wild life of this usurpation of author-
ity if it can be made to function, and it has all the
help that the Interior Department may give.

The difficulty appears to be that local people do
not themselves seem to take this movement seri-
ously. It is charged that it is a device of livestock
interests to forestall creation of large Federal Game
Preserves on these same lands. It is charged also
that it is a device of hunters to discourage the live-

78 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

stock industry. Several million acres are involved.
It seems certain that, whatever may be the motives
involved, this is a step toward a compromise in the
Public Domain between the conflicting claims of wild
game and domestic cattle. The two can no more
both thrive on the same lands than can different gov-
ernmental authorities rule identical territory without
conflict.

Wherever in our western country domestic ani-
mals and wild animals are in competition for the
range, the creatures of the wilderness will disappear
without the protective intervention of man. In Na-
tional Parks only is the attempt made to preserve
original conditions and balances of life, but their
areas are too small to count for much in the wild
life conservation programme of a country the size
of ours. In National Forests wild animals are con-
served wherever other objectives permit, subject to
the game laws of the states in which the forests lie.
In the open range of the Public Domain, nature takes
her course subject only to state laws very difficult
to enforce. Against competing cattle and sheep, to
say nothing of predatory men and animals, the game,
great and small, furred and feathered, which once
densely peopled the great plains of the far West,
scarcely survives.

The situation is complicated by the accepted
theory that the states own all wild life within their
boundaries, even those on federally owned lands.

"A system of grazing regulations similar to

THE STORY OF OUR PUBLIC DOMAIN 79

that in vogue in the National Forests," writes
Franklyn W. Reed of game on Public Domain lands,
"would not only benefit the livestock industry but
at the same time would be the best step that could be
taken for conserving wild life and preserving para-
mount recreational resources. In a country like this
the preservation of the game's food supply is of more
importance than the enforcement of closed seasons,
bag limits, and similar protective measures.

"Supplementary to such grazing regulation, in
the interest of the game it will probably be neces-
sary to set aside a certain number of comparatively
small-sized Game Refuges, strategically located, in
which both grazing of domestic stock and hunting
are absolutely prohibited. In addition, it might be
in order to reserve in public ownership a system of
well selected camp grounds, if any such still remain
in public ownership, for the benefit and use of hunt-
ers and fishermen visiting the region.

"To work out a proper plan of management
will necessitate a far more thorough and intensive
study of the region by a combination of grazing
specialists and wild life experts than has yet been
made. In addition to the physical problems to be
solved there are political and legislative obstacles to
overcome. The states within which these lands are
located hold different and sometimes conflicting
points of view about range regulation and wild life
conservation. No effective action can be taken by
one state independently of the others. Although the

80 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

states can pass and enforce laws regulating hunting
and fishing on the lands, still they have no power to
dictate other uses, such as grazing, since the bulk of
the land is in Federal ownership."

"In no case that I know of," writes Smith Riley,
one of our closest observers of wild life conditions,
"has the national government taken steps to improve
the unsatisfactory food conditions of those Public
Lands covered by state game refuges as a result of
public pressure to protect the wild life. There has
been no action to lead state game officials or game
protective associations to believe that any other than
the present conditions can be expected, except per-
haps a further gradual destruction of food plant val-
ues by uncontrolled grazing.

"It is estimated that there are between twenty
and thirty thousand antelope scattered through six-
teen states in the West and that this number is a
very small per cent of the number the ranges where
these animals are located can support. The bulk of
the antelope range is on the Public Lands, and one
branch of the national government has been work-
ing with the state authorities to protect and improve
the conditions for the herds by enforcing the closed
season in every state where they exist and destroy-
ing those animals and birds which prey upon them.
The most needed action looking to the perpetuation
of these rare, valuable game creatures is to insure
to them a food supply throughout the year and this
on lands which are publicly owned and of such a

THE STORY OF OUR PUBLIC DOMAIN 81

character that they have never been attractive of
acquirement for individual ownership.

"One of the attractive game birds of the United
States is the grouse, which used to exist in vast
numbers throughout the sage brush lands of the
West. These birds which have afforded food and
recreation to hundreds of thousands of our citizens
have literally been swept away over millions of acres,
much of which is still Public Domain. Should those
lands that are in national ownership be so admin-
istered as to prevent the destruction of the food and
cover plants attractive to the sage chickens, these
birds, together with the antelope and other game,
will afford recreation to the citizens of this country
that can be valued at many millions of dollars. The
State of Nevada has seventy-seven millions of acres
that have produced untold millions of sage hens.
Ninety per cent or more of this acreage is of such a
character that it cannot be cultivated. Its greatest
value will always be production of native plants to
support animal and bird life."

Wild life problems, of which we here get a
couple of intimate glimpses, to-day invade the prin-
cipal divisions of land service of all kinds. They also
enter intimately into the administration both of Na-
tional Forests and National Parks from widely dif-
fering points of view, and the Bureau of the Bio-
logical Survey finds its most conspicuous function
the study of American game birds and game ani-
mals, and their conservation on Federal Lands. We

82 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

shall meet these questions again in later chapters.

The Public Domain is too old, too complicated,
too detailed, too technical, too significant in a thou-
sand ways, too intimately woven into the warp and
woof of the governmental fabric to describe with
greater particularity here without endangering the
perspectives of the broad national picture of which
it is a part.

The slight sketch here attempted leaves imagi-
nation to fill in connecting lines. Students of history
and government will find it wholly inadequate. It
is not for them, however, that this book is written,
but for those men and women busy with living who
want graphic backgrounds, true perspectives and
sound relationships without cluttering detail in order
that they may plan intelligently and live vigorously
the more useful national life which the new times de-
mand of every citizen.

CHAPTER III
THE STORY OF OUR NATIONAL FOREST

THE ORGANIZED REMNANT OF A WASTED HERITAGE,

IT STANDS BETWEEN POSTERITY AND DEPLETION,

AND IS NOW DISCOVERING NEW AND INVALUABLE

USES UNDREAMED OF HERETOFORE

THE first comers to America found a mighty
forest fronting the Atlantic shore and extend-
ing westward as far as the white man ventured for
many years. They were justified in believing, and
no doubt they did believe, that it covered the un-
known continent to the shores of the western sea.
Along the coast this forest consisted of small pines
which, a little back, gave way to greater pines, with
which presently were mingled a wide variety of
other conifers and deciduous trees of very many
species ; where level lands gave way to foothills and
mountain ranges, the trees assumed still greater size.
Forests covered even the mountain tops.

To the early settlers the forest was both a bless-
ing and a menace. From it were hewn the timbers
for their houses, barns, plows, and wagons, the rails
for their fences, and fuel to cook their food and tem-
per the heavy winters. It harbored plentiful game
for their sustenance. But also it was cover for sav-
age beasts and hostile Indians, and it had to be la-

84 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

boriously cleared away for fields to raise their corn.

It is no wonder that the early American colo-
nists considered the forest a mixed blessing, and that,
as is recorded, forest fires were often welcomed be-
cause they saved some of the labor of clearing farm
lands. Sometimes fires were lighted to drive game
to better shooting grounds. If also the fires de-
stroyed mountains of timber, what of it ? Was there
not forest enough on the levels to furnish timber for
thousands of years? Would trees not grow again?
For centuries the forest was considered inexhausti-
ble. Even in the eighteen eighties few but special-
ists doubted it. Even at the birth of the present cen-
tury, there was little real belief that the depletion
which exists to-day could possibly occur for many
generations, if at all.

Originally there were 1,064,528 square miles of
solid forest between the Atlantic and the prairies
within what is now the United States; and in the
West, in the Rockies, the Cascades and the Sierra,
and on the high plateaus, there were 220,062 square
miles more; these in a total area of 1,284,590 square
miles. Between the forests of the East and those of
the West lay a million and three quarters square
miles of prairie, unf orested plateau and desert.

To-day, we have 733,554 square miles of for-
ested lands left, which is somewhat more than half
the original area. But this includes 390,804 square
miles which have been cut over once or oftener and
can be restored only by scientific fire control and re-

STORY OF OUR NATIONAL FOREST 85

forestation, and 126,875 square miles which have
been so slashed, burnt, reburnt, and eroded as to be
wastes probably incapable of future usefulness.

There remains, therefore, only 215,875 square
miles of virgin forest out\»of 1,284,590 square miles
which the early colonists found here. To live off the
greater area, we then had a few thousand people
whose needs were little more than those of bare ex-
istence. To live off its remainder, we now have
more than a hundred and twelve millions whose com-
plicated modern requirements are many times per
capita greater than those of our forefathers. Ac-
cording to Richard H. D. Boerker, timber consump-
tion in France amounts to twenty-five cubic feet per
capita of population, in Germany to forty cubic feet
per capita, in the United States two hundred and
fifty cubic feet per capita. But we are not personally
so extravagant as the comparison makes us appear,
only unbelievably negligent. Half of this expendi-
ture is destruction. Forest fires have devoured an-
nually more timber than all uses combined.

The story of the ignorant, careless, almost blithe-
some dissipation of the grandest heritage of forest,
no doubt, of any land on earth is one of the world's
tragedies. We can better understand it of Asia and
southern Europe in civilization's childhood than of
stalwart, brainy America during the last hundred
years. Much of the forest, of course, had to give
place to the farms, villages and cities of a swiftly
growing nation. In the handling of the remainder,

86 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

that which to-day should be the nation's dependence,
lies the tragedy. Its history, culled from the enact-
ments of Congress, the speeches there made, and the
records of administrative bureaus of government, is
almost unbelievable as seen in the perspective of to-
day. It is a story of utter blindness, of ignorance of
startling facts, of passionate greed, of frauds on a
gigantic scale, of interests combining and competing
for the common spoils, of the complete subordina-
tion of national interest to sectional, local, partisan
and even personal interest. It constitutes one of the
darkest chapters of our national history.

It is not as if we had had no precedents. Eng-
land had directed her American colonists to con-
serve mast pine for her navy, imposing a fine of five
pounds for cutting trees under a foot in diameter.
The colonial governor of New York had charged
every person cutting a tree to plant five others. In
1736 Plymouth Colony passed a law against export-
ing lumber, and New Haven ordered that no trees
should be cut without magistrates' permission. The
young nation passed numerous laws protective of
the forest. In 1795 a Massachusetts society studied
and reported methods to increase timber growth. In
1799 Congress appropriated $200,000 for the pur-
chase and conservation of timber lands for Naval
use, and in 1831 a law was passed, which no attempt
was made to enforce, prohibiting lumbering of all
kinds in national lands.

The wasteful destruction which had inspired

STORY OF OUR NATIONAL FOREST 87

these and many other early conservational enact-
ments by the colonies, the new nation, and several of
the states, increased extraordinarily during the
quadrupling of the population in the half century
following 1820. Numerous official and private
warnings were meantime published, but were un-
heeded. The bare mountains and soil-less wastes in
Spain, in much of France and in the Far East were
cited as the inevitable end of a course which ap-
peared to grow madder as the population increased.
The vanishing of virgin white pine and black wal-
nut was predicted years before it occurred. But the
people, blinded by belief in the inexhaustibility of
their forests, remained indifferent, and Congress,
apparently drunk with the wealth at its disposal,
flung its vast treasures of woodland to whoever
asked in the name of local need or personal profit.
By 1870 more than 95,000 square miles of finest
timber lands had been presented to soldiers in extra
recognition of service, recalling our recent soldier
bonus, but far more costly even than that since it
gave what never could be replaced. Nearly all these
bonus lands passed quickly into the hands of specu-
lators at a fraction of their values even then. By
1870, nearly 200,000 square miles of rich forest had
found their way into private possession through
grants to states, and twice that — an area greater
than the combined total areas of the New England
and Middle Atlantic states with Ohio, Maryland,
and the Virginias thrown in — had been tossed free

88 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

to the railroads to encourage building. By 1870,
25,832 lumber manufacturing companies, some of
very large size, were in full-time operation. Lum-
ber interests ranked second in the bulk and value of
the national products.

And the dissipation of our colossal fortune of
forest had only begun.

What has happened since then — the swelling of
destruction's tide, the concentration of enormous
fortunes of forest lands in the hands of a few com-
panies without compensation to the nation, the cli-
max of greed, the sobering of a few, the organiza-
tion of conservation and beginning of the war of re-
covery, the passage of saving laws when the spoils-
men of Congress were not looking, the upbuilding
thereunder, amid a din of protest, of a great admin-
istrative service of conservation, the constant as-
saults in Congress upon this service even to the pres-
ent time, and the recent discovery of a new tremen-
dous usefulness for the remaining forest — that of
recreation — will be outlined in order.

First, for perspective's sake, let us view our
great forest as it was originally,

AMERICA'S HERITAGE OF FOREST

The forests which confronted rather formida-
bly the early settlers of the country were magnifi-
cent in the extreme. We shall first consider that in
the East.

In its northern section, including the states

STORY OF OUR NATIONAL FOREST 89

north of Connecticut and Rhode Island, most of
New York and Pennsylvania, the Great Lakes coun-
try and the crest of the Southern Appalachians as
far south as Georgia, the conifers prevailed. Four
species of pines including the famous white pine
which housed the growing nation for many decades,
hemlock, balsam fir, and three species of spruce cov-
ered together many thousands of square miles. But
growing with them in fascinating variety and oc-
casional profusion were many deciduous species.
Red, sugar, and silver maples, no less than ten spe-
cies of oaks, besides beech, ash, hickory, poplar, and
birch, were some of many hardwoods which, by their
very presence, differentiated the coniferous forests
of our East from those of the far West in which de-
ciduous trees formed an insignificant part.

In the South, the enormous yellow pine belt,
whose remainder to-day is the last considerable sin-
gle source of virgin pine east of the Rockies, bor-
dered the Atlantic coast from Chesapeake Bay to
Florida, and the Gulf coast westward into Texas.
In the alluvial bottoms and swamp lands of these
states, six or seven species of oak besides gum, pop-
lar, hickory, ash, beech, maple, elm, white cedar, lo-
cust, willow, cottonwood, bay, and sycamore were
numerous and luxuriant. Fragments of these hard-
wood interludes among the southern pines still
abound. The southern forest, it will be seen, was
marvelously varied and beautiful.

And between the northern and the southern

90 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

coniferous forests, bounded by them on three sides
and on the west by the prairies, grew the most re-
markable of all, a hardwood forest of grandeur and
enormous size, which farms have long since largely
replaced. Most of Connecticut, Rhode Island, New
Jersey, Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky, together with
parts of New York, Pennsylvania, the Virginias, the
Carolinas, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan
were included. It divided Illinois, Iowa, Missouri,
eastern Kansas, Oklahoma, and eastern Texas with
the prairie, and invaded the northern parts of what
now are Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Ar-
kansas.

An extraordinary hardwood forest, this! It
shared large areas with the conifers, several species
of which were well scattered throughout it. There
were no less than a dozen species of oak, several elms
and maples, beech, poplar, locust, chestnut, cotton-
wood, tulip, sycamore, butternut, cherry, and dog-
wood in profusion, not to mention many less com-
mon and lesser species. And there were included
large quantities of black walnut which supplied the
nation's household furniture for a long period.

As an entirety, our eastern forest probably
never had a peer for extent, variety, and beauty in
the world's history. More than a hundred and a
quarter species have been identified, which makes a
sharp contrast with the famous forest belt that is
the world's paradise of big trees, midway up the
Sierra of California, which has very few; wherein

STORY OF OUR NATIONAL FOREST 91

is discovered the richness, beauty, and charm with
which the eastern forest offsets the superior gran-
deur of that of the far West.

Down the higher slopes and summits of the
Southern Appalachians, northern conifers invaded
the far South, while up the sandy lowlands of the
Atlantic coast southern conifers thrust another long
finger invading the North. Thus, throughout the
East there then was, and is within the narrow limits
of forest remaining to-day, a delightful if sometimes
confusing variety.

On Mount Desert Island in Maine, for example,
in Lafayette National Park, southern species com-
mon on the Gulf of Mexico overlap northern species
from the shores of Hudson Bay. Throughout the
entire eastern forest, rarely anywhere in any con-
siderable area was possession complete either for
the conifers in their special ranges or for the decidu-
ous trees in theirs. There were usually a few pines,
at least, among the hardwoods, a few hardwoods
among the pines ; and throughout hundreds of thou-
sands of square miles the contest for supremacy pro-
duced remarkable variety and charm. Only the
spruces in close stands, because their dense foliage
ceilings excluded sunlight, discouraged invasion
even of their own kind. Of the eastern forest's
original total of 1,065,000 square miles, 439,000
square miles, a little more than forty per cent, con-
sisted of conifers.

The most famous of all eastern trees was the

92 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

white pine because of the great part it played in the
development of the young nation. Easily lumbered,
easily sawed and handled, heavy-trunked, strong yet
yielding to the tool, clean, white, straight-grained
and plentiful, it roofed the young nation and for
many years was one of its principal commodities in
domestic and foreign trade. One of the most beau-
tiful of trees individually and in stands, its loss to
the landscape also is very great. Young white pines
are growing lustily to-day in many limited areas
which have been spared by civilization's encroach-
ments, but it will take many years to produce giants
like those of old, and it is probable that high quality
white pine, once cheapest of lumber, will always re-
main as to-day the costliest. Its native lands are
now waste lands, farms, villages, and cities.

The greatness and the glory of our vast east-
ern forest have passed forever, but fortunately we
can see to-day, and posterity can see, examples of it
in something of its pristine loveliness preserved in
areas which fortuitously have escaped the swirling
currents of civilization as islands the rising tide. In
Cook County in western Pennsylvania, for example,
several thousand acres of noble white pine have been
held safe in a private estate, which is now the prized
property of Pennsylvania. Also, in the area chosen
for the Great Smokies National Parks on the crest
of the Southern Appalachians, there are many thou-
sands of acres of original forest untouched by the
axe, which will pass on as perpetual exhibits. Also

STORY OF OUR NATIONAL FOREST 93

in the eastern National Forests, notably in the
White Mountains, are fragments of untouched for-
est which, let us hope, may escape for many years.

So much for the vast eastern forest. The west-
ern forest was scarcely more than a fifth its size,
and was located on widely separated mountain
ranges and on islands of high plateau in oceans of
desert. But it possessed, and possesses, marvelous
distinction in the size and grandeur of its conifers.

You will recall that, between the Rockies and
the Sierra lies a vast semi-arid country, and that
the western slope of the Cascades and the Sierra is
famous for its forest of gigantic trees. The reason
is that the latter lofty barrier of mountains robs the
warm winds from the Pacific of moisture with
which nature meant to water half a continent.
Therefore the exuberant fertility of the western
slope of the Cascades and the Sierra. Therefore the
desert between these ranges and the Rockies.

As with other crops, forests depend wholly on
watering, and in the arid West water depends pri-
marily on altitude. Above certain altitudes, varying
also with latitude and local conditions, whatever
moisture the air contains deposits in dew, rain, and
snow while below it aridity prevails. Standing in
the most arid part of the great Navajo desert, for
example, Navajo Mountain is a forest-crowned pyra-
mid, from which cold streams descend to evaporate
in the desert.

So it is that the nation's great western forest

94 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

occurs in many isolated sections, great and small, de-
pendent upon altitudes. The main range of the
Rockies carries a ribbon of forest on either side its
barren and often snow-covered crest. So also many
of their component ranges, like the Bighorn, the Ab-
soroka, the Wasatch, and the Sangre de Cristo. So
also the Cascades and the towering Sierra. So also
isolated mountain masses in various parts of the
west, like the San Francisco Peaks in Arizona. So
also many lofty plateaus, like the splendid Kaibab
forest north of the Grand Canyon, which, with its
teeming population of deer, is wholly surrounded by
desert. When we speak of the Western Forest, we
mean all of these forested ribbons and fragments
considered as one.

Because conditioned by altitude, the western
forest far more than the eastern is affected by the
life zones which belt lofty mountains, so that a jour-
ney from the hot plains of California to the bald
summit of the high Sierra, for example, will encoun-
ter gradations of vegetation and animal species simi-
lar to those encountered in a lowland journey from
the Gulf to the Arctic.

Roughly differentiating the tree stocks of the
two main divisions of the western forest, that of the
Rockies and that of the Cascades and the Sierra,
very much is found in common, zone compared with
zone and latitude considered. In the north of both,
we find Douglas and lowland white firs, western red
cedar, lodgepole and western white pines, Engel-

STORY OF OUR NATIONAL FOREST 95

mann spruce, western hemlock, western larch, and
many lesser species. Farther south, in southern
Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, and Nevada
on the Rocky Mountain sides, and California on the
Sierra side, we find most of the same in lesser and
different proportions, with white spruce and a num-
ber of pines importantly added in the Rockies, and
redwood, sequoia, incense cedar, red and white fir,
and yellow, sugar, and foxtail pines in California.

Cataloguing and proportioning these very im-
portant trees and many others less important either
for lumber or landscape would make a fascinating
story in itself, but one unnecessary for the purposes
of this book.

What is necessary here, because it helps differ-
entiate the eastern and the western forests, is not-
ing the complete subordination of deciduous to co-
niferous trees in the lofty western forest. Oaks are
fairly numerous and beautiful, but comparatively
small. Maples are bushes in comparison with coni-
fers which in vast stands approach and sometimes
exceed two hundred feet in height. Aspen adds
brightness to moist places in the altitudes. There are
numerous others. The most conspicuous deciduous
tree at lower altitudes is the cottonwood. Together
the gracious hardwoods are the lacy trimmings to
the dark majestic court-dress of the high mountains.

Splendid the contribution of the Rockies and
their attendant ranges and plateaus to the magnifi-
cence of the western forest, but far greater is that

96 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

of the drenched western slopes of the Cascades and
the Sierra. It is Washington, Oregon, and Cali-
fornia which carry the world's honors in great trees.

The giant tree of the northwestern states is the
Douglas fir, second in grandeur only to the two se-
quoias of California, rising frequently to 180 feet or
more with trunk diameters as much as ten feet. The
western white pine, while rarely more than a hun-
dred and twenty-five feet high in the Rockies, is
twice that on the Pacific slope, with some occasion-
ally scoring as high as 275 feet in stature with trunk
diameters of five or six feet. Western red fir occa-
sionally reaches two hundred feet, with trunks six
feet thick. Western red cedar averages nearly as
lofty a stature, with trunk diameters of eight, twelve
and sometimes even sixteen feet at the swollen base.
Incense cedar attains a hundred and a quarter feet,
occasionally more, Engelmann spruce a hundred feet
on high mountain slopes, western hemlock a hundred
and seventy-five feet with occasional giants, sugar
pine a hundred and eighty feet and sometimes more,
with diameters sometimes as great as seven feet,
giant sequoias two hundred and eighty to three hun-
dred and thirty feet, with diameters up to twenty-
eight feet well above the ground, and redwood two
hundred and fifty to three hundred feet with occa-
sional examples even higher and diameters of six to
twelve feet, occasionally more.

These dimensions are desirable in order to em-
phasize the gigantic character of the western forest

STORY OF OUR NATIONAL FOREST 97

as compared with the eastern. Nothing can equal
in majesty the cathedrals of the main forest belt of
the mountain ranges facing the Pacific. With the
number of species far fewer, and deciduous trees
subordinated, nevertheless the balance of beauty
and the magnificence of profusion remains with the
fertile East.

The value of this vast original forest if com-
puted at the market prices of timber to-day would
run to figures of incomprehensible size. Such a cal-
culation would serve no purpose except to emphasize
the vastness of lost opportunity, the enormity of
what once were possibilities of national greatness and
wealth. It might make us better appreciate the
inevitable disaster always involved in dealing with a
national whole from the standpoint of local interest
and political ambition. So great has been the waste,
so disastrous the ignoring of destruction by fire,
that it is a safe statement that comparatively little
forest value remains in any shape to-day of the vast
potential wealth which the past has mishandled.

A little of our forest heritage remains, a fifth
part of which is now controlled by a federal bureau
possessing knowledge, devotion and efficient organi-
zation; the balance is in private possession. The
people are rapidly awakening. Hundreds of their
organizations are working locally, and a few nation-
ally, to spread information and better the outlook.
At last enlightened Congresses, the Sixty-Eighth,
Sixty-Ninth, and Seventieth, enacted laws which in

98 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

time may bring public and private owners of forest
lands into co-operation for protection. Whether en-
lightenment and co-operation can merely slow the
speed of inevitable depletion, or whether, as optimists
believe, the remaining forest can be so handled and
increased by reforestation that the needs of future
generations may still be reasonably met, remains to
be shown.

Whatever the result of present efforts toward
rehabilitation, this generation's problem is one for
promptness, with a margin allowing few errors.
The resurgence of sectionalism in efforts to con-
trol again the national is inevitable, but must be
quenched by national protest, for there is now no
leeway in surplus forest as in the past. Congres-
sional leaders of local causes and private interests
can no longer be allowed their day; there are few
days left.

In order that we may see our problem clearly,
let us glance at the period of culminating folly, that
from 1870 on, with its wholesome latter-day reac-
tion of organized conservation.

THE CLIMAX OF FOLLY

The increased forest destruction of the seven-
ties and eighties was greatly augmented by the Free
Timber Act and the Timber and Stone Act, both of
1872, yet it was the interpretation of ambiguous
statement in these acts rather than their original in-
tention which gave them their enormous power for

STORY OF OUR NATIONAL FOREST 99

mischief. The Free Timber Act gave the people of
nine far western states the right to cut at will on
mineral lands for mining and domestic purposes, but
it did not define originally either mineral lands or
mining. In time any convenient forest anywhere
was assumed to grow on mineral lands, and smelt-
ing and manufacturing companies were assumed to
have the miner's right to free timber. For one ex-
ample, vast forest areas were burnt over to cheapen
the manufacture of charcoal, the enormous surplus
of which, over its use for smelting, being sold in
the open market as a by-product.

The Timber and Stone Act confined timber
grants to 160 acres, inviting evasion because so
small an area could not be lumbered economically;
whereupon developed frauds of the most extraordi-
nary effrontery and extent. Besides, since home-
steading laws made no distinction between farm and
forest lands, many million acres of the finest forest
in the country were taken up under the Preemption
Act, the Commutation Homestead Act and the Des-
ert Land Act by dummies acting for lumber com-
panies. So demoralized did public sentiment become
in some of the forested states that acting as dum-
mies became practically a calling, while many no-
madic operators erected temporary mills wherever
conditions favored, without pretense of settlement
or purchase, and lumbered till they were stopped,
when they moved elsewhere.

The fact is that appropriations for government

ioo OUR FEDERAL LANDS

inspection in the federal lands were so small that
few frauds, compared with the many, could be prose-
cuted; and, because Congress repeatedly defeated
bills to give the federal departments power to com-
pel the testimony of witnesses, few law-breakers
were brought to trial. Cases by the thousand were
thrown out of court for lack of competent proof
which could have been had if it had been possible to
subpoena witnesses who would not serve voluntarily.
In 1885, the United States government sought to
recover the value of sixty million feet of high grade
lumber stolen from the public forests by a single
California company.

Meantime, under the constant urgings of Sena-
tors and Representatives from forested states, the
laws were constantly amended to favor the "poor
settler," who was described as struggling to "keep
a roof over the heads of his children," whereas the
final beneficiaries were almost always speculators or
wealthy companies. Under the rulings of Secretary
of the Interior H. M. Teller of Colorado, and of sev-
eral Public Lands Commissioners and other officials
here and there in power, the freest possible construc-
tion was put upon ambiguous phrases in the forest
laws. For one example, when the railroads had dis-
posed of the timber in their own munificent grants,
Secretary Teller construed the phrase "adjacent
to the line of road" in the Right-of-Way Act to
mean that railroads could cut timber free within
fifty miles of their tracks. Later he approved the

STORY OF OUR NATIONAL FOREST 101

operations of a "logging railroad" company in
Washington, which built and operated no railroad
whatever except those sunk into the forest for the
sole purpose of carrying timber to market. This
made the precedent for any logging company with a
locomotive, track, and half a dozen flat cars to se-
cure the vast tracts of lumber free which the law
granted to great railroads.

Many railroads hired men to file claims on
worthless grant lands, counting upon the Interior
Department allowing them unclaimed forested lands
in any state crossed by their roads in exchange. A
later Secretary of the Interior, John W. Noble,
found 105,000 untried cases against forest depre-
dators accumulated in the Land Office, which he dis-
posed of by still further "liberalizing" the adminis-
trative interpretation of the laws.

For many years these practices were open se-
crets, and many times were frauds charged in local
political campaigns and denounced in newspaper
editorials; but, failing convictions, the frauds were
never much believed by the public, which was dis-
posed to attribute these periodic sensations to poli-
tics. There were local and national investigations
which failed and were discounted as political. Only
once were lumber scandals of magnitude brought
home, when two members of Congress were in-
dicted ; but one of these died untried and the indict-
ment against the other was quashed under a succeed-
ing administration.

102 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

It is useless to multiply facts and instances,
which could be cited by hundreds. During this long
period lumber legislation occupied a considerable
part of every session of Congress. In the painstaking
cataloguing of Congressional bills and enactments
and of administrative acts affecting forests compiled
by Dr. John Ise of the University of Kansas ("The
United States Forest Policy," Yale University
Press), the names of certain legislators from for-
ested states principally in the west recur again and
again. It is surprising how small the group, when
all is told, which handled in Congress this transfer
of vast national wealth to the railroad magnates,
speculators and unabashed thieves who for many
years made grabbing the nation's forests a highly
specialized and enormously profitable business. But
still more surprising is it to the plain citizen to dis-
cover how easily political conventions and Congres-
sional tradition served to restrain from interference
the mass of well-meaning but ignorant representa-
tives in Congress of the general people. The his-
toric assumption that all natural resources within a
state's boundaries belong solely to its own people
and that "foreign" Congressmen are presumptuous
in advancing national claims thereto is the first
"principle" pounded into the heads of newcomers
in Congress. Trading votes was as common then as
it is now and always will be, and then as now the
interest of political parties was skilfully distorted
to cover a multitude of sins of commission as well
as omission which were made to look like policy in-

STORY OF OUR NATIONAL FOREST 103

stead of sin. It is an axiom that every generation
has the Congress which it deserves. During these
generations the people of America slept soundly, so
far as concerned the national interest in its forests.

Rapidly reviewing the acts of Congress and the
rulings of departments during these years of forest
dissipation, one is more powerfully impressed by the
absence of national horizons and the paralysis of the
moral sense on the part of both operators and legis-
lators even than he is by the frightful losses which
the greed of quick wealth imposed on the nation.
Each state insisted intensely on disposing as it
pleased of the nation's lumber grown within its own
boundaries, each lumberman and speculator grabbed
strenuously all he could get while it lasted, and each
legislator demanded his fullest share of political
power and prestige ; nearly all of them ignored abso-
lutely the nation's interest.

Here and there we find emerging on the records
of Congress a man of national vision; the rest ap-
pear what the rest always are, either self-seekers or
lookers-on. There appear many who, like Pontius
Pilate, showed interest once or twice but, as soon
as vigorously opposed, made haste to wash their
hands. It was not until the people themselves awoke
to the fact that their wealth of forest had nearly dis-
appeared and had assumed control by emphatically
instructing their own Congressmen, that the era of
conservation, so many years struggling toward the
surface, found expression.

It is always difficult for the mass of the people,

104 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

without actual experience with Congress, to under-
stand the inhibitions, the presumptions, the written
and unwritten rules, and the political considerations
which govern our representative assembly. Every
man on entering Congress is inspired by high public
purposes, and nearly all maintain these as personal
ideals throughout their careers; but once in Con-
gress they find themselves in a new and different
environment whose complications and greater per-
spectives impose personal and political problems
which the few only can solve. It has been said that
sixty men of the five hundred in both houses rule
the country, but the people behind Congress never-
theless always determine the issues which they them-
selves feel deeply enough to carry in large numbers
to their own representatives. In these instances,
which are too rare, the inconspicuous majority in
Congress comes into its own, because each Congress-
man personally and for his party's sake wants re-
election, and rises to the personal call of his own
constituents. The leaders also quickly fall in line
with the sentiments of those on whom they believe
their renomination and re-election depend.

Popular protests nevertheless are unpopular,
even among the highest minded Congressmen, be-
cause they upset policies, habits, and relationships,
personal and political, imposed by the very nature of
such assemblies — a fact often utilized by the self-
seekers to discourage revolt and independent action.

Since the late war during which enemy propa-
ganda assumed such dangerous proportions, pub-

STORY OF OUR NATIONAL FOREST 105

licity has been called by two names in Congress ac-
cording to the point of view. If it favors a Con-
gressman's cause, he may call it "publicity." If it
opposes his cause, he may call it "propaganda."

THE COMING OF CONSERVATION

We have seen that forest conservation was the
subject of official action in early colonial times, and
that in 1831 Congress passed a law, futile but sig-
nificant historically, which forbade lumbering in
public lands.

In 1849 tne Commissioner of Patents issued
what appears to be the first warning from adminis-
trative sources of a disappearing forest. In 1855,
the Interior Department ordered that all lumber cut
on public lands should be seized and sold. Between
1860 and 1872 other warnings followed from official
sources, and there was much discussion of forestry
throughout the country; this found its reflection in
Congress. Bitter complaints from forest Congress-
men about the government's "illegal interference"
with lumbering on federal lands provoked counter
charges of waste and spoliation. Senator Cole of
California introduced a bill for lumber culture as
early as 1867. Senator Ross of Kansas followed
with others. Many forest conservation bills of many
kinds, offered during this period, failed of considera-
tion. In 1870 the first inventory was made of forest
lands, which were then estimated at 39 per cent of
the total area of the country.

The first special appropriation for forest pro-

io6 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

tection, $5,000, was made in 1872. In 1873 the
American Association for the Advancement of Sci-
ence memorialized Congress and the legislatures of
several states on the necessity for forest protection.
Between 1869 and 1878, protective and forest cul-
ture laws were passed by Maine, Connecticut, Rhode
Island, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Mich-
igan, Illinois, Missouri, Dakota, Wyoming, Nevada,
Colorado, Washington and California, and the
movement emerged to plant trees along highways.
In 1874 Nebraska inaugurated Arbor Day. In
1878 President Hayes called the serious attention
of Congress to the need of better protecting forests
on federal lands.

Thus gradually began forest conservation,
though the name was not yet current. The popular
movement may be dated, for the sake of a date, from
the action of the American Association for the Ad-
vancement of Science in 1873. The committee con-
sisted of H. P. Hough of New York, who was ex-
ceedingly active thereafter for many years, George
B. Emerson of Boston, Asa Gray of Cambridge,
Massachusetts, J. D. Whitney of California, J. S.
Newberry and Lewis Morgan of New York, Wil-
liam H. Brewer of New Haven, Charles Whittlesby
of Cleveland, Ohio, and E. W. Hilgard of Ann
Arbor, Michigan, whose names may constitute a
Roll of Honor.

Representative Herndon of Texas followed up
the Association's campaign in 1874 with a bill to ap-

STORY OF OUR NATIONAL FOREST 107

point a commission of inquiry into forest destruc-
tion, but it failed. The next year Representative
Dunnell of Minnesota introduced a similar bill which
failed, but he hung a rider on the seed distribution
bill which of course passed. Thus was an appropri-
ation of $2,000 secured for a report, and the Secre-
tary of Agriculture appointed F. B. Hough of the
American Association for the Advancement of Sci-
ence to undertake the work. Two years later Rep-
resentative Dunnell got another $2,000 to finish the
report, and, when completed, Congress appropriated
$25,000 for printing and distribution.

The cause of forest protection was now at least
formally launched. The first popular forestry or-
ganizations followed. The American Forestry As-
sociation was started in Philadelphia in the year of
the Centennial, 1876, and a state association fol-
lowed in Minnesota. But it was not until 1882 that
forestry became a popular movement. Then the
American Forestry Association, which had lan-
guished meantime, was recognized as a vital influ-
ence following a notable Forestry Congress in Cin-
cinnati. State organizations in Ohio, Pennsylvania,
Maine, Texas, Florida, New York and elsewhere
followed during the next few years. Quickened by
popular interest, forest conservation sentiment made
headway in Congress. Local and sectional grab-
bing no longer had an undisputed field.

The earliest official herald of the future direc-
tion of forest conservation was a bill by Represen-

io8 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

tative Fort of Illinois to set aside forest reserves at
the head of navigable streams. It died for lack of
interest, and meantime, under the old Swamp Land
grants, vast forest areas were passing into specula-
tive hands. Of Florida's quota of public lands, a
hundred thousand square miles, largely forest, disap-
peared within a few years, a quarter of it in one
sale at twenty-five cents an acre.

About this time another idea found expression
which was to loom large in the coming conservation
of the remaining forests. Senator Clayton of Ar-
kansas having introduced a bill authorizing the sale
of southern pine lands based on the current belief
that private ownership would assure fire protection,
Senator Boutwell of Massachusetts voiced the future
in an amendment to sell the timber while retaining
the land in national ownership. The idea was new
to Congress, and was immediately opposed. The
amendment was thrown out and the bill passed. In
the debate, Senator Howe of Wisconsin expressed a
sentiment common enough then, and still, unhappily,
persistent, in these words :

"When he (Senator Boutwell) calls upon us to
embark in the protection of generations yet unborn,
I am inclined to reply that they have never done any-
thing for me."

Under President Cleveland, the timber thieves,
then at the high tide of activity, were rigorously
curbed within the limits of slender appropriations.
Commissioner of the Land Office William Sparks

STORY OF OUR NATIONAL FOREST 109

urged bills in Congress which were violently op-
posed, and Secretary Carl Schurz moved vigorously
for fire protection but without efficient response
from Congress. Public alarm was awakening, how-
ever, and the newspaper and magazine press there-
after frequently discussed forestry, especially tree
culture and fire protection. Appropriations to study
forest questions gradually developed from the origi-
nal $5,000 in 1872 to $100,000 in 1890. A Division
of Forestry was organized in 1881 to study condi-
tions, and an agent was sent abroad to observe for-
estry work in other lands.

Then came the "Forest Reserve Act/' which
made possible all that has happened since and that
will happen in future years toward rehabilitation of
American forests. It was not a separate act, but
passed in 1891 as a rider added to another bill in
conference. No special agitation led up to it. The
fact is that its tremendous importance was not ap-
preciated, nor the prompt and sweeping use which
would be made of it suspected. But as an indepen-
dent bill it could not possibly have passed any Con-
gress of that period.

Leading up to it from 1876, Representative
Fort of Illinois, Secretary Schurz, Senators Cam-
eron of Wisconsin, Sherman of Ohio, Miller of New
York, and Representatives Converse, Butterworth,
Taylor and Sherman of Ohio, Deuster of Wiscon-
sin, Hatch of Missouri, Markham and Clunie of
California, Joseph of New Mexico, and Holman of

I io OUR FEDERAL LANDS

Indiana had all introduced bills more or less sym-
pathetic with the idea of reservations. Few of these
were even considered in committee, and none passed
both houses. But they reflected growing public
opinion and, broadcasting the reservation idea, pre-
pared the way by accustoming Congress and the peo-
ple to the idea. Several of these bills called definitely
for reservations of land from which the timber was
to be sold — but the land held in public ownership.

More immediately contributory was the memo-
rial of the American Association for the Advance-
ment of Science to President Harrison in 1889 vig-
orously urging forest reservations. This he trans-
mitted to Congress, but Representative Dunnell's
bill founded upon it failed.

The Forest Reserve Act passed in this way : In
1891, the General Revision Act, not a forest but a
general land measure, was passed by both houses
and went into conference for the settlement of a
few points of difference. The American Forestry
Association persuaded Secretary of the Interior
Noble to ask for a rider authorizing the President
to establish forest reserves. It was fortunate that
four of the six conferees happened to favor forest
reserves, with the others unopposed. The conferees
wrote the clause into the bill as Section 24. A forest
measure was not expected in a general land bill, and,
in the usual rush at the close of the session, bill and
rider passed without opposition.

In this indirect way, so often used for less

STORY OF OUR NATIONAL FOREST in

worthy ends, was secured the most important act of
conservation in the history of the country!

President Harrison lost no time in making use
of it. Beginning with a forest reserve adjoining Yel-
lowstone National Park, he created fifteen reserva-
tions during the balance of his term of office, total-
ling more than twenty thousand square miles. Pres-
ident Cleveland created two more, and later, on
February 22, 1897, upon the recommendation of a
committee of the National Academy of Sciences, he
created thirteen others having an area of thirty-
three thousand square miles.

The first and second groups of reservations
created no special opposition, though bills were
promptly introduced, but failed, to undermine their
effectiveness.

But with Cleveland's final thirteen broke a
storm of opposition. These reservations locked up
specially important forests, and Senators Allen, of
Nebraska, Carter of Montana, Clark of Wyoming
and others introduced bills to revoke them, which
they backed with western vehemence and stirring
eloquence. The President was denounced by many
in unmeasured terms.

Dr. Charles D. Walcott undertook to steer the
storm-ridden bark of conservation into safer waters
by persuading Senator Pettigrew of Dakota to in-
troduce a bill authorizing grazing, timber sales, and
free timber for actual settlers, within the reserves.
The bill also provided for exchanging existing claims

112 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

on lands within the reserves for patented land else-
where. The bill passed, damaged by amendments,
to be sure, but it saved the reserves and defined the
sure path ahead.

From this event on, the story hastens. In Sep-
tember, 1901, Theodore Roosevelt became President
and the decade began which has been called the
golden age of forest preservation. Already the lit-
tle Division of Forestry with Gifford Pinchot at its
head had become a flaming torch. Schools of for-
estry were founded at Cornell, Yale, the University
of Michigan and elsewhere. Forestry journals were
started. State associations were formed in New
Hampshire, Iowa, Nebraska, Kentucky, Maine,
West Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia and Loui-
siana. In 1908 the National Conservation League
was organized with Walter L. Fisher as president,
and the following year, Dr. Charles W. Eliot of
Harvard headed a National Conservation Associa-
tion with forestry as a main objective. In 1908,
both the Democratic and Republican conventions
wrote forest protection planks into their platforms,
an example followed by the Progressive and Pro-
hibition conventions four years later.

Pinchot extended the conservation idea to cover
other public resources including coal, gas, iron, graz-
ing, and water for irrigation and power, filling the
country with enthusiastic propaganda. Roosevelt
concentrated his enormous driving power behind
conservation, making it a constructive national pol-

STORY OF OUR NATIONAL FOREST 113

icy. Characteristically he bent Congress to his will,
defying opposition. Foreseeing the future, he cre-
ated organizations within the government which
long after became beneficent and powerful bureaus.
The big stick was never used with more efficiency
than in the interest of conservation.

Let Roosevelt summarize this period himself.
The following is from the "Autobiography" :

"When I became President, the Bureau of For-
estry (since 1905 the United States Forest Service)
was a small but growing organization under Gif-
f ord Pinchot occupied mainly with laying the foun-
dation of American forestry by scientific study of
the forests, and with the promotion of forestry on
private lands. It contained all the trained foresters
in the Government service, but had charge of no
public timberland whatsoever. The Government
forest reserves of that day were in the care of a
Division in the General Land Office, under the man-
agement of clerks wholly without knowledge of for-
estry, few if any of whom had ever seen a foot of
the timberlands for which they were responsible.
Thus the reserves were neither well protected nor
well used. There were no foresters among men who
had charge of the National Forests, and no Govern-
ment forests in charge of the Government foresters.

"In my first message to Congress I strongly
recommended the consolidation of the forest work in
the hands of the trained men of the Bureau of For-
estry. This recommendation was repeated in other

H4 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

messages, but Congress did not give effect to it until
three years later. In the meantime, by thorough
study of the Western public timberlands, the ground-
work was laid for the responsibilities which were to
fall upon the Bureau of Forestry when the care of
the National Forests came to be transferred to it.
It was evident that trained American Foresters
would be needed in considerable numbers, and a for-
est school was established at Yale to supply them.

"In 1901, at my suggestion as President, the
Secretary of the Interior, Mr. Hitchcock, made a
formal request for technical advice from the Bureau
of Forestry in handling the National Forests, and
an extensive examination of their condition and
needs was accordingly taken up. The same year a
study was begun of the proposed Appalachian Na-
tional Forest, the plan of which, already formulated
at that time, has since been carried out. A year later
experimental planting on the National Forests was
also begun, and studies preparatory to the applica-
tion of practical forestry to the Indian Reservations
were undertaken. In 1903, so rapidly did the public
work of the Bureau of Forestry increase that the
examination of land for new forest reserves was
added to the study of those already created, the for-
est lands of the various states were studied, and co-
operation with several of them in the examination
and handling of their forest lands was undertaken.

"While these practical tasks were pushed for-
;ward, a technical knowledge of American Forests

STORY OF OUR NATIONAL FOREST 115

was rapidly accumulated. The special knowledge
gained was made public in printed bulletins ; and at
the same time the Bureau undertook, through the
newspaper and periodical press, to make all the peo-
ple of the United States acquainted with the needs
and the purposes of practical forestry. It is doubt-
ful whether there has ever been elsewhere under the
Government such effective publicity — publicity pure-
ly in the interest of the people — at so low a cost.
Before the educational work of the Forest Service
was stopped by the Taf t Administration, it was se-
curing the publication of facts about forestry in
fifty million copies of newspapers a month at a to-
tal expense of $6,000 a year. Not one cent has ever
been paid by the Forest Service to any publication of
any kind for the printing of this material. It was
given out freely, and published without cost because
it was news. Without this publicity the Forest Ser-
vice could not have survived the attacks made upon
it by the representatives of the great special inter-
ests in Congress; nor could forestry in America
have made the rapid progress it has.

"The result of all the work outlined above was
to bring together in the Bureau of Forestry, by the
end of 1904, the only body of forest experts under
the Government, and practically all of the first-hand
information about the public forests which was then
in existence. In 1905, the obvious foolishness of
continuing to separate the foresters and the forests,
reinforced by the action of the. First National For-

ii6 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

est Congress, held in Washington, brought about
the Act of February i, 1905, which transferred the
National Forests from the care of the Interior De-
partment to the Department of Agriculture, and re-
sulted in the creation of the present United States
Forest Service.

"The men upon whom the responsibility of han-
dling some sixty million acres of National Forest
lands was thus thrown were ready for the work,
both in the office and in the field, because they had
been preparing for it for more than five years.
Without delay they proceeded, under the leadership
of Pinchot, to apply to the new work the principles
they had already formulated. One of these was to
open all the resources of the National Forests to
regulated use. Another was that of putting every
part of the land to that use in which it would best
serve the public. Following this principle, the Act
of June n, 1906, was drawn, and its passage was
secured from Congress. This law throws open to
settlement all land in the National Forests that is
found, on examination, to be chiefly valuable for ag-
riculture. Hitherto all such land had been closed to
the settler.

"The principles thus formulated and applied
may be summed up in the statement that the rights
of the public to the natural resources outweigh pri-
vate rights, and must be given its first consideration.
Until that time, in dealing with the National Forests
and the public lands generally, private rights had

STORY OF OUR NATIONAL FOREST 117

almost uniformly been allowed to overbalance public
rights. The change we made was right, and was
vitally necessary; but, of course, it created bitter
opposition from private interests.

"One of the principles whose application was
the source of much hostility was this: It is better
for the Government to help a poor man to make a
living for his family than to help a rich man make
more profit for his company. This principle was
too sound to be fought openly. It is the kind of
principle to which politicians delight to pay unctuous
homage in words. But we translated the words into
deeds ; and when they found that this was the case,
many rich men, especially sheep owners, were stirred
to hostility, and they used the Congressmen they
controlled to assault us — getting most aid from cer-
tain demagogues, who were equally glad improperly
to denounce rich men in public and improperly to
serve them in private. The Forest Service estab-
lished and enforced regulations which favored the
settler as against the large stock owner; required
that necessary reductions in the stock grazed on any
National Forest should bear first on the big man,
before the few head of the small man, upon which
the living of his family depended, were reduced ; and
made grazing in the National Forests a help instead
of a hindrance to permanent settlement. As a re-
sult, the small settlers and their families became, on
the whole, the best friends the Forest Service has;
although in places their ignorance was played on by

ii8 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

demagogues to influence them against the policy that
was primarily for their own interest.

"Another principle which led to the bitterest
antagonism of all was this : whoever (except a bona-
fide settler) takes public property for private profit
should pay for what he gets. In the effort to apply
this principle, the Forest Service obtained a decision
from the Attorney-General that it was legal to make
the men who grazed sheep and cattle on the National
Forests pay for what they got. Accordingly, in the
summer of 1906, for the first time, such a charge
was made; and, in the face of bitterest opposition,
it was collected.

"Up to the time the National Forests were put
under the charge of the Forest Service, the Interior
Department had made no effort to establish public
regulation and control of water-powers. Upon the
transfer, the Service immediately began -its fight to
handle the power resources of the National Forests
so as to prevent speculation and monopoly and to
yield a fair return to the Government. On May i,
1906, an Act was passed granting the use of certain
power sites in Southern California to the Edison
Electric Power Company, which Act, at the sug-
gestion of the Service, limited the period of the per-
mit to forty years, and required the payment of an
annual rental by the company, the same conditions
which were thereafter adopted by the Service as the
basis for all permits for power development. Then
began a vigorous fight against the position of the

GRAZING IN IDAHO NATIONAL FOREST

From a photograph by W. S. Clime, courtesy of the U. S. Forest Service

COUNTING SHEEP ENTERING NATIONAL FOREST
Upon their number depends the fee charged by the government

STORY OF OUR NATIONAL FOREST 119

Service by the water-power interests. The right to
charge for water-power development was, however,
sustained by the Attorney-General.

"In 1907, the area of the National Forests was
increased by Presidential proclamation more than
forty-three million acres ; the plant necessary for the
full use of the Forests, such as roads, trails, and tele-
phone-lines, began to be provided on a large scale;
the interchange of field and office men, so as to pre-
vent the antagonism between them which is so de-
structive of efficiency in most great businesses, was
established as a permanent policy ; and the really ef-
fective management of the enormous area of the
National Forests began to be secured.

"With all this activity in the field, the progress
of technical forestry and popular education was not
neglected. In 1907, for example, sixty-one publica-
tions on various phases of forestry, with a total of
more than a million copies, were issued, as against
three publications, with a total of eighty-two thou-
sand copies, in 1901. By this time, also, the opposi-
tion of the servants of the special interests in Con-
gress to the Forest Service had become strongly
developed, and more time appeared to be spent in the
yearly attacks upon it during the passage of the ap-
propriation bills than on all other Government Bu-
reaus put together. Every year the Forest Service
had to fight for its life.

"One incident in these attacks is worth record-
ing. While the Agricultural Appropriation Bill was

120 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

passing through the Senate, in 1907, Senator Ful-
ton, of Oregon, secured an amendment providing
that the President could not set aside any additional
National Forests in the six Northwestern States.
This meant retaining some sixteen million of acres
to be exploited by land grabbers and by the repre-
sentatives of the great special interests, at the ex-
pense of the public interest. But for four years the
Forest Service had been gathering field notes as to
what forests ought to be set aside in these States,
and so was prepared to act. It was equally unde-
sirable to veto the whole Agricultural bill, and to
sign it with this amendment effective. Accordingly,
a plan to create the necessary National Forests in
these States before the Agricultural Bill could be
passed and signed was laid before me by Mr. Pin-
chot. I approved it. The necessary papers were
immediately prepared. I signed the last proclama-
tion a couple of days before, by my signature, the
bill became law; and, when the friends of the spe-
cial interests in the Senate got the amendment
through and woke up, they discovered that sixteen
million acres of timberland had been saved for the
people by putting them in the National Forests be-
fore the land grabbers could get at them. The op-
ponents of the Forest Service turned handsprings
in their wrath; and dire were their threats against
the Executive, but the threats could not be carried
out, and were really only a tribute to the efficiency
of our action. . . .

STORY OF OUR NATIONAL FOREST 121

"The theory of stewardship in the interest of
the public was well illustrated by the establishment
of a water-power policy. Until the Forest Service
changed the plan, water-powers on the navigable
streams, on the public domain, and in the National
Forests were given away for nothing, and substan-
tially without question, to whoever asked for them.
At last, under the principle that public property
should be paid for and should not be permanently
granted away when such permanent grant is avoid-
able, the Forest Service established the policy of reg-
ulating the use of power in the National Forests in
the public interest and making a charge for value
received. This was the beginning of the water-
power policy now substantially accepted by the pub-
lic, and doubtless soon to be enacted into law. But
there was at the outset violent opposition to it on the
part of the water-power companies, and such repre-
sentatives of their views in Congress as Messrs.
Tawney and Bede.

"Many bills were introduced in Congress aimed,
in one way or another, at relieving the power com-
panies of control and payment. When these bills
reached me I refused to sign them; and the injury to
the public interest which would follow their passage
was brought sharply to public attention in my mes-
sage of February 26, 1908. The bills made no fur-
ther progress.

"Under the same principle of stewardship, rail-
roads and other corporations, which applied for and

122 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

were given rights in the National Forests, were reg-
ulated in the use of those rights. In short, the pub-
lic resources in charge of the Forest Service were
handled frankly and openly for the public welfare
under the clear cut and clearly set forth principle
that the public rights come first and private interest
second.

"The natural result of this new attitude was
the assertion in every form by the representatives
of special interests that the Forest Service was ex-
ceeding its legal powers and thwarting the intention
of Congress. Suits were begun wherever the chance
arose. It is worth recording that, in spite of the
novelty and complexity of the legal questions it had
to face, no court of last resort has ever decided
against the Forest Service."

Since Mr. Roosevelt penned these words in
1913, his expectation that his arbitrary water-power
policy would be enacted into law has been more than
fulfilled in the Federal Power Act of 1920. His
theory of public stewardship, which as President he
sometimes effected without Congressional authority
and against the most violent opposition, has been
written into many laws. His expectation that the
Forest Service would survive many assaults has been
amply verified. Under Gifford Pinchot's able and
public-spirited successors, Henry S. Graves, William
B. Greeley, and Robert Y. Stuart, it has won the in-
creasing confidence of the people.

During the Roosevelt regime public sentiment

STORY OF OUR NATIONAL FOREST 123

naturally settled into definitely opposing camps. For
the first time anti-conservation organized to meet
the conservationists who, without respect to party
and in every state in the nation, gathered in con-
stantly increasing numbers behind the Roosevelt
leadership. The struggles increased in purpose and
in violence, centering principally at first upon agri-
culture and grazing in the public forests, and later
upon governmental charges for private use of pub-
lic utilities. The latter, which Roosevelt relentlessly
carried through upon an opinion of the Attorney-
General without Congressional authority, provoked
years of bitter struggle. He won his conservation
causes because he was perpetually aggressive, for-
cing the fight at many points at the same time, in-
ferring executive authority from general enactments
and acting promptly and forcefully thereunder.
From the beginning to the end of his presidency,
he kept the anti-conservationists in Congress on the
defense — always excited, often vituperative, never
quite catching up.

The Agricultural Appropriation bill of 1907
which anti-conservationists used by amendment to
rob the President of his power to create forest re-
serves in certain states was not all loss, for another
of its provisions permitted the use of national re-
serve timber outside the boundaries of the states
where it was cut. This once for all nationalized our
forests, which thereafter were accurately and offi-
cially called National Forests.

124 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

No serious attempt was made during Roose-
velt's administration or since to repeal the Timber
and Stone Act, under which, according to the Na-
tional Academy of Sciences, eleven billion feet of
timber were stolen from the public forests during
the decade ending in 1897, because by that time little
public timber-land of value remained outside the
National Forests. It is still on the statute books.
So also are the equally "generous" Free Timber and
Permit Acts under which manufacturing at no
charge for raw material was conducted at enormous
profits for many years.

Throughout the country, the "golden age dec-
ade" was marked by the rapid spread of conserva-
tion ideals and popular organization, the reaction
of which had its powerful effect on Congress. Nev-
ertheless, the anti-conservation group struggled man-
fully; some of its chieftains maintain to-day, less
strenuously but ready when opportunity offers, their
advocacy of local as opposed to national uses of the
National Forests, together with an attitude of con-
stant criticism of the Forest Service.

Among the men of that time who led the oppo-
sition to the policy of forest conservation were Sena-
tors Carter of Wyoming, Cannon of Illinois, Tawney
of Minnesota, Heyburn of Idaho and Fulton of
Oregon, occasionally or frequently assisted by Shaf-
roth and Patterson of Colorado, Jones of Washing-
ton, Bailey of Texas, Fordney of Michigan, Hemin-
way of Indiana, and others. Senators Hale of

STORY OF OUR NATIONAL FOREST 125

Maine and Lodge of Massachusetts are among the
many who markedly showed at one time or another
sympathy with conservation's enemies. In the
House, the names of Representatives Mondell of
Wyoming, Wilson of Idaho, Floyd of Arkansas,
Booker and Clark of Missouri, Bennett and Fitz-
gerald of New York, Hamilton of Michigan, and
Haugen of Iowa appear as opponents of forest con-
servation, or as unfailing critics of the Forest Ser-
vice, or as both.

It will be seen that opposition was by no means
confined to the West. Nor was the advocacy of for-
est conservation confined to the East. The names of
Senators Beveridge of Indiana, Platt of Connecti-
cut, Nelson of Minnesota, Dolliver of Iowa, New-
lands of Nevada, Spooner of Wisconsin, Warren
of Wyoming and Hansbrough of North Dakota,
and of Representatives Lacey of Iowa, Rawling of
Utah and many others in the House appear fre-
quently in the records of the often heated debates of
the period, ranged on the side of national interest.
In spite of the claims loudly made then and since,
forest conservation was not and is not a sectional
but a national question, and then as now had its
earnest advocates in all the states.

The extension of the National Forests to the
East marks another great stride toward forest re-
cuperation. This was accomplished by the passage
of the Weeks Bill on February n, 1911, appropri-
ating two million dollars a year until 1915 inclusive

126 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

for the purchase of forest lands in the White Moun-
tains and the Southern Appalachians. Until that
date, National Forests were confined to lands al-
ready in possession of the nation.

The first move toward this end was made in
1899 when the Appalachian National Park Associa-
tion was organized in Asheville, North Carolina.
The following year this Association together with
the Appalachian Mountain Club, the American Asso-
ciation for the Advancement of Science, and the
American Forestry Association memorialized Con-
gress, and Senator Pritchard of North Carolina se-
cured a small appropriation for investigation. His
bill to appropriate five million dollars for Appala-
chian reserves, together with several which followed,
failed. A considerable series of bills appropriating
for reserves in both the White Mountains and
Southern Appalachians also failed, due principally to
the opposition of Speaker Cannon in the House and
western anti-conservationists. But Roosevelt vig-
orously approved, Missouri, Minnesota, Texas and
New York wanted National Forests of their own,
and the bill introduced by Representative John W.
Weeks of Massachusetts in 1909 finally passed the
House in 1911 by a vote of 130 to 1 1 1, and the Sen-
ate by a vote of 57 to 9.

The bill's stated purpose was to conserve the
flow of navigable streams by protecting their sources ;
this because doubt existed whether appropriations to
buy forest lands for lumber conservation were con-

From a photograph by A. G. Varela, courtesy of the U. S. Forest Service

A NATIONAL FOREST IN NORTH CAROLINA
Showing a glimpse of the celebrated Linville Falls

STORY OF OUR NATIONAL FOREST 127

stitutional ; but the debate and the vote hung on the
lumber issue. Another peculiarity was that southern
members voted solidly for forest reservations under
national control in their own mountains; this in
marked contrast with the South's traditional opposi-
tion to centralization of government.

It will be seen that a mighty change has taken
place in public sentiment.

Between the Weeks Act of 191 1 and the Clarke-
McNary Act of 1924 elapsed a period of consoli-
dation, reconstruction, study, growth and prepara-
tion. The Weeks Act dropped the curtain on an
unholy past. The Clarke-McNary Act lifted it to a
sane future.

Meantime conservation had become a national
creed. The people had awakened, and preservation
was the word of the hour. Wild life conservation
hastened its already vigorous stride. National, state,
and local organizations were born to protect the
birds, the beasts, the wild flowers. Many hundreds
of organizations of many kinds united in an alliance
led by the National Parks Association to defend the
conservation of the National Parks which were at-
tacked in Congress by those who sought to prostitute
them, as once they had the forests, to the profit of
special interests and localities. The automobile
carried millions of people a year into the forest
where they learned to love it for its own sake.
States vied with the nation in creating parks and
forests, and many of them excelled in parks. The

128 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

Forest Service became a colossal engine of investi-
gation, and published arrays of facts which aston-
ished the nation.

And all the time, year in and year out, the fire
demon, unrestrained, was sweeping away a million
acres of woodland every year !

The Clarke-McNary Act was the first deed of
a nation at last awakened to the tragedy of forest
fires. John Davenport Clarke, Representative from
New York, and Charles L. McNary, Senator from
Oregon, were its sponsors. It passed both houses
of the Sixty-Eighth Congress with little opposition.
In many respects it was the most important bill
signed by President Coolidge during his first half
term in office. One fifth of our remaining forest
is owned by the nation and administered by one of
the most efficient government organizations in the
world. The remaining four fifths are owned prin-
cipally by farmers, lumbermen, and states. The
Clarke-McNary Act proposed a partnership of all
parties in ownership for co-operative national fire
protection and reforestation, offering the nation's
financial help to private landowners to make it ef-
fective. Some one has called this union "our na-
tional fire department/' but it is far more than that.
The act provided for the study of forest taxation in
the expectation that states, by reducing taxation,
would help make lumber a profitable crop. It pro-
vided also a sounder basis for the purchased Nation-
al Forests of the future than the Weeks Act by mak-

STORY OF OUR NATIONAL FOREST 129

ing their legal object forest conservation instead of
merely the preservation of stream sources.

With this act began a reconstruction which it
is the duty of every man and woman to do all possi-
ble, however small or local, to advance. The saving
and upbuilding of our forest remnant has now prac-
tically passed out of the intimate control of Con-
gress into the hands of the people individually and
in organization. It is a national problem of the first
order of importance which must largely be worked
out locally — and each can find at home his own part,
for there is a part for each. Let the United States
Forest Service, expert, public-spirited, and willing,
become the instructor and the partner of all.

NATIONAL FORESTS AND THEIR ADMINISTRATORS

The Forest Service administers to-day one hun-
dred and sixty National Forests whose boundaries
include areas summing 183,938,106 acres or 287,-
403 square miles. Included in this total are many
private holdings which aggregate 39,279 square
miles, leaving 158,800,424 acres, or 248,126 square
miles, net, in public ownership.

These forests occur in twenty-eight states and
two territories. Because suitable forested lands in
the East had all passed into private or state owner-
ship before National Forests were authorized by
Congress, they group largely in eleven far-western
states: .Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho,
Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Nevada, Utah,

130 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

Arizona, and New Mexico; also Alaska. The sec-
ond largest grouping of National Forests occurs in
six of the southern Appalachian states: Virginia,
West Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina,
Tennessee, and Georgia. The third group in area is
that in the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas. Small
National Forests also occur, approximately in the
order of their size, in Minnesota, South Dakota, New
Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Florida, Nebraska, Ala-
bama, Michigan, Oklahoma, and Maine. There are
National Forests also in Alaska and Porto Rico.
Those purchased under the Weeks Act amounted, in
1927, to 2,564,619 acres or 4,007 square miles.

So widely scattered, the National Forests in-
clude lands of every kind in the United States, to-
gether with scenery of every rank and variety. They
include, for example, the glacier-covered summits of
Mount Hood in Oregon, part of the Sierra summits
in California, and the Sangre de Cristo range of
Colorado; also the majestic White Mountains of
New Hampshire and forested summits in the south-
ern Appalachians. They include forest-dotted bar-
rens in South Dakota, semi-deserts in Utah and
Arizona, and splendid masses of primeval forest in
many states, watered by rushing rivers which, in
the far West, originate in everlasting snows.

A wilderness empire, this, including thousands
of square miles of magnificent primeval forest. In
its safe guardianship and scientific administration
lies largely the future of the American lumber sup-

STORY OF OUR NATIONAL FOREST 131

ply. Through its fastnesses rush the waters upon
which depend the irrigation of many thousands of
square miles of otherwise arid land. In its fast-
nesses are water-power resources of incalculable
value to the future growth and prosperity of many
states which have little or no coal, and, indirectly, of
the whole nation. Upon thousands of square miles
of grass lands dotted with forests and thousands of
square miles of forest lands dotted with meadows,
are grazing facilities for several millions of cattle
and sheep. Through thousands of shafts sunk into
the solid rock are mined millions of tons of metal.
Hundreds of thousands of wild animals must be
conserved and administered as game. Eighteen
million pleasure seekers must be looked after and
many of them provided with camp grounds.

Because our remaining forest resources are
mere remnants of dissipated resources once a hun-
dred times as great, and because they are the hope
of a fast growing population already well exceeding
a hundred millions, their conservation and adminis-
tration is an exacting work of scientific skill. Each
kind of resource must be developed to its utmost
without injury to any other kind. Grazing and min-
ing must not retard forestry, nor irrigation water
power. Nor must any class or group of interests
using the forests profit unduly at the expense of
other classes or groups, or of individuals.

In 1905 Secretary of Agriculture James Wil-
son, in a letter to the Chief of the Forest Service,

132 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

stated that every part of the nation's forest domain
must be "devoted to its most productive use for the
permanent good of the whole people and not the tem-
porary benefit of individuals or companies," and that
all forests must be "conserved and wisely used for
the benefit of the home builder first of all." These
two principles have remained and unquestionably al-
ways will remain the fundamental objectives of Na-
tional Forest administration.

But during the last two decades, National For-
est problems have become exceedingly complicated.
In his annual report of October, 1924, Chief Forester
William B. Greeley said:

"Congress has added, and the Forest Service
has welcomed, one new function after another : The
classification and segregation of agricultural land,
the issuance of term permits for summer homes and
other forms of land occupation, the exchange of
Federal land or timber for private holdings, and the
construction of a comprehensive system of roads
and trails. The requirements of the national forest
ranges and the needs of the livestock industry, in-
cluding the inflow of additional settlers at many
points, has compelled a constantly greater intensity
and technical development of grazing administra-
tion. The extension of forest protection and re-
forestation in the national forest regions has brought
many demands upon the service for co-operation
with State agencies and private owners in protecting
adjacent areas and applying forest practice on State
and private holdings.

From a photograph by W. I. Ilutchinson, courtesy of the U. S. Forest Service

FORESTERS MARKING TIMBER FOR CUTTING
Holy Cross National Forest, Colorado

From a photograph by A. G. Varela, courtesy of the U. S. Forest Service

FALL OF A GIANT YELLOW PINE
Lumbering the Plumas National Forest, California

STORY OF OUR NATIONAL FOREST 133

"The most critical phase of this whole develop-
ment is the constantly greater demand for business
and technical efficiency which it has imposed upon
the personnel of the Forest Service. The duties of
the average forest ranger and forest supervisor, in-
deed of every grade in the field and administrative
personnel, have enormously expanded both in volume
and variety. Forest officers who a few years ago
were largely custodians of public property have be-
come business managers, disposing of public re-
sources on a large scale and dealing with the local
public as responsible representatives of the National
Government in an immense range of contacts and
obligations. The technical work required of the
trained foresters, lumbermen, and grazing experts
in the Forest Service has vastly increased in its de-
mands in the degree of competency required, par-
ticularly since the state of theory and experiment
has long passed and sound technical practice must
now be applied on a large scale in the current use of
resources."

The Forest Service is a bureau of the Depart-
ment of Agriculture, maintaining its general ad-
ministrative office in Washington.

The hundred and sixty National Forests are di-
vided among eight Districts, each in charge of a
District Forester who maintains an office in some
convenient city with a sufficient staff. Each forest
is under a Supervisor with an office staff, specialist
assistants and a ranger force. Rangers are in charge

134 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

of patrol districts, for which they are in all re-
spects responsible. Roads and trails are built to meet
the administrative and fire fighting needs of each for-
est, and water towers connected with headquarters
by telephone stand at points which enable the entire
forest to be seen. When smoke is reported from two
or more towers, the supervisor at headquarters is
able to determine its exact location and give orders
intelligently.

In 1927 the personnel of the Forest Service
numbered 5,322 men. Of these 4,012 were em-
ployed in the field as supervisors, deputy supervisors,
rangers, guards, etc., and 920 were engaged in ad-
ministrative, scientific, and clerical work in the
Washington and district headquarters, the Forest
Products Laboratory and the Forest and grazing
experiment stations.

The cost of this work for 1927 was $23,512,-
220, of which $5,166,605 were returned from the
forest as timber, forage, water-power and other
charges. General administration cost $383,424 ; fire
protection and suppression $5,164,360; reforesta-
tions, $240,457; camp grounds $41,072; and re-
search $1,027,606. Roads under the acts of 1913,
1916, 1919, 1921, and 1925 to provide, in addition to
working roads and trails, connections between high-
ways on either side of the forests, and access for
the communities and individual settlers of the for-
ests with each other and to state and national high-
ways, cost $10,512,220.

STORY OF OUR NATIONAL FOREST 135

Study of the accounts shows that, were they
computed after the fashion of business for profit,
other large items than road building would be
charged to capital account. Much equipment, sur-
veys, maps, lands acquired under the Weeks Act,
nursery and research plants and buildings of a per-
manent character, if charged off as in business,
would reduce materially the net annual cost fairly
chargeable against service inestimably valuable to the
present and future prosperity of the nation.

The fundamental forest problem involves for-
ests of all ownerships in a common purpose, namely,
to make ends meet and keep them joined. The ends
are forest supply and lumber demand. Although it
is admitted that, fire included, we are still destroying
times over what we are growing, nevertheless long-
headed thinkers who are also hard-headed are be-
ginning to see a balance barely possible. William B.
Greeley finds three ways of approach: by cutting
down consumption, by great economy of consump-
tion, and by increasing timber growth. There are
beginnings in all three. The use of substitutes has
already become important. With 470,000,000 acres
of reforestable soil, three quarters of it near the
heart of the great market of the future, the oppor-
tunity of the American people is discoverable.

"This is the constructive way," he writes, "to
balance accounts with both our timber and our land.
It promises not only replenished lumber yards and
pulpwood piles, but local industries and pay-rolls and

136 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

tax-paying resources. It will bring the lumberjack
and the thriving rural community back into vast
areas which are now retrograding through the idle-
ness of land. It is the only rational solution.

"The old law of supply and demand is at work.
The commercial impetus for timber-growing is
steadily gaining momentum. A few far-sighted
lumbermen in the South are leaving the small tim-
ber in their logging, protecting their cut-over land,
and planning their manufacturing enterprises with
a view to an assured future. Others are studying
their cut-over lands and weighing the possibilities
of timber-growing as a business venture. Many
landowners in the northeast are practising some sort
of forestry, whether they call it that or not. Two
New England paper companies maintain forest nurs-
eries and are planting on old burns and other de-
nuded areas. Forms of really intensive silviculture,
like girding old 'wolf hardwoods and thinning
young stands of dense spruce, are being studied by
business men. Forest planting on private land now
reaches scarcely 20,000 acres a year (1926), but the
states which maintain forest nurseries are practi-
cally unanimous in reporting that the present de-
mand for cheap planting stock far exceeds their abil-
ity to supply it. The leaven is at work.

"Even on the Pacific coast, which is but fairly
entering its heyday of virgin forest exploitation,
private reforestation has begun. Several redwood
operators, recognizing the commercial possibilities

STORY OF OUR NATIONAL FOREST 137

of a growth rate which probably exceeds that of any
other forest type in the Temperate Zone, have be-
gun the planting of their cut-over land. Here and
there in the California Sierra and the Douglas Fir
belt of Oregon and Washington, lumbermen are be-
ginning to study the earning power of their land as
a business asset which they can afford no longer to
ignore. One of the striking signs of the times is the
extent to which timber-growing is creeping into the
management of private land. So far it represents,
to be sure, but a few small spots on an enormous
map, but it is progress."

By calling a commercial forestry conference in
November, 1927, the United States Chamber of
Commerce gave recovery a great push forward. It
was held in Chicago. It showed lumbermen more
optimistic than scientific and government forests,
believing that a new fashion of cutting would ulti-
mately cure the situation. "Selective logging" plus
fire protection, plus tax on forest yield instead of
on forest land value, would, they held, bring about a
condition of sustained yield to guarantee the future.

"Almost within five years," reported R. B.
Goodwin of Wisconsin, " there has developed a new
forest policy which is based upon the theory that, if
the individual timber is afforded a reasonable ad-
justment of tax burden, the growing of timber may
be made commercially attractive. Then private en-
terprise will have the necessary inducement to per-
petuate our forest resources,"

138 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

An Oregon lumberman called our forests "a
factory for continuous wood production." A Chi-
cago operator stated that more than half the lumber
cut in the United States comes from southern for-
ests sixty to seventy per cent second growth.

"Billions of dollars/' states the United States
Chamber of Commerce, "will be invested in the new
industry — the business of growing trees by private
enterprise."

One feels tempted to hope. The problem, then,
of the future is not so much even protection and man-
agement as it is forest farming. It is an agricul-
tural business in which the Forest Service must act
the double part of the national forest farmer and the
practical instructor of the nation in farming the
state and private forest lands which constitute four
fifths of our total wooded and denuded lands.

The function of the National Forests next in
importance to farming crops of trees is grazing mil-
lions of sheep and cattle — another farm function.
This is not the place to discuss the complicated and
highly technical business of controlling the suste-
nance of six million sheep and goats and two million
cattle, horses and swine. Some idea of the detail
and the competitive problems involved may be gath-
ered from the fact that, in 1923, twenty-seven thou-
sand eight hundred permits were issued to grazers
using Forest Service lands.

In earlier years, the ranges of the forests, like
those of the open public domain to-day, were unreg-

STORY OF OUR NATIONAL FOREST 139

ulated. On both, big and little, grazers competed
for forage.

But conditions have changed with the greater
populations which have come to the West. On the
public domain, the small farmer often can acquire
sufficient grazing land for his own needs by home-
steading, but forest lands cannot be homesteaded
and the neighborhood settler must take his chances
with great cattle companies. Not only therefore
must the Forest Service justly apportion grazing
rights among ever increasing competitors, prefer-
ring the home-builder, but he must conserve the
health of the ranges lest overgrazing, the stockman's
historic vice, destroy this national possession also.

"There is natural sheep range," writes Dr.
Herbert A. Smith of the Forest Service, "natural
cattle range, and national goat range ; there is range
on which it takes fifty acres to support a cow, and
range which at its best might carry eighty head of
cattle to the quarter section; there is winter range,
summer range, and year-long range ; there is range
on which the tree growth is no more than scattered
brush valuable only for water protection, range on
denuded foot hills and mountain slopes, in dense
brush, in open parks, in timber that grows wide-
spaced and high-crowned so that one may see
through it for a mile, and in timber so dense that
sheep can scarcely penetrate it."

This is only the beginning of the problem.

"The grazing animals may crop seeds for their

140 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

concentrated food value, or the tender foliage of an
earlier state of growth. Their hoofs trample, cut,
pack. They may loosen or compact the soil; they
may facilitate or almost wholly prevent reforesta-
tion; but always there is an effect on the forage
crop."

So the health of the range is intensively studied
and constantly watched.

"Is its carrying capacity on the decline? If so,
why? Because the stock come on too early or stay
too late? Can they better be distributed by a differ-
ent method of salting, by new water development, by
drift fences, or by some other change in the method
of handling? Or must the number be decreased or
the grazing season shortened? If the range is de-
pleted, how can it be restored to normal productivity
with least disturbance to those dependent on con-
tinuous use of the area? Or would it perhaps do
better if used by a different class of stock — by cattle
instead of sheep, or vice versa?"

RECREATIONAL USE OF NATIONAL FORESTS

Love of out-door life is inherent. From earli-
est times people have used woodlands for recreation.
We can imagine the early colonists, whose very
homesites and fields had to be "cleared," spreading
their table-cloths now and then upon the grassy floors
of specially beautiful groves. Those of us who were
brought up in country towns recall that each had its

STORY OF OUR NATIONAL FOREST 141

"picnic ground/' always wooded, to which the popu-
lation repaired on "the Fourth" and other holiday
occasions, and where public meetings and political
gatherings were held whenever practicable. Reli-
gious camp-meetings always were held in groves.

What country-bred boy has not looked forward
to the summer as the time to load pots, provisions,
blankets, gun and fishing-line into a borrowed wagon
(now-a-days probably tin) and "go camping" at some
forest-bordered pond as far from home as possible?
I suspect that, with most sportsmen, the forest shares
fifty-fifty with the game in the pleasure of hunting.
The joy of camping-out knows neither age nor sex,
and when the automobile made it comfortable and
practicable to grown men and women, it became a
national pastime. Long-distance touring, with
camping outfit strapped on the running board, has
become one of our most popular methods of summer
pleasuring. Thus has developed a new use for our
National Forests not contemplated when the System
was conceived and built-up.

When the "forest reserves" were first created
they were used recreationally by persons living
within driving distance and by hunters who camped
out. These uses increased as population neared na-
tional forest-borders. Applications from neighbor-
hood people for permits to build vacation shacks
were early recognized. Later on, summer hotels
were permitted in places specially favored by nature,
and here and there resorts developed. In 1917, when

142 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

recreational use first attained sufficient importance
to secure a seven line paragraph in the Forester's
annual report, 814 summer residences, 26 hotels and
28 summer resorts were noted. No report was made
the following year, but in his report for 1919, Henry
S. Graves, Forester, emphasized the swift prophetic
growth in the pleasure use of the forests, and the
need of a comprehensive study of their recreational
resources. He concluded:

"In short, the national forests, which must be
administered with a view to recreation use as one of
their major functions, cannot carry out that function
in fullest measure except through co-operative rela-
tions with other agencies in the same field, resulting
in joint effort under a truly national and common
policy."

When these words were written, already New
York, Pennsylvania and other states were develop-
ing extensive wild park systems, the National Parks
movement was in full swing, the road building era
was well started, automobile touring was taking hun-
dreds of thousands into the country's many wilder-
nesses, and wild life conservation had caught the
ears and enlisted the sympathies of millions.

This first call for national co-operation in out-
door recreation assumed the proportion of a trumpet
call. The nation was ready, and the first steps to-
ward organization followed closely. In the surpris-
ingly short interval of four and a half years, in May,
1924, was organized in Washington the National

STORY OF OUR NATIONAL FOREST 143

Conference on Out-door Recreation, which precisely
and fully met Colonel Graves's demand of 1919.

In 1920, the Forester's report prophesied that
recreation "bids fair to rank third among the major
services performed by the national forests, with only
timber production and stream flow regulation tak-
ing precedence of it." By this time summer resi-
dence and hotel permits had increased to 1,329, and,
in the absence of public funds to equip camp grounds
for motor tourists, private funds from neighborhood
communities were pouring in as contributions. The
following year he reported that "counties, munici-
palities, forest recreation associations and other
semi-public organizations, and in some cases in-
dividual citizens" were installing toilets, fireplaces,
shelters, water-supply equipment, refuse deposito-
ries, tables, benches, etc., in many places in the na-
tional forests where touring motorists sadly needed
them." He modestly asked for $10,000.

In 1923, Forester Graves's last report before
resignation to head the School of Forestry at Yale
University had announced that recreation had al-
ready become a major activity so far as concerned
public service, quoting the increase of persons so
using the National Forests from three millions in
1917 to six millions in 1922. Only four years later,
the annual report for 1926 showed seventeen mil-
lion forest visitors ! A new era, indeed !

Toward caring for this human deluge, Con-
gress appropriated $10,000 in 1923, $15,000 in 1924,

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STORY OF OUR NATIONAL FOREST 145

$25,000 in 1925, and $25,000 in 1926. The appro-
priation of 1926 amounted to a tenth and a half of
a cent per visitor to National Forests as against nine-
ty-nine cents per visitor to National Parks. The total
cost of all recreational undertakings handled by the
Forest Service from the beginning was calculated
by Associate Forester A. E. Sherman in 1925 at
$131,472, of which $27,644 had been contributed in
cash by citizens. The sum included the proportion
of rangers' and supervisors' salaries for the hours
devoted to recreational work, incidental hired labor,
and the estimated value of materials and contributed
improvements. The total cost to the government
was $103,828.

It was in 1912 that campers first appeared in
National Forests in sufficient numbers to attract the
attention of rangers. Thereafter, summer after
summer they increased with remarkable speed.
Knowing nothing of woodcraft, careless about their
fires, and destructive of young tree growth which
they cut and trampled, they soon inspired rangers
and supervisors with dread, even some with enmity.
It is not surprising that a sentiment arose to exclude
tourists from the forests. But Forester Graves saw
it differently. To him, another new public duty was
being offered to the Forest Service, one which, after
studying the situation thoroughly in the field, he
early predicted, as we have seen, would grow to very
large proportions.

Even before this policy was announced, the ne-

146 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

cessity to segregate tourist campers so as to gather
their camp-fires under observation led to the desig-
nation of fixed areas for camp grounds. This was
done first in the Sierra somewhat previous to 1915,
and the practice spread through the Pacific forests.
In the Rocky Mountain region the first such camps,
purely protective against forest fire and water con-
tamination, were undertaken in 1915 in Cotton wood
Canyon which held the sources of Salt Lake City's
water-supply, and the Canyon where originated the
water-supply of Logan, Utah. In the Wood River
country of Idaho, local enterprise added comforts
to necessities, and the foresters opened registration
books and displayed maps for reference.

Between 1915 and 1920, the field force, follow-
ing their chief's exhortations to this new duty,
spread development of this kind throughout all the
national forest, adding to their already strenuous
duties the education of tourists and intensive watch-
fulness of their camp-fires. Nevertheless, many dan-
gerous fires followed in the motor's wake during
these early years. At this writing the National For-
ests contain 1,500 simple camp grounds in addition to
the considerable hotel and resort developments which
private initiative and capital have inaugurated under
official permits. Some of the camp grounds will ac-
commodate up to five thousand motorists in the
course of the season, but the great majority are much
smaller. To equip all for simple comfort would
cost, it was estimated in 1928, $515,000.

From a photograph by F. E. Colburn, courtesy of the U. S. Forest Service
"AT THE TOP OF THE WORLD"
Snowmass Peak in Holy Cross National Forest, Colorado Rockies

From a photograph by E. S. Shipp, courtesy of the U. S. Forest Service

BIG FALLS OF THE SNAKE RIVER, IDAHO

Targhee National Forest

STORY OF OUR NATIONAL FOREST 147

WILDERNESS AREAS

The wonder is that, with equipment and or-
ganization so slight, throngs of such magnitude,
growing so rapidly year by year, can be handled
with safety to themselves and the forest. The doing
has proved it. But how far will this thing spread?
Out of the danger springs urgent popular demand
for "wilderness areas" to be set apart now for in-
surance sake; and out of that comes Chief Greeley*s
pledge of 1927:

"It will be the aim (of the Forest Service) to
keep substantial portions and some of the outstand-
ing scenic features of the national forests available
for forms of recreation impossible where automo-
bile roads, commercial enterprises, and other popu-
larizing facilities for use are encouraged. Ex-
cluding Alaska, one-third of the gross area of the
national forests is in roadless areas of 10 townships
(that is, 230,000 acres) or more each; and even
when the road-and-trail programme now mapped
out is completed, more than one-fourth will be in
such areas.

"This will not prevent the orderly use of tim-
ber, forage, and wTater resources as future needs may
dictate. It will, however, prevent the unwise de-
struction of recreational values which are steadily
attaining greater social significance and importance.
The Forest Service plans to withhold these areas
against unnecessary road building and forms of spe-

148 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

cial use of a commercial character which would im-
pair their wilderness character."

GAME ADMINISTRATION

Of the various lesser functions of the National
Forests, administration of their wild life has particu-
lar interest to the people of to-day. The vast wealth
of wild animal life which the early colonists found in
America has suffered proportionally even a greater
destruction than the original forests. Nevertheless
a surprising number of wild creatures are still left
in the National Forests, where efforts are being made
to conserve them in reasonable proportions to the
sheep and cattle whose grazing for the market is one
of the forests' major functions. The census of 1927
reported the following:

Antelope, 6,942 ; black or brown bear, 47,865 ;
grizzly bear, 5,814; caribou, 174; deer, 671,050;
elk, 82,478; moose, 7,192; mountain goats, 18,418;
mountain sheep, 13,285; beaver, 115,676.

These are distributed through the National For-
ests of twenty-four states and Alaska. Arizona and
Idaho contain a substantial majority of all the ante-
lope, with New Mexico standing a good third. Cali-
fornia, Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana
have together most of the common bear. There are
5,000 grizzlies in Alaskan National Forests, Mon-
tana being second with 441, and Wyoming third with
136. Twenty caribou are listed in each of Idaho,
Montana and Washington, and 22 in Minnesota.

STORY OF OUR NATIONAL FOREST 149

California National Forests have 236,060 deer,
with Oregon second, and Montana, Alaska, Arizona
and Idaho with about 51,407 each. In Oklahoma,
Alabama, Tennessee, and West Virginia, only, are
no deer found in the National Forests.

Wyoming leads in elk with 39,008, Montana
following second with 10,593; Washington, Colo-
rado, Idaho and Oregon are closely behind. Arizona,
California, New Mexico, North Carolina, Okla-
homa, South Dakota and Utah also have elk.

Wyoming also leads in moose with 2,145;
Montana with 1,185 comes second, and Minnesota a
close third ; Alaska and Idaho National Forests also
have moose.

Mountain goats are found in the National For-
ests of Alaska, 9,000 in number, with Montana
4,248, Idaho 3,042, and Washington 2,125. Moun-
tain sheep are more widely distributed, Colorado
National Forests leading with 3,888, and Wyoming
second with 2,639. Colorado has 45,275 beaver,
Montana 16,060, and Idaho 15,110.

Observe that, while there is no "game" in the
museums which we call our National Parks where
wild life is left in nature's care, in the National For-
ests the animals listed above are all so classified.
They are hunted in season under the laws of the
states where they are found, and are counted valu-
able in season to surrounding settlers as meat.
With the coming of recreation these animals acquire
an additional value as part of the forest spectacle.

ISO OUR FEDERAL LANDS

Conserving wild animals is an expert problem.
Everywhere, nature's balance of life has been de-
stroyed these many years. Even in National Parks
the relentless killing of wolves, mountain lions and
other predatory beasts has disturbed the natural
balance. But in the National Forests game preserva-
tion is entirely a humanized problem. There, forest
fires which devastate enormous areas, the crowding
of the forest-borders by farms, the destruction of
animals which prey upon domestic stock, hunting,
and the competition for forest forage of millions
of sheep and cattle, have reduced wild animal con-
servation to purely an artificial and scientific proc-
ess, requiring constant observation and study.

Under these conditions, to leave the distorted
problem to crippled nature is, in many instances, to
invite starvation. Relentlessly, under all conditions,
nature will accomplish her objects, even, if inter-
fered with, at occasional frightful sacrifice of animal
life. Under National Forest conditions, there is much
in common between grazing cattle and sheep for the
market and conserving deer and elk for sport and
the neighborhood table. Both are administrative
problems closely related to farming, in which a third
consideration, the health and perpetuation of the
range, is importantly concerned; for it is mad ex-
travagance to sacrifice the grazing of the future to
the greater present production of beef, mutton and
venison. Though a minor function of the National

STORY OF OUR NATIONAL FOREST 151

Forests, game conservation is one of its most diffi-
cult, variable and scientific problems.

In conclusion, let us emphasize the one all-im-
portant outstanding fact that, upon the health and
scientific administration of our National Forests and
the skill and success with which they grow new crops
of trees, depends one of our principal sources of na-
tional development and prosperity.

Let us face the fact squarely that, if we are
somehow to escape the imminent calamity of lumber
exhaustion, the Forest Service must become essen-
tially a Farm Bureau. Reforestation is looming as
its chief function. Its most important future ser-
vice, by far, is to raise immense crops of new trees,
and to promote and supervise the raising of other
immense crops of new trees on state and private
lands. The Chief Forester, if he accomplishes his
highest public duty, must become forthwith the na-
tion's Chief Farmer.

The success of this programme will depend ul-
timately upon stanch and active public support,
which means the outspoken and continued advocacy
of every citizen in the locality in which he lives. It
means, also, his earnest and continued support of the
bureau whose continued efficiency is the sole agency
by which lumber exhaustion may be averted. It
means his personal defense of the forests and the
Forest Service against commercial grazers who will
earnestly seek for years to come to subordinate the

152 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

one and cripple the other in the interest of sheep
and cattle production for the market.

This generation, in other words, faces the iden-
tical war for national prosperity, from a different
angle, which Roosevelt in his time fought and won.

CHAPTER IV
RECLAIMING THE DESERT

UNTIL 1903, a certain three hundred and sev-
enty-five miles of southern Arizona through
which two rivers, the Salt and the Verde, carried
their burdens of distant mountain waters to the sea,
were arid except for narrow river fringes here and
there of green. So far as eye could reach, nothing
was visible but desert sand thickly dotted with gray-
green sage and grease wood relieved by cacti of
many kinds.

To-day, those identical three hundred and sev-
enty-five square miles are solidly green. Alfalfa,
wheat, oats, cotton, oranges, grapefruit, and broad
fields grazed by cattle, sheep and horses, have re-
placed the sand flats and the grease wood. Every acre
is under cultivation at an average crop return of
$75.74. Seven thousand, three hundred and three
farms, all prosperous, support a population of
45,000 persons, and twelve towns add 62,000 more.
Fifteen banks safeguard thirty-one million dollars
belonging to 43,200 depositors. Seventy public
schools and sixty-eight churches serve the region,
which is crossed by three railroads, two national
highways and many excellent lesser roads.

153

1 54 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

The irrigation works of the Salt River Rec-
lamation Project, including the famous Roosevelt
dam, 280 feet high, through which this transforma-
tion was brought about between 1903 and 1927, cost
the United States government $15,106,942, of
which a third has already been repaid by the farm
owners. The farmers' total indebtedness to others
than the United States government averaged less
than forty dollars an acre in 1928.

In 1903, a certain two hundred and ten square
miles in South central Washington was a sage brush
desert bisected by the Yakima River. To-day six
fine storage dams, the Tieton, Cle Elum, Clear
Creek, Keechelus, Kachess and Bumping Lake,
ranging in height from 45 to 222 feet, reinforced by
two diversion dams, store water producing a ten-
years' average crop return of $104.50 an acre. Beet-
sugar, dried fruit and canning factories, creameries,
and cold storage plants, help furnish eighteen towns
with 22,000 people, not to mention the city of Yak-
ima's equal population.

This is Reclamation realized. Besides the Salt
River and Yakima projects here described, the gov-
ernment has started twenty-nine others in western
deserts, of which three are new and incomplete.
Four have been abandoned through failure. That
is the other side of the story.

In an address in Yellowstone National Park in
the summer of 1923, Representative Charles E.
Winter of Wyoming exclaimed :

RECLAIMING THE DESERT 155

"Water ! That greatest, most wide-spread, most
wonderful, most blessed gift to man! Under its
vitalizing contact, the deserts of the West shall
spring from sterility to fertility, from barrenness to
fruitfulness, from desolation to habitation, from
death to life. And then behold the apotheosis of the
West ! New heavens shall be opened to the coming
millions, a new earth shall be theirs. A mighty peo-
ple whose blood is red and whose hearts are strong
and true shall here develop an empire in plenty, peace
and happiness. Water! It is the spirit of the
West!"

Even from the car window, the possibilities of
irrigation powerfully impress the eastern traveller.
Knowing what happened in the Imperial Valley, he
assumes that these chrome deserts through which his
train takes days to pass would likewise yield inesti-
mable wealth if they also could be watered! The
Sante Fe, the Salt Lake, and the Southern Pacific
are invaluable propagandists of reclamation. If only
the traveller chances to observe a successful irriga-
tion project in operation before he returns East, he
will talk of little else for months than the West's op-
portunity, making guesses at the millions whom the
reclaimed desert some day will surely feed.

Who will dare predict, in a period of amazing
achievement and in such a land, that the problem of
farming a majority of our desert lands may not be
solved? Why is it more absurd, for supposition's
sake, to think of tapping sufficient fountains of water

156 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

deep below the surface than it would have been, a
couple of decades ago, to count on grinding the pe-
trol of the future out of solid rock ?

Irrigation began in America long before Co-
lumbus. Remains of dams and ditches are among
the most interesting relics of the thrifty tribes which
peopled our Southwest a thousand years or more ago.
The Mormons who followed Brigham Young across
the Wasatch Mountains to settle the arid Salt Lake
plains, overrunning hundreds of desert miles north
and south, were our earliest irrigationists on any
organized plan. Their methods were simple. It was
their industry, responsibility and faith that pointed
definitely the desert's subjugation. With the great
emigration which followed the gold seekers who
crossed the continent in covered wagons two years
later, began, for the Pacific Coast the perpetual
hunt for water whose results have measured the pace
of progress ever since.

"It is now almost impossible," Dr. F. H. New-
ell, first director of the Reclamation Service, wrote
in 1924, "to realize the great difficulties encountered
by pioneers among the scientists, such as Major
John Wesley Powell in his efforts to induce Con-
gress to investigate the extent to which the waste
lands of the country might be utilized. He did
succeed, however, after years of patient persever-
ance, and in 1888 was authorized by Congress to
begin the work upon which has been founded the
great national policy of reclamation and home-mak-

RECLAIMING THE DESERT 157

ing. Methods of measurement of streams were de-
vised by him ; surveys were made of possible reser-
voir sites ; and vast quantities of data were acquired
concerning the mountain masses from which came
the streams, and also of the lower-lying desert lands
which might be irrigated by conserving and dis-
tributing the erratic floods which came from the
mountains and foot-hills. This was the first great
step of research in this line."

It was Francis G. Newlands and Theodore
Roosevelt who secured official applications of these
studies; but meantime irrigation at private expense
was being practised in all the arid states.

The birth of the twentieth century found the
growing populations of the semi-arid states anx-
iously discussing the need of more and still more
water. Dry-farming had been practised for years
with results that here and there were surprising, and
irrigation had been developed in many places by in-
dividual and group enterprise. By that time the
better stream-side locations had been filed upon so
far as settlement had extended, but storage on a
scale great enough to provide dependable irrigation
to large areas was seen to be a pressing public ne-
cessity. New communities founded on mining, graz-
ing, lumbering and other activities appeared daily.
Villages were becoming towns, towns cities, almost
over night. Demand for farm produce was out-run-
ning production, yet much of the western desert soil
was known to be highly productive, lacking only

158 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

water. All over the western states, local and sec-
tional irrigation conferences were held at increasing
intervals at which it became increasingly evident that
states themselves must assume large responsibilities,
and once a year delegates from groups in all the far
western states, together with many interested in-
dividuals, met to discuss the larger problems. Many
apparently insuperable obstacles had to be overcome
before state irrigation could be undertaken, of which
states' rights on interstate rivers was by no means
the least.

It was at the Phoenix, Arizona, general Con-
gress in 1901 that national reclamation was born
quite unexpectedly. The California delegation was
late, and resolutions had already been passed urging
states to action. One of the California men, not an
agriculturalist but a lawyer interested in reclama-
tion as a public question, asked the privilege of a
belated hearing. In a brief address which electrified
the convention, George H. Maxwell held that irri-
gation was also a national function. Leaving state
and local responsibilities undiminished, he argued
that great undertakings on federally-owned lands,
involving vast expenditures, were clearly the duty
of the federal government. Projects of these kinds
supplementing state and group activities might easi-
ly solve the problem of western agriculture.

Backed by the National Irrigation Congress,
Mr. Maxwell devoted himself thereafter exclusively
to realization of his plan. A national association

RECLAIMING THE DESERT 159

was organized of which he became, later on, the
mouthpiece and executive.

On June 13, 1902, the present Reclamation Act
passed the House. Three days later, it passed the
Senate without change, and the following day was
signed by President Roosevelt. It set aside a pro-
portion of the receipts from the sale of public lands
in Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas,
Montana, North Dakota, Nebraska, Nevada, New
Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah,
Washington and Wyoming to constitute a fund for
construction and capitalization of irrigation works
on federal lands under direction of the Secretary of
the Interior. Later, a percentage of the royalties
from oil produced on the public domain has become
a prolific source of reclamation capital.

"It is as right for the National Government to
make the streams and rivers of the arid region use-
ful by irrigation works for water storage," said
President Roosevelt to Congress, "as to make useful
the rivers and harbors of the humid region by en-
gineering works of another kind. The reclamation
and settlement of the arid lands will enrich every
portion of our country. Our people as a whole will
profit, for successful home making is but another
name for the upbuilding of the nation."

"In 1902 when the reclamation act went into
effect," wrote Reclamation Commissioner Elwood
Mead twenty-four years later, "the arid region was
a primitive pioneer country. Since then more than

160 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

eleven million people have been added to the popula-
tion and more than two hundred and fifty million
acres of arid land then public have passed into pri-
vate ownership. The one-room schoolhouse has
been replaced by the consolidated community school.
On some reclamation projects the school tax alone is
now more than all taxes combined were twenty-four
years ago.

"At that time there were neither automobiles
nor tractors. The covered wagon still wended its
slow course along dim sage-brush trails. Now,
eighty thousand miles of concrete and surfaced high-
ways built in the last twenty-four years make travel
easy for the automobile but add to the farmer's
yearly tax burden. More than five million motor
cars are owned in the seventeen arid states, and the
farmer spends more money for tires, gas, and oil
than it cost to operate a majority of the farms in the
first years following the reclamation act.

"Equally fundamental changes have taken place
in crops grown and in farming. Cotton and sugar-
beets, now important money crops, were not grown
on reclamation projects during the first ten years.
Some farmers now have more money invested in
facilities to market their crops than their farms
would have sold for ten years ago.

"Grain and hay were the standard crops of the
pioneer. Now they are grown only in rotations to
prepare the land for products of higher acreage
value. Only intensive scientific farming will meet

From a photograph by the Reclamation Service

FAMOUS ELEPHANT BUTTE DAM, NEW MEXICO
Impounding the waters of the Rio Grande River for reclaiming a great area of desert, also for power

PROFITABLE ORCHARDS WHERE ONCE WAS DESERT

Practical results of reclamation at Yakima, Washington

RECLAIMING THE DESERT 161

the high taxes, high cost of cultivation, and high
water charges which have come as part of an evolu-
tion but which have been accentuated and increased
by the Great War.

"Up to the beginning of this century the lure of
free land caused the pioneer settler to ignore hard-
ship and privation. He built and lived in sod or log
huts. He will no longer do this. He then made a
start (or tried to) without money. This is no longer
possible and only the impractical and inexperienced
would attempt it. How to obtain settlers who are
expert cultivators or train them to become such, and
how to provide money or credit to develop earning
power on farms, to meet higher charges for water
and increased living expenses, have become out-
standing problems of reclamation.

"In the twenty-four years since the reclamation
act was passed more than $200,000,000 has been
spent in building and operating federal irrigation
works. Of this, more than $50,000,000 has been re-
paid. Congress at the last session (Sixty-ninth)
just closed, has appropriated money for works which
will cost $60,000,000 to complete. New appropria-
tions were sought for thirty additional projects."

The following table catalogues the Reclamation
System a quarter century after its start :

PROJECTS, 1903 TO 1928

Arizona : Salt River ; Yuma.
California: Orland.

162 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

Colorado : Grand Valley ; Uncompahgre.

Idaho : Boise ; King Hill ; Minidoka.

Kansas: Garden City (abandoned).

Montana: Huntley; Milk River; Sun River.

Montana-North Dakota: Lower Yellowstone.

Nebraska- Wyoming : North Platte.

Nevada: Newlands.

New Mexico: Carlsbad; Hondo (abandoned).

New Mexico-Texas ; Rio Grande.

North Dakota : Buf ord Trenton (abandoned) ; Williston

(abandoned).
Oregon : Umatilla ; Vale.
Oregon-California : Klamath.
Oregon-Idaho : Owyhee.
South Dakota : Belle Fourche.
Utah : Salt Lake Basin ; Strawberry Valley.
Washington : Okanogan ; Yakima.
Wyoming : Riverton ; Shoshone.

SETTLEMENT AND ECONOMIC RESULTS, 1926

Acreage for which water was available 1,844,550

Acreage irrigated 1,411,020

Acreage cropped 1,328,810

Value of crops $60,369,620

Note. — In addition 1,097,190 acres were irrigated on private
land adjacent to the Federal projects under Warren Act
or other water service contracts. Of this area 949,590
acres were cropped in 1926, producing crops valued at
$49,750,040.

Number of irrigated farms 38,091

Population 140,625

Number of project cities and towns 204

Population 39o>*93

Number of schools 667

Number of churches 645

Number of banks 137

Capital stock $9,380,500

Deposits $127,103,720

Number of depositors 243,1x1

RECLAIMING THE DESERT 163

CROP DETAILS, 1927

AREA IN
ACRES

PERCENT-
AGE

VALUE

PERCENT-
AGE

Alfalfa

A 23.820

20 6

$14.011,846

18 i

Other hay

283.4QQ

10 8

3.715,281

4 8

Cereals

2Q0.2O3

2O 0

7,Q84.2I4

IO ^

Cotton .

211,067

ie i

21,303,218

ft i

Vegetables, etc

76,1 co

*? 3

14,833,873

10 . 1

Sugar beets

ce,o8i

3.8

4,413,738

e 7

Fruit and nuts

41,700

2.O

0.608,860

12.4

Certainly a dramatic contrast, that between the
beginning of national reclamation and now, but far
indeed from the whole story. What is not here
hinted is that, perhaps characteristically, we rushed
into this vast undertaking unprepared by study and
uninformed by experience. Beginning many works
of unprecedented size almost together, we rose effi-
ciently to engineering and building requirements but
blundered miserably in other phases upon which suc-
cess depended quite as much.

Previous to an exhaustive study made by Sec-
retary Work's special committee of 1924, Federal
Reclamation had been "investigated" an astonishing
number of times ("550 Congressional hearings and
reports from 1902 to 1923") without discovering
exactly why many irrigated lands served by marvel-
lously efficient works costing hundreds of millions
had been utilized only to half or less their capacity.
The shining generalities usually quoted blind casual
eyes to other and desolate facts. As against the

164 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

thousands of farmers who prospered more or less,
there were more who met hardship or failure or
even ruin on the farms of our reclamation projects.
The soil of half only of one project, for example,
was found fit for cultivation, doubling the burden of
those cultivating it. Thousands of farms had been
abandoned. Many farms purchased at high prices
from speculators, who had fattened them for the
market, perhaps never will free their new owners
from the slavery of possession. Disappointment and
failure have threatened scandal many a time.

"Building canals," wrote Commissioner Mead
in 1927, "is only the initial stage of reclamation.
Preparing the land for cultivation, securing settlers,
and teaching them the technique of irrigated farm-
ing are all necessary. There is the same need for or-
ganization and constructive planning and expert di-
rection in the succeeding stages as in the first. Re-
alization of this fact has been slow. At the outset
there was a mistaken but confident belief that build-
ing canals would alone create agriculture ; that, once
water was available, settlers would rush in and with-
out aid or direction complete the difficult and costly
work of clearing and leveling the land and do many
other things needed to change deserts into farms.

"For more than twenty years there were no in-
vestigations into the cost of changing raw land into
farms or as to the capital or credit needed by those
who did this. No inquiry was made into the quali-
fication of settlers, nor was authority given to reject
the unfit.

RECLAIMING THE DESERT 165

"For the highly intricate business of irrigation
farming and the hard and costly task of subduing
raw land we accepted all comers. In this we ignored
the teaching of common sense and our practice in
other lines of effort. For school teaching we have
always selected educators; for carpenters, men
skilled in the craft; but the creation of a new and
complex kind of agriculture was entrusted to the
uninformed, to men whose livelihood had been
gained in other occupations or who lacked either
the capital or the aptitude essential to success.

"In recent years it has been evident that the
economic results of reclamation were not meeting
the expectation of its founders. Too many settlers
were losing their farms through mortgage foreclo-
sure, too many were unable to meet their payments
to the Government. Tenancy has increased on some
projects until more than half the farms are owned
by nonresidents. Sixty per cent of the land on the
North Platte project is cultivated by tenants, forty-
six percent of the Milk River project, and fifty-
seven per cent of the Uncompahgre project. This
increase in tenancy means that more and more of
those who tried to secure a farm of their own have
failed. Human tragedies lie behind these percent-
ages. Something needed to give the pioneer a fair
chance to succeed has not been provided, or we have
by accepting the over sanguine and unequipped made
reclamation a temptation rather than an oppor-
tunity."

166 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

Yet this situation had come about naturally.

From 1896 on, reclamation had been a much
discussed subject. As soon as it was accepted as a
national policy, every western state instantly de-
manded numerous projects. The original law re-
quiring as broad an allocation of the funds as possi-
ble, the government started four projects in 1903,
seven in 1904, and nine in 1905, representing all the
states except California, Idaho, and Wyoming; and
projects were started in these states in 1906. Still
others, to a total of twenty-nine, of which several
have since been abandoned, followed rapidly.

Politically, it probably was good policy to sat-
isfy demands of all the states as rapidly as possi-
ble, but many blunders and much human misery
would have been avoided had Roosevelt's advice
been followed. "It would be unwise to begin by do-
ing too much," the President had said in his first
message to Congress on reclamation, "for a great
deal will doubtless be learned as to what can be and
cannot be safely attempted by the early efforts which
must of necessity be partly experimental in char-
acter."

Begun in this wholesale way, experience, stated
Secretary Work's Committee of Special Advisers in
its report of 1924, "was of course gained in the
overcoming of the difficulties that arose from time
to time, but it was practically impossible to utilize
this body of knowledge for the benefit of the system
as a whole. Moreover, once having begun these

RECLAIMING THE DESERT

167

structures, the organization was forced to continue
the large programme, and the money available had
to be divided among the projects. It became a piece-
meal construction. One of the effects was the re-
quest in 1910 for a loan of $20,000,000 to complete
the projects more rapidly than the natural incre-
ments of the reclamation fund would allow."

SEQUENCE OF RECLAMATION PROJECTS

STATE

PROJECT

YEAR OF AUTHORIZATION

Arizona ...

Salt River

IQO3

Arizona-California .
California

1004

Orland

IQO7

Colorado

Grand Valley

1912

Uncompahgre

1 004.

Idaho

King Hill

1917

Do .

Minidoka

1 004.

Idaho-Oregon.

Boise

IQQC

Kansas . . .

Garden City

IQOC

Montana

Huntley

Milk River

IQO3

Sun River

1006

Montana-North
Dakota

Lower Yellowstone.
North Platte

Newlands

1903

IQO7

1904

::::

Nebraska- Wyoming
Nevada

New Mexico

Carlsbad

1006

Hondo

1 004

New Mexico-Texas.
North Dakota
Oregon

Rio Grande

ICXX

Williston
Umatilla.

....

1906

....

Oregon-California. .
South Dakota

Klamath

ioo<\

Belle Fourche . . .

1904

Utah

Strawberry Valley.
Okanogan

IQO<;

Washington

IQOC

Yakima

IOO<\

Wyoming

Riverton

1917

Wyoming-Montana

Shoshone

IQO4

The whole must be seen historically as the out-
growth of expansion too rapid to be orderly, there-

168 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

fore wasteful. "Characteristically American," an
English writer has called it, which is true because
unstudied precipitancy, with all attendant evils, has
been characteristic of all phases of American devel-
opment in turn. But if it is characteristic of us to
begin a long race at finish speed, as some one else
has said, it seems also characteristic somehow to
finish strongly with time and breath to spare. We
see national reclamation well along in its swift er-
ratic course, recovering from many stumblings,
gaining second wind, steadying, and settling into
winning pace.

All but four of the contemplated projects,
namely Grand Valley in Colorado, Orland in Cali-
fornia, King Hill in Idaho, and Riverton in Wyo-
ming, were initiated during the administration of
the Secretary of the Interior who started the Sys-
tem, E. A. Hitchcock. The Orland project followed
under his successor, Secretary James A. Garfield,
1907-1909. None began under Secretary Richard
A. Ballenger, 1909-1911, but Secretary Walter L.
Fisher, 1911-1913, started the Grand Valley project,
and Secretary Franklin K. Lane, 1913-1920, the
King Hill and Riverton projects.

Expansion paused during the secretaryships of
John Barton Payne, 1920-1921, and Albert B. Fall,
1921-1923, and reorganization began with Secre-
tary Work, who followed Fall.

The men who designed and carried out the work
were equally strong in their professions.

RECLAIMING THE DESERT 169

The act having assigned to the Geological Sur-
vey the duty of organizing the new service, Dr.
Charles D. Walcott placed beginnings in charge of
Frederick H. Newell as Chief Engineer. Five years
later, in 1907, the Reclamation Service was created
with Dr. Newell as Director. In 1913 a Board of
Control was organized with Dr. Newell as Director
and Arthur P. Davis as Chief Engineer. In 1914, the
offices of Director and Chief Engineer were merged
in Mr. Davis. In 1915 the Board was superseded
by a Commission of three under Mr. Davis. In
1918, the Commission lapsed, Mr. Davis remaining
alone as Director and Chief Engineer. In 1923 Sec-
retary Work abolished the office and title of Director
and created the Bureau of Reclamation under D. W.
Davis as Commissioner, who was followed by Dr.
Elwood Mead.

In 1923, Secretary Work appointed a Commit-
tee of Special Advisers on Reclamation consisting
of Thomas E. Campbell, formerly Governor of Ari-
zona, Dr. John A. Widtsoe, former President of the
University of Utah, Oscar E. Bradfute, President
of the National Farm Bureau Federation, Clyde C.
Dawson, authority on irrigation law, James R. Gar-
field, former Secretary of the Interior, and Dr. El-
wood Mead, Commissioner of Reclamation.

Those experienced in public administration will
recognize this history of constant investigation and
change as significant of efforts to develop efficiency
out of conditions and complications not clearly un-

170 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

derstood during years of experiment. Projects of
this size developed problems all their own. Begun
before its time, the System had to find itself. From
inception, through every stage of rapid groping to-
ward efficiency, management has been clean, open-
minded and able. Otherwise, the System would not
have escaped catastrophe. It is believed by many
that at last reclamation is on its way.

Ill

Glancing back again to beginnings, we perceive
a solid backing of nation-wide interest and support
for the new far western policy from the beginning.
There could have been no better evidence of it than
the speed with which $150,000,000, then regarded
a much greater sum than it is to-day, was applied to
the experiment. East as well as West, reclamation
became a public enthusiasm. Plans of the projects
and photographs of the works in course of building
had wide vogue in the press of the period.

The four projects authorized in 1903 achieved
world fame. The Roosevelt Dam of the Salt River
project in Arizona came to typify American reclama-
tion, and remains one of the country's conspicuous
spectacles. The Milk River project at the entrance
of Glacier National Park, Montana, assumed inter-
national importance. The North Platte and New-
lands projects, in Nebraska and Nevada respectively,
brought realization for the first time to thousands

RECLAIMING THE DESERT 171

of eastern folk that the reputed barren deserts of our
,West were real.

A dam of monumental size blocking a deep can-
yon always centres public attention. Often it has
dramatic beauty. Besides the Roosevelt Dam in
Arizona, the Elephant Butte Dam in New Mexico,
the Pathfinder and Shoshone Dams in Wyoming,
the Arrowrock Dam in Idaho and the Tieton Dam
in Washington are among the world's most famous
and beautiful irrigation works, and at once became
so recognized. Including three dams in Indian Res-
ervations not parts of the System, storage reservoirs
built by the Bureau were capable, on June 30, 1927,
of storing 12,556,653 acre-feet of water.

Projects are so widely scattered that few even
in the far West have any definite idea of the system
as an achievement. It is difficult to picture. Con-
struction results will give some idea. At the begin-
ning of the fiscal year 1928, these were:

Storage and diversion dams 117

Volume (cubic yards) 20,206,351

Reservoir capacity (acre-feet) 12,556,653

Canals, ditches, and drains (miles) 16,156

Tunnels no

Length (feet) I55>i72

Canal structures (feet) 145,294

Bridges IM74

Length (feet) 262,626

Culverts 12,925

Length (feet) 476,904

Pipe (linear feet) 3,759,8oo

Flumes 4,55°

Length (feet) 836,580

Power plants 35

Power developed (horse-power) ISS>903

172 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

Telephone lines (miles) 3,3So

Transmission lines (miles) 1,761

Excavation (cubic yards) 256,426,258

Statistics of this kind have little meaning to
any of us, but assembled they cannot fail at least to
convey vivid impressions of magnitude and detail.
They help also to inspire respect for the purchasing
ability of two hundred million dollars.

One may conceive the appeal that such works
made to the imaginations of inexperienced des-
ert farmers, and the enthusiasm and confidence with
which many thousands undertook to make their for-
tunes under leadership of the nation's wise men.
The power, capital, wisdom, and skill of the United
States assembled in the grim desert for no other
purpose than to insure their personal success! As
the latest investigators of the causes of failure have
remarked, these were conditions not unlikely to up-
set good judgment by seeming to offer without stint.
No doubt many inexperienced and incompetent per-
sons undertook these farms on the imagined assump-
tion that the government would see them through;
and, eager to fill their lands, reclamation officials at
first accepted practically all comers.

So it happened that all the projects set out on
their careers as fast as each could serve enough wa-
ter for a beginning, with the confident hopes of
states, neighborhoods, farmers, project officials and
the national administration itself. In fact many im-
petuous entrymen were permitted to go upon the

RECLAIMING THE DESERT 173

lands before the water arrived. Some held them so
for years — to the exhaustion of their funds as well
as their patience. The fact is eloquent of the excited
expectation that the building of these great projects
aroused in the West. Since irrigation on a small
scale, privately capitalized and managed, had been
successful, how much more successful would rec-
lamation be on so great a scale backed with the na-
tion's wealth and brains! People all over the
country, from ocean to ocean, became profoundly
interested. America was entering a new phase of
her career triumphantly, as became her. That we
should equip reclamation on a scale never before
dreamed of, confidently, competently, was of course
to be expected.

The theory that in time the farmer owners, hav-
ing completed title by repayment of costs advanced
by the government shall themselves acquire posses-
sion and control the properties under the irrigation
laws of their respective states is beginning to work
out. In 1927 Secretary Work reported sixteen proj-
ects in whole or part under operation of the water
users, nine having qualified during that year. Many
projects are extremely successful. In 1917, the
cropped area was 966,784 acres and the value of the
crop $56,462,000. In 1926, cultivated areas totalled
2,264,600 acres and the value of the crop was $109,-
118,300.

The average crop value during these ten years
was $53.42 per acre, far exceeding the average in

174 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

the United States as a whole, which statistics show
ranged from $14.45 to $3574 for tne same period.
The Okanogan and Yakima projects in Washington
showed averages ranging from $77.30 to $385. The
programme will not, however, carry out in full.
Four projects have been abandoned, and every proj-
ect had its unsuccessful parts. Eighteen millions
were written off by the Board of Survey and Ad-
justment in 1925 as lost Beyond recovery — for all
causes, including lands discovered in practice to be
unproductive and irreclaimable. For so great an
experiment conducted under conditions so varied
and lasting over so many years, I do not think a loss
of ten per cent in an attempt only to break even can
be fairly criticised.

"The economic side of reclamation as it relates
to the investment of the United States," writes Fran-
cis M. Goodwin, formerly Assistant Secretary of the
Interior, "has been repeatedly stressed. The invest-
ment of settlers and others is equally important. A
conservative estimate places the average investment
of each reclamation settler on federal projects at
three thousand dollars, and loans by private parties
in addition will greatly increase this amount. As a
matter of fact, actual investments of settlers plus
private loans on reclamation property will exceed, if
it does not double, the amount invested at any given
time by the United States. Reclamation economics,
therefore, involve safeguarding investments by
United States and settlers alike, and this in turn in-
volves social and all other factors of life.

From a photograph by the Reclamation Service

EAST PARK DAM, ORLAND RECLAMATION PROJECT
Little Stony Creek waters a large California area

RECLAIMING THE DESERT 175

"In return for this investment there has been
a total crop production in the United States on the
federal reclamation projects in excess of the sum of
six hundred million dollars. The value of the land,
in many instances practically worthless, has tripled
and quadrupled, and to-day, after making all neces-
sary allowances for losses, reclamation is a substan-
tial tax producing asset for nation and states alike,
with thousands of prosperous homes in the back-
ground.

"The future of reclamation in the United States
is bright. The more feasible and the least costly
undertakings were, of course, absorbed long ago by
private enterprises or by Government initiative.
The vast areas of desert and semi-desert lands, with
proper soil conditions, for which water is available
can only be undertaken by the Federal Government.
The great cost and extended time necessary to per-
mit repayment precludes private development. Like-
wise future development of new projects on a scale
cannot be accomplished with the present reclamation
revolving fund. If the entire amount invested by
the United States at present could be immediately
collected, it would be totally inadequate to undertake
the construction of reclamation projects in connec-
tion with the Colorado and Columbia rivers. The
Congress of the United States must of necessity ap-
propriate large sums of money for these purposes,
and the projects just mentioned would alone require
expenditures in excess of half a billion dollars.

176 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

"The experiment of the United States in rec-
lamation has also demonstrated the necessity for a
careful and exhaustive study of soils and the selec-
tion of settlers. These are matters which are now
even more closely analyzed than engineering features
by the Bureau of Reclamation.

"Another feature neglected in past enterprises,
to be considered in future development, is the part
towns and cities within the borders of reclamation
projects have to play. In the past settlers have been
required to bear the total cost of construction, while
towns and cities within the projects have escaped
liability, although their growth and prosperity have
been dependent upon project development and suc-
cess. The United States now seeks to contract with
the project as a whole and not with individual set-
tlers, so that the entire area and every acre within a
project shall be responsible for repayment of con-
struction costs. By the creation of an irrigation dis-
trict, with power of taxation, levies can be equitably
made on all property benefited by construction. A
part of the burden of cost can thus be taken from
the settler and producer and placed on the shoulders
of others benefited.

"Modern reclamation takes into consideration
engineering, soil, settlers, markets, social conditions,
and taxation of all property benefited. The immense
prospective projects mentioned, like the Colorado
and the Columbia Basins, can be safely undertaken
by the Government, with assurance of tremendous

RECLAIMING THE DESERT 177

benefit to the people of the United States, under
these conditions, which are the fruits of our Federal
reclamation experiment."

The recreational opportunities of such a system
in semi-arid lands are beyond computation. During
its development has come the motor and the motor
road. Many of these reservoirs are the principal
fishing, camping and bathing opportunities of their
respective regions, and they will more and more im-
portantly serve the West in this way as population
increases and roads multiply. They share with Na-
tional Parks and National Forests the function of
travel objectives to millions of tourists awheel.

All these reservoirs are remarkable spectacles,
and some have rare beauty.

Reaching back often for miles up the winding
erosional valleys of hills and mountains, a shining
octopus, or filling miles of bald canyon with still deep
mile- wide river, or painting blue some shallow green-
bordered hollow in a vast level of sage-dotted yellow
sand, a reservoir of this size and character valiantly
asserts man-power in defiance of nature. The very
discordance with natural surroundings adds to its
declarations of human might. The roaring waters
of its dams, and the immense system below of sluices
and ditches outlining miles of desert-bordered vege-
tation triumphantly shouts man's conquest of the
unconquerable.

178 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

No one has seen the West who has not seen and
studied at least one of our national reclamation pro-
jects. No one knows beauty till he has seen it
wrested from desolation. No Easterner knows the
power of earth to produce till he has seen for him-
self what these dull sands can bring forth under
controlled waters.

Seen at a little distance, under conditions so sur-
prising, in surroundings so unfriendly, these unex-
pected bodies of deep water are always inspiring.
Close up, it depends upon the season whether they
picture beauty or desolation. Before the water is
drawn low in summer, Jackson Lake at the foot of
the Tetons in Montana may not have lost a great
deal from the pristine loveliness which inspired
Struthers Burt to call it the American Lake Geneva,
and it has gained in size, if size is a gain, and human
interest; but in July and especially in August, the
horror of broad mucky shores disclosed by retreat-
ing waters has made it world-famous for a far dif-
ferent reason.

Shoshone Reservoir on the way into Yellow-
stone, Klamath Lake in Oregon, the Salt River Val-
ley reservoirs in Arizona, in fact all which lie among
hills or mountains, are creations of unusual, perhaps
extraordinary beauty, but a different beauty, far,
from nature's, a fact which those persons do not
comprehend who cite increasing the beauty of nature
as a reason for building reservoirs in National Parks.
Calling the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir in Yosemite Na-

RECLAIMING THE DESERT 179

tional Park a lake fools no one. The vertical plunge
of its rocky sides, were there no other indications,
alone shouts its artificial character and consequent
total unfitness for a place among lands reserved of
old as examples of nature unmodified. The park
boundary-lines should be redrawn to exclude it from
misrepresentation so flagrant as Hetch Hetchy.

So with reclamation reservoirs everywhere.
Usually serving best on levels not much higher than
the lands they are meant to water, in areas usually
long since wrested from nature, their location has
little in common with water power, which prefers
the narrow canyons of high river sources. The
same water may serve double duty, power returning
it to streams where, much farther down, irrigation
impounds it for distribution over broad valleys.

Irrigation seldom legitimately wars with nature
conservation as exemplified in our National Parks.
It locates far below them. But not infrequently is
irrigation's service to humanity a camouflaging robe
flung over what really are water power schemes to
pass a bill through Congress, just as San Francisco's
alleged need of city water was the camouflaging
robe concealing the Hetch Hetchy water power
joker. Thousands will always believe that prospec-
tive water power, not those disproved irrigation
claims, was the real purpose behind the Yellowstone
Lake bills which conservation organizations fought
four years in Congress, for the time successfully.

Every reclamation reservoir has its potential

i8o OUR FEDERAL LANDS

by-product of power, usually used to shift waters to
levels not otherwise accessible, but power reservoirs
may not serve reclamation. Power must be con-
stant, necessitating a reservoir kept approximately
at a level Irrigation stores water during wet sea-
sons to be drawn low during dry seasons.

The advanced thinkers of to-day see Reclama-
tion a vastly bigger, broader and more necessary
movement than we thought it a quarter of a century
ago when the system which bears its name set out
to rescue a few score opportunities in a western des-
ert of colossal size. What are those few lands to
the half billion acres which four centuries of waste-
ful farming has depleted in the East? The time is
nearing to reclaim these, too.

"The older states also must be restored agri-
culturally," said Dr. Work in an address to a Rec-
lamation Conference in Washington in 1925.
"Western farmers can not compete with the wages
paid and hours of city employers, then pay freight
to the East. Those keen Americans on the Pacific
Coast have already become manufacturers, and they
are rapidly developing a market out through the
Golden Gate. There are two mountain ranges and a
wide desert between the Middle West and the Pacific
Coast. Economically, a trade division is pending be-
tween the Atlantic and Pacific states. Home pro-

RECLAIMING THE DESERT 181

duction and home consumption will soon demand in-
tensive study by our economists. The Great Divide
already means more than a seam in the earth's sur-
face. It is already a rent in the economic fabric of
a nation.

"To reclaim small areas in a few states by ir-
rigation is of local concern. It does not compre-
hend the two real questions vital to the supremacy
of this nation, the conservation of our natural re-
sources and the reclaiming of land lost to agricul-
ture. We may no longer follow the sun, burying
our dead as the ancients did, with their faces toward
it, without hope of a new day. We must begin
again, in the East, as did our forefathers. Not to
conquer the land, wrest a living from it, and aban-
don it, but to restore it. Not to leave it for new
farm homes in the West, for they are already taken
up except where artificially watered. This is a ques-
tion for states to study and not the Federal Govern-
ment, whose inadequacy as an operator has been
demonstrated in the irrigated agriculture of the
West. Each state and territory has a Government-
subsidized agricultural college. They should stress
reclamation. Centralized authority from the Agri-
cultural Department of our Government, through
its agricultural colleges with decentralized responsi-
bility assumed by states are the agencies available at
hand to turn the thoughts of our people in this di-
rection.

"Reclamation for a growing nation of 1 10,000,-

1 82 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

ooo people should, from now on, include recapture
and restoration of lost soil fertility. It is estimated
that there are 1,000,000,000 acres of arable land in
the United States, 503,000,000 acres of which have
been converted into improved lands. There remain
452,000,000 acres of land never yet under the plow.
"Much of this vast uncultivated area consists
of neglected, exhausted or abandoned lands, or cut-
over forest lands capable of being brought into ag-
riculture. Millions of acres are located outside of
the arid and semi-arid domain of the West. A con-
siderable portion is situated at the doors of the great
cities of East and Central states. Within sight of
the city of Washington are thousands of acres of
neglected lands in the State of Virginia, worn out
and abandoned, yet susceptible of regeneration. In
North Carolina 22,000,000 of the state's 31,000,-
ooo acres are unimproved. Only 8,000,000 acres are
in farms. Out of 19,500,000 acres in South Caro-
lina but 5,000,000 acres in 1924 was crop land,
scarcely more than one-fourth. Tennessee cropped
less than 8,000,000 of its 26,000,000 acres. In the
New England states several million acres of land
have reverted to pasture. Of the 3,000,000 acres in
Connecticut 497,435 acres were harvested in 1924.
Vermont harvested 1,124,000 acres in 1924 with a
million acres lost to agriculture by non-use. New
Hampshire cropped in 1924 only 542,846 acres out
of 2,262,000 acres in farms. Here pasture lands
comprise over 1,000,000 acres. Maine, with an area

RECLAIMING THE DESERT 183

of 5,164,000 acres in farms, cropped only 1,659,000
acres last year. Similar proportionate conditions ex-
ist in other states located in this section of the
United States.

"The major portion of this untilled land in the
East is susceptible of being reclaimed. Much of it
only awaits the plow. Other portions need clear-
ing of second growth. In most of these states are
thinly-peopled regions, the inhabitants living on a
soil skimmed of its cream that with fertilizer may
be made producing farms. Large communities with
their concentrated populations afford a ready market
with short truck hauls and low transportation."

Buying fertilizers instead of building dams is
the reclamation method of the East. Although east-
ern reclamation may be a state problem as Dr. Work
contends, the national government has shown its
willingness to help by appropriating $100,000 for
studying soil conditions in co-operation with states.

CHAPTER V

WATER POWER AND OTHER CONSERVED RE-
SOURCES

AT present man draws power only from coal,
oil and gas, which are consumable earth prod-
ucts whose exhaustion is already dimly foreseen,
and from streams whose possibilities are limited.
After present power sources are no longer able to
supply human needs, we shall draw it from the tides,
the sun, the internal heat of the earth, the earth's ro-
tation, and atmospheric electricity. Here, we deal
principally with water power, the earth's possibilities
of which the United States Geological Survey es-
timated in 1921 at 441,000,000 horse-power; of this
a quarter part, untouched, was located in the basin
of the Congo.

Water power in the United States was esti-
mated several years ago by O. C. Merrill, Executive
Secretary of the Federal Power Commission, at 50,-
000,000 potential horse-power, of which 30,000,000
would become commercially available. Upon these
figures our national establishment has been founded.
Since then extensive surveys by national and state
governments, corporations and private engineers
have extended knowledge greatly, warranting a Geo-
logical Survey estimate in 1928 of 80,000,000 horse-

184

WATER POWER 185

power for complete development of the whole coun-
try's resources.

Of this, on January i, 1928, the developed wa-
ter power of the United States plants of 100 horse-
power or more was 12,296,000 horse-power, an in-
crease of 4.9 per cent for the year.

Nature has not been unfair in her distribution
of power sources over the United States. Forty per
cent of the country's potential water power is in
three Pacific states: Washington, Oregon and Cali-
fornia. Eighty per cent of our enormous coal sup-
ply lies in six eastern states: Pennsylvania, Ohio,
Indiana, Illinois, West Virginia and Kentucky.
The West will develop water power with all speed;
the East will continue to depend chiefly on coal.

"In the east," says Jerome G. Kerwin in his
"Federal Water Power Legislation" (Columbia
University Press, 1926) "by developing water power
a huge saving of coal would be possible ; in the west,
development of water power means saving in oil."
According to Mr. Kerwin, water power is no
cheaper than steam power. But a third of the
freight equipment of railroads is used for carrying
coal, which can be saved for other carrying purposes
to any extent that water power can be substituted
for steam.

"We have now," writes Herman Stabler in Ec-
onomic Geography, October, 1927, "a most healthy
condition in the power industry — water and fuels
competing for supremacy in cheapness of develop-

1 86 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

ment yet supplementing each other to give the most
perfect and cheapest service when combined in ex-
tensive systems. Where water powers are abundant
and can be economically developed, fuel as a source
of power is held as a reserve, supplying peak loads
and supplementing steam shortage in low-water sea-
son. In other areas, where fuels are abundant, fuel
power dominates the field, water powers, if devel-
oped at all, being used as feeders to the power stream
but not being relied upon for base load."

Considering our possession of more than half
the world supply of coal, our power situation is in-
deed fortunate. With only eight per cent of the
world's population, wrote Secretary of the Interior
Lane in 1920, we produce annually 46 per cent of
all the coal taken from the ground. In less than a
hundred years, our annual production has increased
from a hundred thousand tons to seven hundred mil-
lion tons. Steinmetz has estimated that the coal
mined in the United States in 1926 would surround
the boundary and coast lines of the entire country
with a wall as big as the Great Wall of China, and
that this same coal contains the latent power to lift
that same wall two hundred miles in the air.

Water power's contribution to so fortunate a
balance in power is an interesting chapter in the de-
velopment of national enterprise.

Water power began in America with the
stream-turned wheel of the first grist mill, which is
believed to have been built in Dorchester in 1638.

WATER POWER 187

Originally, Congress left the regulation of navi-
gable streams, and the building of structures in and
over them, entirely to the states. Later on, with
recognition of national responsibility, individuals
and corporations were granted rights to develop wa-
ter power incidental to damning streams for slack
water navigation.

The authority of federal control over water
power is recognized to-day as resting on three bases :
first, the United States owns the Federal Lands in
which the great bulk of undeveloped power oppor-
tunity is found; second, the United States controls
navigable streams ; third, the United States controls
international waters of every kind. Eighty five per
cent of the waters suitable for power fall into one
or more of these three classes.

For many years power was taken directly from
the passing current by the overshot or undershot
water wheel. In the early days of hydro-electric
power, Niagara furnished three quarters of the
power in the principal plants of the country. Nota-
ble activity in water power development began in
the eighteen nineties. There was little early legisla-
tion beyond the act of 1901 pertaining to power de-
velopment of streams on Federal Lands. The first
general act concerning water power development was
passed in connection with navigation improvement
in 1906, placing no time limit on grants. This, re-
vised, was the act of 1910, completing power legis-
lation previous to the Federal Power Act of 1920.

1 88 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

The fifteen years covering the life of these acts were
years of contention between power companies and
the government.

The inability of early legislation to provide for
the disposition of power properties once created or
for the extension of grants upon termination, its
limited tenures, reserved rights and uncertain re-
quirements, made financing great power undertak-
ings exceedingly difficult. The power companies
insisted upon what they believed necessary if capital
was to be attracted to water power development; it
was the lack of faith in them by government, which
still failed to see ahead clearly, that was responsible
for the long delay. "It is simply national fore-
sight/' wrote Dr. George Otis Smith, Director of
the United States Geological Survey, in 1916, "to
see to it that the public utilities organized to-day for
private operation do not include promoters' hopes or
speculative land values in the capitalization upon
which future power users might be asked to pay re-
turns. Cheap power promises to be in some future
century this country's largest asset in the industrial
rivalry between nations. Our unsurpassed coal re-
serves (more than half of the earth's) reinforced
by these water power resources constitute a strong
line of national defense in that they form the real
basis for an industrial organization of the Nation's
workers."

So conservatively did Congress approach this
new field of promise that it needed the flat failure

From a photograph by the Federal Power Commission

MITCHELL DAM ON THE COOSA RIVER, ALABAMA
The power-house is above the dam, and the transformers on top of it

From a photograph by the Federal Power Commission

HARNESSING A MOUNTAIN STREAM
Big Creek, California. This is the power-house. The dam is far up-stream, the water tunnelled down

WATER POWER 189

of the acts of 1906 and 1910, plus nearer approach
of industry to water sources, plus long strides in
power transmission, to produce our present law and
the immense development under it.

The annual growth of power development from
1910 to 1923 was reasonably uniform except in the

GRAPHIC STORY OF THE GROWTH OF WATER POWER

1.200,000

U 00,000

1,000,000

800,000

700,000

eoo.ooc

800,000
400,000
100,000

mooo

100,000
0

UNITED STATES

DEVELOPMENT REQUIRING AUTHORIZATION
BY THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

1911 1912 ms

years 1913 and 1919. The story is told graphi-
cally in the diagram on this page which was compiled
by the Federal Power Commission from Geological
Survey data. The shaded portions show develop-
ment on private lands. The increase of 1913 was
due to the development of the famous Mississippi
River dam at Keokuk, Iowa, and the works on Big
Creek, California. The increase in 1919 was due
largely to new installation at Niagara Falls. The
great increase beginning in 1923 is accounted for by

190 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

the Geological Survey as follows : larger demand for
power; reaction from retarded growth during the
war period; stabilization of construction costs after
the war; and the Federal Power Act of 1920.

"While it is unfortunate," writes Mr. Merrill,
"that so many years were required to work out the
details of the national policy and that development
was meantime largely suspended, it is fortunate that
so small a part of our water power resources passed
out of public control, and it is undoubtedly true that
the delay resulted in the formulation of a wiser pol-
icy than would otherwise have been possible and in
one better adapted both to protect the public interest
and to meet the needs of industry." One reason un-
doubtedly was the location of many most desirable
waters at high altitudes which, until recently, had
been too far from the market for profitable utiliza-
tion. Western population was spreading fast.

But the Federal Power Act came at last. It
was, after all, extremely simple.

"The principle of retaining in public ownership
and control rights and resources to be used in the
public service," Mr. Merrill wrote of it in 1922, "in
order that returns therefrom shall be based on actual
investment and that service may thereby be rendered
at the lowest reasonable rate, is the fundamental ele-
ment in the federal water-power policy as embodied
in the act of 1920. The other provisions of the act
are largely for the purpose of supplementing and
supporting this basic principle."

WATER POWER 191

In order that this principle might apply in case
of public purchase, the act provides licenses with
fixed terms not exceeding fifty years, at termination
of which the United States shall have the right to
take any project over at original investment, plus
severance damages, less any depreciation and amor-
tization, reserves which may have been built up after
crediting the owners with a fair return on the in-
vestment. When the license period expires, the
United States may take over the property of the li-
censee for its own use, permit it to be taken by
another, or issue a new license to the old licensee.

"The federal policy assumes," Mr. Merrill con-
tinues, "that our water powers will be developed
primarily by private capital for public service, and
the history of public-service operations shows that
regulation of such services is necessary for public
protection. It recognizes, however, that there is an-
other side to the question of regulation which must
not be overlooked or ignored. Regulation will not,
of itself, produce development. Nothing will do that
but the hope of reward. It is essential, therefore,
that supervision and regulation shall not take away
the reasonable certainty of a reasonable return ; that
there shall always be the incentive to invest in the
business all the capital that the expanding needs of
the industry require."

The act was immediately and extraordinarily
successful. Two years after passage, Mr. Merrill
announced that 364 applications for permits or li-

192 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

censes already had been filed, involving installations
exceeding twenty-one million horse-power.

"This amount," he stated, "is more than twice
the existing water-power installation of the United
States, and more than six times the aggregate of all
applications for power sites under federal control in
the preceding twenty years. Up to June 30, 1922,
the Commission had authorized 58 preliminary per-
mits and 49 licenses, of which 18 were for transmis-
sion lines. The 58 permits involve an estimated in-
stallation of 2,406,000 horsepower, and the 31 li-
censes for power projects, of 1,945,000 horsepower,
or a total of 4,351,000 horsepower. Of the projects
covered by the 31 licenses, 27, involving an esti-
mated installation when completed of 1,952,000
horsepower and investment of not less than $200,-
000,000 were either completed or under construction
at the close of the fiscal year. This is thirty per cent
more than was constructed under federal authoriza-
tion in the twenty years preceding the passage of the
Federal water power act."

One of the issues during the contentious years
preceding the passage of the bill was the right of the
government to charge for the use of streams for
power. Notwithstanding that Presidents Roosevelt,
Taft, and Wilson had vetoed all bills for projects
using navigable rivers which did not pay tolls to the
federal treasury, vigorous opposition developed
from companies East and West, based on the com-
mon law rights of riparian owners.

WATER POWER 193

Since passage of the act, water power has
grown healthily into one of the great substantial
business interests of the country. In tables appear-
ing in the text of this chapter will be found informa-
tion of very great interest and value, covering re-
gional distribution of plants and power, percentages
of distribution of developed water power, and the
ranking, in developed water power, of the ten lead-
ing states. Out of these may be culled a variety of
illuminating facts which I shall leave to the reader
to discover for himself, notwithstanding that they
might make a couple of dramatic pages.

Now that a fair power law is applicable
throughout all federally owned lands except of
course national parks and monuments, and on many
waters not in Federal Lands, and that wholesome de-
velopment is proceeding at a healthy speed, national
thinking has characteristically centred upon the pos-
sibilities of future achievement. Although super-
power has become a household word, it is probable
that many think it means multiplication of power.
It doesn't. It is merely planning to tie up regional
power plants so that they may be used together to
supplement each other. During the day, for ex-
ample, power from rural plants may be concentrated
in the city to help turn mills, and at closing hour,
power from city plants may be shifted into rural dis-
tricts to help trolley the workers to their country
homes, cook their meals, and light their evenings'
work and play. Apply the same idea to greater areas

194

OUR FEDERAL LANDS

for greater purposes, or even on occasion to the field
of the nation, and its enormous economic possibili-
ties at once will become apparent. Super-power is
power flexibility.

Giant power, on the other hand, means power
combined from all sources of production — steam
power plus water power, practically. Imagine steam

REGIONAL WATER POWER BY PLANTS (100 HORSE-POWER OR
MORE) AND HORSE-POWER

DIVISION AND STATE

TOTAL

PUBLIC UTILITY
AND MUNICIPAL

MANUFACTURING
AND
MISCELLANEOUS

fc pJ

CAPACITY IN
HORSE-POWER

NUMBER OF
PLANTS

CAPACITY IN
HORSE-POWER

w£

fc 5

CAPACITY IN
HORSE-POWER

United States
New England
Middle Atlantic. . . .
East North Central.
West North Central.
South Atlantic. . . .

3,397
1,198
613
382
205
349
58
33
245
314

12,296,000
1,556,062
2,077,820
1,036,785
541,627
1,967,250
966,103
44,432
1,117,668
2,988,261

1, 600
259
247
263
155
170

22
194
246

10,538,381
778,343
1,811,483
807,440
445.190
1,726,512
963,281
40,927
1,095,530
2,869,675

i,797
939
366
119
50
179

14
ii
51
68

1,757,619
777,711
266,337
229,345
96,437
240,738
2,822
3,505
22,138
118,586

East South Central.
West South Central.
Mountain . .

Pacific .

DISTRIBUTION OF DEVELOPED WATER POWER IN
UNITED STATES, 1921, 1924-1928

PERC

ENTAGE

OF TOT,

1LINU*

IITED SI

ATES

DIVISION

1921

1924

1925

1926

1927

1928

New England

16.5

1C. 7

14.0

13.3

13. I

12.7

Middle Atlantic

18.7

19. I

19.4

17.9

17.5

16.9

East North Central

0 3

0 I

8 8

8.8

8.6

8.4

West North Central

S 6

f I

C . I

4- 7

4.6

4.4

South Atlantic
East South Central
West South Central

13-6
3-i

. 2

14-3

3-8

. 2

15.8

4.0

15-2

6-7
.3

iS-7

7-4

16.0
7-9

•4

Mountain

IO 4

0 3

8.8

9.1

Pacific

22.6

23 «;

23 . 3

24 5

24.0

24.3

WATER POWER

195

RANK OF THE TEN LEADING STATES IN DEVELOPED
WATER POWER, 1921-1928

]

921

924

925

926

927

928

PER CENT OF
U. S. TOTAL

RANK

tf ^

sa
1

# CO

8 8

rt ^

M «

gt;

w
«

W H

Pd ^

New York . . .

16 ^

17 O

17 I

if 7

Is?. O

U. C

California

14 ^

16 o

1C 3

16.4

16.2

Washington
Maine

5-7
Stj

5-3

5-6

5-9

5.6

5-7

Montana

• i
42

• «
i 8

• /

3 6

34.

•2 2

Massachusetts.

4- 3

3 «

•2 4.

Wisconsin.

A 2

4. 4

4 °

•I Q

South Carolina . . .
North Carolina. . .
Georgia

8
9

4.2
4.2

-i. e

3-9
4-7

4.O

5
8

S-i
5-3

2 O

5
o

4-6
4.8

•2 Q

4-9
4-6
3.8

S
o

4-7

»:S

Alabama

4.8

•

5-6

«;.a

Michigan

3- J

Total

66. 9

••

68.1

67.9

67.6

66.8

power produced at the mouths of mines so as to
eliminate coal transportation charges. Imagine it
twinned with water power and the two handled as
super-power.

A people which dramatizes achievement is re-
joicing, at last, in water power. Before the Act of
1920, it was popularly regarded as the instrument
with which money barons were seeking enrichment
in the destruction of natural beauty. Hetch Hetchy
and Niagara will never be forgotten. They have
become and will remain synonyms of greed. Their
conspicuousness in great centres of visitation keeps
alive the public suspicion which attaches not only
to every large water power proposition but to every
proposed storage of water for any purpose. Because

196 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

of Hetch Hetchy, the public conviction that the once
so vigorously urged damming of Yellowstone Lake
had water power as its concealed purpose is beyond
removal, perhaps for generations.

This unfortunate clouding of the repute of a
great American business may serve in the end a use-
ful purpose. It will pass, of course, and the delibera-
tion of its passing may bring conception to business
of the balances demanded by the ideals of a nation
such as ours. Public realization that water power
is a national instead of sectional enterprise, a great
development of the East and the South as well as of
the far West, will tend to just comprehension.

At this writing, the country contains thirty-
three hundred and ninety-seven power plants of a
hundred horse-power or more. Many of them are
small, many incidental to water storage for other
purposes, many large, a few of great size. All
which impound water, creating lake-like reservoirs,
have their additional public recreational use. Ex-
cept in reservations specially set apart for perpetual
preservation of natural conditions, like National
Parks, or in localities where works will damage
beauty of very extraordinary quality, recreational
enjoyment and public education in national enter-
prise must be added to the economic arguments in
any contest to determine whether or not proposed
projects should be undertaken.

WATER POWER

197

. o\oo

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v§

. otoc

ON rf
NO" 6"

NO VO

•<£

O*"

O <> -^- 10

o O t-Too"

ON
fO

^f
NO

O O

oO NO

<'OPO*1<Tt
OOOOOO^o
00^ O^ ON

tC vo 10

NOw6
co O\NQ
NONO <

siii

198 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

WITHDRAWALS OF OTHER RESOURCES

Other natural resources of uncalculated and in-
calculable value in our Federal Lands, withdrawn
from entry as Public Land and leased or held for
lease elsewhere, are not within the province of this
book because each constitutes so small a part of the
country's whole supply. Of an original coal total of
3,000,000,000,000 tons, for example, only compara-
tively a trifle in scattered lots remains in public pos-
session, and of the annual consumption of 600,000,-
ooo tons, 2,500,000 tons only are developed on fed-
erally owned lands.

The Geological Survey table here reproduced
shows the acres of coal, oil, coal shale, phosphate,
and potash lands withdrawn, and those classified,
within the Federal Lands; but the country's total
supplies are vastly greater.

CONCERNING OIL

Quoting Gerrit Gerrit in the Saturday Evening
Post of March 3, 1928, computations from the find-
ings of the Federal Oil Conservation Board in 1924
show 30,000,000,000 barrels of oil remaining, in
1928, beneath the American surface, enough to last
thirty-three years at the 1927 rate of consumption;
but only six per cent of total production is in lands
leased from the United States. "In the fiscal year
ending June 30, 1927," reports the United States
Geological Survey, "26,640,101 barrels of oil were

WATER POWER 199

taken from Government Lands, and royalty products
valued at $6,006,455 were S°W for the benefit of the
several States, the reclamation fund, the United
States Treasury, and other beneficiaries designated
by law."

The oil shales of the United States, of which
those in our Federal Lands are but a slender part,
constitute a future resource beyond present computa-
tion. Their practical use may not be so far away as
generally is believed. When the cost of crude oil
overlaps that of oil from shale, said a recent au-
thority, a competition will begin which will extend
the use of crude oil into many years. This will hap-
pen, it was predicted, at the production cost of about
25 cents. Endowed many times more richly than any
other land with material for all oil substitutes of im-
portance, America will probably carry her present
advantage into the centuries.

Who will predict what the future will bring
forth ? Oil in great quantities has recently been dis-
covered at levels far below oil fields long exhausted.
With new methods of search and new light from
science, new bonanzas of gold, silver, and copper
may again enrich the country.

CHAPTER VI
OUR INDIAN WARDS

TWO hundred reservations, altogether equal in
area to Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont,
Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New
York combined, scattered widely among twenty-
four states from New York west to California, and
Michigan south to Florida, are owned and occupied
by 3S5,ooo wards of the nation. These properties,
together with annual appropriations of ten to twelve
million dollars, are equivalent to conscience money
in compensation for the half continent we took by
force from its original Indian possessors. What-
ever the score against us, and it is heavy, two elo-
quent facts are written to our national credit. One
is that we have cared far better than any other na-
tion in history for a remnant of savage aborigines
conquered and replaced. The other is that our con-
quered wards, now citizens, not only are steadily in-
creasing in number, health, and education, but aver-
age also the wealthiest people in the world.

Occupants of reservations by no means consti-
tute all the Indians in the United States. Of the
total of 354,940 reported by the Secretary of the In-
terior on June 30, 1927, 101,506 belong to the Five
Civilized Tribes in Oklahoma, namely the Cherokees,

200

OUR INDIAN WARDS 201

Chickasaws, Choctaws, Creeks, and Seminoles, which
for many years maintained separate governments by
treaty with the United States, and still, though long
since merged in the nation, are considered a group
apart. About five thousand wholly unattached and
independent Indians are scattered among the twen-
ty-four states. Distribution is shown in a govern-
ment table reproduced on a succeeding page. We
are not considering the native population of Alaska
or our island territories.

At this writing, April 1928, Indian population
represents 193 tribes speaking fifty-eight languages.
Official records identify 331 tribes originally. Rem-
nants which have disappeared are incorporated into
those which remain, or have merged in populations.

At this writing there are 202 government
schools for Indians with 700 teachers. In schools of
all kinds, including sectarian mission and state
schools, are 90,725 pupils. There are 90 govern-
ment hospitals with 178 physicians and 140 nurses.
The total value of individual and tribal property is
$1,716,815,123; of this $7967°8,737 belong to in-
dividuals, an average of nearly $2,300 for every In-
dian; of this, about $74,000,000 are banked in cash
by its owners or held in trust by the government; the
balance is land, mineral, lumber, stock, and farm
equipment. Besides individual holdings, every In-
dian has an interest in tribal property, averaging
nearly $3,000. While many tribes and individuals
are poor, on the average they are not unprosperous.

202 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

Neither are Indians now "a dying race"; they
have been increasing in number for forty years.

All Indians became citizens under a law passed
June 2, 1924, but how many possess the franchise
depends upon state laws. There will not be many.
Nearly all Indians, also, have "received their allot-
ments" and theoretically are on their own, indepen-
dent of government help. Theory and fact, how-
ever, do not always agree; there's another side to
this pretty picture of prosperity. In spite of the
appearance of experience, judgment, and confidence
which make many Indian faces impressive in mature
and older years, few Indians have the capacity to
meet the competition of the white man's civilization.
Occasionally Congress, or some Secretary, assumes
that they have and turns a lot of them loose on the
hard world, nearly always with disastrous results.
In 1887, Congress decreed that each Indian should
personally be alloted his own share of his reservation
under the proviso that he could not sell it nor bor-
row on it for twenty-five years. This is known as a
trust patent, and most Indians now possess it. La-
ter, legislation provided that he could sell or borrow
upon receipt of an award by the government of a
patent in fee. Altogether, the Bureau has only
issued experimentally about twenty-five thousand
patents in fee, but Congress has taken affairs into its
own hands to the number of nearly a hundred thou-
sand more.

But mark the results. About ninety per cent of

OUR INDIAN WARDS 203

these picked Indians, once in unhampered possession
of their own property, lost everything they possessed
within a few months!

The fate of these unfortunates has been to fall
back on the main tribal possessions, reducing pro
rata values by just so much. In view of these facts
the Bureau, in making the original allotments re-
quired by law, habitually holds something back in
reserve from each full share. Usually an original
individual allotment, upon which the Indian is sup-
posed to live, measures 160 acres of farm land, or
twice that if desert or forest land. They vary in size
according to the productivity of the lands and the
purposes for which they can be used, and the size is
generally restricted by the amount of land available
for that purpose in the reservation to which each be-
longs. Indians in isolated localities earn their living
in various ways, such as securing employment from
white men in the neighborhood, raising garden truck
and caring for a few head of stock for their own use.
Their income from this source is often supplemented
by gathering nuts and wild fruits, fishing, and other
similar activities. Generally speaking, allotments
have not been made in desert regions except where
water is available for irrigation. Much of this des-
ert land is very productive under irrigation. In
other localities where the land cannot be irrigated
the Indian earns a livelihood by raising sheep and
goats which graze on their allotments and adjoining
lands. The Nez Perce and Navaho Indians carry on

204 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

their agricultural activities with considerable suc-
cess, but others generally lease their allotments, liv-
ing on their rentals.

To help him make his living, the government
will make loans for purchase of seed, tools, cattle,
hogs, sheep, even in some cases chickens.

Excepting some proportion of Navahos, prac-
tice shows that few full blood Indians are able to
earn the most modest livings without the helping
hand of government, and few enriched by chance
finds of oil or mineral on their properties have kept
their own without the restraining or protective hand
as the case may be, of the Indian bureau.

It is the belief of experienced observers that, in
spite of a good education, the Indian will never much
improve in those respects which make for competi-
tive success except by intermixture of white blood.
This often has yielded excellent results. Crossing
with Asiatic and African stock, which happens ex-
tensively in Oklahoma, works no improvement.

President Jefferson's dream was "to let our
settlements and theirs meet and blend together, to
intermix and become one people. Incorporating
themselves with us as citizens of the United States
is what the natural progress of things will bring on ;
it is better to promote than retard it. It is better for
them to be identified with us and preserved in the oc-
cupation of their lands than to be exposed to the dan-
gers of being a separate people."

While admixture of Indian and White blood

OUR INDIAN WARDS

INDIAN POPULATION BY STATES, 1927

2O5

States with Indian Reservations are indicated by the letter R. [In other
states, Indians are not under government control

Alabama

Arizona R . .

Arkansas

California. R. .

Colorado R. .

Connecticut

Delaware

District of Columbia

Florida R..

Georgia

Idaho R..

Illinois

Indiana

Iowa R..

Kansas R..

Kentucky

Louisiana

Maine

Maryland

Massachusetts

Michigan R. .

Minnesota R. .

Mississippi R. .

Missouri

Montana... ..R..

405
46,235

1 06
18,893

796

159

37
503
125

3,949
194
125
392

1,526

57
i, 066

839

550

7,610

15,056

1,410

13,507

Nebraska R 4,304

Nevada R 5,042

New Hampshire 44

New Jersey 99

New Mexico R 22,869

New York R 5,375

North Carolina. . . .R 12,185

North Dakota R 10,257

Ohio 152

Oklahoma R 119,216

Oregon R 6,674

Pennsylvania 358

Rhode Island 106

South Carolina 304

South Dakota R 23,107

Tennessee 56

Texas 2,110

Utah R 1,570

Vermont 24

Virginia 822

Washington R 12,900

West Virginia 7

Wisconsin R 11,622

Wyoming R 1,952

(Figures compiled from reports of Indian agents, supplemented by 1920
census, where no Indian agent is located.)

has brought about many happy individual results,
appearances so far indicate that it will not carry far
enough to realize the Jeffersonian prediction so far
as this may have contemplated inter-marriage. So
far as it contemplated mixed business relationship,
experience shows that the Indians will always be
under disadvantage.

With our Indian population consistently in-
creasing, the Bureau of Indian affairs may look for-
ward to a permanent career of increasing impor-
tance. Special significance therefore may attach to

206 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

the opening paragraph of Secretary Work's report
for the year 1927:

"The Indian Service has not kept pace with the
progress elsewhere along health, educational, indus-
trial, and social lines. The appropriations for gen-
eral purposes for the fiscal year 1923 were $10,316,-
221,30, and in the five fiscal years since they have
been increased by about $2,338,463.70, principally
for medical and health activities. But the cumula-
tive effect of many years of financial neglect has de-
manded even larger appropriations, if the Govern-
ment may perform its full duty to the American
Indian. Underrating the requirements of the Indian
service has continued so long that it has become a
habit difficult to correct."

So definitely fixed, through so many years, has
become the broad public impression that our Indians
are a degenerating, disappearing fragment of a once
strong people, driven by force from ancestral lands,
decimated by centuries of persecution, wars, and dis-
ease, undermined by liquor and drugs which we have
sold them, impoverished by official oppression and
private fraud, that news of their increase and pros-
perity is positively startling to many.

Still more surprising is the fact that, so far as
records permit an estimate, the United States con-
tains to-day practically as large an Indian popula-
tion as it did even before the coming of the white
man.

It is not surprising that the earliest estimates of

OUR INDIAN WARDS

STATISTICS OF INDIAN POPULATION

207

YEAR

AUTHORITY

NUMBER

1834
1836
1837
1850
I8S3
1855
I8S7
i860
1865
1870
1870
I87S
l876
1877
I878
1879
1880
1880

1881
1882
1883
1884
1885
1886
1887
1888
1889
1890
1891
1892
1893
1894
1895
1896
1897
1898
1899
1900
1901
1902
1903
1904
1905
1006
1907
1908
1909
1910
1911
1912
1913
1914
1915
1916
1917
1918
1919
1920
1921

Report of —
Secretary of War . . .

3I2,6lO
253,464
302,498
388,229
400,764
314,622
379,264
254,300
294,574
313,712
313,371
305,068
291,882
276,540
276,595
278,628
322,534
256,127
328,258
326,039
331,972
330,776
344,064

334,735
243,299
246,036
250,483
248,253
246,834
248,340
249,366
251,907
248,340
248,354
248,813
262,965
267,005
270,544
269,388
270,238
263,233

Superintendent of Ind
Do

an Affairs

H. R Schoolcraft

United States Census,
Indian Office

igco

H. R. Schoolcraft

Indian Office

Do.. .

United States Census

Indian Office

Do...

United States Census

Indian Office

Do....

Do...

Indian Office

Do....

United States Census

Indian Office . . .

Do...

Do..

Do .

Do....

274,206
284,079
291,581
298,472
300,412
300,545
304,950
322,715
327,425
330,639
331,250
333,010
335,753
335,998
336,243
333,702
336,337
340,838

Do . .

Do....

Do...

Do....

Do...

Do..

DO ....

208 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

Indian population, based on the limited contacts of
colonists, were notably incorrect. That of George
Croghan in 1759, the first recorded, was 10,500.
Nine years later, Colonel Bouquet of the British
army, estimated 54,960. In 1769, another army esti-
mate, by Captain Hughes, reduced the number to
35,830. In 1779, John Dodge reduced it to 11,050.
Ten years later the Secretary of War estimated 76,-
ooo, which Gilbert Inboy reduced to 60,000 ten years
thereafter. In 1820 estimates were suddenly jumped
to 471,036, but in 1825 the Secretary of War re-
duced them to 129,366. Four years later his suc-
cessor, raised them to 312,930. So far, the extremes
of fluctuation disclose entire unreliability.

From 1834, however, as shown in the accom-
panying table, reports are inclusive and consistent,
warranting the belief that, before the coming of the
white man, Indian population was not very much
greater, if any, than to-day. A reasonable backing
might even be found for the contention that, con-
sidered as a race, Indians have profited rather than
lost by our forcible seizure of their empire. With-
out ultimate loss of population, they have attained
Christianity, civilization, and prosperity.

Few as they were originally, they were very
widely scattered. Columbus met Indians on the isl-
lands and mainland of Florida in 1492. In 1542
Coronado encountered them in large numbers in the
Southwest; his famous exploration, which even
touched lands now in Nebraska, was in search of

OUR INDIAN WARDS 209

seven Indian cities believed in Spain to contain enor-
mous stores of gold. The Fathers established mis-
sions up all the California coast which Indians them-
selves built under their instructions. The earliest
expeditions to Puget Sound discovered Indians
throughout the Northwest.

So also in the East. In 1604 Champlain met
Indians in large numbers in what then was Massa-
chusetts but now is Maine. In 1620, the Pilgrim
Fathers found them in Massachusetts. First set-
tlers fought them for a foothold all the way south
to Georgia, and westward, along the entire continen-
tal front. The first century of settlement was one of
massacre and war from Maine to Florida. Count-
less Colonial hostilities culminated in the French and
Indian War.

From 1782 to 1785, the new nation fought In-
dian wars in Pennsylvania. From 1790 to 1795, it
fought almost constantly the Chippewas, Delawares,
Miamis, Mingoes, Ottowas, Potawatomies, and
Shawnees. In 1806 Lewis and Clarke encountered
Indians all the way to the Pacific Coast and back.
Between 1782 and 1898 records show sixty-seven
distinct wars between United States troops and In-
dians, some of them small and brief, of course, but
others bitter and bloody, spreading over years.

In one of these, by the way, General Harrison
paved the way for his Congressional and Presiden-
tial career by defeat of confederated tribes at Tip-
pecanoe, Indiana, in 1811. In the war against the

210 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

Creeks in Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi and Ten-
nessee in 1814, General Andrew Jackson delivered
two smashing defeats, the latter of which broke the
Creek power forever. Jackson was also hero of the
first Seminole war in Florida in 1818. In the sec-
ond Seminole war in 1842, one of the tribes held out
through the peace-making, and to-day, on the Ever-
glades reservation, boasts its unbroken record of
undefeat. In the war against Indian allies in
1855-6, Lieutenant Phil Sheridan began his na-
tional reputation which culminated in the Civil War.
From 1855 war was waged almost constantly in
the Middle West and West with the Cour d'Alenes,
Paloos, Cheyennes, Sioux, Arapahoes, Kiowas, Co-
manches, Lipans, Kickapoos, Modocs, Apaches, Nez
Perces, Bannocks, Paiutes, Utes, Sheepeaters and
Chippewas. Two of these were wars of two years
each with the Sioux, in the latter of which, in 1877,
occurred the massacre of General Custer. The
Chippewa disturbance in 1898 ended a century of
Indian wars, closing, as the table shows, the lowest
decade of Indian population. Our wars with the In-
dians, the table also shows us, very far indeed from
decimated them, as has been charged. Low tide of
Indian population in 1887 was only twenty-two per
cent below that reported by the Secretary of War in
1834 which may be said to begin the dependable cen-
sus, and thirty-one per cent below that of 1927, the
last report available for this writing. Far more
than war contributed to the decline to the figures of

OUR INDIAN WARDS 211

1887, and far more than its cessation contributed
to the climb to the altitude of forty years later.

How different is the Indian citizen of to-day
from the utterly cruel warring savage of unbroken
spirit fighting for his home and hunting ground
against an ever encroaching power increasingly
threatening extinction; fighting, too, let us admit,
because it was his habit, tradition, sport and joy to
fight, and for lust of conquest and pleasure in tor-
ture ! Think now of the inert tribesman of to-day,
sure always of his food, fire, roof and medical care
from the parental hand of his father's conquerors.
There was only one conception of him, then. How
many and different are the conceptions we have of
him now ! To some he is the worthless ne'er-do-well,
shiftless from nature, tricky at heart, essentially
lazy and cruel. To others he is a child of nature,
deceived by those who claim to befriend him, plucked
of his substance even by his official protectors, happy
with little, responsive to the kindly word. To still
others he is the noble broken hero of a lost cause and
country, bewailing freedom passed forever, the hope-
less victim of human wolves whose persecutions he
must endure with bowed head!

The Indian perhaps justifies all these concep-
tions and more. He is a primitive who, a half cen-
tury only out of savagery, still unable to survive
through fitness the conditions of civilization, accepts
what life offers good humoredly with neither en-
thusiasm nor protest. Whether or not he is capable

212 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

of developing ambition for himself and his race, gen-
erations to come will show. What Commissioner
Charles H. Burke calls the missionary spirit inspires
much of the work of the Indian Service to-day both
at headquarters and in the field. Without it the
work would not succeed.

The dry, hot Southwest developed a very differ-
ent primitive Indian, though racially identical, from
the East and North. The Hopi, Navajo, and other
tribes of pueblo dwellers were tillers of the soil
rather than followers of game. Builders of stone
community houses often of large size, they con-
structed efficient irrigation systems aiming for per-
manency and a progressive civilization. Communi-
ties which were ancient when the Spaniards invaded
our Southwest still exist, but for each occupied
dwelling hundreds are in ruins, recording the rapac-
ity and greed of enemy tribes of prehistoric times.
The Pueblo Indians' greatest enemy so far as we
can now guess were the Apaches, several reserva-
tions of which are scattered through the region.

Rights of Indians to about 17,000 acres of land
attached to each pueblo were granted by the original
Spanish conquerors, established under the United
States in the treaty with Spain of 1848, confirmed
by Congress in 1859, and passed upon by the Su-
preme Court in 1913. But, under the assumption
that the Indians had the right to sell parcels of their
lands, there was much white settlement meantime
upon these lands ; some parcels passed by actual sale,
but most by squatting and claiming. Many lands to

From a photograph by the Pacific Stereopticon Company

PRIMITIVE INDIANS IN HAVASUPAI INDIAN RESERVATION, ARIZONA
This woman, reverted to type, may have had an excellent education as a girl

OUR INDIAN WARDS

213

which title was wrongly assumed were sold to later
purchasers in good faith. Eventually 12,000 per-
sons concerned with 3,000 claims which ranged in
size from town lots to half a dozen acres shared
pueblo lands with their 8,000 Indian owners.

This impossible situation occasioned many out-
breaks of sympathetic protest, and local courts over-
flowed with cases which seemed impossible of solu-
tion. In 1924, however, Congress appointed a board
to adjudicate all claims with instructions that none
should be decided against the Indians except by
unanimous agreement of the Commissioners. Many
cases carry back to the original Spanish grants.

Pueblo lands are held by the Indians in com-
munal ownership and occupancy. Under Indian
Bureau supervision, they conduct their own govern-
ment and their own petty courts. Many are the com-
plaints of individuals and societies against govern-
mental repression of ceremonial dances and other
customs descended from prehistoric times.

The rapid increase of Indian wealth is shown
in the following table compiled from Government
figures :

INCREASING VALUE OF INDIAN PROPERTY

INDIVIDUAL

TRIBAL

TOTAL

IQ2I

$6J26,IO'?,34Q

$190,603,152

$716,705,500

1922

<2Q, 68l,226

198,065,171

727,746,397

IQ23

cic,nc6,774.

2 24, QI 3, 74. <?

1,010,870,519

1924

^07,482,100

10^,366,848

1,052,849,047

102 ?

128 776 4.^0

TQ3 322 867

i 6^6 04.6 ^^o

1926

<u8 818 33S

183 466 029

1,603,84.4. 806

1027

706 7o8 737

Q2O 106,^86

i. 716.81^.123

214 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

Its distribution by States in 1927, also shown,
has much interest. That Oklahoma Indians should
have seventy-one per cent of total wealth with only
a third of total population is due to remarkable finds
of oil on Indian lands therein. Of these, the Osages,
2,863 m number, are credited with wealth chiefly in
tribal oil lands valued at $656,919,013, an average
of $229,420 an individual. The Indians of the Five
Nations stand next with wealth valued at $394,876,-
415, also chiefly in oil, but, because they number
101,506, wealth per capita drops to $3,299 each.
Third in gross wealth are the Shoshones of Wyo-
ming, with oil and mineral properties exceeding
$91,000,000. Numbering 1,951, their average total
wealth stands second at $50,000 each.

"The records show," Assistant Commissioner
E. B. Meritt writes me as this manuscript goes to
the publisher, "that during the past fiscal year
(1927) Indians of the Five Civilized Tribes received
under Departmental jurisdiction a revenue of $4,-
846,091 from oil and gas mining leases. The leases
produced 13,414,657 gross barrels of oil. There
were 8,804 oil and gas leases in force embracing
more than 788,000 acres. There were at the end of
the fiscal year 7,050 producing oil wells and 214 pro-
ducing gas wells on restricted lands of the Five Civi-
lized Tribes.

"The Osage Indians received in bonus payments
for leases made during the last fiscal year the sum
of $3,953,000; the rental and royalty income for the

OUR INDIAN WARDS

2IS

INDIVIDUAL AND TRIBAL VALUES OF INDIAN PROPERTY
BY STATES

INDIVIDUAL

TRIBAL

TOTAL

Arizona.

I e 460,667

34,^08,07"?

cr0 06? 742

California,

11,403,482

c, 20^,224

16,608 706

Colorado

670,001

2,568,826

3,247,017

Florida

7,OOO

2OO,OOO

207,000

Idaho

14,117,442

4,686,067

iS.'jSs.^oQ

Iowa

^,871

^48,310

604,181

Kansas

2,653,072

111,175

2,764,247

Michigan

314,068

4.67 <?

3IO 643

Minnesota .

6,730,074

8.2OI.7OO

I4..Q4I 674

Montana

11,432,008

II.432.O08

Nebraska

377.008

177,^43

301, 33O

Nevada

330,6oo

I,44I,3O3

088,047

New Mexico

6,726,817

IO,6o^,O33

26,301,8^2

New York

78 c ooo

4^11 787

e 206 787

North Carolina

2O7.Q48

I OO3 ^OO

I 3OI 448

North Dakota

30,842,806

C7C 427

31 4l8 233

Oklahoma

^60,641,84.8

6ctr,COO,862

1.22 ^.1 <\I.7IO

Oregon

12,1^,847

38,208,640

qo, 344,487

South Dakota

47,052,188

4,CQI,76e;

tri ,643,0^3

Utah

3OO2 432

T 21 ^ 43O

4217 862

Washington

28 589 1 2O

2O 67^ OI 3

4O 264 133

Wisconsin

4 606 608

IO O3O 427

I ? <?37 12?

Wyoming . .

3.123,8o3

04 081 616

O7 2O? 4OQ

year was $10,527,296; the gross production of oil in
the Osage Reservation was 25,884,734 barrels.
There were 411 producing oil wells and 49 gas wells
drilled on the Osage Reservation during the year.
There were at the close of the fiscal year 9,887 pro-
ducing oil wells and 776 producing gas wells on the
reservation.

"The Indians of tribes other than the Osages
and Five Civilized Tribes received a revenue from the
oil and gas leases of more than $1,200,000. In the
Navajo Treaty Reservation, New Mexico, seven pro-
ducing oil wells were drilled during the year, making
a total of 29 wells now producing there, and yielding a
gross oil production of approximately 869,208 bar-

216 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

rels. A small producing oil well was reported during
the past year within the Ute Mountain Reservation
in southeastern Colorado, the first indication of oil
on that reservation. The gross production from all
Indian oil and gas leases for the year was approxi-
mately 41,000,000 barrels."

The Indians of the Five Civilized Tribes did
not reserve minerals to the tribe when allotments
were made, so that some individuals received great
sums in royalties from oil found on their lands,
while others possessed only agricultural values. A
Creek Indian named Jackson Barnett, who refused
to pick an allotment and had one arbitrarily assigned
to him later received more than $3,000,000 from oil
royalties. Oil has also been discovered in the Paw-
nee, Otoe and Kiowa Reservations of Oklahoma and
the Crow Reservation in Montana.

With these statistics let us compare Indian
wealth in states without oil and mineral deposits.
The 23,107 Indians in South Dakota share wealth
principally in lands of the value of $51,643,953, an
average of $2,235 each. The 6,667 Indians of Ore-
gon share wealth principally in lands and timber of
the value of $50,344,487, an average of $7,763 each.
The 46,235 Indians in Arizona share wealth princi-
pally in lands and live stock of the value of $50,067,-
742, an average of $1,089. The 12,900 Indians
of Washington share wealth principally in lands and
timber of the value of $49,263,133, an average of
$3,811 each.

OUR INDIAN WARDS 217

If, to arrive at a more general conception, we
should eliminate the two oil states of Oklahoma and
.Wyoming, we should have in the rest of the country
234,772 Indians sharing wealth valued at $384,-
458,004, an average of $1,637 each. Approaching
from still a different point of view, let us eliminate
from consideration the entire item of oil and mineral
wealth, which amounts to $952,498,197. There will
then be left a total in lands, live stock, timber, build-
ings, farming equipment and cash, of $764,316,926,
an average of $2,153 for each Indian in the country.

Wealth other than oil and mineral was distrib-
uted in 1927 as follows:

Lands exclusive of timber, $489,079,312; tim-
ber $97,022,866; homes, barns, furnishings, etc.,
$30,365,835; live stock $28,467,110; crops and mis-
cellaneous, $11,901,923; funds in bank and treasury
$98,384,834.

These figures include both individual and tribal
property.

"Large timber operations," Mr. Meritt writes,
"are conducted under contract at very good stump-
age prices on a number of reservations. Timber is
offered for sale as economic conditions and the needs
of the Indians for cash require. The receipts for the
sale of timber are approximately $2,000,000 per an-
num. For the fiscal years 1926 and 1927 receipts
were $2,446,455.07 and $2,953,202.10 respectively.
Eight per cent of the gross receipts is retained by the
Government to defray the cost of scaling, marking,

21 8 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

supervision and other proper timber sale expenses.
The remainder (92%) of the gross receipts is
credited to the Indians.

"Timber is selectively logged and young growth
preserved in accordance with approved forestry
practice to provide for future timber crops. Ap-
proximately twenty-five sawmills are operated on
the reservations, including two large, modern elec-
trically equipped band mills, to provide lumber for
Indian homes, general improvements on the reser-
vations, and the industrial advancement of the In-
dians in general."

With all their developed and undeveloped
wealth, many Indians are exceedingly poor. "They
live in dissimilar conditions," Representative Louis
C Cramton, of Michigan, told Congress in January,
1928, "some of them in the hot desert wastes of the
Southwest and some of them in the coldest winters
of the Northwest. Some of them have much more
money than is good for them to have or good for any
one to have without earning it ; many of them are des-
titute. Some of them are well advanced and others
are in the lowest condition of civilization.

"With all of their reservations scattered over
the great West it is inevitable that, through human
agencies, occasional mistakes of administration will
occur. There was a time, I have read, in the earlier
days when we had just subdued the Indians, when
the West was not as well developed as it is now, and
when those regions were most remote from the seat

OUR INDIAN WARDS 219

of government, that the Indian Service was notori-
ously corrupt; and I think in the public mind the In-
dian Service of to-day has the disadvantage of some
of that ancient aroma still clinging around it.

"The Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Hon.
Charles H. Burke, has had long experience with In-
dian affairs through his life in the West and through
his former connection with Indian affairs as Chair-
man of the Committee on Indian Affairs of this
House, and is a man of capacity, integrity, and of
practical sane idealism. He has associated with him,
as assistant commissioner, Mr. Edgar B. Meritt,
who has been in that bureau for some thirty years.
I do not believe there is in the Government service
a man who is more thoroughly devoted to carrying
out the responsibilities of his position than Mr. Mer-
itt. It was his vigilance that saved the San Carlos
Reservoir site, and he is most zealous and devoted to
the real welfare of the Indians."

In Colonial days the Indian was an enemy, only,
but the young nation recognized treaty and other re-
sponsibilities. Committees of Senate and House
were the new nation's first managers of Indian af-
fairs. The War Department appropriately took
charge of its creation in 1789. Traders introduced
liquor, under influence of which Indians suffered
both as buyers and sellers in their business with
whites. To correct this, President Washington set
up Indian trading posts, which the traders got abol-
ished by Act of Congress in 1822. Retort to that

220 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

was the creation, in 1824, of a Bureau of Indian
Affairs, which handled trade in addition to treaties,
appropriations, a small fund to establish Indian civi-
lization, claims by and against Indians, and agencies
of all kinds. Eight years later the first Commis-
sioner of Indian Affairs, Elbert Herrick, was ap-
pointed. Two years later, the Bureau was enlarged
to its present importance, and in 1849 it passed from
the War Department to the Interior Department.

The idea of removing all Indians east of the
Mississippi to reservations to be established in fed-
eral lands in the West was one of the first enter-
tained by the new government. As early as 1804
it was embodied in the law creating two territories
of Louisiana, and in 1820 a treaty with the Choc-
taws provided for a new home for them in Arkan-
sas. President Monroe reported a formal plan to
Congress in 1825, under which the present state of
Oklahoma and most of Kansas was acquired by
treaty from the Osages and Kansan Indians. This
became the Indian Territory of the early school
geographies.

Within fifteen years all the principal tribes
were established there by treaty, including the Five
Nations. With forty tribes resident, unoccupied
parts of the territory were thrown open to white set-
tlement in 1889 under the name of Oklahoma; the
present state was created in 1907. But meantime,
in 1871, treaties had been abolished and only the
United States was thereafter recognized.

OUR INDIAN WARDS 221

A principal obligation of the Indian Service is
building up the vitality of the people and establishing
a new standard of living. In this is involved, be-
sides its current health programme, an industrial
programme, a great amount of preventive work, sys-
tematic attention to the physical welfare of children,
and even going into the Indian homes and by pre-
cept and example teaching the adult Indians matters
relating to personal hygiene, home sanitation, fresh
air, good food, and the safeguarding of the well
from the sick who may be housed together in one
tepee, tent or other habitation. Besides the diseases
to which white people are subject, Indians suffer
particularly from tuberculosis, a contagious disease
of the eyes known as trachoma, and a variety of
child diseases.

To combat tuberculosis are twelve sanataria
with a capacity of 968. Trachoma affects 30,000
Indians, of which 9,000 are treated surgically. The
Bureau's ninety hospitals with bed capacity of 2,965
is about to be increased by fourteen others of bed
capacity of 320. There are 113 full-time and 68
part-time physicians, 13 special physicians, 10 den-
tists and 182 nurses.

Besides this regular service, the United States
Health Service has, since 1926, furnished Medical
Directors for four general districts and sanitary
and other specialists for regular tours of observa-
tion. Laboratory facilities and the advice of experts
are also available upon request.

222 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

One of the first obligations recognized as owing
to the Indians was that of education, but, except for
an appropriation of $500 to Dartmouth College in
1776, occasional small contributions to mission
schools, and $10,000 a year from 1820 to help vol-
unteer societies, little was accomplished before the
establishment of trade-schools in 1849. Carlisle
School in Pennsylvania, established in 1879, was the
first outside a reservation. Compare these with the
extensive educational developments of the present
time for which the government appropriates more
than five million dollars annually.

Long before obligation was felt to educate, the
missionary spirit was manifest in many ways. Mis-
sionary work began during Coronado's invasion of
1542, the mailed soldiers seeking loot and the robed
priests seeking souls, hand in hand. Protestant mis-
sionary work began a century later in New England
under the preaching of John Eliot. In the far West,
the mission builders pushed northward up the Pa-
cific coast. In the East, outposts of civilization pene-
trating the wilderness westward fought Indians for
footholds while endeavoring to convert them to
Christianity.

The Moravians were tfie real pioneers in Prot-
estant denominational work along educational lines,
followed by establishment of schools by Friends in
1795, Baptists in 1807, American Board (Congre-
gational and Presbyterian) in 1810, Episcopalians
in 1815, Methodists in 1816, Presbyterians (North)

INDIAN SCHOOL AT YAKIMA, WASHINGTON

From a photograph by the Bureau of Indian Affairs

SOUTHERN NAVAHO SCHOOL BOYS

OUR INDIAN WARDS 223

in 1833, Methodists (South) in 1844, the American
Missionary Association (Congregational) in 1846,
Dutch Reformed in 1857, Presbyterians (South) in
1857, Hicksite Quakers in 1869, United Presbyteri-
ans in 1869, Unitarians in 1886, Reformed Presby-
terians (Covenanter) in 1889. Almost all denomi-
nations are represented in this work, ranging from
the Roman Catholic and the various sects of Prot-
estantism to the Orthodox Russian among the In-
dians of Alaska, and the Mormon Church of Utah.
Practically every tribe has come under the influence
of the teaching of some Christian religion, led by
such men in the earlier day as Samson Occum, the
Mohican student of Rev. Eleazer Wheelock's In-
dian School in Connecticut; James B. Finley, David
Zeisberger, and other pioneers of Ohio ; the teachers
of the Society of Friends in Pennsylvania and ad-
joining states; Evan Jones and Samuel Worcester
among the Cherokee of the South ; The Williamsons,
Riggs, and Ponds of the Sioux country; Bishops
Whipple and Hare of Minnesota; Whitman, Lee,
and Spalding among the tribes of the Northwest
coast; Father Hamilton among the Omaha; Father
de Smet among the northern tribes west of the Mis-
sissippi ; Cyrus Byington among the Choctaw ; Father
Ravalli as priest and physician among the western
tribes; a list much too lengthy to enumerate, taken
from all Christian denominations.

The United States government contributed an-
nually to the education of the Indians, such funds

224 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

passing through the hands of the missionaries, until
the year 1870. It was about this time that the In-
dian country was apportioned among the missionary
societies, both Catholic and Protestant, each society
having its own particular field of labor.

The report of the Indian Office shows that in
1925 there were 400 Protestant and 200 Catholic
missionaries engaged in work among the Indians,
and a total of 50,000 Protestant and 60,000 Catho-
lic church-going Indians attending a thousand
churches. These statistics do not include the Five
Civilized Tribes of Oklahoma, who are Protestant.

A hundred or two thousand still maintain in
whole or part their ancient religion, the fundamental
concept of which is the existence of magic power in
objects, animals and men. This is known by name
of Manito, Tamanaos and others, but, contrary to
common belief, Indians rarely clothe the idea in per-
sonality. The "Great Spirit" popularly assigned as
the Indian deity exists to most tribes only as a vague
influence, visualized usually, if visualized at all, as
large animals or inanimate objects like rocks, cliffs or
mountains. In the Havasupai Reservation in the
Grand Canyon, I found the deity idea visualized in
a detached column of red rock rising several hun-
dred feet from the south wall of the Canyon which
the Indians called "Man."

The invocation of this vague, mysterious power
through prayers, charms, incantations, fetishes,
prayer sticks, offerings, sacrifices, dances and the

OUR INDIAN WARDS 225

like, under the control of medicine men, constitutes
the Indians' ceremonial religion. It is knit into the
fabric of his family, social and industrial life.
Christianity never wholly eliminates it as a conscious
influence.

Raising and reaping the products of the soil
was manifestly the Indian's principal natural means
of sustenance, and upon this from the beginning the
guardians of the Indians concentrated. To make
him self-supporting as a farmer was to solve the
problem. The success of the Bureau's efforts can
only be measured by results.

In 1922 a movement known as the Five Year
Programme was inaugurated in the Blackfoot Res-
ervation which may solve the problem of industrial
self support. A reservation Farm and Livestock
Association composed of all adult members of the
tribe is divided into chapters which are set into com-
petition with each other for records of production.
With each chapter under its own Indian officers, sea-
sonal campaigns in stock and crop raising cause un-
usual interest. Auxiliary chapters of women com-
peting in gardening, canning, dairying, chicken rais-
ing and other less arduous pursuits involve the entire
reservation in activity.

One of the greatest drawbacks to Indian farm-
ing has been the custom of visiting in summer, leav-
ing garden, farm and range to shift for themselves.
Under the new programme both men and women
pledge themselves to stay on the job. Chapters are

226 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

established now in twenty-eight reservations, and
community organizations similar in kind are organ-
ized in eight cities.

"The Indians in the Southwest," writes Mr.
Meritt, "were the first irrigationists in this country.
It is of record that they have been irrigating land for
more than three hundred years. Congress has ap-
propriated about $33,340,000 for irrigation projects
on Indian reservations, and there are 1,450,000 acres
of land under these projects capable of irrigation,
with over 690,000 acres under constructed works
and now irrigable. Some of the Indians are making
remarkable progress cultivating irrigable lands."

"The Indian problem is unique," writes Fran-
cis M. Goodwin, who handled the Indian office for
some years as an assistant secretary of the Interior.
"Its solution depends as much upon the capacity of
the Indians as it does upon the government pro-
gramme. If President Jefferson's solution by as-
similation ever becomes reality, it must be by a prac-
tical programme under direction of the United
States, with State co-operation. Otherwise, the In-
dian problem may never be solved.

"Our original attitude was one of war or force,
but treatment of Indians as separate nations has dis-
appeared. Our next step was to confine them to res-
ervations with large areas of land owned by tribes
as common property. Can this property be divided
or sold? Or do the Indians need the same common
conservation found necessary to protect the white

OUR INDIAN WARDS 227

man? Large areas of public lands, the common
property of the people, have been set aside as forest
and other reserves to protect our national resources
for future use. The white race is not willing to sur-
render all its common property to individual owner-
ship, and apparently the same protection must be ac-
corded the Indian tribes. In all probability, there-
fore, the United States must for many years act as
administrator or trustee of the common property of
whites and Indians alike.

"Thousands of Indians have been allotted lands,
subject to supervision for their protection, in order
to arouse and encourage individual initiative and re-
sponsibility. Thousands have not yet been allotted,
although the work is rapidly progressing. Here
again the United States must act as administrator.
If an Indian dies, the United States must in some
way see that the estate is probated. If a sale of the
allottee's property is necessary or advisable, the
transaction must be supervised.

"In time Congress found it necessary to author-
ize certificates of competency to Indians who pos-
sessed capacity to handle their own affairs. Indi-
vidual Indians in many instances were permitted
the unrestricted use of their property. In some
cases Congress authorized certificates of competency
to mixed bloods, where the white predominated or
was equal in the individual. Congress has adopted
this policy. It represents an unique problem in ad-
ministration. It will bring into play human nature

228 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

at its best and worst, a common heritage that seems
always to accompany the development of our great
natural resources. The task of the administrator
under these conditions will never be an easy one.

"To assimilate the Indians involves their educa-
tion, health, and employment. The Government has
taken the lead in these particulars and has expended
millions for such purposes. Where Indians have
gained great wealth through oil discoveries or other-
wise, the problem differs widely from dependence
upon agricultural pursuits. In recent years, for the
first time, Federal agencies have fathered, with some
signal successes, a movement to arouse all agricul-
tural Indians to self support.

"By an act of Congress of 1924 all Indians are
citizens of the United States. Whether the Indians
take advantage of political rights will depend upon
their willingness and ability to abide by the laws of
the several States. This in turn involves the educa-
tion of Indians and whites in common schools, the
use of common hospital facilities, and the payment
of taxes by the Indians upon the property now ex-
empt from Federal and State taxation."

CHAPTER VII

NATIONAL PARKS SYSTEM A UNIVERSITY OF

NATURE

AvlONG so many reservational land holdings of
such a people as ours, it would have been strange
had not one, at least, principally expressed other as-
pirations than attainment of prosperity and occa-
sional relaxation from the labor of producing it.
There are other important objectives than these in
our national life.

The National Parks System was born of the
instinct to preserve for all time extraordinary beauty
and majesty of native landscape in original unmodi-
fied record; it was developed by the genius of the
people, without conscious planning, through a gen-
eration and a half of park making; this product an-
alyzed, its purpose and its standards were formu-
lated for the conscious upbuilding of the future.
The System is thus revealed a unique expression of
the combined idealism and practicality which makes
this nation great.

National Parks are areas of original unmodi-
fied natural conditions, each the finest possible ex-
ample of its kind in the country, preserved as a sys-
tem from all industrial use.

Thus they unmistakably differ physically from
229

230 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

National Forests and State Parks. They differ as
widely in principal objectives, also, National Parks
being inspirational, educative, historical and recre-
ational, National Forests economic and recreational,
State Parks recreational. Recreation, by which
most persons mean its dictionary definition of relax-
ational diversion, is common to all three, wherein
lies to-day's chief danger to the National Parks Sys-
tem because, in the hurrah beginnings of this new
outdoor era, enthusiastic public clamor so unduly
exalts mere outdoor pleasuring that many overlook
the System's additional unique permanent qualities
and higher values.

This is dangerously true of localities in the East
which yearn to possess National Parks for their own
pride and profit, and of legislators keen to please
constituents upon whose supporting votes will de-
pend their own future public careers. It is true also
of certain ardent propagandists of recreation in the
dictionary sense only, who would reduce every out-
door area, national and state, to the same dead level
of standards and uses.

To get at the root of the matter at the very
start, besides the recreational function which Na-
tional Parks share equally with National Forests and
State Parks, this System is also, under its definition,
a very remarkable National Gallery of Scenic Mas-
terpieces, the splendor and value of whose exhibits
will rapidly depreciate if diluted with landscapes of
lesser, commoner low-mountain country, however

THE NATIONAL PARKS SYSTEM 231

charming. Also, under the definition they consti-
tute a still more remarkable and valuable National
Museum of Original America, depository of unique
unmodified irreplaceable examples of the vast wil-
derness which our forefathers conquered, the inter-
national fame and usefulness of which will dissipate
if mixed with exhibits altered by civilization's often
ruthless hand.

Such reservations of lesser quality may be ex-
cellent recreational parks, and there are places for all
good things ; but a national institution of very spe-
cial character and value is no place for anything,
however admirable it may be, which will damage it
by its presence.

After nearly sixty years of upbuilding, our Na-
tional Parks include, among nineteen units, five
which do not meet standards, these fortunately so
small as to detract practically nothing from the idea
of the whole. The combined areas of these excep-
tions constitute only twenty-nine square miles out of
a total of more than eleven thousand square miles, a
negligible proportion. It is of the great primitive
parks constituting the Standard National Parks Sys-
tem which we treat.

When we consider the fortuitous origin and
unplanned development of the National Parks Sys-
tem, we wonder at its remarkable scope and repre-
sentative character. It is difficult to believe it other
than the product of careful initial survey of possible
fields of scenic greatness and variety, and of geologic

232

OUR FEDERAL LANDS

o
M

w
ny
bi

e
M
wil
ing.

e world's most spectacular volcanic exhib
in all rest of world together — Boiling sprin
Petrified forests — Grand Canyon of the
able for gorgeous coloring — Large lakes
and waterfalls — Vast wilderness, greatest
preserve in world — Exceptional trout fish

ark— The Giant Forest alone contain
er 10 feet in diameter, and a few 25 fee
es, white fir, yellow pine and incens
atest development — Kern River drain
including Mount Whitney.

u
G
Si

ss replete with world-fa
y acknowledged the mos
alls of extraordinary h
ves of giant sequoias
il riders and campers.

rne
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ro
rai

I! 11*

^j^« «J 0

T
reds
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An immense
tacles — T
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THE NATIONAL PARKS SYSTEM 233

a i

I I

234

OUR FEDERAL LANDS

•s"

[*•

1*6

X"^*

From a photograph 6v Hileman

NATIONAL PARK SCENERY

Showing Going-to-the-Sun Mountain from a slope of Mount Jackson, Glacier National Park

From a photograph by Hileman

NATIONAL PARK SCENERY
Trick Falls in full flood, Glacier National Park

THE NATIONAL PARKS SYSTEM 235

example. Had a well-chosen commission of scien-
tists, educators and lovers of the sublime in nature
planned the whole in advance when the first National
Park, Yellowstone, was created in 1872, a system
built thereon could have differed little except in su-
perior richness and variety from that which Con-
gress has since actually created, park by park, in
obedience to public demand originating from time
to time mysteriously in the genius of our people.

In an accompanying table the parks are listed
historically in order of creation with statement of
area and characterization of difference. Here we
shall consider them in their most useful classifica-
tion as examples in supremely beautiful expression
of the natural processes through which our glori-
ously beautiful country was created. At the outset,
let me repeat my indisputable statement of 1919 that
our National Parks System presents scenery of far
greater magnificence and wider variety of kind and
beauty than is comfortably accessible in all the rest
of the world combined.

ITS STORY OF CREATION

Of the basic granite of the country, the Na-
tional Parks System offers four great examples:
Yosemite National Park, California, with its Valley
of remarkable origin, its wilderness of domes, lakes,
rivers and great forests, and its waterfalls of im-
mense height; Sequoia National Park, California,

236 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

whose newly acquired basin of the Kern is bounded
by the loftiest and most impressive peaks of the
High Sierra; Rocky Mountain National Park, Col-
orado, characterizing in best expression the vast
mountain backbone of the continent; and Mount Mc-
Kinley National Park, Alaska, whose ice-clad peak
rises 17,000 feet above its adjoining plains.

Sequoia is also distinguished for its gorgeous
forests of gigantic trees, and Mount McKinley dis-
plays also some of the world's largest and finest gla-
ciers, and examples of the exuberant wild life of the
far North.

Of sedimentary landscape, marvellously carved
by erosion and glowingly colored, the System pre-
sents three unequalled examples : Grand Canyon Na-
tional Park, Arizona, world spectacle of sublimity
carrying the story of life from its near beginning up
through highly colored strata disclosing a hundred
million years at least of world building, a library in
brilliant bindings; Zion National Park of the gor-
geously colored plateau country of Utah, "rainbow
of the desert," majestic in architecture and ornate in
decoration, carrying Grand Canyon's story on into
relatively late geologic times; and Glacier National
Park, northern Montana, recording an extraordi-
nary event in the history of the earth's surface, lit-
erally a Romance of Creation, with a wealth of de-
tail, magnificence of exposition, and exquisite quality
of beauty unequalled of its kind.

Of volcanic landscape, the System offers a wide

THE NATIONAL PARKS SYSTEM 237

range: Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, with
its geysers more and greater than elsewhere in all
the world combined, its mud volcanoes and hot
springs, and tier upon tier of lava-buried forests —
a heroic example of dying volcanism ; Mount Rainier
National Park, Washington, giant of the volcanic
Cascade Range, still warm in places, a spectacle of
sublime beauty; Crater Lake National Park, Ore-
gon, whose waters of extraordinary depth and color
fill the bowl left when Mount Mazama, which no
man has seen, collapsed within its own rim during
eruption; Lassen Volcanic National Park, Califor-
nia, its volcano a few years ago in eruption and
classed as active; and Hawaii National Park with
two of its three famous volcanoes spectacularly ac-
tive, and one crowned with a dead crater of enor-
mous size and uncanny quality of beauty.

Yellowstone is, besides, a land of many waters,
source of large rivers, whose vividly painted canyons
and lofty abundant falls challenge comparison; also
it is a wild animal sanctuary unequalled. Mount
Rainier's greatest story is not volcanic but erosional,
disclosing many glaciers in advanced operation wear-
ing down the heights, with suggestions in its Ta-
tooch Range of a past which dumbs imagination.

Mesa Verde, Colorado, records the intermediate
process of disintegration of mountains for upbuild-
ing of plains, its giant mesas worn from the Rockies
themselves seen passing in turn into the lower desert ;
it discloses, also, on forested mesa tops and in caves

238 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

in precipitous cliff sides, remains of prehistoric civili-
zation of high degree.

The towering long wall of the Sierra continued
northward by the Cascades rob the Pacific winds
of moisture which otherwise would have watered
the desert eastward to the Rockies, producing on
these ranges' western flanks forests of luxuriance
and size of species unknown elsewhere. Sequoia,
General Grant, Yosemite and Mount Rainier Na-
tional Parks conserve magnificent examples of for-
ests in unaltered descent from earliest beginnings,
while Rocky Mountain, Yellowstone and Glacier
National Parks function similarly for the Rockies.
Mesa Verde, Grand Canyon and Zion National
Parks preserve distinguished examples of desert
evolution.

In many National Parks besides those which
specialize in volcanism are many minor volcanic rec-
ords, some possessing great interest. Varied gra-
nitic forms abound in parks principally sedimentary,
and sedimentary forms in parks principally granitic
and volcanic. Mountain building and stream forma-
tion are illustrated in nearly all, and in all, in magnifi-
cent example and infinite range, are masterpieces
of the artistry of Nature's marvellously skillful
sculptor, Erosion, many of them unequalled in the
whole world of scenery. Together, also, they show
records of the evolution of life from earliest visible
evidence to the living forms of to-day.

As working laboratories and exhibitions of na-

THE NATIONAL PARKS SYSTEM 239

ture, national parks are theoretically untouched by
man's hand except for roads to enter and examine
them, trails to points of beauty and interest, and
hotels and camps for the use of visitors. Flora and
fauna theoretically are left to nature's handling.
But a paternal government fights forest diseases
with scientific treatment, and reduces the number of
predatory animals for the safety of those which add
much to the life and charm of the wilderness.

Natural balance of life, therefore, no longer
actually exists. This is the principal blotting of the
record of creation in our Standard National Parks
System — besides concentration of human population
in one or more spots in each; this we shall consider
later; neither can be helped.

This system, which John C. Merriam has so
aptly called our Super-University of Nature, is one
of the most precious of national possessions. Its
educative application far exceeds mere imparting of
scientific knowledge, and, as a field of research
among unmodified natural conditions, its value to
the future is beyond estimation.

Nor is even this the parks' highest function.
'Their primary uses," writes Dr. Merriam, "extend
far into that fundamental education which concerns
real appreciation of nature. Here beauty in its truest
sense receives expression and exerts its influence
along with recreation and formal education. To me
the parks are not merely places to rest and exercise
and learn. They are regions where one looks

240 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

through the veil to meet the realities of nature and
of the unfathomable power behind it. I cannot say
what worship really is — nor am I sure that others
will do better — but often in the parks, I remember
Bryant's lines : Why should we, in the world's riper
years, neglect God's ancient sanctuaries, and adore
only among the crowd, and under roofs that our
frail hands have raised?' National Parks represent
opportunities for worship through which one comes
to understand more fully certain of the attributes
of nature and its Creator. They are not objects to be
worshipped, but they are altars over which we may
worship."

This system is as precisely a National Institu-
tion as if its park units were so many purposeful
structures, special schools in our Super-University,
built around a common centre and surrounded by
campus walls.

Were there no National Parks System we can
imagine that a proposition to create so noble and
useful a super-university of nature as Dr. Merriam
visions would stir the pride, imagination and desire
of the people to its depths. We can imagine our
ablest leaders in science, education and affairs gath-
ering earnestly behind the project, and the treasuries
of the nation opened for its achievement.

With what meticulous care would it be planned
and its exhibits so chosen that none should be admit-
ted save those heroic examples of world architecture
which are "the grandest products of creation," rep-

THE NATIONAL PARKS SYSTEM 241

resenting also the "unmodified primitive life of the
world, both plant and animal, remaining just as the
Creator moulded it over the mountains and the val-
leys."

Our national super-university of nature, if thus
created under the concentrated gaze of the nation,
would, by virtue of the people's concept, be as safe
as the Lincoln Memorial. It would be accepted for
all time as one of our most cherished National Insti-
tutions. But, though we actually possess exactly
that to-day, nearly completed and equipped, and in
far nobler expression than could be got afresh in
times when little of the primitive remains, it is far
from safe. Because, like monumental cathedrals, its
building has been spread thinly over many years (and
meantime its naves and chapels utilized for pleasur-
ing), the majority of the people of to-day fail to
appreciate either the majesty of architecture or the
nobility of purpose of the amazing thing which they
actually possess.

Besides the National Parks System, the country
possesses another lesser outdoor national museum
in its National Monuments System, which we shall
describe later. The two are not in competition. The
latter is far broader in its scope, and where it touches
the field of the National Parks System it supple-
ments it. Scenic magnificence is not a requisite of
National Monuments, though occasionally it exists ;
nor is recreation a necessary or desirable function,
though nearness to through highways bring some

242 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

monuments many passing visitors. The two systems
must not be confused nor mixed.

PATRIOTIC. and SOCIAL FUNCTIONS

Another function of the National Parks System
second only to its inspirational and educational func-
tion, I want especially to emphasize. That is its im-
portance as a formal visible expression of the great-
ness and beauty of this nation among the nations.
Much value both to nation and individual flows di-
rectly from this conception. The sentiment which
brings the majority of the people so promptly to the
defense of the system when endangered by invasion
is very far removed, indeed, from the "sentimentali-
ty" with which defenders of the System are always
charged, unless national pride can be so termed.

The Parks help very practically in a social prob-
lem of profound usefulness to so heterogeneous a
nation spread over so large a territory. In hotels and
camps, before mighty spectacles of nature, on trail
and at night around camp-fires, meet Americans of
every kind, occupation and degree of fortune from
every corner of the country. Every summer we meet
a few of the distinguished and the conspicuous in
the national parks. Politicians, merchants, legisla-
tors, artists, architects, bankers, scientists, judges,
millionaires and the merely fashionable all are repre-
sented. But we also meet in immense numbers busi-
ness and professional men and their families, teach-
ers, lawyers, brokers, manufacturers of everything

THE NATIONAL PARKS SYSTEM 243

on earth, writers, publishers, advertising men — the
well-to-do of all sorts and degrees.

These constitute the great body of National Park
visitors. We also meet the workers in lesser num-
bers— clerks, salesmen, farmers, small employers and
the thrifty employed — all who can afford to tour by
automobile, and want to see their country.

Imagine an average of church congregations
and the audiences of theaters, concerts, popular
lectures, grand opera and the better motion-picture
houses, of college football crowds and the patrons
of the Chautauquas and Ocean Groves of the coun-
try, and you will come pretty close to the average of
National Park visitors who come really to see the
parks, not merely to glance at them from passing
automobiles as is a fashion to-day among countless
casual tourists. It is an intelligent and a fairly edu-
cated crowd; but not rich nor fashionable. It rep-
resents America very well.

Of enormous importance is the System's by-
product of democratization in a period which needs
it. Nowhere else do people from all the states mingle
in quite the same spirit as they do in their national
parks. One sits at dinner, say, between a Missouri
farmer and a Utah miner, and at supper between a
New York artist and an Oregon shopkeeper. One
stages it with people from Florida, Minnesota and
Idaho, climbs mountains with a chance crowd from
Vermont, Louisiana and Texas, and sits around the
evening camp-fire with a California grape grower,

244 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

a locomotive engineer from Massachusetts, and a
banker from Michigan.

Here social distinctions so often insisted on at
home exist in least possible measure. Perhaps for
the first time one realizes the common America.

Several years ago, at a large dinner of salesmen
for clothing manufacturers, I sat beside a man who
owned four factories making women's suits.

"These National Parks you talk about," he said,
"have saved me a lot of money."

Wonderingly, I inquired how.

"Well, you see we get the fashions from Paris
far in advance from our agents over there, but we
couldn't sell that stuff in our trade just as it comes.
Not a bit of it. In New England they have certain
notions of their own, to meet which these new styles
must be modified. Southern women have still dif-
ferent notions, and out in the Middle West, they
don't like what the New Englanders and Southerners
like. They differ again down the Mississippi Valley,
and again in Texas. So elsewhere in the West.
Say, we used to carry a big department to study
the new Paris styles and readapt them to twelve or
fourteen different types of trade, and of course if
we overestimated sales in any one of these divisions
it was almost a total loss, for you couldn't sell the
surplus anywhere else. And, mind you, all this had
to be done twice every year. But now, we've got
these differences down to four or five. That means
a lot of money saved in these days."

THE NATIONAL PARKS SYSTEM 245

"But what have the National Parks got to do
with it?" Tasked.

"Everything. Or so at least my salesmen tell
me. They ought to know, for they're the boys who
travel the country and make the contacts. Why,
these women from all over the country meet each
other every summer in the National Parks and see
fashions. Then they go home and talk fashions.
That's what's done it."

It is the democracy and sense of common owner-
ship in these parks that work this magic. They have
discovered to America the American people. Else-
where travellers divide among resorts and hotels ac-
cording to pay, and maintain their home attitude.
In the National Parks all are just Americans. It is
difficult to imagine an institution making more
powerfully for national solidarity than this annual
congregation from all states.

How THE SYSTEM BEGAN AND DEVELOPED

Most national policies originate in some individ-
ual Congressional action which serves as precedent
for repetitions when similar conditions recur. Con-
gress seldom plans. It deals in detached acts find-
ing guidance in its own precedents, seldom seeking
it in prevision.

The National Parks System was no exception.
None of those concerned in the creation of Yellow-
stone in 1872 visioned the System to be created after

246 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

its model — or in fact any System. The oft-repeated
tale of the birth of the "national park idea" during
a semi-official expedition to prove adventurous ex-
plorers' tales about sprouting columns of boiling
water and mountains roaring with internal fires is
not tradition, but recorded history. It is true that,
the day before starting home, the explorers seriously
discussed apportioning these marvels among them-
selves, filing upon the land under the homestead
laws, and growing rich out of the rush of sight-
seers ; that a Montana lawyer dissuaded them, urging
that this wonderland should be the possession of all
the people forever; and that, upon emerging from
the wilderness, some of them hastened to Helena
and drew up the bill which created Yellowstone Na-
tional Park and began the National Parks System.

The mountain in whose shadow this fateful de-
termination was reached has been named National
Park Mountain. The father of the National Park
System was Christopher Hedges.

Eighteen years passed before the next National
Park creation. The fact that three parks, Yosemite,
Sequoia and General Grant, were then created practi-
cally together is significant. Those eighteen years
had been the gestation period, and the creation of the
three parks in 1890 constituted the Birth of the
System. Within those intervening years the ideas
and ideals planted by Yellowstone developed within
the womb of national conception a creation which
affects our intellectual and spiritual life to-day and

THE NATIONAL PARKS SYSTEM 247

has inspired similar ideas and systems in several
other nations. Two events during this period stand
out. One was ardent acceptance of the principle
of complete National Park conservation following
George Bird Grinnell's winning of the "first Yellow-
stone War," through which he secured from Con-
gress after years of popular organization and de-
mand laws forbidding hunting in the national park.
Not only did this centre public attention upon a new
idea, and consolidate public opinion concerning Na-
tional Park conservation, but it also inspired the im-
mense nation-wide wild life conservation of later
years. The other was recognition of the fact that
is so clear to-day that natural beauty of supreme
quality is essentially a national possession. Yose-
mite, which the national government had presented
to California in 1862, returned in 1890 as a National
Park to record nobly the new conception and confirm
Yellowstone.

Mount Rainier and Crater Lake National Parks,
which followed in 1899 and 1902 respectively, were
products of the conception at full tide. It is signifi-
cant that other ice-clad volcanoes in the Cascades,
spectacles of remarkable grandeur which could have
become National Parks under conditions then exist-
ing, were rejected upon selection of Mount Rainier.
The pure public opinion of this current near its
source would have none in the System but the one
noblest of each kind.

That the next two years brought into the Sys-

248 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

tern three units, Wind Cave, Platt, and Sully's Hill,
which were so absurdly small and out of key with
the fundamental idea as to be manifest blunders,
cannot be ascribed for a moment to change of public
attitude. The public knew nothing of these products
of local vanity and politics. Congress knew no more
about them than it does of half the bills it passes
at every session — which is nothing. The system had
no watchers, yet, for its protection, and its stand-
ards were still undefined in phrase.

Mesa Verde followed in 1906 and Glacier in
1910, both backed by enthusiastic public opinion.

During these first forty-four years of park mak-
ing, people valued National Parks principally for
their scenery, and the System, as it grew in richness,
variety and perfect example aroused ever increasing
enthusiasm. People visited their parks with serious
purpose, often at much expense of time and effort
(they were not so accessible as now), in much the
same spirit in which some of them also crossed the
ocean to see the Alps, the fiords of Norway and the
Himalayas. Travellers came here from abroad. Ar-
tists immortalized them. A world literature devel-
oped. Except for a few spots in Switzerland, few
localities anywhere inspired notice so distinguished.

In this period's later years, popular organiza-
tion to conserve forests, game, native birds and ani-
mals, wild flowers, and historic and prehistoric relics
everywhere attained nationwide influence, and in-
numerable other clubs, societies and leagues of clubs

THE NATIONAL PARKS SYSTEM 249

operating for far different purposes had also their
conservation committees. Among the thinkers and
workers for conservation, hundreds of thousands in
number, National Parks, because preserving majes-
tic wildernesses in original unmodified condition,
acquired great fame. They were recognized as the
outposts of the swelling conservation movement,
preserving in original record the plant and life forms
of this country as our forefathers had found it.

This was the precious possession which the In-
terior Department was now to develop. Undertak-
ing to prepare the Californian National Parks for
the Pacific Exposition of 1915, Stephen T. Mather
brought with him from Chicago his dream of a sys-
tem so developed as to lead the world. There was
nothing to inform the little group he gathered round
him, of which I was one, that the automobile was
about to change the out-door conditions of all Amer-
ica. Studying the park creations of the past for the
plannings of the future, "these men had no hint that
a period had reached its fulness, that another,
charged with change and conflict, was at hand.

National Parks had been created individually
without special reference to each other, and up to
that time had been administered in a group of unre-
lated entities including f reedmen's institutions and
other unclassified federal units. It was inevitable
that they should be correlated and handled as a sys-
tem. A separate bureau was created in 1916, and
became operative the year following, with Mr. Ma-
ther as Director.

250 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

The first annual report of the new park admin-
istration in 1916 ranked National Park purposes as
"the stimulation of national patriotism" and "the
fostering of knowledge and health." So far, recre-
ation had not figured as a principal National Park
function. It was the beginning of the "see America
first" promotion, and the report stressed National
Parks as a factor in holding travel at home, but
cautioned that "the fostering of recreation purely as
such is more properly the function of the city, county
and state parks, and there should be a clear distinc-
tion between the character of such parks and Na-
tional Parks." It also differentiated National Parks
from National Forests. There was never a doubt
in the minds of this first administration of the pre-
cise nature of the National Parks System and its
marked distinction from every other land system in
the country. That an official definition of what the
country was so absolutely agreed upon should ever
be demanded occurred to none of us.

Probably the first official attempt at definition
came from Secretary of Agriculture Houston in his
annual report of 1916. "A National Park," he said,
"should be created only where there are features of
such outstanding importance for beauty as well as
for natural marvels that they merit national recog-
nition and protection."

Secretary of the Interior Franklin K. Lane,
official custodian of the National Parks System, was
far more explicit in his policy statement of May 13,
1918, addressed to the Director.

THE NATIONAL PARKS SYSTEM 251

"In studying new park projects/' he said, "you
should seek to find scenery of supreme and distinct
quality, or some natural feature so extraordinary or
unique as to be of national interest and importance.
You should seek distinguished examples of typical
forms of world architecture. The National Parks
System as now constituted should not be lowered in
standard, dignity and prestige by the inclusion of
areas which express in less than the highest terms
the particular class or kind of exhibit which they
represent."

That this principle has inspired the government
to the present time, outliving the intermediate tour-
ing tidal wave and in face of the preaching of double
standards by recreational enthusiasts anxious to ex-
tend parks under federal control and upkeep into
the East, is noted in a letter written January 24,
1924, by Secretary Hubert Work to Senator
Fletcher of Florida defining National Parks in some
part in identical phrases used by Secretary Lane
eight years before.

In furtherance of his National Park policy, Sec-
retary Work said, in a letter to the writer dated Oc-
tober 25, 1925, for which he suggested publication:

"Municipal and State Parks and National For-
ests together offer outdoor opportunities in count-
less numbers, and easily accessible. The Govern-
ment finds itself duplicating these areas down to the
smallest picnic park. We have gotten away from
the fundamental principle that the Government

252 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

should do nothing an individual municipality or State
can do for itself, and we are competing in little
things, benumbing public spirit and thwarting local
pride of possession and development."

Herbert Hoover has contributed to the govern-
mental expression of National Park standards a
phrase fast becoming famous.

"My own thought," he said to the National Con-
ference on Outdoor Recreation in December 1925,
"is that the National Parks — the parks within the
responsibility of the Federal Government — should
be those of outstanding scientific and spiritual ap-
peal, those that are unique in their stimulation and
inspiration."

"The national park system of the United
States," wrote Stephen T. Mather, Director of the
National Park Service, in November, 1927, "is
unique both in its scenic exhibits and in the exceed-
ingly high standards by which each candidate for
admission to the system is judged. As now consti-
tuted, it is made up of areas of incomparable scenic
grandeur. Each of the major national parks was
selected for parkhood because of some distinctive
feature, either scenic or prehistoric, which is of na-
tional importance and interest. Under the policy
governing the establishment of national parks, only
one area of a particular type is considered for inclu-
sion in the system, and each area selected must rep-
resent the highest example of its particular type.

"The scenic supremacy of an area alone is not
sufficient to gain it admission into the national park

THE NATIONAL PARKS SYSTEM 253

system. It must also be susceptible of whatever de-
velopment is necessary to make it available for use
by the millions of park visitors who may care to use
it, without injuring in any way the extraordinary
natural features which, under the expressed com-
mand of Congress, the National Park Service is to
preserve 'unimpaired for the enjoyment of future
generations/

"Areas whose principal qualification is adapta-
bility for recreational uses are not, of course, of na-
tional park caliber.

"Proposed parks are measured by the standards
set by the major national parks of the system; hence
the requirements are exacting. As long as these
standards shall prevail there is no danger of too
many national parks being established, or of the ex-
cellence of the present system being lowered."

It will be useful here to supplement these ex-
pressions of federal conception with others showing
the popular conception of to-day. No other division
of the Federal Lands has aroused such interest
among the people of the present as our National
Parks. The temper of the times sharply distin-
guishes between the type of area to be included in
future additions, if any, to the National Parks Sys-
tem, and the types which belong naturally to State
Park and other principally recreational systems.

On May 24, 1924, the National Conference on
Outdoor Recreation, after thorough discussion,
passed the following:

Resolved, i. That the Conference express its

254 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

approval of the historic and popular belief that the
National Parks System consists of permanent na-
tional reservations protecting inviolate those won-
derful or unique areas of our country which are
museums representing the scenery and principal nat-
ural features of the United States available in our
great heritage of animate and inanimate nature;

2. That these Parks must be protected com-
pletely from all economic use ; that their scenic quali-
ties should represent features of national importance
as distinguished from those of sectional or local sig-
nificance and that they must be preserved in a con-
dition of unmodified nature;

3. That laws should be provided which will fur-
nish an administration as nearly uniform as possible
throughout the National Parks System.

The American Association for the Advance-
ment of Science, much the largest and most progres-
sive scientific body in the world, has issued a series
of National Park resolutions covering a number of
years, the latest of which, passed by the Council
December, 1925, follows:

"Resolved, That the American Association for
the Advancement of Science recognizes the National
Parks as the means of preserving unique represen-
tations of the primitive and majestic in nature, and
wishes to record its protests against additions to the
National Park System, or change in policy, which
may tend to lessen in fact or in public estimation
their present high value as natural museums, their

THE NATIONAL PARKS SYSTEM 255

complete conservation from industrial uses, and their
effectiveness as a national educational institution."

The National Chamber of Commerce passed the
following resolution on May 13, 1926:

"The Chamber of Commerce of the United
States has earlier expressed its interest in the crea-
tion of national parks. It believes the primary re-
sponsibility of the federal government in the estab-
lishment or maintenance of national parks is to pre-
serve those features of our landscape where, in suf-
ficiently large areas, the scenery is so unusually
beautiful and is so characteristic of its kind, and
where consequently it has so great an educational
or other value, that it may be considered a heritage
of the whole nation rather than a recreational facil-
ity for the inhabitants of adjacent territory.

"The primary responsibility for supplying rec-
reational facilities for the people of states and mu-
nicipalities lies with the States and municipalities
themselves."

The Directors of the General Federation of
Women's Clubs, representing more than two mil-
lion women organized in every state, passed the fol-
lowing resolutions in January, 1924:

Whereas, The Conservation and Scenic stand-
ards of our National Parks System have been main-
tained by the United States Government for more
than half a century to the enjoyment, education and
inspiration of the American People and the wide
propagation of patriotic pride; and

256 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

Whereas, Both its conservation and scenic
standards have been continuously attacked in Con-
gress during the last four years by interests seeking
the ruin of national values for local advantage ; and

Whereas, The General Federation of Women's
Clubs has promoted for many years the development
and higher uses of our National Parks, and has ar-
dently defended them from debasement; therefore,
be it

Resolved, That the Federation reaffirm its
steadfast purpose to continue working for the pres-
ervation of the System's ideals, pressing untiringly
for the correction and perfection of its protective
laws, until Congress definitely recognizes the Na-
tional Parks System as a beneficent national insti-
tution whose conservation and highest standards
must by no means be imperiled, but maintained for
the Nation's benefit for all time.

In 1926, the Conservation Council of Chicago,
then representing forty-six organizations of diversi-
fied civic interests, expressed itself in the following
resolution :

"The Conservation Council of Chicago sees the
National Parks System as a national institution of
untold importance to the education, as well as to the
health, recreation and spiritual inspiration, of the
American people. It should be conceived, not merely
as a better system of playgrounds in a nation and
age of playgrounds, but also as our Super-Univer-
sity of Nature, in which Nature herself, in her lof ti-

THE NATIONAL PARKS SYSTEM 257

est manifestations of unique scenery and primitive
life, is the supreme teacher."

Scores of others upholding National Park ideals
could be cited ; these present a sufficiently wide range
of representative sentiment.

Meantime, park making in completion of the
System was continuing. Rocky Mountain, Hawaii,
Mount McKinley, Grand Canyon, Zion and the rest,
were created between 1915 and 1919.

Meantime, the touring automobile arrived un-
announced, bringing extraordinary new conditions
and perilous problems, changing all things. Mean-
time organized industry, alarmed for water sources,
fought cunningly and powerfully for privileges in
national parks which she conceived her own. And
local interest, suddenly aroused to opportunity and
blind to all but community profit, eagerly extended
grasping hands. It proved a kaleidoscopic decade filled
with emergencies which puzzled at first the amateur
defenders in Congress of the national ideal. The mo-
tives behind cunningly devised bills which skilful
companies introduced and skilful politicians handled
all became clear in time, however, and all these bills
were defeated.

Of this absorbing story, more later. There re-
mains unsettled at this writing the grand campaign
to force eastern parks irrespective of standards into
the System. Out of it has developed one of mag-
nificent scenic quality containing a great area of
splendid primitive forest. To purchase the lands for

25 8 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

Great Smoky National Park, ten million dollars are
now provided, made up of local private subscriptions,
plus legislative appropriations by the states of North
Carolina and Tennessee, balanced by a Rockefeller
gift of equal size. Saving for posterity so large an
area untouched of the finest original forest of the
East is one of the greatest achievements of the Na-
tional Park System or of the age we live in.

Whether one or both of two other areas author-
ized by Congress at the same time, the Shenandoah
region of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia
and the Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, shall also be
acquired by purchase depends on the next several
years. Both would make excellent State Parks, and
Mammoth Cave would probably also make a good
National Monument.

THE EDUCATIONAL PERIOD

The National Park educational movement of to-
day may be said to have begun when effort was ex-
erted consciously toward systematic development,
but in reality National Parks have been very prac-
tically educational and inspirational from their start.
Early in the seventies, discussions in the daily,
weekly and monthly press of the causes and mecha-
nism of Yellowstone's geysers, hot springs and mud
volcanoes attracted wide public attention to natural
phenomena. Later, the Hay den survey by the United

THE NATIONAL PARKS SYSTEM 259

States Geological Survey very greatly increased botti
popular and scientific knowledge.

Similarly, forty years of speculation and theo-
ries, widely commented on, preceded the recent solu-
tion, by Francois E. Matthes of the United States
Geological Survey, of the remarkable geologic his-
tory of the Yosemite Valley ; and the Grand Canyon,
Rocky Mountain, and Glacier regions were advanc-
ing popular education long before they became na-
tional parks. The writings of John Muir and other
naturalists, professional and amateur, attracted na-
tion-wide attention. Among investigators of the
United States Geological Survey, the writings of
Button and others in the seventies, and of Matthes,
Campbell, Alden, Lee and others in later years, not
to mention many connected with state and private
universities and institutions of research, had their
distinct influence toward popularizing the real mis-
sion of the National Parks.

No doubt National Parks were used as class-
rooms by individual teachers and universities many
years ago. Probably the University of California
was the first, or among the first, to take advantage
of near-by opportunities. In 1915 Director Stephen
T. Mather and I found Dr. Lenertz, then of the
University of Minnesota, piloting a class in geology
on a study tramp through Glacier National Park,
the third or fourth of an annual series. Small
classes from the University of Utah visited the Zion
Canyon before it became a National Park. Doubt-

260 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

less there were many others. A little later began
the practice of Boy Scout expeditions under super-
vision of naturalists. National Park regions had
long been the subject of popular lectures by scien-
tific observers.

The first movement toward formal educational
organization of which I have heard began in the
National Park Service of the Interior Department
in 1916 with the writer in charge under title of Chief
of the Educational Section ; but it failed for lack of
public and official comprehension and co-operation.
The idea was altogether new. This was succeeded
by organization of a National Park Educational
Committee, of which the late Dr. Charles D. Wal-
cott was chairman, which, after nearly a year's cor-
respondence with educators in many states, resolved
itself, in May 1919, into the present National Parks
Association under executive management of the
writer of this book.

The Association's educational activities were
promotive. It sought to interest educators, schools,
universities, associations and learned societies in the
National Parks System as an educational institu-
tion, and to bring about co-operative activity of a
practical kind. The first year's work appeared to be
wholly fruitless of result. Many individuals became
interested, especially scientists, but no university ex-
cept Columbia; and no formal step of any kind, how-
ever small, resulted. When, early in 1920, the As-
sociation was compelled to drop its educational pro-

From a photograph by J. V. Lloyd

NATURE GUIDE CLASS IN YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK

I I =

From a photograph by Thompson Brothers

HUGGINS HELL, GREAT SMOKY NATIONAL PARK

THE NATIONAL PARKS SYSTEM 261

gramme to lead the defense of National Park con-
servation attacked in Congress, it mourned what it
thought was indefinite postponement of its purpose.
But, as seen in perspective later, the "war" that fol-
lowed, by nation-wide advertisement of the reasons
for defending the System, launched and developed
the educational cause, leading to the later organized
activity as nothing else could have done. Here and
there seeds rooted in widely separated localities,
from which activities have spread.

One of the first practical results was organiza-
tion of a volunteer nature guide service in Yosemite
National Park which since has become a formal gov-
ernment activity spreading into other National
Parks. At this writing we see under government
salary Park Naturalists in several National Parks,
several rangers on whole or part time, and a Chief
Park Naturalist. The work is supplemented by vol-
unteer and privately salaried workers during the
summer, and an excellent outdoor school for teachers
and specialists is maintained under private support
in Yosemite.

Congress yields very slowly to popular demand
for financial support of other than concrete recrea-
tional development and administration. For equip-
ping National Parks "for recreation," it inconsis-
tently appropriates nearly a dollar a year per na-
tional park visitor, including passing motorists,
while appropriating only a small fraction of a cent
per visitor for the same service in National Forests.

262 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

For education, it allows a small fraction of a mill
per visitor in National Parks and nothing in other
reservations.

Developing as it has from small local begin-
nings, without survey or prevision of the field, the
government educational service in the National Parks
perhaps fails to place sufficient emphasis on the fun-
damental Story of Creation, of which our System as
a whole is by far the greatest organized exponent
that the world possesses. It is natural, from the
sources of its beginnings and the circumstances of
its development, that this work should largely con-
fine itself to existing wild life. "That is what in-
terests the people who come here/' explained a Park
Naturalist. "The whole crowd will rush off from
a lecture on geology to follow some small animal,
and women constantly interrupt to know the names
of wild-flowers." One answer is that national parks
are not places for "lectures on geology." If experi-
enced teachers will dramatize the Story of Crea-
tion in words as Nature has herself dramatized it in
scenery, they will have no lack of enthralled listeners.
Another answer is comparison of the minute place
that the wild life of to-day occupies in the picture of
wild life from its beginnings which Nature has
painted so boldly and fascinatingly on the System's
great canvas.

Another educational movement of interest and
importance, inspired by the need of better museums
in the parks than those built and conducted by rang-

THE NATIONAL PARKS SYSTEM 263

ers of their own initiative and without appropriation,
resulted in 1925 in the building, by a special commit-
tee of the American Association of Museums, of an
admirable modern museum in Yosemite National
Park. This will have achieved its purpose when it
inspires Congress to erect museums of equal quality
throughout the system.

Another long step forward was the designing,
by Dr. John C. Merriam in 1926, and erecting on
the brink of Yavapai Point in 1928, an exhibit to
interpret the story of the progress of life disclosed
in the Grand Canyon. Striding far forward in out-
door education, destined to inform and inspire all
future methods under which our Super-University
of Nature will be developed, the exhibit at Yavapai
Point appropriately represents a wide co-operation.
Planned under the National Parks Association's Ad-
visory Board on Educational and Inspirational Uses
of National Parks and constructed by a special com-
mittee of the National Academy of Sciences, it was
appropriately housed by the same committee of the
American Association of Museums which built the
Yosemite Museum. The same committee also plans
similar buildings in Yellowstone and elsewhere.

Still another long stride forward was the ap-
pointment by Secretary Work of five educational ad-
visers to visit the Parks under a Rockefeller appro-
priation and make individual suggestions to Director
Mather.

264 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

THE DECADE OF STRUGGLE

The story of the decade of reaction beginning in
1920 which tested public acceptance of park stand-
ards from every view-point will some day need a
book of its own. Its merest outline only can here be
sketched. Target of profit seekers by every method
of attack known in Congress, the System exists to-
day only because devoted citizens, combined in an
informal league of defense throughout the nation,
protest unceasingly.

The invasions fall into these classes :

1. The Industrial Invasion began in 1819 with
an attempt to plant an irrigation reservoir within
Yellowstone National Park. Attempts also to dam
Yellowstone Lake for irrigation, to force water
power into a Sierra area designed for park inclusion,
and to force into the System the precedent of a New
Mexican area violating National Park principles in
every possible respect, were the features of a bit-
terly-fought struggle in Congress which was finally
concluded in 1926 by public acknowledgment of de-
feat by the interests and their cessation of hostile
acts. Since then, industrial interests have sought,
instead, to cut reservoirs out of park boundaries —
which makes a fair public issue in which each side
may rest safely upon its merits.

2. The Local Profit Invasion, turned back in
the Far West, now swarming up from the Southeast

THE NATIONAL PARKS SYSTEM 265

with enormous energy. Assuming that an area of
any scenic quality at any distance from tourist plea-
sure routes would draw extensive motor patronage
if called a National Park, and seeking development
and upkeep for local parks at national expense, lo-
calities in many states have pressed demands con-
tinually upon Congress for national parks at home.
Some offered to buy and give property to the nation,
others have demanded that neighboring national for-
ests should be turned into national parks. As we go
to press a movement develops to eliminate the pro-
tective control of the Secretary of the Interior.

3. The Automobile Invasion began when con-
tinent-wide motor touring reached national parks
about 1916. Ignorant of park conceptions and stand-
ards, eager to view the wonders of American scen-
ery, eager especially to see their newly accessible
West, the rushing hordes of the wheel were kept
from trampling out of existence the precious irre-
placeable quality of the primitive only by their need
to hold the road. There has been found a solution
to this problem. Through government limitation of
national park roads the people may control this inno-
cent, amiable, overgrown, ungovernable agency of
dire destruction. By concentrating the crowd in
chosen centres within the parks, a unique American
Institution may be preserved for posterity.

A more interesting situation for the student of
the times than this triple invasion, to say nothing of
its importance to people and nation, has rarely of-

266 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

fered. We participate literally in a contest between
localism and national idealism for the sake of a price-
less irreplaceable national possession. Let us look
at the struggle more closely.

COMMERCIALISM DEFINITELY RULED OUT

Several years before the storm broke, a fight to
save Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National
Park from damming had been lost through failure
of the straggling defense to organize. Later, as
the great dam rose slowly, it dawned upon the coun-
try that it had been camouflaged water power for
profit, not city water for San Francisco, as had
been claimed in Congress, which had won this
notable triumph.

So when, in 1920, a bill to dam an obscure val-
ley in Yellowstone National Park slipped quietly
through Senate into House, when the new Federal
Power Act was found deputing rights to a commis-
sion to issue water power leases in National Parks
without reference to Congress, and a bill in the Sen-
ate asked authority to dam Yellowstone Lake, no
time was lost in organizing the country to meet the
grave emergency which it was plain faced the Na-
tional Parks System.

Investigation showed all a part of a single pro-
gramme. Three chances with need to secure only one
precedent! To meet the skilled professional busi-
ness and political players of the game in Congress,

THE NATIONAL PARKS SYSTEM 267

the amateur defenders called upon the people of the
country. It took years to defeat them but we did it.

The Federal Power bill gave us the closest shave
of all and left its scar behind.

Here is the story :

A couple of days before adjournment in late
May, 1920, this famous measure which has done so
much since for the West emerged from conference,
passed both Houses in final compromised shape, and
went to President Wilson for signature. On the
very last day of the session, the writer discovered
that it specifically turned National Parks and Monu-
ments over to the new Federal Power Commission
with authority to grant water power leases within
them all at will.

Instant action was necessary. The National
Parks Association telegraphed the news to public-
spirited men and organizations in every part of the
country, and, before the fall of the gavel closed the
session, the President was deluged with telegrams
urging that he withhold signature until National
Parks should be stricken from the text. Secretary
of the Interior John Barton Payne laid the situation
in full before the President, who refused to sign, a
courageous act at the beginning of a Presidential
campaign summer.

Adjournment of Congress without effectuating
the Federal Power Act provoked instantly a tremen-
dous protest from western states. Senator Jones of
Washington, Republican, and Senator Walsh of

268 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

Montana, Democrat, led a delegation to Secretary
Payne urging that a way should still be found, al-
though constitutionally too late, for the President's
signature. To this appeal the President yielded upon
assurances of leaders of both parties in both Houses
that a bill would be pushed at the next session to cut
National Parks out of the act. A precedent for de-
layed signature was dug up in the archives, and the
otherwise beneficent water power act began its
great career.

But lost ground was not wholly recovered in
the following session. When the promised bill to
restore National Parks to sole authority of Con-
gress came before the House the following Janu-
ary, a representative of five far-western power
companies moved that its authority should be lim-
ited to parks already in existence. Otherwise, he
threatened, the bill itself would not pass. Rather
than subject all National Parks to further risk so
great, the government yielded, and to this day each
new National Park is subject to authority of the
Federal Power Commission unless its creative act
shall have specifically excepted it therefrom.

The companies' reason for wanting this excep-
tion was to hold subject to their future grasp the
two tremendous Sierran Canyons of the Kings River
in the event of their some day being added to a Na-
tional Park. The struggle lasted, on the part of the
Park Service to include these valleys in the proposed
Roosevelt-Sequoia National Park, and on the part of

THE NATIONAL PARKS SYSTEM 269

the City of Los Angeles (representing the power
interests) to make them subject to power in Na-
tional Parks, until 1926, when compromise resulted
in passage of a Greater Sequoia bill which omitted
the Kings country. The battle was drawn. The
Valleys of the Kings remain where they were in
the Sierra National Forest, still safe from power
use; but not tied up forever as they would be in a
National Park. Year by year they will establish
more surely in the public mind their manifest des-
tiny. Whether administered by the Forest Service
or transferred to the National Park Service, these
valleys are as certainly lost to water power as
though a National Park.

In all the other contests of these strenuous
years involving power or irrigation inclusion within
National Parks, whether fought in Congress or in the
several western states where not infrequently the
tide of battle passed, the cause of national policy tri-
umphed consistently over reactionary localism. No
Bechler Basin dam was authorized within Yellow-
stone National Park. Four years of campaigning
failed to get one of Senator Thomas B. Walsh's
bills to dam Yellowstone Lake even out of Senate
committee. A National Park spotted around in a
desert and an Indian Reservation, including every
possible violation of national standards, was not
created at Secretary Fall's demand in New Mexico.
An absurd little National Park was not perched
like a jockey cap on the peak of a Virginia moun-

270 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

tain. No damaging precedent was established On
the contrary, the people's will that National Parks
should continue exempt from industrial uses was
publicly registered. The system had passed its test.

RULING OUT THE UNFIT
Concurrently with this struggle, overlapping
it at both ends, demands were made in Congress for
creation of local National Parks without any con-
sideration of quality or standards. These had
swarmed in from the West as far back as 1916. Pa-
cific coast communities were specially anxious to
have their own home Yosemites for the profit which
visiting motorists would bring their farms and
shops. It was not difficult to shelve these bills then
because Yosemite wasn't so profitable to its neigh-
borhood as now, the motor touring tide being in its
earliest flood. That it would oversweep the coast
from Seattle to Los Angeles was not at that time,
fortunately, foreseen. To-day, when it does, new
National Parks are no longer believed necessary on
the coast because it has become apparent that it is
the West itself, not its National Parks, that brings
the profit-bearing crowds. In the Southeast, where
the fallacy still prevails that the name National Park
even unaccompanied by the extraordinary magnif-
icence which it connotes will lure prosperous travel,
this demand continues. When that fallacy shall dis-
sipate, the System's last grave danger will pass.

Of the lengths to which politics will go in cater-

THE NATIONAL PARKS SYSTEM 271

ing to real or imagined local interest, the story of
Mammoth Cave is eloquent. An advisory commis-
sion appointed to report the best National Park
available in the southern Appalachians had chosen
Great Smoky, had then shifted to Shenandoah be-
cause of its nearness to Washington, and finally,
after the bill was filed, had agreed to add Great
Smoky, making two choices instead of one. It de-
clined at that time to add Mammoth Cave in spite
of the urging of local interests.

When, in the spring of 1926, the Temple bill to
authorize Great Smoky and Shenandoah approached
passage, Mammoth Cave demands were renewed,
but the attempt to write it into the bill with the
others was refused. Claiming that its authorization
was necessary to the re-election of a United States
Senator whose term was expiring, and threatening
to block the Temple bill unless it also should pass,
its backers forced a belated recommendation from
the advisory commission. With this, on the eve of
a Congressional election in which control of the Sen-
ate was in doubt, Mammoth Cave was authorized
without approval of the Secretary of the Interior,
and without any official of the National Park Ser-
vice having even seen it.

From this may be predicted with certainty
what the fate of our National Parks System would
be with amateur advisers in the field and national
politics directing its course. National Parks can
only be safely chosen by the permanent, respon-

272 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

sible, professional National Park Service. At this
writing, by the way, the Kentucky boomers have not
raised the two and a half millions to avail of the au-
thorization.

A logical descendant of the Mammoth Cave
bill appeared in February, 1928 (preceding another
election) in a demand from Arkansas to turn ex-
cellent Mena National Forest into an under-class Na-
tional Park (to be called Ouichita National Park)
in opposition to the Secretaries of Agriculture and
Interior and the chiefs of both the National Forest
and National Parks Systems. Bills of this destruc-
tive kind, products of localism and ignorance, will
continue to appear at intervals, but when the stand-
ards of the System shall become recognized as a
tradition, even if unwritten in the law, the parks will
have their final test.

THE TRUTH ABOUT PARK PATRONAGE

The third great danger to the National Parks
System during this decade came from sudden crowd-
ing from 1915 on as a result of development of na-
tion-wide motor touring.

Park patronage totals follow: 1912, 229,084;
1913, 259,703; 1914, 235,293; 1915, 344,799; 1916,
356,079; 1917, 488,268; 1918, 451.661; 1919, 755r
325; 1920, 919,504; 1921, 1,007,335; 1922, 1,044,-
502; 1923, 1,280,886; 1924, 1,422,353; 1925, 1,760,-
512; 1926, 1,930,865; and 1927, 2,354,643.

With announcement of Mr. Mather's plans for

THE NATIONAL PARKS SYSTEM 273

system development in 1915, the press suddenly dis-
covered that such a system existed, and embarked
upon a period of exploitation of the country's un-
realized scenic supremacy that lasted several years.
No doubt the new public keenness for long distance
motor touring helped maintain publicity at fever
heat. From newspapers the chorus spread to mag-
azines, especially those devoted to motoring, and to
the lecture platform.

With every publicity medium in the country
suddenly sounding the System's praises, and motion
pictures displaying park scenes and explorations
nightly the country over, it is not surprising that we
in the Service then thought park popularity the
cause of western motor touring. For several years
this idea was general East and West and of fre-
quent comment in the newspapers. Now we know
it was the other way about, that the day of touring
had arrived concurrently with park advertisement,
and that other western country was concurrently
over-run, as it still is, in far greater measure even
than our parks. No doubt much western travel was
hastened, in those first years, by public desire to see
much-praised scenery. No doubt the parks centred
and colored to some extent eastern desire for the
West, hastening visitation by both rail and motor.
Advertising so spontaneous, so laudatory, so persis-
tent, could not but produce prompt results. National
Parks became the "national craze" in the fullest
sense of the word, and remained so at full tide as

274 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

long at least as any other of the greatest crazes of
recent years.

It was not until the craze phase of the public
interest gave way that vision became possible, and
not until motor touring facts outside the parks cre-
ated perspectives, that the truth began dimly to
emerge. The fact that pleasure patronage of the
National Forests increased in even greater propor-
tion during the same years was the first observation
disturbing to our comfortable early theories. It has
not been till very recently that analysis has shown
that the new and sudden passion for motor touring
found its objective in its early days, not principally
in the parks or even the forests, but in the West, of
which the parks were but one exhibit of very many.
What was the Yosemite to San Francisco or Se-
quoia to Los Angeles as a touring attraction?

Among the many lures which have swept the
East awheel into the West, and which to-day fill the
entire West with visitors, the greatest no doubt is
the very pleasure of motoring over fine roads through
inspiring famous country. The fact that most re-
corded park increases include as park visitors many
thousands of touring motorists who merely stop for
a meal or a glance is eloquent. The fact that sudden
great permanent jumps in patronage, like Yosemite's
in 1927, follow building of better motor roads is full
of meaning.

It must be understood, also, that the full range
of increases quoted above are not for identical areas.

THE NATIONAL PARKS SYSTEM 275

During the same decade six new National Parks,
Hawaii, Lassen Volcanic, Mount McKinley, Grand
Canyon, Lafayette, and Zion, have been added to the
System, and their initial and increasing attendances
are merged into the totals. These new fountains of
patronage, for example, account for 8,000 of the
total in 1917, 2,000 in 1918, 114,245 in 1919, 139,-
307 in 1920, 166,329 in 1921, 200,045 in 1922, 223,-
458 in 1923, 253,056 in 1924, 301,500 in 1925, 317,-
544 in 1926, and more than 400,000 in 1927.

The totals therefore cannot be understood to
represent increase either in park popularity or in
motor touring. If we assume, for example, that at-
tendance in all National Parks should decrease, the
totals for the System nevertheless might still in-
crease annually provided that meantime enough rec-
reational areas of established patronage should be
added to more than offset losses. To predict such
an occurrence would, of course, be absurd, but the
point is worth making to warn us of the danger of
inferring much from unanalyzed statistics.

It should be understood also that these increases
include figures for several parks which differ so
widely from standard parks as to make inclusion
misleading. Hot Springs, for example, draws pat-
ronage for its bath houses. Platt, acting as city
park to the adjoining city of Sulphur, draws inci-
dental crowds wholly uncharacteristic. Wind Cave
is the picnic terminal for a great surrounding coun-
try of farms.

276 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

Let us look at recent figures in detail.

NAME OF PARK

1924

1925

1926

1927

Yellowstone, Wyoming

144,1 <8

154,282

187,807

200,825

Sequoia, California

34,468

46,677

89,404

100,684

Yosemite, California

105,894

2O9,l66

274,209

490,430

General Grant, California
Mount Rainier, Washington. .
Crater Lake, Oregon

35,020
i6i,473

64, 312

40,517
173,004
65,0l8

50,597
161,795
86,019

47,996
200,051
82,3^4

Wind Cave, South Dakota. . .
Platt, Oklahoma

52,166

1^4,874

69,267
I43,38o

85,466
124,284

294,954
81,023

Sully's Hill, North Dakota.. .
Mesa Verde, Colorado
Glacier, Montana

8,035
7,109
33i372

9,183
9,043
40,063

19,921
11,356
37,235

22,632

n,9i5
41,745

Rocky Mountain, Colorado. .
Hawaii, Territory of Hawaii .
Hot Springs, Arkansas.

224,211

52,110

i64,i7<;

233,912
64,155

26?, ^oo

225,027

35,ooo
260,000

229,862

37,55i
181,523

Lassen Volcanic, California. . .
Mount McKinley, Alaska. . . .
Grand Canyon, Arizona
Lafayette, Maine

12,500
62
108,256
71, 7^8

12,596
206
134,053

73,673

i8,739
533
140,252
101,256

20,089

651
162,356
123,699

Zion, Utah

8 4OO

16,817

21,064

24,303

Total . . .

1,422, 3<J3

1,760, 51 2

1,030,86"?

2,354,643

Another fact interfering with safe inference
from the government's statistics is that nearness of
large permanent populations to several National
Parks brings numerous visits a year from the same
individuals, each of which necessarily is counted
each time at the gateways. Another lies in the habit
of most touring motorists of visiting several Na-
tional Parks on the same journey, in each of which
they are counted anew in the totals.

Totals, therefore, mean little in terms of indi-
viduals visiting the System. By how many the 2,-
354,643 visitations to all National Parks in 1927
should be reduced so that we may approximate the
number of individual visitors, there are no observed
ratios to apply.

THE NATIONAL PARKS SYSTEM 277

Sequoia's jump from 46,677 in 1925 to 89,404
in 1926, exceeding 91 per cent, followed the com-
pletion of a better surfaced entrance from the Cali-
fornia state highway system, luring the lover of the
road. The completion, late in the season, of the new
"all year road" into Yosemite jumped the year's pat-
ronage from 209,166 in 1925 to 274,209 in 1926, or
31 per cent, and to 490,430 in 1927 or 58 per cent
more. There was this significant difference, how-
ever, that Yosemite's increase was largely week-end
local visitation from San Francisco and neighbor-
hood cities, attracted by the fine roads in and the
day-and-night pleasures of the Valley, while Se-
quoia's new visitors found no resort entertainments
to amuse them, but averaged longer visits. Thou-
sands camped in the Giant Forest for weeks.

Little General Grant National Park's patron-
age for the same year averaged 22,400 persons for
each of its four square miles of area. Completion
of the road connecting General Grant on a circle
drive with the Giant Forest in near-by Sequoia Na-
tional Park settles its future for all time as a day,
week-end, and camping-out resort for southern Cali-
fornia residents. It will be the turning point of Los
Angeles's local motor runs, as Yosemite has become
the turning point of San Francisco's. Both lose na-
tional character and prestige.

The fact that Lassen Volcanic Park had, in
1927, only twenty thousand visitors, we conceive to
be wholly due to poorer road connections with the

278 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

superlative tourist highway system of the Pacific
Coast. Whenever motorists on tour can glide to it
over perfect surfacing and find facilities for a com-
fortable night's rest before gliding back to the main
highways, no doubt we shall hear that Lassen, also,
is attracting visitors by very many thousands an-
nually. Much will depend on the quality and rates
of its hotels.

The future of Crater Lake appears settled by
its loop road, which also touches beautiful Klamath
Lake. The great majority of its "visitors" are tour-
ing motorists who give it an admiring glance in
passing. Still farther north, in Washington, Mount
Rainier National Park remains one of the grandest
wildernesses in the continent, with Paradise Valley,
south of the mountain, its only point of concentra-
tion. Extensive road plans to open up the entire
west side and penetrate the park from the east sug-
gest a future similar to the California parks. The
ice-clad volcano is only forty miles from Tacoma
and sixty from Seattle, both growing cities.

We must recognize the patent fact that the en-
tire Pacific coast, under California's leadership, has
entered the resort business on a great scale as a ma-
jor industry, and that its National Parks are merely
one of many groups of advertised attractions. Were
no National Parks created in its mountains, it is prob-
able that its patronage from other states would not
be less than now, and that its own inhabitants would
be as persistent motorists.

From a photograph by Mile High Photographe

LOCH VALE AND TAYLOR GLACIER, ROCKY MOUNTAIN NATIONAL PARK

THE NATIONAL PARKS SYSTEM 279

Not only because of the summer warmth of her
valleys, suggesting escape, but as a natural result,
perhaps, of tourist example and highway opportu-
nity, California's restless permanent population has
itself taken ardently to the wheel. Automobile li-
censes equal in number a third of her total popula-
tion including babies. To these, and to the increased
permanent population which is expected to follow
the extensive advertising campaign now conducted
throughout the country, the cool altitudes of the Na-
tional Parks will offer irresistible attractions for re-
peated day and week-end runs.

If we are to comprehend conditions of National
Park patronage in the Pacific states, and it is high
time that we did, considerations such as these must
engage our serious attention. We must understand
that the records of immense park patronage are
largely records of passers-by, dependent on the qual-
ity of the roads, and of neighborhood visitors out
for pleasure. To what extent the Federal Treasury
should finance new resorts for local patronage in
any state is one of the questions of the day.

From this rapid touching of crowd conditions
a decade after dawn of the automotive age, many in-
teresting inferences may be drawn; and those per-
sonally not familiar with National Park conditions
beyond the roads and points of concentration may
easily foresee therein the certain doom of the Sys-
tem's precious primitive quality; but such a conclu-
sion, I feel sure, is far from warranted. It is true

280 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

that the new conditions cannot be cured ; motor tour-
ing doubtless is in its infancy. A million a season
may camp week ends in "Yosemite City/' or sweep
in an endless procession of cars past the bowl of
Crater Lake, stopping or not to look in, or swing
around the double-eight in Yellowstone, or file
through the Fall River gorge in the Rockies, without
disturbing in the least the loveliness, purity and isola-
tion of the surrounding fastnesses of mountain, for-
est, canyon, lake and river. On the contrary, I am
sure that we should not want these unchangeable
conditions changed, for the more who see these spec-
tacles, even in this desultory modern way, the more
there will be who benefit by impressions at least of
their great gifts of revelation and inspiration.

But the very nature of the invasion carries with
it the key to its control. Motorists are motorists.
They can be concentrated because they refuse to be
anything else. They stick by the road. They de-
mand, on tour, the comforts of the road house and
the public camp. Their travel schedules rarely can
be disarranged. Limitation of roads within National
Parks, then, is the ultimate solution. The 2,354,643
visitors recorded in 1927 averaged 201 to the square
mile. With nineteen twentieths at least sticking
fairly to the roads and camps, the use of the enor-
mous outlying wilderness is seen to be trifling. Sav-
ing the precious, original, unmodified quality of
these sanctuaries of nature for use of those who care
enough for it to endure the pleasurable hardships of
the trail becomes, therefore, feasible.

THE NATIONAL PARKS SYSTEM 281

Of course, the parks must pay the cost of con-
centration by virtual destruction of the natural qual-
ity of the areas of concentration. The price is tri-
fling in comparative acreage, but occasionally it is
very costly in quality. The incomparable Yosemite
Valley, to name the most distinguished example, is,
since the opening of the new road, destined to be the
most crowded always of them all. There is no help
for that, now.

"As has been shown/7 reported the Joint Com-
mittee on Recreational Survey of Federal Lands in
1928, "the history of National Parks has established
the national conception that their primary purpose
is preservation of areas of extraordinary majesty and
beauty in a condition of unmodified nature. In the
main, not only the parks themselves, but the very
character of the features which they represent, have
established their own standards, but neither their
purposes nor their standards have as yet been clearly
defined in law. To those who hold that the historic
standards of the National Parks must be maintained,
a recently developed tendency to consider the parks
primarily as popular playgrounds appears rightly to
be a serious danger. If principles and standards are
to be maintained, then playground use must be co-
ordinated as secondary to these primary principles
and objectives. And further expansion of the land
area of the parks necessarily will be limited extremely.

"If, on the other hand, the tendency growing out
of public clamor for outdoor playgrounds is permitted
to set aside National Park principles and to substitute

282 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

a code of use which conceives them merely play-
grounds, the whole problem of recreational develop-
ment is put upon a vastly different plane. Under the
latter conception, any Federal land not dedicated by
law to other uses would qualify for National Park in-
clusion provided it possessed recreational possibilities.
The expansion of the National Parks area would
thereafter be almost unlimited, but it would be at the
tragic sacrifice of the institutional character and in-
spiring public and national uses of the National Parks
System. And the intricate question of where the
responsibility of the Federal government to provide
outdoor playgrounds begins and ends in relation to
similar responsibilities on the part of states, counties,
and municipalities becomes at once injected into the
whole scheme of recreational development.

"Looking forward a hundred years into the fu-
ture it must be obvious that no permanent and inclu-
sive national programme of outdoor recreation can
be formulated until the principles and objects of the
National Parks System are clearly defined in law
once for all. In the judgment of the committee this
is one of the most immediate problems confronting
the formulation of a national policy of outdoor
recreation."

Thanks to the thousands of individuals and
hundreds of organizations throughout the country
which have come to the defense of the System at-
tacked, and stuck to it through a series of years, the
continued safety of the national ideal appears to me

THE NATIONAL PARKS SYSTEM 283

at this writing eventually certain. A few more
sharp resistances followed by years of watchfulness
and public education should insure safety for all
time. The work of the future, then, is realization
of inspirational and educational possibilities. To-
ward this each may contribute his own part. It is
a problem in national co-operation.

LWith few exceptions, those who hear while in
the National Parks what this System really is, what
its standards and purposes are, and what it means
to the nation, rise enthusiastically to the splendid
conception. They have discovered another and a
glowing reason to be proud of their country. No
less is this true of millions who have not seen and
expect never to see their National Parks. As a Na-
tional Institution embodying the grandeur of physi-
cal America, the inspiration of her great places, and
the idealism of her people, it will have the enthusi-
astic support of all her people.

CHAPTER VIII

NATIONAL MONUMENTS SYSTEM A
SCIENTIFIC MUSEUM

DURING the first years of the century tales con-
stantly reached Washington of the looting of
a great area of petrified trees in middle Arizona.
Gorgeously colored trunks were being gathered by
the wagon-load and shipped East by the car-load to
make mantles, table-tops, and other embellishments
for the homes of the rich. So beautiful was the ma-
terial that prices grew higher and demand greater
year by year. Some of this was semi-precious stone.

The land being ordinary Public Domain, no law
could stop the taking, so John F. Lacey of Iowa,
Chairman of the Public Lands Committee of the
House and friend of Roosevelt, tried to protect the
area by making it a National Park. Failing twice to
secure passage, he wrote into the American Antiqui-
ties bill, then before his Committee for action and
sure to pass, the following :

"Sec. 2. That the President of the United
States is hereby authorized, in his discretion, to de-
clare by public proclamation historic landmarks, his-
toric and prehistoric structures, and other objects of
historic or scientific interest that are situated upon
the lands owned or controlled by the Government of

284

NATIONAL MONUMENTS SYSTEM 285

the United States to be National Monuments, and
may reserve as a part thereof parcels of land, the
limit of which in all cases shall be confined to the
smallest area compatible with the proper care and
management of the objects to be protected."

The American Antiquities bill was enacted in
June, 1906, and later in the same year the Secretary
of the Interior sent to the White House for Presi-
dential signature proclamations covering four Na-
tional Monuments, the first group of what after-
ward became a noble system. They were Devil
Tower in Wyoming, El Morro in New Mexico, and
Montezuma Castle and the already famous Petrified
Forest in Arizona.

For several years thereafter, monument-mak-
ing was rapid. In 1907, three were created, and in
1908 seven. Six were created the following year.
Of these early twenty, eight were Agricultural De-
partment monuments and twelve Interior Depart-
ment monuments. The first War Department monu-
ment, Big Hole Battlefield in Montana, was made in
1910. The largest number in any one year was
eight in 1924, of which five were War Department
creations. None were made in 1912, 1920, 1921,
1926 and 1927. Including the early winter of 1928,
in which this chapter is written, fifty-eight national
monuments have been created, of which thirty-two
are administered by the Interior Department, fifteen
by the Agricultural Department, and eleven by the

Department.

286

OUR FEDERAL LANDS

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288 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

National Monuments differ from National
Parks in several vital ways.

National Parks, as we have seen, are areas of
original unmodified natural condition, each the fin-
est example of its scenic type in the country, pre-
served as a system from all industrial use. They
are created by act of Congress and administered by
the Interior Department. National Monuments are
areas preserving landmarks, structures, and objects,
"confined to the smallest area compatible with
proper care and management," created by executive
order of the President upon certification of the De-
partment of the national government caring for or
administering the land from which each is created.

Both, it will be seen, are outdoor museum sys-
tems and as such have much in common, including
high educational values. But the National Parks
System is also a National Gallery of Scenic Master-
pieces, which the National Monuments System is
not; that some monuments, like Mount Olympus,
have extraordinary scenic values is accidental. Also,
our National Parks System by its nature is inspira-
tional in high degree, which the National Monu-
ments System is not except in incidental units. Also
from its nature the National Parks System is recre-
ational, whereas recreational uses attach to National
Monuments only by accident of location or because
approached by highways.

The fact that several National Monuments are
very large in area is no violation of the law. Mount

From a photograph by George E. Welch

MOUNT OLYMPUS, WASHINGTON
Centre of a national monument established to protect spedes of elk found nowhere else

NATIONAL MONUMENTS SYSTEM 289

Olympus in Washington, for example, needs its four
hundred and seventy square miles to conserve its
unique species of elk. Of course conserving wild
life does not come within the definition of the an-
tiquities act ; the area should have been made, as was
intended, a game preserve ; but Washington sports-
men were then opposed to game preserves (they are
no longer) and threatened to stop the project. That
was in 1909. Determined to save the Olympus spe-
cies from destruction, conservationists persuaded the
President to make it a National Monument. Katmai
National Monument likewise needs its seventeen
hundred square miles to enclose its volcanic basin;
less would be insufficient. And Glacier Bay requires
its even greater area to encircle its huge amphithea-
tre of many large glaciers.

Created, like the National Parks System, with-
out prevision or planning, National Monuments, an-
alyzed, also disclose a system built around an unfor-
mulated idea. Just as National Parks were studied
by the Interior Department in 1915 to determine the
creative spirit and motive behind them in order to
perpetuate these consciously in the future, so the
time has come to study National Monuments and
build machinery for sane and orderly development
of the system. The fact that three Departments of
the government instead of one create and adminis-
ter its units stands, however, in the way. From its
Secretary down, each Department is traditionally
jealous of its own, and unwilling to exploit the mon-

290 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

ument creations of its rivals. Also, each declines to
approach the others with propositions to work out
joint standards and common control, and, as Con-
gress is altogether likely to take the system into its
own control if asked to interfere, thus subjecting it
to local and political influences which the present
system of creation reduces to a minimum, the situa-
tion may remain as it is unaltered for years unless
the National Conference on Outdoor Recreation suc-
ceeds in bringing about co-operation among the De-
partments concerned.

A list of National Monuments in order of crea-
tion, their location, areas and differentiating char-
acteristics, appears in this chapter. Analyzed, they
fall into these groups :

14 Prehistoric dwellings, or groups of dwell-
ings, of the pueblo type.

5 Ruins of the early Spanish invasion.

14 Places of later historic interest.

22 Areas of special geologic significance.
3 Areas conserving wild life.

Remains of prehistoric civilization dot our
Southwest freely. Ruins of very ancient cliff houses,
pueblos, irrigation systems and places of worship
are specially numerous in Colorado, New Mexico
and Arizona. The most fully developed and best
preserved of all are conserved in the Mesa Verde
National Park. Fourteen others chosen by archaeolo-
gists out of thousands, have been preserved in Na-
tional Monuments. They are: Montezuma Castle,

NATIONAL MONUMENTS SYSTEM 291

Tonto, Navajo, Casa Grande, Walnut Canyon, and
Wapatki in Arizona, Chaco Canyon, Gila Cliff
Dwellings, Bandelier, and Aztec Ruin in New Mex-
ico, Yucca House in Colorado, Hovenweep strad-
dling the boundary between Utah and Colorado, and
the Mound City Group in Ohio. Some of these, no-
tably Casa Grande, Montezuma Castle, Bandelier,
and Chaco Canyon, stand among the very finest in
the country. Casa Grande was reserved by Con-
gress in 1889 and handled without legal status among
the National Parks. In 1918 it was defined a Na-
tional Monument by executive order. Congress has
spent $22,400 upon its restoration out of a grand
total of $190,130 for all National Monuments up to
1926 inclusive. Bandelier National Monument was
a strong contender with Mesa Verde for the honor
of national parkhood, losing out in 1906. It is a
group of remarkable nobility and interest.

The five ruins of the early Spanish invasion,
Tumacacori in Arizona, El Morro and Gran Qui-
vira in New Mexico, and crumbling fortification at
Fort Matanzas and Fort Marion in Florida, are re-
markable each of its kind. Gran Quivira is the
most famous of the very earliest churches of the
continent; Tumacacori near Tucson is much later
and naturally better preserved; El Morro, at the
crossing of ancient trails, preserves inscriptions and
messages by America's first travellers ; the two Flor-
ida forts were built by very early comers from
across the sea, perhaps as safe retreats.

292 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

The historic remains of later periods vary
widely. A bare acre on a California headland is
supposed to have been the first land sighted from
the Pacific, in 1542; it is called the Cabrillo National
Monument. Wheeler in the Colorado Mountains,
Big Hole Battle Ground in Montana and Lava Beds
in California commemorate Indian battles, the first
a massacre. Fort Niagara reproduces a cross
erected in 1688 as a memorial, Sitka and Old Ka-
saan, both in Alaska, were respectively a deserted
Indian village and the scene of a massacre of Rus-
sians. Scotts Bluff in Nebraska was a wilderness
landscape before the white man and afterward, and
Verandrye was the bluff from which white men first
saw the country west of the Missouri River. Pipe
Spring in Arizona conserves a wilderness water
hole with historic Mormon buildings. Meriwether
Lewis, in Tennessee, contains the great explorer's
grave. Fort McHenry in Maryland commemorates
the writing of the Star Spangled Banner, Fort Pu-
laski in Georgia and Castle Pinckney in South Caro-
lina remain from 1810; Pulaski was refitted for the
Civil War.

Of our twenty-two geologic monuments, eight
are limestone caves, and more are threatened. The
federal lands may possess a hundred thousand lime-
stone caves, each of which appears very wonderful
to local imaginations. One of these, high up a moun-
tainside, overlooks a sample of the trail travelled
by the Lewis and Clark Expedition; for which

NATIONAL MONUMENTS SYSTEM 293

reason it bears the name of these celebrated explor-
ers, though it is not even claimed that Lewis and
Clark, nor any of their men, knew of the cave's ex-
istence. Ranking with this, for contrast, are some
of the world's noblest spectacles, particularly the
Carlsbad Cavern in New Mexico unequalled in the
world in size and magnificence of decoration, the in-
comparable Rainbow Bridge, the imposing volcanic
spectacle at Katmai, and the incomparable funnel of
glaciers at Glacier Bay. The two latter are on the
Alaskan Coast.

There is probably no other single object in the
world at once so appalling in size and environment
and so exquisitely beautiful as the gorgeous arch of
Rainbow Bridge. It would easily span Madison
Square in New York City, and the adjoining Flat-
iron Building would slip under it with room for
three floors to spare. Of red sandstone in a yellow
desert, its modelling and proportions suggest the in-
spired art of man. Our three largest natural
bridges, in Southern Utah, together also constitute a
National Monument.

Devil Tower, core of a once great volcano in
Wyoming; the Devil Postpile, basaltic columns in
the Sierra ; Capulin Mountain, a perfect cinder cone
in New Mexico; Katmai, scene of a terrific volcanic
explosion in 1912; and Craters of the Moon in
Idaho; offer a remarkable exposition of volcanic
phenomena. The Petrified Forest of Arizona, the
mine of prehistoric monsters in Utah known as Di-

294 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

nosaur, and South Dakota's mine of prehistoric plants
known as Fossil Cycad, conserve the best of their
kind perhaps in any land. The Pinnacles in Cali-
fornia and Bryces Canyon in Utah are remarkable
examples of erosion, the latter extraordinary for its
carving and coloring. Among the several vast gla-
cial amphitheatres on the coast of Alaska, Glacier
Bay is unsurpassed.

A very wonderful opportunity, this, for devel-
oping a natural geologic museum of broad scope and
magnificence !

Of our three National Monuments conserving
wild life, Muir Woods and Papago Saguaro offer a
striking contrast. The one preserves the last re-
maining redwood grove, beloved of John Muir, on
San Francisco Bay, and the other preserves a gen-
erous sample of the rich desert, with its giant cacti,
of southern Arizona.

Geographically, one territory and nineteen
states possess these National Monuments, as fol-
lows : Alaska, 3 ; Arizona, 1 1 ; California, 5 ; Colo-
rado, 4; Georgia, i ; Florida, 2; Idaho, i ; Maryland,
I ; Montana, 2 ; Nebraska, i ; New Mexico, 8 ; New
York, 2; North Dakota, i; Ohio, i; Oregon, i;
South Carolina, i ; South Dakota, i ; Tennessee, i ;
Utah, 5 ; Washington, i ; and Wyoming, 2 ;

That so haphazard a collection of fifty-eight
units selected at odd intervals during twenty-two
years by a number of scores of men in different De-
partments of the government mostly unknown to

Courtesy of the Santa Fe Rail-way

"THE FIRST APARTMENT-HOUSE'

Prehistoric dwellings carved in the soft volcanic rock several stories high, and built of masonry outside. Bandolier

National Monument, New Mexico

NATIONAL MONUMENTS SYSTEM 295

each other should have produced so excellent a
combined group as this, so really a system, so nearly
well balanced, containing so little, comparatively,
that is unworthy, is little short of astonishing. Nev-
ertheless Secretary Work's belief that some should
be turned over to state and local control is sound,
and the joint administration which some day unques-
tionably will develop and carry on all together as a
single group will find perhaps a number unsuitable
for the well-studied balanced system that this should
become eventually.

Suggestions for National Monuments come from
many sources, usually perhaps from government sci-
entists and officials travelling federal lands on busi-
ness. Sometimes they come from universities and
scientific institutions, or from organizations inter-
ested in federal land development. Most sugges-
tions originate in local sources ; of these, few get by
the many interested official watchers unless backed
by the kind of sentiment which appeals through poli-
tics. It is from the latter source of influence, in
these days of super-motoring and local enterprise in
self-advertisement, that grave danger is likely to
come. Just as now the National Parks System is im-
perilled by the craze in the South for National Parks
of any kind so long as they carry the supposedly
money-coining name ; so, failing them, National Mon-
uments will come more and more into local demand.

Another very dangerous tendency is to con-
sider National Monument making an intermediate

296 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

step to securing National Parks, for it is sometimes
easier to persuade Congress to change the status of
a reservation already created by Presidential proc-
lamation than to create the National Park straight-
forwardly in the first instance. This has been de-
liberately done in two cases within my personal recol-
lection, and has been suggested in a number of in-
stances. While there may be little danger of dam-
aging the National Monuments System by making
it a stepping stone to an order of reservations scen-
ically higher, the principle involved is inherently
wrong, and this practice makes for further belit-
tling in the eyes of its creating agencies a system of
very great dignity and potential value to posterity.

The root of these actual and prospective evils
is the failure of the national government to con-
ceive our National Monuments as a System. I have
found nothing in Roosevelt's writings to warrant
the belief that either he or Lacey ever previsioned
the splendid system which since, like Topsy in "Un-
cle Tom's Cabin," just grew. It was his part, in
advance of the thinking of his day, to perceive fu-
ture values and to provide the governmental ma-
chinery for posterity to utilize. It is for some later
President to model the hit-or-miss creation of the in-
tervening years into a unified grouping of incalcu-
lable value to present and succeeding generations.

The fact is that, in the strictly official view, our
National Monuments constitute nothing more than
a collection. Unofficially but actually, they consti-

NATIONAL MONUMENTS SYSTEM 297

tute an Outdoor Museum System of some nobility.
What is needed, all, in fact, that is needed, is official
recognition that this System exists as such, and a
little inexpensive machinery, the simpler the more
effective, to define standards, clean it of dross, de-
termine the units which shall be admitted to it and
administer it through an organization which shall
combine representatives of the three Departments
with experts appointed from outside of government.

NATIONAL MILITARY PARKS

The wonder is that National Military Parks
were so long in coming. It took a quarter of a cen-
tury after the close of the Civil War to create the
first reservation, that which encloses the ten square
miles in Tennessee in which had been fought the
great battles of Chickamauga and Chattanooga. It
was called the Chickamauga and Chattanooga Na-
tional Military Park. The impulse swept into crea-
tion in the very same Congress the battle-field of
Antietam in Maryland, under similar title. The
year was 1890. These parks naturally were refer-
red to the War Department for administration.

There was at this time, of course, no plan for
building a system, but the seed was sown. Other
Civil War battle-fields were proposed, but none was
made till 1894, when the Shiloh National Military
Park was created at Pittsburgh Landing, Tennes-

298 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

see. Gettysburg in southern Pennsylvania followed
in 1895, and Vicksburg in Mississippi in 1899.

After that, an interval of seventeen years
marked public absorption in matters wholly differ-
ent, during which time several historic National
Monuments were created. In 1916, Lincoln's birth-
place in Illinois having come into national posses-
sion, the question of its administration arose. There
was only one appropriate place for it, the National
Monuments System; but somebody under the delu-
sion that Lincoln's birth was a military event asked
to have it made a National Military Park, which
was done.

That act again called public attention to this
system, which resulted in creation of Gilford Court
House National Military Park at Greenboro, North
Carolina, the following year.

With our entrance into the Great War began a
new demand for National Military Parks which, no
doubt fanned by the motor touring tidal wave, has
since reached large dimensions. The War Depart-
ment had set its face relentlessly against the expan-
sion of a system which, having no limiting stan-
dards, may easily override control and involve the
Treasury in unlimited expense. Only one of very
many bills, that in the last Congress creating
Moore's Landing National Military Park, has been
enacted recently.

Each battle-field park in this system includes
all the lands obtainable over which contending forces

NATIONAL MONUMENTS SYSTEM 299

moved in action. Within its limits earthworks and
structures of all kinds existing during the battle, so
far as they remained at the time of the park crea-
tion, are maintained. Both within the grounds, and
so far as possible without them, points have been
marked which help to disclose the strategy and ac-
tion of battle.

LOGICAL REORGANIZATION DEMANDED

Because they are federal, historical and unin-
dustrial, National Military Parks group naturally
with National Monuments, which, as a system, they
preceded by sixteen years. National Military Parks
preserve battle-fields of the Civil War and a historic
memorial of before the Civil War which is not a bat-
tle-field; and National Monuments preserve (besides
much else) battle-fields and historical memorials not
of the Civil War. The difficult distinction was not
intentional on the part of a casual and careless Con-
gress. Lincoln's Birthplace, which is not a battle-
field, is absurdly a National Military Park, while
Fort Wood in New York Harbor, out of which rises
the Statue of Liberty, a military reservation, is a
National Monument!

A logical reclassification would group histori-
cal reservations of every kind since the coming of
the white man together under the title of National
Historical (instead of merely Military) National
Parks, leaving only the scientific reservations (ar-

300 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

chaeological, geological, zoological and botanical) in
the National Monuments System. There was no
more prevision in National Military Park begin-
nings than in the origin of National Monuments, so
such a change would upset no tradition nor orderly
purpose. There is need in our Federal Lands for a
reservation system broadly historical.

Such reorganization was suggested in 1924 in
the National Parks Association's report on National
Monuments to the National Conference on Outdoor
Recreation. It attracted much attention, but, suf-
fered the usual fate of bills referred to special inter-
departmental committees of government officials al-
ready overburdened with routine.

A joint War and Interior Department bill to
transfer administration of National Military Parks
to the Interior Department, changing their titles to
National Historical Parks, is a step toward such
reorganization. It was introduced in the winter of
1928.

CHAPTER IX

DEPLETION AND RESCUE OF OUR AMAZING
HERITAGE OF WILD LIFE

IN no other respect is the wastefulness of this na-
tion so apparent as in the passing of our original
wealth of wild life. Before the coming of the white
man, the country which is the United States pos-
sessed an amazing population of furred and feath-
ered creatures, as great, perhaps, as the uncivilized
part of Africa.

Think of millions of bison roaming our western
plains at one time. Observers of long ago casually
mention migrations of solidly massed buffalo col-
umns requiring four or five days to pass a given
point. Reports believed to be fairly reliable estimate
a million in one herd near the young city of Denver.
Bison are identified as animals which old reports lo-
cate in New England, the District of Columbia and
Virginia. Imagine as many antelope, also, in far
western deserts, where thirty thousand only may
now be found. George Bird Grinnell believes that
originally there may have been more antelope in the
country than there were bison. Imagine, also, at
least a million elk, possibly several times that, where
now the nation possesses less than fifty thousand,
and incalculable numbers of deer in forests east and

west, to say nothing of moose, mountain sheep,

301

302 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

mountain lions, wolves, bears, goats and four-footed
creatures of lesser degree many to one as compared
with their numbers to-day.

Think of the wild bird life of those days, im-
possible approximately to estimate even in millions
— passenger pigeons, for example, (now extinct)
which old records tell us used occasionally more or
less to cloud the sky for hours at a time. Think
of regular and usual migrations of wild geese,
swans, and ducks in numbers which would be alto-
gether impossible to-day even on occasions of ex-
traordinary concentration. It has recently been con-
tended that song birds are more plentiful now than
then, which may be true because vast forests have
given way to opens in which the song bird thrives.
It would be pitiful indeed if Nature had not provided
some compensation for losses so vast.

Loss of the bulk of our splendid Heritage of
wild life is part of the price we pay for civilization.
The forest home of deer, moose, bear and others has
given way to opens. The prairie home of bison and
elk, and the plains where once lived sage hens and
antelope by the many millions, have become farms.
Living off the land means, for pioneers, living
largely off the game of the land, until replaced by
cattle. Hunting the creatures of the wilderness for
food is part of the business of settling a new coun-
try. "We say now/' writes Grinnell, "that all the
game has been killed off, and in fact some part of
it has been killed; but its total extermination came

DEPLETION OF WILD LIFE 303

from the fact that after much of the game had been
killed the remainder was crowded off and none was
left to reproduce its kind."

It will be seen that, necessarily, hunting was
established as the custom of the young nation.
There was no question of ethics then as now. Then,
people sought their grouse in the brush or their veni-
son in the woods as now we seek our poultry and
beef in the market. Hunting for sport and hunting
for food travelled hand in hand — and even to-day
game has its important food value. No doubt the
issue of life and death hanging on success added a
tang to hunting in those days of need for meat as it
does in these days of sport. The triumph of con-
quest over so wild a creature and its extreme beauty
still warm in the final defeat of death were, then as
now, unconscious elements in the reward of skill.
Pursuit of the anise seed bag with horse and hounds
in these pallid days appears poor sport to others be-
sides those who follow the fox himself. There must
be a brace or a brush, at least, to show for the day's
triumph.

There is probably little difference in the spirit
of the sportsman of those days and these. No doubt
he enjoyed the wilderness and its denizens, some
of which he hunted, then as much as now, but per-
haps on the average not so consciously, and not so
appreciatively. Then it was the environment of his
daily life. To-day he is the most ardent of our con-
servationists for other reasons also than the continu-

304 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

ance of game. The point I make is that custom,
meaning the average point of view toward wild ani-
mal life, constitutes the difference between the phi-
losophy of those days when hunting was a necessary
part of the business of life, and of these when the
urge of need has departed and shooting is frankly
for sport's sake.

One of the more apparent differences is that the
grosser man, unfortunately numerous in all nations
and times, in those days possessed, naturally, both
gun and opportunity. It was he who boasted day's
records in pigeons and killed buffalo from car win-
dows for the sake of the shot. Skin hunting, sister
enterprise with fur trapping, was also a large ele-
ment in the Great Slaughter which followed the
opening of the West. The unusual vogue of the
"buffalo-robe" is not so long passed but that many
of us recall it. There was a time when skin wraps
were too cheap and common all over the country to
be fashionable. The business was well organized, it
covered all North America in time, and while it lasted
was highly profitable.

"The mighty herd of buffalo ranging the
plains," wrote Grinnell, "the undisturbed existence
of countless elk, deer, and antelope, the invasion of
the country by the railroads, the slaughter of the
skin hunters, the rapid killing off of the game and its
practical extermination, the conversion of the game
ranges into cattle ranges and of the cattle ranges
into ranch lands, our tardy awakening to the waste

DEPLETION OF WILD LIFE 305

of our game, a new evaluation of the wild life as a
resource of vast economic importance, the enactment
of legislation to save the remnant, the provision of
refuges for harboring it — these successive phases of
our big-game history followed one another so rapid-
ly and in a period so recent and so short as to fall
within the term of a life-time. As an explorer in
the West in the early seventies, a man hunting in the
game regions for successive seasons, and as one who
has been personally interested and actively engaged
in game protection, I myself have witnessed the
whole course of these changing conditions."

The building of the Union Pacific and Kansas
Railroads which began in 1872 gave a tremendous
impetus to wild life destruction in the West. Hired
hunters supplied construction camps with meat, and
when a bill to protect western game, probably the
very first, was entered in Congress, it was opposed
by army officers of high rank who declared that buf-
falo ought to be destroyed because when they had
become exterminated the Indians then at war with
the United States would be without means of subsis-
tence and would be obliged to come into the agencies
for food and so would be under control of the troops.

The destruction of the buffalo was practically
completed in 1883. "Most of us then," continues
Grinnell, "deemed it a mercenary and wanton
butchery. We now know that it was a necessary
part of the development of the country. The buffalo
having been destroyed, their place was taken by

306 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

range cattle and horses, and then after a time the
range stock was crowded out by the homesteader
and the farmer."

Meantime, other bills to save passing wild life,
including one in 1876, had been pushed in Congress
and lost. In the early eighties GrinnelFs initiative
secured legislation that stopped all hunting in Yel-
lowstone National Park, where twenty-two bison
left from the slaughter have since developed two
splendid herds. The fame of that great centre of
wild life concentration had in the single decade pre-
ceding this law drawn to the park the big game hunt-
ers not only of America but of lands across the sea,
and after them had followed hunters of all degrees
and none. Recently graduated from Yale and in-
formed by his western explorations, young Grin-
nell had acquired a magazine for game preservation
campaigning throughout the West. His "first Yel-
lowstone War" not only gave original impetus to the
spirit of wild life preservation, starting the remark-
able development of conservation organizations of
every kind, national, state, and local which has fol-
lowed in the half century since, but established the
national policy of complete conservation for all na-
tional parks to follow Yellowstone.

The wild life conservation movement of to-day
contemplates not only a constant supply of game in-
creasing with growth in population, but, more im-
portantly, preservation of species for future genera-
tions under natural conditions. Its purpose is, as

DEPLETION OF WILD LIFE 307

with the national park movement, not impossibly and
undesirably to restore any part of the lost past, but
to retain enough examples of the original to inform
posterity and reproduce for its enlightenment and
enjoyment the spirit of the great past.

The next effective forward step came through
government.

Unique among the bureaus of the national
government, the Biological Survey, created for a
purpose far different from its eventual destiny, has
come to function principally as national guardian of
important game animals and administrator of the
migratory bird treaty with Canada. Originated
solely for scientific investigation, it grew out of
studies in bird migration undertaken by the Ameri-
can Ornithological Union upon the organization of
that body in 1883. It conducted minute investiga-
tions of American species in every part of the coun-
try, investigated bird and insect habits in relation
to agriculture and issued many popular reports,
saved many species under the ban of ignorance, and
investigated and established the theory of life zones
— all before its main endeavor became the study and
administration of game birds and animals.

The story of its beginning is interesting. Upon
inaugurating its studies in bird migration, the Amer-
ican Ornithological Union placed its special com-
mittee under the chairmanship of Dr. S. Hart Mer-
riam of New York, who had been naturalist of the
Hayden Survey at the age of seventeen, and later, as

308 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

a student in Sheffield Scientific School at Yale, had
become deeply interested in the breeding range of
birds as affected by temperature.

Upon graduation as a physician, failing to find
funds to conduct a survey of wild life distribution in
New York State in furtherance of theories of fau-
nal areas suggested first by Humbolt and advanced
by A. E. Verrill, J. A. Allen, and others, he had set-
tled into successful medical practice, but in 1885 had
utilized a vacation to visit Germany in the interest in
Europe of the bird migration studies of the Ornitho-
logical Union.

Meantime government naturalists had secured
from Congress an appropriation of five thousand
dollars for extension of the Union's work on bird
migration, and Dr. Merriam received in Germany a
cablegram asking his acceptance of a position as
ornithologist in the Department of Agriculture look-
ing to organization of a new Division to study the
economic relations of birds.

Scenting an opportunity to resume investiga-
tions of f aunal zones, thereafter on a national scale,
he accepted, but on reaching Washington found that
his Section of Economic Ornithology had been cre-
ated as a part of the Division of Entomology and that
his research work on birds would be directed by an
entomologist.

Chagrined, nevertheless he set to work on the
relations of birds to agriculture, producing reports
conspicuously useful to farmers, meantime collect-

DEPLETION OF WILD LIFE 309

ing from every possible source facts bearing on f au-
nal areas. In 1885, he secured from Congress an
independent status for his work, under title of the
Division of Economic Ornithology and Mammalogy
of the Department of Agriculture, and outlined in-
vestigations to cover the "food, habits, distribution,
and migrations of North American birds and mam-
mals in relation to agriculture, horticulture, and
forestry." In time, reports on the English sparrow
and many bird and insect relationships to agricul-
ture went abroad. Its early functions were "first, to
determine as accurately as possible the food of birds
of economic importance ; second, to act as a court of
appeal to investigate complaints concerning depreda-
tions of birds on crops ; and third to educate the pub-
lic as to the value of birds."

Hawks, owls, crows, black birds, woodpeckers,
and blue jays received first attention. Many thou-
sands of bird stomachs were examined. Habits were
closely studied. The section's first public achieve-
ment was lessening popular prejudices which had
long been causing wholesale destruction of birds of
many species.

Meantime, Dr. Merriam was realizing his long
time dream of life zone investigations. In whatever
part of the country, particularly the West, he and
his assistants travelled, scientific observations were
made with utmost care bearing upon the relations of
temperature and altitude to species. Public an-
nouncement of results was first made in a report of

310 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

1890, elaborately mapped in colors, which began as
follows :

"Recent explorations in the West conducted by
the Division of Ornithology and Mammalogy of this
Department led to the belief that many facts of
scientific interest and economic importance would be
brought to light by a biological survey of a region
comprehending a diversity of physical and climatic
conditions, particularly if a high mountain were
selected, where, as is well known, different climates
and zones of animal and vegetable life succeed one
another from base to summit.

"The matter was laid before the Assistant Sec-
retary of Agriculture, the Honorable Edwin Willits,
and I was authorized by the Secretary, the Honora-
ble J. M. Rusk, to undertake such a survey of the
San Francisco Mountain region of Arizona. San
Francisco Mountain was chosen because of its south-
ern position, isolation, great altitude, and proximity
to an arid desert. The area carefully surveyed com-
prises about 13,000 square kilometres (5,000 square
miles) and enough additional territory to make in
all about 30,000 square kilometres (nearly 12,000
square miles) of which a biological map has been
prepared.

"No less than twenty new species and sub-
species of mammals were discovered, together with
many new reptiles and plants; and the study of the
fauna and flora as a whole led to unexpected gen-
eralizations concerning the relationship of the life

From a photograph by the U. S. Biological Survey

ANTELOPE, SWIFTEST OF WILD ANIMALS

1
1

§ -

< a
o I

Q **?

\-r *-*

w I
w -g

DEPLETION OF WILD LIFE 311

areas of North America, necessitating a radical
change in the primary and secondary divisions rec-
ognized." Thus began a scientific work which the
world has since gratefully recognized.

In 1896, in recognition of the breadth, impor-
tance, and character of its work, the Division's title
was changed to the Division of Biological Survey.
President Roosevelt enthusiastically praised its work
in public reports, which brought attacks upon it
from his political enemies. Following its promotion
in 1906 to its present status of Bureau of Biological
Survey, an investigation by Congress resulted in
publication of an astonishing record of practical
achievement flowing from painstaking scientific in-
vestigation.

Dr. C. Hart Merriam continued as director till
his retirement from government service in 1 9 1 o. The
Survey's scientific studies of birds, animals, insects,
forests and agricultural conditions, planned and
started by him, continue unceasingly. Merely to
enumerate them and their successful application to
concrete problems in every part of the country would
need pages. This part of its work, originally its
principal part, now secondary, will increase in scope
and importance with the growing years.

The Survey's main objectives of later years be-
gan with passage of the Lacey Act in 1900, which
assigned it the duty of regulating interstate com-
merce in game and fur animals. Later, it was
charged with administering the Migratory Bird

312 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

Treaty legislation which Representative George
Shiras 3d of Michigan introduced in 1907. Pro-
tection of certain song birds and birds feeding freely
on insects injurious to agriculture had long before
been granted by some state laws, but the Biological
Survey's studies of migration showed that the wide
diversity of laws in different states and nations
through which they passed in vast numbers twice
annually between the Gulf States and Canada
worked serious injury to geese, swans and ducks.
Hereafter one law would govern them wherever
they would be. To this specialty, Dr. Charles W.
Nelson, who succeeded, brought conspicuous ability.

The situation at this writing is well stated in
the Survey's annual report for 1927, which begins:

"The wild life of the country is a heritage that
was vital to the welfare of the early settlers, and its
perpetuation means much, both economically and
aesthetically, to the present and future generations
of their descendants. Any lover of birds and ani-
mals knows full well that these wild creatures clearly
appreciate the difference between kind and cruel
treatment. Unfortunately, however, they do not
have the ability to argue their cause before the bar
of public opinion.

"Forward-thinking individuals, recognizing this
fact, have designated certain public defenders, whose
duty it is to represent these creatures of the wild in
all cases where their rights are in question. These
defenders fall into three general groups: (i) Or-

DEPLETION OF WILD LIFE 313

ganizations of individuals interested in the welfare
of wild life; (2) State governmental organizations;
and (3) the Bureau of Biological Survey, co-operat-
ing with other interested Federal agencies and all
other wild-life defenders."

"The chief problem of the bureau," writes the
new chief, Paul G. Redington, "is to obtain facts on
which to base plans for wild-life administration.
Until it has the necessary resources to gather these
facts its work cannot progress to that point where
it can be of maximum benefit to the birds and game
and fur animals of the country, or of greatest as-
sistance to the general public or to governmental
agencies having jurisdiction over areas essential to
the maintenance of wild life, or that are confronted
with the problem of controlling excessive numbers
of harmful or beneficial forms."

Of methods, he extols experiment stations as
having proven their usefulness in agricultural, horti-
cultural, and forestry investigations. "Already four
field stations have been established by the Bureau of
Biological Survey — a fur-animal experiment sta-
tion in Saratoga County, N. Y., a station for co-op-
erative quail investigations in southern Georgia and
Florida, a reindeer experiment station near Fair-
banks, Alaska, and an eradication-methods labora-
tory in connection with pest control at Denver."

Besides the field stations, the Survey admin-
isters seventy-one bird and big game refuges, the
first of which, on Pelican Island, Florida, was es-

OUR FEDERAL LANDS

tablished in 1903. Sixty-eight of these protect sea-
birds, waders, and water fowl; three, in Montana,
Nebraska, and North Dakota, study buffalo, elk,
antelope, grouse, pheasants and others.

But these are not all our federal wild life ref-
uges. Under administration of the Forest Service
are eight refuges and game preserves, some of very
large size, conserving bison, elk, deer, antelope, and
others. One is the Olympus National Monument
created solely to preserve the Olympus Elk, a species
found nowhere else. Under administration of the
Bureau of Fisheries are two refuges for sea otters,
fur seals, and sea lions. Under administration of the
Bureau of Lighthouses are seven reservations, and
under the Navy Department four reservations, for
birds. Four National Military Parks under adminis-
tration of the War Department, and, under the In-
terior Department, five National Monuments and all
nineteen National Parks protect all life native to their
several locations.

Altogether the United States maintains a hun-
dred and thirteen refuges of various kinds. Ac-
complishment would be altogether inadequate with-
out the help of the states, which maintain a hundred
and thirty-five more refuges, including some of large
size and great importance. Altogether we may be
considered to have made a fair start toward adequate
study and preservation of wild life to meet the fu-
ture needs of so fast growing a nation ; nevertheless,
it is a start only.

DEPLETION OF WILD LIFE 315

The state movement is very important. Most
states now maintain at public expense conservation
departments of much and increasing efficiency which
consider bird and wild animal preservation from
economic and sport points of view. The national
control of migratory birds aroused at the start many
points of disagreement between state and nation,
and state and national politics are still often at odds
over game questions. But on the whole, the over-
lapping and yet quite distinct functions of state and
national conservation bureaus are bringing about
agreements and co-operation which point to a future
efficiency which is national in the fullest sense.

At best no marked recovery of wild life is pos-
sible. We should recognize that fact. We overran
too far. Within the limits of the United States we
shall be very fortunate indeed if, on the average of
the whole, wild life can be made to hold its own.
This is done in several countries abroad by a some-
what elaborate and minute game administration
which considers flocks, groups and sometimes even
individual creatures, regulating hunting with aston-
ishing strictness and detail. In so large a country
as this, politically controlled, it may be impossible to
duplicate the achievements of lands in which game is
largely concentrated in immense private estates
where often it is handled as one of numerous com-
ponent inter-related economic products. A more en-
lightened and co-operative future may work out a
method approximating similar efficiency with the

316 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

very much greater national opportunities we possess,
but it is not possible under present conditions. Even
permission for sportsmen to tax themselves for pur-
chase of swamp lands for the nation to perpetuate
the breeding of aquatic birds has been held up for
years in Congress by several politicians representing
the prejudices of local rural communities.

Whatever may be done for local birds in state
and private lands, it is nevertheless true that the hope
of the future is in lands remaining under federal
ownership. Besides the refuges, nearly all small,
only in National Parks, which total less than twelve
thousand square miles in area divided among twenty
widely separated reservations, is shooting wholly
prohibited. National Forests, which will always re-
main our greatest wild life preserves, are subject to
the game laws of the states in which they are included,
under the theory that, no matter where found, native
birds and animals are the property of the state. In
National Forests, hunting occurs in season. They
have shown some wild life recovery during recent
years, but this can only last under present laws until
civilization crowds their borders more closely, bring-
ing more hunters nearer their prey. It is here that
development of game administration by co-operation
of states and the nation would count heavily. The
end sought would be a constant game supply under
conditions of increasing demand. Students believe
this possible under unified control.

How necessary efficient co-operation has be-

DEPLETION OF WILD LIFE 317

come appears in the modern use of automobiles and
airplanes for hunting. A thousand miles of search
awheel is considered none too great for the guerdon
of a couple of antelope. The vast desert country is
alive with motoring sportsmen in season, and out of
season many a lawless driver with a surreptitious
rifle keeps a roving eye on the passing landscape in
hope of a chance shot. More and more airplanes are
used not only to locate game on plain and mountain,
but to land hunters within striking distance. More
and more are they carrying hunters and supplies
over miles of difficult wildernesses to hunting grounds
which in former days would seldom be attained be-
cause of the time and the difficulty necessary for pas-
sage of pack trains.

Analyzing more comprehensively than Mr.
Redington the forces combined for wild life recov-
ery, we find them four: first, organized sportsmen
seeking game conservation for the continuance of
sport and wild life protection generally, a very large
earnest body conspicuous in every state, able and
willing to raise all the money necessary for efficient
campaigning; second, wild life conservationists for
preservation sake only, numerically many times the
sportsmen, potentially representing a broad national
sentiment, but unorganized and unfinanced; third,
state conservation departments responsive largely
to the demands of local sportsmen and applying
science to their interests ; and, fourth, the Biological
Survey, responsive to all public demands for con-

318 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

servation in the interest of sport, agriculture, science,
and sentiment.

Except when ambitious personalities contend
for control, creating parties ; or conservationists for
preservation resent killing for sport, alleging cruelty ;
or the concrete-minded laugh raucously at "senti-
mentalists," stirring recrimination; a fine spirit of
common purpose (if not always for common rea-
sons) combines all parties behind wild life recovery,
inspiring effective work.

Let us examine a few of the situations and poli-
cies involved in so excellent a quest.

Unfortunately, when National Forests and Na-
tional Parks were laid out no thought was given to
their wild inhabitants. Timber conservation and
scenic preservation governed respectively their crea-
tors' minds, and it happened that summer ranges
and winter ranges for elk, deer and other ruminants
were seldom included in the same reservation. Sum-
mer forage in the show places is plentiful, but winter
forage usually lies in the open ranges of the unre-
served and unappropriated public domain in which
grazing, without regulation, goes always to the
strong. What boots it to preserve our wild-life
herds in summer if they are to starve on the over-
grazed competitive ranges in winter? Establishing
sanctuaries, narrowing bag limits, and shortening
hunting seasons is small help to game continuity
compared with furnishing good winter range.

Even on the best of ranges, summer or winter,

DEPLETION OF WILD LIFE 319

native animals suffer in competition with domestic
sheep and cattle. The productivity of public ranges
impoverished by the uncontrolled competition of a
century of live stock must be restored before wild
life reasonably can be expected to. hold its own.
Those western states which, without warrant, have
declared large areas of public range game preserves
have no means to enforce their will even though it
were worth enforcing. Most of the winter feed
lands for wild life in the Public Domain is without
control, and no protection can be developed until
some form of regulation has been devised. Even
with regulation there can be no restoration of forage
plants without careful research of the widely diver-
sified range so different in character from the well-
studied grazing lands of the National Forest. There
is work for the government here.

A popular part of any experimental programme
of wild life restoration will be transplantation from
existing reservations to colonize areas presumably
once populated but long since denuded of game ani-
mals. Buffalo have taken kindly to efforts begun
years ago by the American Bison Society when the
species was thought in danger of extinction, and sev-
eral large herds exist in Canada and the United
States, besides numerous small plants in game pre-
serves, zoos, and elsewhere. The only really wild
herd, however, in the United States is the smaller
of the two herds in Yellowstone National Park. A
very large wild herd has been secured by the Cana-

320 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

dian Government in the Athabasca country by pres-
ervation of a native nucleus to which additions have
been made.

Several native elk herds survive, notably those
in Yellowstone Park and Mount Olympus National
Monument. Elk principally from Yellowstone have
been transplanted to Arizona, Colorado, Idaho,
North Dakota, Minnesota, Montana, New Mexico,
North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon,
Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Utah, Virginia, Wash-
ington, and Wisconsin. Drifting over very wide
areas and multiplying rapidly, elk are unpopular in
cultivated countries; there, they do not survive for
obvious reasons. Time has not yet elapsed sufficient
to develop really good independent herds anywhere,
but some of the experiments in suitable wildernesses
are promising. Canada also has good herds in Van-
couver Island and elsewhere. Elk are a "cattle
proposition," requiring only adjustment to local con-
ditions to succeed.

Antelope plants have not yet been notably suc-
cessful. The plant on the floor of the Grand Can-
yon is surviving after three years but fed partly on
hay. Antelope only prosper unfenced, yet unfenced
planted antelope usually disappear. Roving over
great areas, they tempt illegal rifles. They are the
swiftest of all beasts except race horses.

Moose and mountain goats have not responded
yet to planting in degree offering encouragement,
but experimentation is young. Mountain sheep

From a photograph by Hileman

MOUNTAIN-GOAT IN FULL WINTER COAT, MONTANA

DEPLETION OF WILD LIFE 321

transplant successfully, but are subject to diseases
of civilization. So far, with them, failure means
nothing except that the formula has not yet been
found to colonize successfully against modern con-
ditions which include the open season and the sur-
reptitious local rifle. Twenty years from now we
may be reproducing here and there, in small exam-
ples, the past. Meantime grizzly bears are not the
only American species apparently destined, for rea-
sons not yet scientifically determined, to extinction
in the United States. In the wildernesses of Alaska
and Canada they still apparently hold their own.

Raising fur for the market is a new business
which may develop success and magnitude in our
Federal Lands. Silver fox farming is prospering in
a number of New England states and in northern
middle-west states. Successful blue fox farming is
adding a new industry to Alaska. Beaver may again
become a fur of reasonable price and popularity, for
aspen and willows, which are the beaver's principal
food, are rapid growers capable of cultivation to
any necessary extent in valleys where these animals
make their homes. There are still plentiful supplies
of beaver for stocking in the Great Lakes country
and our national forests and parks — for that matter
in the Adirondacks and some parts of Pennsylvania.
Beaver are also valuable conservers of head waters,
for which alone they are worth preservation.

Pine martin is another valuable fur which may
be developed commercially, lodge pole pine being a

322 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

rapid grower in the altitudes. But, as martin ap-
proaches extinction, quick work will be needed to
stop and turn the downward tide.

Opportunity to regain in our Federal Lands a
little of the wealth of wild life we threw away so
recklessly during so many years is still large. To
this end even the culls of the Public Domain may be
applied if only we get about the business of recovery
energetically and at some speed. Admirable as its
career has been in the past, the Biological Survey
has before it still a greater possibility of future
achievement, in leadership.

"Several herds like the 40,000 deer on the Cali-
fornia National Forest/' wrote Smith Riley in 1928,
"or the 26,000 deer on the Trinity National Forest,
both in the northern coast range of California, are
striking instances where deer have increased under
regulated use of hunting. The steady increase of
deer in Pennsylvania under intense use, where they
have been provided suitable breeding places and am-
ple food, proves beyond question that these animals
thrive and are vigorous under constant use. On the
Kaibab National Forest in Arizona, which has been
rigidly protected as a National Game Refuge for the
past seventeen years, mule deer have increased from
six thousand or less in 1906 to a present herd of
thirty thousand, and are adding five or six thousand
fawns a year to their number. As the range has be-
come overstocked, this refuge presents an adminis-
trative problem in the disposal of the surplus that is
taxing the minds of game administrators.

DEPLETION OF WILD LIFE 323

"Of the elk in the National Forests, about a
third form part of the great herds ranging in and
out of Yellowstone National Park. The Olympus
elk in the Olympus National Monument, included in
the Olympus National Forest of western Washing-
ton, have increased to about seven thousand and pre-
sent an administrative problem in as much as the
areas upon which they congregate in winter are
along the river-bottoms under dense timber where
nutritious food plants are becoming scarce. Elk
occur or have been established in some of the Na-
tional Forests of all of the Rocky Mountain and Pa-
cific Coast States. Of the western groups, Nevada
is the only State having no elk. The animals have
been established in the National Forests of North
Carolina, Oklahoma and South Dakota. They have
increased so rapidly that the limits of the range in
some of the plants now necessitates development of
plans for disposal of a surplus.

"Among other large wild animals worthy of
note on the National Forests are 12,000 mountain
sheep, 10,500 mountain goats, 4,300 moose, a few
caribou, 3,000 antelope and 149 buffalo."

Theoretically, the original balance of life holds
in our National Parks, but practically wild life is
maintained there in some approximation to its origi-
nal condition only by careful management. In each
park there are one or more small areas for camps,
hotels, and motor concentration whose native quality
has disappeared. The Yosemite Valley, for exam-
ple, is urban in all essential respects, and the various

324 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

camp and hotel centres along the road circuit in Yel-
lowstone have lost their primitive quality. But else-
where in Yosemite National Park's eleven hundred
and twenty-five square miles and Yellowstone Na-
tional Park's thirty-three hundred and forty-eight
square miles primitive conditions are appreciably un-
disturbed. We are fortunate that the desire and
habit of the motorist make this condition possible.

Loss of the balance of life in National Parks,
then, is not due to trampling of vegetation by tourist
throngs, as many suppose, but to destruction of
birds and animals during the Great Slaughter be-
fore parks were created or safe-guarding laws
passed, from which there has been little recovery,
and to the policy since of killing off predatory beasts
in protection of the gentler creatures which are more
easily seen by visitors. This loss can never be re-
paired, and to this extent National Park conservation
fails in practise. Once broken, the life circuit can-
not be restored.

Yellowstone elk, also, have produced an artifi-
cial condition of some magnitude. The enormous
numbers in both northern and southern herds, once
greatly in excess of their present twenty thousand
each, compelled originally a very large winter feed-
ing area outside park limits. Encroachments of cat-
tle men and ranchers on this precipitated years of
more or less bitter contentions of several sorts, out
of which at last sanity and co-operation is following
upon greater knowledge. Solution, however, will

DEPLETION OF WILD LIFE 325

not mean return to a balance of life, but adjustments
almost wholly artificial and scientific.

The story of the Yellowstone elk, including
slaughters, catastrophes, and national campaigns to
relieve starvation, needs a volume of its own. At
this writing, through co-operation brought about by
the National Conference on Outdoor Recreation,
solution waits only upon public acceptance of the
principle that both herds must be held numerically
within their winter food supply. To augment that,
hay ranches are planned to be acquired on rather a
large scale.

It may be that Yellowstone's bison herds as
well as elk herds must be reduced at times by the of-
ficial rifle. A far cry, this, from Nature's method
of creating balances, though one, it must be admit-
ted, at times more humane.

Demand for the absolute primitive has resulted
in setting apart, in 1926, a large area in the fast-
nesses of Yosemite National Park to be open only
to scientists and students. Few have ever even en-
tered this area. There are extremely large areas
similar to this in Yellowstone possessing nearly a
primitive quota of creatures of the wild, which
doubtless will also be set apart for study purposes
only. Glacier National Park west of the divide also
escaped the Great Slaughter to some extent and may
be regarded as nearer primitive in animal as well as
plant survival than most National Park wilder-
nesses. Mount McKinley National Park may safely

326 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

be regarded as primitive, the huntings of a few ex-
plorers and prospectors amounting to an inconsid-
erable proportion of the whole. All other national
parks than these have suffered regional depletions of
animal life in early years, even if hunting invasions
of their territory have been few, and will require
many years to recover.

The new movement for specially reserved wil-
derness areas in Federal Lands other than National
Parks will make wholesomely for wild life protection.
Keeping out automobile roads is the key to retention
of wilderness.

CHAPTER X
A HALF CENTURY OF NATURE CONSERVATION

WHEN President Coolidge issued a call in May,
1924, to all the popular national organiza-
tions in the country which dealt with out-of-doors
activities to send delegates to a National Outdoor
Recreation Conference, there did not lack seasonable
accusations that he was "playing for the conserva-
tion vote." But jockeying for the next presidential
campaign was just beginning, whereas, this getting
together had been in evolution for fifty years ; it had
been confidently prophesied for half a dozen years;
it had been expected any time for two or three years,
and circumstances quite fortuitous precipitated the
occasion and made the President the appropriate
mouthpiece of the call.

An Outdoor Recreation Conference! Not
many, perhaps, of the delegates arrived conscious
of the historic significance of the gathering, and
many departed without realizing that they had par-
ticipated in the practical beginning of a new order.
Certainly the press did not, for it reported little be-
sides the initial statements and address by the Presi-
dent on the influence of outdoor life, and none of the
Conference results.

The term outdoor recreation of course meant
327

328 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

nothing because it meant everything. But what
could one do? There was no other inclusive term.
To the sportsman it meant shooting; to the nature
student it meant conserving wild areas and preserv-
ing species ; to the park enthusiast it meant reserva-
tions; to the motorist it meant touring; to the so-
cial worker it meant factory holidays in the open,
children's playgrounds, and a higher type of men
and women; to the angler it meant fishing and propa-
gating game fish; to the public minded, it meant na-
tional health and patriotism; to many others it
meant any kind of out-door pleasuring from tennis
at the club to scaling the High Sierra.

The triumph of the Conference was that, in
three days, it found what appeared then to be a com-
mon meeting ground for all, formulated a practica-
ble working platform, and developed a permanent
organization with the very practical purpose of de-
termining by survey a national plan for future out-
door development of every unindustrial kind. It was
a competent convention. It gathered scores of de-
tached popular movements into a single movement
which would put the power of all behind each. And
it established a Council which, getting promptly to
work, assigned preliminary fact-gathering to or-
ganizations able to produce results, and establish re-
lations with a committee which the President had
appointed from his Cabinet to represent the national
administration.

Fast work, this culminating organization of

A HALF CENTURY OF CONSERVATION 329

forces which had been half a century in maturing;
fast not only because the time was ripe, but because
momentary opportunity facilitated the mechanics of
governmental co-operation. All of which came about
because, among the assemblage of earnest men and
women specialists, were some who had seen these
lines converging from afar, who realized their sig-
nificance, who foresaw their power in co-operation
when once they should coalesce, and who communi-
cated their vision to the ready minds of the assem-
bling delegates.

It will be valuable to review this past in order
that we may follow the future open-eyed.

Remote beginnings were within the active peri-
ods of none of those who organized this conference,
and before most of its delegates were born. Al-
ready, sixty years before, social workers were send-
ing waifs from the Five Points to discover trees,
flowers, cows, and pigs in the country. Already
George Bird Grinnell, pioneer of nature conserva-
tion, was spreading the gospel through his writings,
and leading groups of earnest workers to the de-
fense of Yellowstone despoiled, of forests threat-
ened, and of wild life dissipating. Already prophetic
sportsmen were crying halt to the senseless slaugh-
ter of big game. Already the prophet Johns, Muir
on the Pacific and Burroughs on the Atlantic, were
enthralling thousands with the charms of nature,
and Button was proving to geologists that rocks
were beautiful, also, and their stories thrilling

330 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

dramas. Powell had navigated the Canyons of the
Colorado, but nobody knew why. Yellowstone Na-
tional Park had been created, but was thought a
freak of nature. California was known as a gold
mine, and the intermediate West as a wilderness in--
habited by savage bears and troublesome Indians.

As we look back, we realize that those old days
were wonderfully romantic. Or was it youth that
made them seem so to the boys we were; and will
our boys look back at our times as an age of ro-
mance? At least those old days possessed the mys-
tery of the unknown. To us in the East, it seemed
more of an adventure to cross the Mississippi than
it does now to circle the world.

The young conservation movement thrived
upon the outrages perpetrated on Nature. The soil
of the Great West had been drenched increasingly
for years with the blood of our vast heritage of wild
animals. Our heritage of forest was increasingly
slashed and burnt. It was the heyday of a mighty
destruction against which fast-growing bodies of
conservers were protesting with ever increasing ve-
hemence. Then Roosevelt came.

The discussion grows concerning what was
Roosevelt's greatest contribution to his times.
Asked by a by-stander at a train-end rally on his last
political campaign, he was puzzled to reply, and la-
ter, discussing the incident in private conversation,
expressed the belief that, in all respects but one, he
was altogether an average man. "There is this one

A HALF CENTURY OF CONSERVATION 331

difference," he said, "that, when there is anything
to do, I do it with all the power I possess." There
is a thought here. To my mind, Roosevelt's personal
genius lay in his unerring perception of the inspira-
tions, aspirations, and limitations of the American
genius, and the conviction, courage, and power with
which he sought their fulfilment. He was, perhaps
consciously, the embodiment of America, whence
came his powerful convictions and sureness of ac-
tion. Upon becoming President, he created in
law, beating down all oppositions, institutions
which he believed that public consciousness would
make permanent. He knew his America.

Among Roosevelt's first works as President
was development of our forest reserves, which he
found administered by the Interior Department
while the Forest Service under Pinchot was studying
principles and promoting private forestry from an
office in the Agricultural Department. Roosevelt
put the work and the workers together and built up,
against opposition which would have appalled an-
other, the National Forest as we know it to-day. He
assembled the movements making for national irri-
gation, and launched Reclamation. He encouraged
governmental control of game, enabling the Biologi-
cal Survey to emerge from precarious scientific be-
ginnings into its present position of national effi-
ciency. He established the first bison range and the
first fifty bird refuges. He made possible the Na-
tional Monuments System to preserve objects and

332

OUR FEDERAL LANDS

FEDERAL LANDS HAVING RECREATIONAL USES

A. CONTINENTAL UNITED STATES

TYPE

NO.

AREA IN
ACRES

DEPARTMENT

Public Domain

193,737,588
137,447,589
5,715,066
489,784

487,993

271,164
165,000

I2O,96l
14,068
13,412
H,550
6,808

35,565,517
50,880

4,477
2,123

Interior
Agriculture
Interior
Agriculture
(Interior,
Agriculture,
War
Interior
/War,
\ Agriculture
Interior
War
Navy
Commerce
Commerce
Interior
War
Navy
Commerce

National Forests

156
i7
70

National Parks

Wild Life Refuges

National Monuments

Reclamation Projects .

37
7
49

12
143

68
IS
43

Military National Fore

Recreation Withdrawal
National Military Park
Naval Reservations

sts. . .

Lighthouse Reservatior
Fishery Reservations.

IS. ...

Indian Reservations (t
Military Reservations (
Naval Reservations (Si
Lighthouse Reservation

Total

nallot
Surpli
irplus)
s (Sur]

ted).,
is)....

plus) . .

687

374,103,980

TERRITORIES

TYPE

NO.

LOCATION

AREA IN
ACRES

DEPARTMENT

National Forests
National Forests

I
I
I

4
ii

Alaska
Porto Rico
Alaska
Hawaii

Alaska
Alaska

21,340,392

12,443
1,692,800
154,880

2,252,885
56l,000

Agriculture
Agriculture
Interior
Interior
f Interior,
I Agriculture,
I Commerce
Agriculture

National Parks

National Monuments.
Wild Life Refuges....
Total

26,014,400

The above do not include water power, oil, mineral and other withdrawals,
non-military, naval and lighthouse properties, post-offices, custom houses,
hospitals, and national institutions of various kinds in actual use.

A HALF CENTURY OF CONSERVATION 333

areas of historic or scientific value in the Federal
Lands. He discovered the West to the nation. He
promoted and secured Conservation Departments in
thirty-six states, and appointed a National Conser-
vation Commission.

With this word, Conservation, the new era at-
tained self-consciousness and power. The people
rallied to it as to a flag. Popular organizations to
conserve forests, wild life, scenery, natural resources
of many kinds, sprang into existence in every cor-
ner of the country, following the leadership of the
Boone and Crockett Club, the pathfinder and pioneer
which Roosevelt himself had organized in 1887 and
of which he had been the first president. The steady
growth of popular organizations since has been little
less than phenomenal. Many hundreds of associa-
tions specializing in various conservational activi-
ties exist to-day, and many thousands formed for
other purposes have each its active Conservation
Committee.

If this sketch were even a brief history of tHe
tidal phase of the conservation movement which be-
gan with Roosevelt, it would run to many times its
length, for in the years since he discovered to the
American people their own aspirations, hewed en-
trance through walls of opposition, and pointed the
path of progress, conservation has increasingly
flavored our national life. We can merely glance at
it here. Roosevelt did not distinguish then, because
the times were not ripe, between conservation for

334 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

utility and conservation for preservation. In that
period of abundant wilderness as compared with
now, the two ideals were not at war. Nor should
they be now. Nor will they be when their distinc-
tions are fully clarified to this generation, for both
are practical ideals inherent in every American.

Meantime his acts, addresses and voluminous
popular writings on wild life defined the nature study
movement, which forthwith spread amazingly.
Reading clubs on nature subjects sprang up every-
where, and many thereafter specialized. Thus
evolved Audubon societies in cities, towns and vil-
lages the country over. Thus evolved the wild flow-
er clubs. Shooting and fishing clubs became nature
clubs, and sportsmen's magazines became education-
al. Newspapers devoted columns to bear stories
and wild life adventure. Magazines discovered the
natural beauties of the West. John C. Van Dyke
wrote a book on the Desert which gave Easterners a
thrill. Graded nature study supplanted Gray's "Bot-
any" in the schools. The How-to-Know books
on ferns, wild-flowers, trees, and birds, vied with
the best sellers.

Thompson Seton's "Wild Animals I Have
Known," itself a best seller, became parent to a great
family of animal personality stories in magazines
and between covers; and when legitimate supply
failed demand the "nature fakers" (how well we re-
call them) rushed in and snuffed out demand by silly
exaggerations and fictions. Presently a solid litera-

A HALF CENTURY OF CONSERVATION 335

ture of nature developed behind this flare of popu-
larity. Essayists treated the aesthetic side of scen-
ery. A boom in travel books developed which has
not waned. Stewart Edward White found plots in
the wilderness struggles between rangers and dep-
redating "interests," and dozens followed in his wake.
Scientists endeavored, often but not always with
success, to popularize their writings.

More or less concurrently appeared the back-to-
the-country movement, which grew vigorously in
the cities. Suburbs took on the aspects of country
villages, and deserted farms in the East became es-
tates where the families of the leisurely would spend
most of the year in the open. Gardeners became
landscapists, and landscape architecture one of the
profitable professions. The "modern girl" developed,
tall of stature, free of stride, bronzed from tennis
and golf in the formerly despised and rejected
sunshine.

The bicycle evolved, became a national craze of
the first order, played its important role and retired
before the automobile, which, itself an evolution, in
time became the mightiest of all the agencies of out-
of-doors development. Let us hope it will not be-
come a Frankenstein.

Meantime state governments took the motor
era seriously. Untold millions went into roads, with
many times as many millions still to go the same
good way. The State Park idea became a move-
ment. Counties and cities caught the fever. Chi-

336 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

cago bought property for many miles around, and
Denver bonded herself to acquire an imposing group
of mountains in a neighboring county. The people en-
thusiastically espoused forestry. State and local as-
sociations were formed. Technical forestry schools
were founded in universities. In Massachusetts,
towns everywhere are now establishing "wood lots,"
and spreading the new idea joyously abroad.

Social service kept abreast of the fast growing
times. The country home and woodland camp mul-
tiplied. A man named Perkins raised a dozen mil-
lions of dollars for an interstate park on the Pali-
sades of the Hudson where millions of New York
workers could vacation with nature at charges un-
believably low. In cities the playground was de-
veloped scientifically and the infection has since
spread like prairie fire to towns and villages the
country over. Dan Beard captured the American
boy and led him into the woods. Outdoor sports of
every kind were systematized, then organized, then
codified. Some one brought the Boy Scouts idea
from England to sweep the nation with its man-
making mission. The Girl Scouts movement prompt-
ly followed. Concurrently, questions of child wel-
fare, education, and national well-being in relation
to outdoor life attracted the close attention of spe-
cialist students and organizations. America was
taking her out-of-doors both seriously and joyously.

The decade leading up to the national organiza-
tion of 1924 was ushered in by National Park ex-

A HALF CENTURY OF CONSERVATION 337

pansion awheel. We have read the story in a for-
mer chapter. In other chapters we have found the
spectacular evolution of motor touring working
similar wonders, notably in National Forests, but in
National Parks its swiftness and romantic character
centred the national gaze. The readiness of the en-
tire country for the "discovery" of this system, the
eagerness with which the news was received, and the
enthusiasm with which people of all kinds and con-
ditions in most of the states of the nation hastened
to the support of the new prophet, Stephen T.
Mather, is one of the astonishing revelations of our
national psychology. It amazed and puzzled us at
the time. After these years, its meaning is plain.

During the latter years the remarkable develop-
ment of private organization for accomplishment of
public purposes had swept into full tide, and out-
door causes, both social and conservational, because
they appealed to the universal American mind, prof-
ited more than any other. Educational organizations,
for example, had their playground committees, pa-
triotic organizations their scenic and historic land-
mark committees, scientific societies their wild life
preservation committees, shooting clubs their con-
servation committees.

In fact, as wild life conservation became a na-
tion-wide desire, many thousands of organizations
for vastly different public purposes devoted time and
energy to this and other departments of conserva-
tion activities, and, when the fights were on in Con-

33 8 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

gress to defend National Parks, conservation organi-
zations of very many kinds, with memberships ag-
gregating four millions, leagued in active work; in
fact, this alliance of defense could have been ex-
tended to several times its size had there been need.
Every blow struck in this fight (and there have been
hard ones) had behind it, unrealized, the inspiration
and power of the whole from the beginning.

It was this fight which completed the definition
begun by Roosevelt. The principle of conserving
our natural resources for the prosperity of the fu-
ture had long since become an axiom; conserving
some of them for pure preservation sake aroused
antagonisms. The distinction had not been widely
clarified, and able men who attempted in Congress
to break down the conservational barrier of the Na-
tional Parks System were quick to charge that those
who defended conservation for preservation were
opposing the development of our natural resources.

The argument destroyed itself by driving con-
servationists to definition. The National Parks As-
sociation called our National Parks national mu-
seums of nature's creations and processes, and the
trick was done. Popular imagination needed no bet-
ter handle for this new concept. What if there were
water power opportunities in some of our National
Parks ? The country was rich enough to keep these
special places for exhibits of original wilderness.
What if it did cost more to dam irrigation waters
outside than inside National Park boundaries?

A HALF CENTURY OF CONSERVATION 339

These national museums must at all cost be pre-
served. It was another instance of the educative
power of a phrase.

Another interesting reaction followed the early
charges that the struggle lay between "eastern sen-
timentalism and western progress." Alternate in-
dignation and tears choked the voices of Congress-
men describing the heartlessness of long-haired east-
ern professors and spectacled club-women in con-
demning to starvation western farmers whose crops,
apparently, would not thrive except on waters
dammed inside National Park boundaries ; and sev-
eral western newspapers assaulted eastern National
Park defenders by name with expletives reminiscent
of old-time frontier journalism ; the writer was him-
self for awhile the target of the Rocky Mountain
press. The reaction was the swift spread of con-
servation sentiment through the West and its active
expression to Congress. In one western state Na-
tional Parks conservation elected a Congressman
while all his running mates were soundly defeated.

The long struggle, emphasized here and there
with sensational episodes and concentrating power-
fully for a time in this western state or that, sensi-
tized the public mind throughout the country, pre-
paring the way to swift results. Concurrently, in
this favorable atmosphere, conservational activities
of many kinds have prospered. Game preservation,
the earliest of all nature conservation causes and per-
haps the most highly vitalized, has enormously ex-

340 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

tended organization and passed from achievement to
achievement. Forest conservation has spread from
nation to state and produced legislation in the last
session of Congress which may mark the turning of
the tide at last toward the rehabilitation of our for-
ests. Wild flower preservation, the garden club
movement, bird conservation and nature study or-
ganization— all have made long forward strides.
The United States Biological Survey, the United
States Forest Service and the Conservation Depart-
ments of state governments have entered into peri-
ods of unprecedented activity and achievement.
Game refuges have increased. The State Parks
Movement became formally organized and has de-
veloped a co-operative spirit.

Not that National Park events, creative and de-
fensive, were in any sense a cause of these increased
conservational activities of other kinds. They con-
stituted merely another manifestation of the same
general current, a swift new confluent which helped
swell and speed the whole.

Looking back over the steps immediately lead-
ing to the recreation conference of 1924, and in de-
tail at the workings of young Mr. Roosevelt's execu-
tive committee, of which I was a member, which
planned and effectuated it, I perceive that even the
farthest-seeing and most expectant of us did not, at
the moment, realize the fulness of our opportunity.
The Conference had been proposed by Charles
Sheldon ;whose immediate object was game conser-

A HALF CENTURY OF CONSERVATION 341

vation. It was effected by one who saw social ad-
vantages to the masses in out-of-door recreation.
The committee consisted mostly of specialists not
particularly interested in each other's objectives. The
most optimistic of us hoped at best that a beginning
toward a union of many movements related only in
their use of recreation might gradually be brought
into co-operation.

Once assembled, this astonishing conference
set its own pace. That it started with a rush, that
it produced in amity, enthusiasm and unanimity a
creed covering the most advanced positions in the re-
lations of conservational and social movements to-
ward the use of out-of-doors, and that co-operative
organization was started on a national scale, evi-
denced that the motive power was mass sentiment.
Twenty committees worked in separate rooms dur-
ing sessions and at night to produce the creed which
was passed with applause at the last session.

The permanent organization adopted was sim-
ple. Under the comprehensive title of National Con-
ference on Outdoor Recreation were balanced a popu-
lar and a governmental wing, each wholly indepen-
dent of the other. The former, called the Council
on Outdoor Recreation, was to consist of representa-
tives chosen by the national organizations of the
people to promote unindustrial outdoor opportunities
and conditions of all kinds throughout the country,
developing a national policy. The latter, a com-
mittee of Cabinet officers to be appointed by the Presi-

342 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

dent, was to consider federal areas and functions, and
general legislation, from the same point of view. The
Council (through its executive committee) and the
President's Committee were to confer from time
to time, working together so far as practicable.
From time to time bills were to be introduced in Con-
gress, or bills introduced in Congress by component
organizations were to be supported; harmful bills
were to be opposed ; and it was hoped that in time a
well-studied policy would emerge which would com-
mand recognition by national and state administra-
tions, Congress and the legislatures.

The original planners had expected that the
popular wing, the Council, and the governmental
wing, the President's Committee, would preserve
each its complete independence of the other. The
popular wing would preserve, as a most precious
possession, an uninfluenced attitude toward politics,
which of course might not always be possible with
the President's Committee. It was expected, also,
that the Council would not in the least interfere
with component organizations, but would remain
in the fullest sense the council body of all, retaining
only the function of policy formulation.

To this end, the first act of the Council was to
assign fact-finding duties to various associations
looking to the bases for policy development. Those
on state parks by the National Conference on State
Parks, on playgrounds by the National Playground
Association of America, and on recreational oppor-

A HALF CENTURY OF CONSERVATION 343

tunities in Federal Lands jointly by the American
Forestry Association and National Parks Associa-
tion have been completed at this writing.

At this writing, after four years, it is as certain
as it seemed to be in 1924 that the act of organizing
the National Conference on Outdoor Recreation
marked the end of the old individualistic and often
competitive era in nature conservation and the be-
ginning of a new co-operative era.

That the very first try for a new order should
solve its complicated problems was scarcely to be ex-
pected, but at least it was amply proved that close
and effective co-operation between government and
citizen organizations is possible on a really national
scale, and that readiness for such co-operation has
come. If organization had accomplished nothing
more, the knowledge of this alone would fully have
warranted the building. But it did accomplish cer-
tain very definite achievements. In its so-called
"Park-Forest Co-ordinating Commission" which
composed rivalries of long standing between the Na-
tional Park and National Forest Services, a form
of practical co-operation has developed probably
capable of handling the most complicated human
situations.

The tendency of the times is strongly toward
recognizing one soundly-handled highly-specialized
national citizen organization in each field of work,
strengthened financially to supplement the work per-
formed by the government bureau in the same field.

344 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

Either to build a new general organization better rep-
resenting individual organizations, or to reorganize
the present National Conference so as to eliminate
its weaknesses, defining and emphasizing the rela-
tions between the grouped popular organizations on
the one hand and the grouped administrative depart-
ments on the other, will be the natural evolution of
the future. Success will only attend organization
which literally represents its public.

Attempts in realization of long ripening causes
may be diverted or delayed, like this, by chance
human obstacles, but in the end the gathering cur-
rent will surely clear its channel. We may be con-
fident that Charles Sheldon's vision of popular and
governmental co-operation in achievement of nature
conservation's sound fruition will be realized.

WANTED: A NATIONAL UNINDUSTRIAL LAND
POLICY

The co-operative spirit of the day which de-
vised the Recreational Conference as a mechanism
for achievement is not waiting for it to perfect itself,
but, now far in advance, calls to common effort all
interested in beneficent unindustrial uses of land.i
Innumerable are the interested clubs, associations,
leagues and federations, the individuals many times
as many. The ultimate problem in evolution is pro-
curement of a policy upon which all may unite.

"A national recreation policy as conceived by
the Joint Committee on Recreational Survey of Fed-

A HALF CENTURY OF CONSERVATION 345

eral Lands/' writes Ovid M. Butler in the report of
1928, "must project far into the future. Present
day problems are insignificant compared with those
that must be met forty, fifty, or a hundred years hence
when our population will have greatly increased and
demand for recreational outlets will have become
many times intensified. A policy formulated now to
meet these future problems must be based upon a
permanent foundation of co-ordinated use.

"Recreation as a recognized use of Federal
lands has grown under conditions of opportunism
and departmental individualism. Its dominating
growth factor is economic pressure rather than co-
ordinated planning and development by the depart-
ments of the Government. But it is an inescapable
fact that recreation as a public use of Federal lands
cannot be turned aside. Almost a quarter of our
population is turning to-day to public reservations
for outdoor recreation. Federal land is their prop-
erty. They demand participation in its use to satisfy
their recreational wants, and their demands must be
met. Sooner or later the Federal Government, as an
obligation of its stewardship, must plan and provide
in a forward-looking way for a clearly defined ad-
justment of recreation to the other uses of these
public reservations.

"Analysis shows that trie Federal land holdings
of to-day embracing recreation resources which
Warrant some form of particularized and permanent
Federal administration and development for general

346 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

public enjoyment are largely confined to the national
parks, the national monuments, the national for-
ests, the national bird and game reservations, the
unallotted Indian lands, and restricted areas of the
unreserved and unappropriated lands of the public
domain west of the looth meridian, that is, a line
drawn south through the Dakotas. Other classes of
Federal lands, while they may be of value for recrea-
tion, cannot be used for such purposes or the values,
if possible of development, are not of national im-
portance but of sectional or local significance, de-
manding development by the states or minor political
units.

"Nevertheless the Federal recreation resources
of national significance are of supreme importance
for they are unique and generally of a character
that complement but do not duplicate the recreation
resources possible or under development by states,
counties or municipalities. The Federal lands of na-
tional significance from a recreational standpoint
are the wilderness areas of the high mountain
ranges, restricted areas of the plains and the arid
deserts of the West; the headwaters of the Missis-
sippi, and the highlands of the northern and south-
ern Appalachians, and of the Ozarks of the South.
These are the lands now generally included in the
national forests and parks, or passed over in the
rapid exploitation of the public domain.

"Cities can make possible adequate playgrounds
and parks to meet local needs, and counties and

A HALF CENTURY OF CONSERVATION 347

states can provide large parks and forests for tran-
sient enjoyment and relaxation out-of-doors, but
man cannot replace the wilderness, and the remain-
ing wilderness of America, modified as inevitably
it has been is now found only in Federal ownership.
It is then the great responsibility of the Federal
Government to provide those forms of outdoor life
and recreation which it alone can give and which
are associated only with the wilderness."

In spite of four recent years of bitter contest
in Congress to save National Parks from industrial
invasion ; in spite of attempts still making to destroy
standards in the interest of local profit; in spite of
two recent years of raiding National Forests in the
interest of cattlemen; in spite of four years defeat-
ing of bills to save breeding waters for disappearing
aquatic fowl; in spite of the revival of the reac-
tionary demand that federal properties shall pass
into local ownership; nevertheless we are fortunate
in the period of our participation in the inspiring
work of saving for the future something of America
as God made it.

It is in Congress, very seldom nowadays in ad-
ministrative office, that assaults originate against
the land policies and institutions of the nation. Local
demand for federal property, local greed for profit
and appropriations at national expense, and, on
the part of legislators, the ever-present need to
strengthen political fences — these are the usual mo-
tives of attack. But opponents are fewer to-day in

348 OUR FEDERAL LANDS

Congress (as their constituents grow wiser) than
ever in the past, and are becoming fewer every year ;
and friends of conservation are increasing con-
stantly in number, interest and courage. Our mis-
sion is solely public education. We fight only those
.whose impetuous onslaughts upon national idealism
in the name of localism and politics, demanding in-
stant satisfaction, will yield to no other persuasion
than the prompt emphatic negative of the popular
jwill. From this there can be no appeal.

To serve faithfully during our time, unyielding
in defense, as Grinnell, Powell, Hough, Walcott,
Pinchot, Lacey, Merriam, Maxwell and Roosevelt
served in creation, is to play our lesser but no less
crucial roles in a very great drama of civilization.
It may be that, with to-day's nation-wide co-opera-
tion, we shall even see realization assured.

As I write the concluding words of a book
which records the beginnings of an evolution in
transportation which, in a single decade, has changed
America and American life beyond belief, I hear the
ominous prophetic roar of an airplane thousands of
feet above my head, lost in clouds. Prophetic of
what? Did the honking of an automobile seem
prophetic in 1915?

To several of us in Yosemite National Park
twelve summers ago, wondering at the slender pat-
ronage of a spot so marvellously beautiful in a land
so great and rich, the presence of adventurers by
automobile from distant states stirred no apprehen-

A HALF CENTURY OF CONSERVATION 349

sion within us of the deluge of travel to come. To
the common thinking of that time, motor touring
seemed too dangerous and expensive a sport ever to
affect the destiny of places so distant and difficult
of access. Even the railroads feared far more the
competition of steamships than of automobiles, and
advertised National Parks against Europe hoping
to keep transatlantic travellers at home.

Ah! There I see it now, emerging from that
heavy bank of cloud in the north. What an infernal
noise from so small an insect! Speeding like a
dragon fly ! No doubt the New York mail !

I wonder what, twelve years from now, the
airplane will have done to the lands I have here de-
scribed !

INDEX

Absoroka, forests on, 94

Agriculture, development of, 26, 27; de-
creasing settlement of Public Lands
for, 38; land classification, 43; Ap-
propriation bill, 119, 120, 123; bird
habits in relation to, 307 ff.

Airplane, 317, 348, 349

Alabama, area of, 18; Public Lands in,

21, 70; swamps in, 51; mining in, 64;
National Forests in, 130; visitors to
National Forests in, 144; wild life in,
149; developed water power of, 195

Alaska, purchase of, 6, 27; area of, 19,
52; coal in, 44; Public Domain policies
in, 52; possibilities of, 52-54; fur and
reindeer farming in, 53; National For-
ests in, 130, 332; visitors to forests in,
144; wild lifein, 149, 321, 332; mineral
withdrawals and classification in, 197;
National Monuments in, 286, 287,
292-294; reindeer experiment station
in, 313; National Parks in, 332

Aleutian Islands, 54

Allen, J. A., 111, 308

American Antiquities bill, 284, 285

American Association for the Advance-
ment of Science, 106, 254

American Bison Society, 319

American Forestry Association, begin-
ning of, 107

American Ornithological Union, 307 ff.

Antelope, 320; conservation of, 80; in
National Forests, 148, 323; original
wealth of, 301

Antietam National Military Park, 297

Apaches, the, 210, 212

Appalachian National Forest, 114

Appalachian National Park Associa-
tion, 126

Appalachians, forests on, 92, 130

Appalachicola, the, 51

Arbor Day, inaugurated by Nebraska,
106

Arizona, area of, 18; Public Lands in, 21,

22, 159; federal roads in, 71; double
natural bridge in, 77; National For-
ests in, 130, 144; wild life in, 148, 149,
320, 322; reclamation projects of, 153,
161, 167, 170; mineral withdrawals
and classifications in, 197; value of
Indian property in, 215, 216; petri-
fied trees in, 284; National Monu-
ments in, 285-287, 291-294; remains
of prehistoric civilization in, 290

Arkansas, area of, 18; Public Lands in,
21, 70; swamps in, 49, 51; National

Forests in, 130, 144; mineral with-
drawals and classifications in, 197; In-
dian reservations in, 220

Arrowrock Dam, the, 171

Ash, in original forests, 89

Aspens, in western forest, 95

Audubon societies, 334

"Autobiography," Roosevelt's, quota-
tion from, 113-122

Aztec Ruin, 287, 291

Badlands, the, 71 ff.

Ballenger, Richard A., 168

Bandelier National Monument, 287, 291

Bandy, William H., 72, 73

Barnett, Jackson, 216

Bay, in original forests, 89

Beard, Dan, 336

Bears, in National Forest, 148; original
wealth of, 302; destined for extinc-
tion in U. S., 321

Beaver, 148, 149, 321

Beech, in original forests, 89, 90

Belle Fourche project, 162, 167

Bennett, of New York, 125

Big Creek, 189

Big Hole Battlefield, 285, 286, 292

Bighorn, forests on, 94

Biological Survey, Bureau of, 81, 307^
3n, 331

Birch, in original forests, 89

Birds, migratory, 52, 307 ff.; federal
reservation for, 70; original wealth of,
302; conservation of, 307 ff.

Bison, 301, 306, 325

Blackfoot Reservation, 225

Boerker, Richard H. D., 85

Boise reclamation project, 162, 167

Bonus lands, 87

Booker, of Missouri, 125

Boone and Crockett Club, the, 333

Bouquet, Colonel, 208

Boutwell, Senator, 108

Bradfute, Oscar E., 169

Brewer, William H., 106

Bridge, double natural, 77

Bryant, quoted, 240

Bryce Canyon, 75, 77, 287, 294

Buffalo, 305, 319, 323

Buford Trenton project, 162

Bumping Lake dam, 154

Bureau of Forestry, educational pub-
licity of, 115

Bureau of Indian Affairs, 220

Burke, Charles H., 212, 219

Burroughs, 329

351

352

INDEX

Burt, Struthers, 178
Butler, Ovid M., quoted, 345-347
Butternut trees, in original forests, 90
Butterworth, Representative, 109
Byington, Cyrus, 223

Cabrillo, 286, 292

California, area of, 18; Public Lands in,
21, 22, 159; mining in, 64, 65; develop-
ment after discovery of gold, 66, 67;
federal roads in, 71; great trees of, 96;
forest laws passed by, 106; National
Forests in, 129, 144; wild life in, 148,
*49> 332> reclamation project, 161,
162, 167, 1 68; potential water power
in, 185; developed water power in,
195; mineral withdrawals and classi-
fications in, 197; value of Indian prop-
erty in, 215; a resort for motorists,
277-279; National Monuments in,

286, 287, 292, 294
Cameron, Senator, 109
Campbell, Thomas E., 169
Campers, on National Forests, 141 ff.
Canada, wild life in, 319-321

Canal Zone, area of, 19, 52

Cannon, Speaker, 126

Canyon de Chelly, 76

Capulin Mountain, 287, 293

Carey Act, 28

Caribou, 148, 323

Carlisle School, 222

Carlsbad, project, 162, 167; the cave,

287, 293

Carter, Senator, in
Casa Grande, 287, 291
Cascades, the, 71, 93-96
Castle Pinckney, 287, 292
Cattle raising, 138, 139, 150-152
Caves, limestone, 292

Cedars, in original forests, 89, 94-96

Chaco Canyon, 286, 291

Champlain, 209

Cherokees, 200

Cherry trees, in original forests, 90

Chestnut, in original forests, 90

Chickamauga and Chattanooga Nation-
al Military Park, 297

Chickasaws, the, 201

Chippewas, the, 209, 210

Chiricahua, 287

Choctaws, the, 201, 220

Clark, Senator, in, 125

Clarke, John Davenport, 128, 209

Clarke-McNary Act, 127, 128

Clayton, Senator, 108

Cle Elum dam, the, 154

Clear Creek dam, 154

Cleveland, President, in

Clunie, Representative, 109

Coal, land classification, 43; government
regulation of, 44; estimated tons in
Public Domain, 65; location of sup-
ply, 185; East dependent on, 185;
U. S. production, 186; table of with-

drawn and classified, 197; small public
possession, 198

Cole, Senator, 105

Colorado, area of, 18; Public Lands in,
21, 22, 159; reservation of minerals in,
60; impractical homesteading in, 62;
mining, 64, 65; federal roads, 71; for-
est laws passed by, 106; National For-
ests in, 129, 144; wild life in, 149;
reclamation projects in, 162, 167, 168,
175, 176; mineral withdrawals and
classifications in, 197; value of Indian
property in, 215; National Monu-
ments in, 286, 287, 291, 292, 294;
remains of prehistoric civilization in,
290; eradication methods laboratory
in, 313

Columbia River reclamation project,
proposed, 175, 176

Columbia University, 260

Columbus, 208

Commutation Homestead Act, 99

Congo, water power in, 184

Congress, political and personal con-
siderations governing, 102-105

Connecticut, area of, 18; forest laws
passed by, 106; neglected land in, 182

Conover, Milton, quoted, 36, 43

Conservation, nature, 13-15, 42, 54 ff.f
248, 249, 329 ff.; forest, 109 ff .; anti, vs.
conservationists, 123 ff.; spread of
ideals of, 124 ff.; of wild life, 148 ff.,
294, 305 ff., 317, 339, 34o; acceptance
of principle, 247; state movement,

Conservation Council of Chicago, reso-

lution of, 256

Converse, Representative, 109
Coolidge, Calvin, 14, 327
Cornell, school of forestry founded at,

112

Coronado, 208, 222
Cottonwood, in original forests, 89, 90,

Cottonwood Canyon, 146
Council on Outdoor Recreation, 341, 342
Cramton, Louis C., 218 frt

Crater Lake National Park, 233, 237,

247, 276, 278

Craters of the Moon, 287, 293
Creeks, the, 201, 210
Cripple Creek, 67
Croghan, George, 208
Crops, on reclamation projects, 153, 154,

160, 163, 173 ff.
Crows, the, 216
Custer, General, 210

Dartmouth College, 222

Davis, Arthur P., 169

Davis, D. W., 169

Dawson, Clyde C., 169

Deer, in National Forests, 148, 149, 322;

original wealth of, 301
Delaware, area of, 18

INDEX

353

Desert Land Act, 28, 99

Deserts, reclaiming, 153 ff.

de Smet, Father, 223

Deuster, Representative, 109

Devil Postpile, 286, 293

Devil Tower, 285, 286, 293

Dinosaur, National Monument, 287, 293

Dismal Swamps, the, 49-51

District of Columbia, area of, 18

Division of Forestry, 109, 112

Dodge, John, 208

Dogwood, in original forests, 90

Dorchester, grist mill in, 186

Ducks, original wealth of, 302

Dunnell, Representative, 107, no

Dutton, 329

Economic Geography, quotation from,

185, 186

Edison Electric Power Co., 118
Elephant Butte Dam, the, 171
Eliot, Charles W., 112
Eliot, John, 222
Elk, 320, 323; in National Forests, 148,

149; original wealth of, 301; game

preserve for, 314; Yellowstone, 324,

325

El Morro, 285, 286, 291
Elms, in original forests, 89, 90
Emerson, George B., 106
Erosion, in National Parks, 236, 238; in

National Monuments, 294
Everglades reservation, the, 210
Evolution, records of, in National Parks,

238, 262, 263
Experiment stations, established by

Biological Survey, 313

Fall, Albert B., 168, 269
Farmers, political prestige of, 28
Farming, on reclamation projects, 160 ff.
Fauna, 308 ff.

Federal Lands, use of name, 5; approxi-
mate area and value, 9-11; effects of
motoring on, 11-13; conservation
policies, 11-15, 42; unidentified, 39 ff.;
recreational use of, 332, 344 ff .; owner-
ship, 347

Federal Power Act, 122, 190 ff., 266, 267
Federal Power Commission, creation of,

46
"Federal Water Power Legislation,"

quotation from, 185
Finley, James B., 223
Firs, in original forests, 89, 94-96; the

Douglas, 96

Fisher, Walter L., 112, 168
Fisheries, Bureau of, refuges under, 314
Fishery Reservations, 332
Fitzgerald, of New York, 125
Five Civilized Tribes, 214-216, 224
Five Nations, wealth of, 214
Five Year Programme, the, 225
Florida, purchase of, 6, 26; area of, 18;
Public Lands in, 21, 41, 70; recent

boom in, 40, 41, 108; swamps in, 49;
National Forests in, 130, 144; mineral
withdrawals and classifications in,
197; value of Indian property in, 215;
National Monuments in, 287, 291,
294; station in, for quail investiga-
tions, 313; wild life refuges in, 313

Floyd, of Arkansas, 125

Forest Reserve Act, 109, no

Forest Service, Bureau of, Roosevelt's
summary of growth, 113-122; opposi-
tion to, 119, 120, 124, 125; farming
problems of, 138 ff.; refuges under, 314

Forests, beginning of conservation, 55;
original, 83, 84, 88 ff.; destruction of,
85 ff., 97 ff., 105, 128; laws for con-
serving, 86, 105 ff.; gifts of, from gov-
ernment, 87, 88; present problem, 97,
98; rehabilitation of, 109 ff.

Fort, Gerrit, 76, 108, 109

Fort Marion, 287, 291

Fort Matanzas, 287, 291

Fort McHenry, 287, 292

Fort Niagara, 287, 292

Fort Pulaski, 287, 292

Fort Wood, 287, 299

Fossil Cycad, 287, 294

Fossils, uncovered by the Missouri, 72

Fox farming, 321

France, timber consumption of, 85

Free Timber Act, 98, 99

Friends, Indian schools established by,
222, 223

Fulton, Senator, 120

Fur farming, in Alaska, 53

Game Departments, States, protective
rules of, 77

Garden City project, 162, 167

Garfield, James A., 168, 169

Gas, limited resources of, 46-48; natural,
in Public Domain, 65; wells, on In-
dian lands, 214 ff.

Geese, original wealth of, 302

General Grant National Park, 232, 238,
246, 276, 277

General Land Office, 4, 44; creation of,
6, 7, 25; growth of, 35, 36; problems of,
35 ff.; the commissioner, 36; survey-
ing for, 37 ff.; decline of, 62, 63; future
of, 63, 64

General Revision Act, no

Geological Survey, 42, 43, 46

Georgia, area of, 18; swamps in, 51;
National Forests in, 130; developed
water power of, 195; National Monu-
ments in, 287, 292, 294; station for
quail investigations in, 313

Germany, timber consumption in, 85

Gerrit Gerrit, 198

Gettysburg, 298

Gila Cliff Dwellings, 286, 291

Gilford Court House National Military
Park, 298

Glacier Bay, 287, 289, 293, 294

354

INDEX

Glacier National Park, 233, 236, 238,

248, 276, 325
Goats, in National Forests, 148, 149;

original wealth of, 302; mountain,

320, 323
Goodwin, Francis M., quoted, 174, 226-

228

Goodwin, R. B., quoted, 137
Gran Quivira, 286, 291
Grand Canyon, 75; antelope in, 320;

National Park, 234, 236, 238, 257,

275, 276
Grand Valley reclamation project, 162,

167, 168
Grants, 8, 24, 25; to new states, 30; to

railroads, 31, 32, 43, 44; of forest

lands, 87, 88
Graves, Henry S., 122, 143, 145; quoted,

142

Gray, Asa, 106
Grazing, national lands, 56; desirability

of regulating, 78 ff.; permits issued in

1923, 138
Great Divide, the, an economic division,

181
Great Smoky National Park, 92, 258,

271

Greater Sequoia bill, 269
Greeley, William B., 122; quoted, 132,

133, 135-137, 147
Gnnnell, George Bird, 13, 247, 301, 306,

329, 348; quoted, 302-305
Grouse, the, 81

Guadaloupe Hidalgo, treaty of, 27
Guam, area of, 19, 52
Gum trees, in original forests, 89

Hale, Senator, 124

Hamilton, Father, 223

Hamilton, of Michigan, 125

Hare, Bishop, 223

Harrison, 56, in, 209

Hatch, Representative, 109

Haugen, of Iowa, 125

Havasupai Reservation, 224

Hawaii, area of, 19, 52; National Parks

in, 332
Hawaii National Park, 233, 237, 257,

275, 276

Hay den survey, the, 258
Hayes, President, 106
Hedges, Christopher, 246
Hemlock, in original forests, 89, 95, 96
Herndon, Representative, 106
Herrick, Elbert, 220
Hetch Hetchy, 178, 179, 195, 266
Hickory, in original forests, 89
Hilgard, E. W., 106
Hitchcock, E. A., 114, 168
Holman, Representative, 109
Homestead Act, 26
Homesteading, adoption of, 7, 26 ff.;

in Alaska, 53, 54; impractical, 62
Hondo project, 162, 167
Hoover, Herbert, quoted, 252

Hopi, the, 212

Hot Springs National Park, 234, 275,

276

Hough, F. B., 107
Hough, H. P., 106, 348
Houston, Secretary, 250
Hovenweep, 287, 291
Howe, Senator, 108
How-to-Know books, the, 334
Hughes, Captain, 208
Humbolt, 308

Hunting, 303, 304, 315, 316
Huntley project, 162, 167

Idaho, area of, 18; Public Lands in, 21,
22, 159; mining in, 64, 65; federal
roads in, 71; National Forests in, 129,
144; camping facilities in, 146; wild
life in, 148, 149; reclamation projects
in, 162, 167, 168; mineral withdrawals
and classifications in, 197; value of
Indian property in, 215; National
Monument in, 287, 293, 294

Illinois, area of, 18; no Public Lands' in
21 ; swamps in, 51; forest laws passed
by, 1 06; coal in, 185

Inboy, Gilbert, 208

Indian Reservations, 76, 200 ff., 226, 332

Indian Territory, 220

Indiana, area of, 18; no Public Lands
in, 21 ; swamps in, 51; coal in, 185

Indians, in Alaska, 53; population of,
200, 20 1, 205 ff.; increase and pros-
perity of, 200-202, 206, 213 ff.; de-
pendence of, 202-204, 21 1 ; allotments
to, 202-204; the Nez Perce, 203, 210;
the Navaho, 203, 204; results of inter-
marriage, 204, 205; Service for, 206,
212, 219 ff.; in colonial days, 208,
209; wars with, 209, 210; of to-day,
21 1 ; Southwest primitive, 212; pueblo
lands of, 212, 213; poor, 218; mis-
sionary work among, 222 ff.; industrial
self-support of, 225, 226; assimilation
of, 226-228

Interior Department, General Land Of-
fice transferred to, 26; cost to, of
public domain, 58, 59

Iowa, area of, 18; no Public Lands in,
21 ; value of Indian property in, 215

Irrigation, 155 ff., 179, 180; state, 158;
Indians first to use, 226

Ise, Dr. John, 102

Isle Royale, 70

ackson, Andrew, 210

ackson Lake, 178

efferson, 204; quoted, 25
_ewel Cave, 286
Jones, Evan, 223
Joseph, Representative, 109

Kachess dam, the, 154
Kaibab, limestone, 75; National Forest,
94, 322

INDEX

355

Kankakee, swamp area, 51

Kansas, area of, 18; Public Lands in,
21, 159; reclamation project in, 162,
167; value of Indian property in, 215

Katmai National Monument, 287, 289,
293

Keechelus dam, the, 154

Kentucky, area of, 18; no original Public
Lands in, 21; visitors to forests in,
144; coal in, 185; proposed National
Park in, 258

Keokuk, dam at, 189

Kerwin, Jerome G., quoted, 185

King Hill project, 162, 167, 168

Kiowas, the, 210, 216

Klamath Lake, 178, 278

Klamath project, 162, 167

Lacey Act, 311

Lacey, John F., 284, 348

Lafayette National Park, 91, 234, 275,
276

Land, classes of federal, 4; administra-
tion of, 4; first goverment owned, 5,
6, 24; grants of, 8, 24, 25; U. S. policy
of giving away, 23, 30, 31; first selling
of, 24; speculation in, 25, 40, 41; un-
identified U. S., 39 ff.

Lane, Franklin K., 168, 186, 250; quoted,
251

Larch, in original forests, 95

Lassen Volcanic National Park, 234,
237, 275-277

Lava Beds, National Monument, 287,
292

Lee, 223

Lehman Caves, 287

Lenertz, Dr., 259

Lewis, 209

Lewis and Clark Cavern, 286, 292, 293

Life zones, western forest affected by, 94

Lighthouses, Bureau of, reservations,
314, 332

Lincoln, Abraham, 26; birthplace of,
298, 299

Lions, mountain, original wealth of, 301

Lipans, the, 210

Literature, on nature, 334, 335

Locust, in original forests, 89, 90

Lodge, Senator, 125

Louisiana, Purchase, 6, 26; area of, 18;
Public Lands in, 21, 70; sulphur in,
45; swamps in, 49, 51; mining in, 64;
mineral withdrawals and classifica-
tions in, 197; territories of, 220

Lower Yellowstone project, 162, 167

Lumber companies, 88

Lyman, Raney Y., 73

Maine, area of, 18; forest laws passed
by, 1 06; National Forests in, 130;
neglected land in, 182, 183; developed
water power of, 195

Mammoth Cave, authorized for Na-
tional Park, 258, 271

Manito, 224

Maples, in original forests, 89, 90, 95

Markham, Representative, 109

Martin, approaching extinction, 321, 322

Maryland, area of, 18; National Monu-
ment in, 287, 292, 294; National Mili-
tary Park in, 297

Massachusetts, area of, 18; forest laws
passed by, 106; developed water
power in, 195; "wood lots" in, 336

Massachusetts Bay charter, 55

Mather, Stephen T., 249, 259, 337;
quoted, 252

Matthes, Francois E., 259

Maxwell, George H., 158, 348

McNary, Charles L., 128

Mead, Elwood, 169; quoted, 159-161,
164, 165

Mena National Forest, 272

Meritt, Edgar B., 219; quoted, 214-218,
226

Meriwether Lewis, 287, 292

Merriam, C. Hart, 307-309, 311, 348 !

Merriam, John C., 239, 240, 263

Merrill, O. C., 184; quoted, 190, 191

Mesa Verde National Park, 75, 233,
237, 238, 248, 276, 290, 291

Mexico, land obtained from, 27

Mexico Cession, 6

Mexico Purchase, 6

Michigan, area of, 18; Public Lands in,
21, 70; forest laws passed by, 106;
National Forests in, 130, 144; de-
veloped water power of, 195; value
of Indian property in, 215

Michigan, University of, school of for-
estry founded at, 112

Migratory Bird Treaty, 312

Military National Forests, 332

Military Reservations, 332

Milk River project, 162, 165, 167, 170

Miller, Senator, 109

Mineral Leasing Law, 63, 65

Minerals, reservations of, 60; interest in
national administration, 60 ff.; table
of withdrawals and classifications, 197

Minidoka project, 162, 167

Mining, 8; leasing act, 20; railroad
ownership of, 32; land classification,
43; swift development of, 66, 67;
problem of maintaining production, 67

Minnesota, area of, 18; Public Lands in,
21, 70; swamps in, 51; forest laws
passed by, 106; forestry association
in, 107; National Forests in, 130, 144;
wild life in, 148, 149; value of Indian
property in, 215

Mississippi, area of, 18; Public Lands in,
21, 70; swamps in, 49, 51; National
Military Park in, 298

Mississippi River dam, 189

Missouri, area of, 18; no Public Lands
in, 21 ; swamps in, 51; forest laws
passed by, 106

Missouri River, the, 72

356

INDEX

Mondell, of Wyoming, 125

Monroe, President, 220

Montana, area of, 18; Public lands in,
21, 22, 159; mining in, 64, 65; federal
roads in, 71; badlands of, 71 ff.; Na-
tional Forests in, 129, 144; wild life
in, 148, 149, 314; reclamation projects
in, 162, 167, 170; mineral withdrawals
and classifications in, 197; developed
water power of, 195; Indian property
in, 215, 216; National Monuments in,
285, 286, 292, 294

Montezuma Castle, 284, 286, 290, 291

Moore's Landing National Military
Park, 298

Moose, 148, 149, 301, 320, 323

Moravians, the, 222

Morgan, Lewis, 106

Mormons, the, 156

Motoring, effects of, on National Parks,
11-13, 69 ff., 143 ff., 249, 257, 272 ff.;
used by sportsmen, 317

Mound City Group, 287, 291

Mount Desert Island, southern trees
on, 91

Mount Hood, 130

Mount Mazama, 237

Mount McKinley National Park, 234,
236, 257, 275, 276, 325

Mount Olympus, National Monument,
a86, 288, 289, 320, 323

Mount Rainier National Park, 232, 237,
238, 247, 276, 278

Muir, John, 259, 294, 329

Muir Woods, 286, 294

Mukuntuweap National Monument, 76

National Chamber of Commerce, reso-
lution of, 255

National Conference on Outdoor Rec-
reation, 14, 143; resolutions of, 2 53, 254

National Conservation Association, 112

National Conservation League, organi-
zation of, 112

National Forests, 8, 76, 331; purpose of,
5; established, 9, 56; value of, n;
area of, 9, 119, 120, 129, 130, 332;
controversy over, 14; shortage of
funds for protection of, 34; fraudulent
speculation in, 99 ff.; transferred to
Dept. of Agriculture, 116; regulation
of uses of, 116 ff.; extension of, to
east, 125; percentage of all forests,
128; locations of, 129, 130; conserva-
tion of, 130 ff., 340; problems of, 132,
'138 ff.; administration of, 133 ff., 332;
reforestation of, 135 ff., 151; recrea-
tional use of, 140 ff.; demand for
"wilderness areas," 147; game ad-
[ministration of, 148 ff.; hunting in,
316; number of, 332; co-operation be-
tween National Parks and, 343

National Military Parks, 297-300; wild
life conservation in, 314; area, num-
ber and dept., 332

National Monuments, 9, n, 76, 284-300,
331; differentiation between National
Parks and, 241, 288; the first, 285;
list and description, 286, 287; loca-
tions of, 286, 287, 294; groupings of,
200 ff.; sources of suggestions for, 295;
logical reorganization of, 299, 300;
wild life conservation in, 314; area
and administrative dept., 332
National Outdoor Recreation Confer-
ence, 327 ff.

National Parks, 9, n, 75; conflict be-
tween localism and national idealism,
56, 57, 265, 266, 270-272; purpose of,
229-235, 250, 281, 282; distinction
between National Forests, State
Parks and, 230, 250; theoretically un-
touched by man, 229, 239, 240, 253,
254; table of locations, areas and
characteristics, 232-234; landscape
classification, 235-238; educational
value of, 239, 258 ff.; patriotic and
social functions, 242 ff.; beginning of,
245, 246; development of, 246 ff.;
standards of, 247, 250 ff., 281; recrea-
tional use of, 250, 251, 281, 282; reso-
lutions about, 253 ff.; effect on, of
motoring, 257, 272 ff.; proposed, 73,
74, 258; nature guide service in, 261;
congressional appropriations, 261,
262; evolution disclosed in, 262, 263;
invasions of, 264, 265; commercialism
ruled out, 266-270; publicity for, 273;
conservation of, 14, 280, 281, 306, 314,
338, 339; differentiation between Na-
tional Monuments and, 288; hunting
prohibited in, 316; primitive areas in,
325, 326; area, number and adminis-
trative dept., 332; expansion of, 336,
337J co-operation between National
Forests and, 343
National Park Mountain, 246
National Parks Association, 260, 267,

338

Natural Bridges, 286
Navajo, the, 212, 286, 291
Navajo Indian Reservation, 75
Navajo Mountain, forest on, 93
Navajo Treaty Reservation, 215
Naval Reservations, area, number, and

administrative dept., 332
Nebraska, area of, 18; Public Lands in,
21, 159; badlands of, 71; Arbor Day
inaugurated by, 106; National For-
ests in, 130, 144; reclamation project
in, 162, 167, 170; value of Indian
property in, 215; National Monu-
ments in, 287, 292, 294; wild life
refuges in, 314
Nelson, Charles W., 312
Nevada, area of, 18; Public Lands in,
21, 22, 159; mining in, 64, 65; federal
roads in, 71; sage-brush land in, 81;
forest laws passed by, 106; National
Forests in, 129, 144; reclamation pro j-

INDEX

357

ect in, 162, 167, 170; mineral with-
drawals and classifications in, 197;
value of Indian property in, 215; Na-
tional Monument in, 287; only state
having no elk, 323

Newberry, J. S., 106

Newell, Frederick H., 169; quoted, 156

New Hampshire, area of, 18; National
Forests in, 130, 144; neglected land
in, 182

New Jersey, area of, 19; visitors to for-
ests in, 144

Newlands, Francis G., 157

Newlands reclamation project, 162, 167,
170

New Mexico, area of, 19; Public Lands
in, 21, 22, 159; mining in, 64; federal
roads in, 71; National Forests in, 130,
144; wild life in, 148, 149; reclama-
tion project in, 162, 167; mineral
withdrawals and classifications in,
197; Indian lands in, 215; National
Monuments in, 286, 287, 291, 293,
294; remains of prehistoric civiliza-
tion in, 200, 291

New York, area of, 19; developed water
power of, 195; value of Indian prop-
erty in, 215; National Monuments
in, 286, 294; fur-animal experiment
station in, 313

Niagara, 187, 195

Noble, John W., 101, no

North Carolina, area of, 19; swamps in,
49; National Forests in, 130, 144;
wild life in, 149; unimproved land in,
182; water power of, 195; value of
Indian property in, 215; National
Military Park in, 298; appropriations
for National Park, 258; elk in, 323

North Dakota, area of, 19; Public Lands
in, 21, 159; swamps in, 51; mining in,
64; badlands of, 71 ff.; reclamation
projects, 162, 167; mineral withdraw-
als and classifications in, 197; value
of Indian property in, 215; National
Monument in, 287, 294; wild life
refuges in, 314

North Platte project, 162, 165, 167, 170

Northern Pacific, grants to, 31

Northwest Territory, emigration to, 25

Oaks, in original forests, 89, 90, 95

Occum, Samson, 223

Ohio, area of, 19; no Public Lands in,
21 ; early land selling in, 25; coal in,
185; National Monument in, 287, 291,
294

Ohio Company, the, 25

Oil, limited resources of, 46-48; esti-
mated barrels of, in Public Domain,
65; table of withdrawals and classi-
fications, 197; percentage produced in
federal lands, 198; future possibilities
of, 199; on Indian lands, 214 ff.

Okanogan project, 162, 167, 174

Okefinokee swamps, 50, 51

Oklahoma, area of, 19; Public Lands in,
21, 159; National Forests in, 130, 144;
wild life in, 149, 323; value of Indian
property in, 215; creation of, 220; oil
on Indian lands in, 214, 216

Old Kasaan, 287, 292

Olympus National Monument, 314

Oregon and California Railroad Co.,
grant to, 32

Oregon Caves, National Monument, 286

Oregon, occupation, 6; area of, 19;
Public Lands in, 21, 22, 159; title to,
established, 27 ; minerals in, 65 ; federal
roads in, 71; great trees in, 96; Na-
tional Forests in, 129, 144; wild life
in, 148, 149; reclamation project in,
162, 167; potential water power in,
185; mineral withdrawals and classi-
fications in, 197; value of Indian prop-
erty in, 215, 216; National Monu-
ments in, 286, 294

Orland project, 161, 167, 168

Osages, the, 214, 215; territory acquired
from, 220

Otoes, the, 216

Owyhee Country, the, 74, 162

Ozark Mountains, 70, 130

Painted Desert, 76

Palmer, quoted, 49

Papago Saguaro, 286, 294

Paradise Valley, 278

"Park- Forest Co-ordinating Commis-
sion," 343

Patents, 44, 45

Pathfinder Dam, the, 171

Pawnees, the, 216

Payne, John Barton, 168, 267, 268

Pearl River, 51

Pelican Island, 313

Pennsylvania, area of, 19; white pine in,
92; National Forests in, 130, 144; coal
in, 185; National Military Park in,
298; deer in, 322

Perkins, 336

Petrified Forest, 285, 286, 293

Petroleum, in Public Domain, 65

Pettigrew, Senator, in

Philippine Islands, area of, 19, 52

Phoenix, Congress at, 158

Phosphate, estimated tons in Public
Domain, 65; table of withdrawals and
classifications, 197

Pigeons, passenger, 302

Pinchot, Gifford, 112, 113, 120, 122, 331,
348

Pines, in original forests, 89, 91, 92, 94-
96

Pink Cliff, the, 75

Pinnacles, 286, 294

Pipe Spring, 287, 292

Platt National Park, 233, 248, 275, 276

Ponds, the, 223

Poplar, in original forests, 89, 90

3S8

INDEX

Population, Alaska's need, 53, 54
Porto Rico, area of, 19, 52; National

Forests in, 130, 332

Potash, table of withdrawals and classi-
fications, 197

Powell, John Wesley, 156, 330, 348
Power, sources of, 184; distribution of
sources in U. S., 185; a future asset,
1 88; annual growth of development,
189, 190; Federal Act, 100 ff.; possi-
bilities of future achievement, 193 ff.;
regional distribution of, 194; giant,

194, iQS

Pre-emption Act, 26, 99

Pritchard, Senator, 126

Public Domain, 3, 43; size of, 7-9, 20-
22, 332; withdrawals from, 8, 9, 62;
original source of national progress,
17; distribution of, 21, 22, 26 ff., 31;
laws of, 37; additions to, 27; unknown,
39, 40; classification of, 42, 43; swamp
lands in, 51; cost of, 58, 59; future of,
63; income of, 65, 66; available for
recreation, 69 ff.; scenic areas of, 71 ff.

Public Land States, the, 10, 22; in-
equality in, 23

Public Lands, see Public Domain

Puebloes, the, 210

Quasi-public lands, 43

Railroads, grants to, 8, 31, 32, 43, 44,
87, 88, 100; a "logging," 101

Rainbow Bridge, 76, 286, 293

"Rainbow of the Desert," 234, 236

Ravalli, Father, 223

Reclamation, of deserts, 153 ff.; nation-
al, 158 ff.; the Act, 159; contrast be-
tween beginning of national and pres-
ent, 163 ff.; public enthusiasm for,
166, 170 ff.; future of, 175, 176, 180;
necessity for, in East, 180-183

Reclamation Projects, 8, 28, 153 ff.;
purpose of, 5; beginning of, 55; funda-
mental changes on, 160; list of, 161,
162, 167; table of settlement and re-
sults, 162, 163; failures on, 163 ff.,
174; construction results, 171, 172;
successful, 173, 174; economic side,
174, 175; town and city responsibili-
ties for near-by, 176; recreational op-
portunities of, 177, 178; area, num-
ber and administrative department,
332

Reclamation Service, creation of, 169

Recreation Act, 69

Recreation, federal lands'used for, 4, 5,
230, 332, 344 ff.; Public Lands avail-
able for, 69 ff.; National Forests used
for, 140 ff.; National Parks used for,
250, 251; value of Reclamation Proj-
ects for, 177, 178; National outdoor
conference on, 327 ff.; sudden popu-
larity of outdoor, 334 ff.; withdrawals,
332

Redington, Paul G., quoted, 313
Red River, swamp area, 51
Redwood trees, of western forest, 96
Reed, Franklyn W., quoted, 32, 79
Reindeer farming in Alaska, 53, 54
Refuges, wild life, 313, 314, 331, 340
Reservations, temporary, 4; Indian, 8,
23, 200 ff., 220; specialized, 23; crea-
tion of, 56; federal bird, 70; light-
house, 70; first forest, 109 ff.; the
Everglades, 210

Resources, natural, reservation of, 55 ff.;
public and private rights to, 55 ff.,
n6ff.
Rhode Island, area of, 19; forest laws

passed by, 106
Riggs, the, 223
Right-of-Way Act, 100
Riley, Smith, 80; quoted, 322
Rio Grande reclamation project, 162,

167

Riverton project, 162, 167, 168
Roads, for motoring, n, 12, 69 ff.; fed-
eral, 71; cost of, 134
Rockefeller, gift for Great Smoky Na-
tional Park, 258
Rocky Mountain National Park, 233,

236, 238, 257, 276
Rocky Mountains, reserved federal lands

in, 71; forests on, 94; camps in, 146
Roosevelt, Theodore, 112, 123, 126, ,157,
311, 348; quoted, 113-122, 159, 166;
his part in nature conservation, 54,
56, 33p ff.

Roosevelt Dam, the, 154, 170
"Roosevelt Memorial National Park,"

proposed, 73
Ross, Senator, 105
Rusk, J. M., 310
Russia, land purchased from, 27

St. Francis Basin, 51

Salt River, Reclamation Project, 154,

161, 162, 167, 170; reservoirs, 178
Samoa, American, area of, 19, 52
San Francisco Mountain, 310
Sangre de Cristo, 94, 130
Santa Fe, grants to, 31
Sato, quoted, 36
Saturday Evening Post, 198
Savannah River, 51
School lands, 61, 62
Schools, on reclamation projects, 160
Schurz, Carl, 109
Scotts Bluff, 287, 292
Scouts, 336

Seminoles, the, 201, 210
Sequoia National Park, 232, 235, 236,

238, 246, 276, 277
Sequoias, in western forest, 95, 96
Seton, Thompson, 334
Seward Peninsula, reindeer problem in,

le, table of withdrawals'and classifi-
cations, 197

Shale

INDEX

359

Sheep, raising of, 138, 139, 150-152;
mountain, 148, 149, 301, 320, 323

Sheldon, Charles, 340, 344

Shenandoah, authorized for National
Park, 258, 271

Sheridan, Phil, 210

Sherman, A. E., 109, 145

Shiloh National Military Park, 297

Shiras, George 3d, 312

Shoshone, project, 162, 167; Dam, 171;
Reservoir, 178; National Monument,
286

Shoshones, the, wealth of, 214

Sierra, the, reserved federal lands in, 71;
forests on, 93, 94, 96, 130

Sioux, the, 210

Sitka, 286, 292

Smith, George Otis, quoted, 188

Smith, Herbert A., quoted, 139

South Carolina, area of, 19; swamps in,
51; National Forests in, 130; unim-
proved land in, 182; developed water
power of, 195; National Monuments
in, 287, 292, 294

South Dakota, area of, 19; Public Lands
in, 21, 159; mining in, 64; badlands of,
71, 74; National Forests in, 130, 144;
wild life in, 149, 323; reclamation
project in, 162, 167; mineral with-
drawals and classifications in, 197;
value of Indian property in, 215, 216;
National Monuments in, 286, 287, 294

Southern Pacific, grants to, 31; land re-
claimed from, 32, 33

Spalding, 223

Sparks, William, 108

Spruce, in original forests, 89, 91, 95, 96

Spry, Commissioner, 38

Stabler, Herman, quoted, 185, 186

Standard National Parks System, 231

Star Spangled Banner, the, 292

State Parks Movement, 340

Steinmetz, 186

Strawberry Valley project, 162, 167

Stuart, Robert Y., 122

Sullys Hill National Park, 233, 248, 276

Sun River project, 162, 167

Surveying, for General Land Office, 37 ff.

Swamps, 49 ff .

Swans, original wealth of, 302

Sycamores, in original forests, 89, 90

Symmes, John Cleve, 25

Tamanaos, 224 ,

Tatooch Range, 237

Taylor, Representative, 109

Teller, H. M., 100

Temple Bill, 271

Tenancy, on reclamation projects, 165

Tennessee, area of, 19; no original Public
Lands in, 21; National Forests in,
130, 144; wild life in, 149; unimproved
land in, 182; appropriations by, for
National Park, 258; National Monu-

ments in, 287, 292, 294; National
Military Parks in, 297

Texas, purchase, 6; area of, 19; reclama-
tion project in, 162, 167

Tieton Dam, the, 154, 171

Timber, railroad ownership of, 32; ex-
portation of, from Alaska, 53; con-
sumption of, 85; private growing of,
i37> 138; from South, 138; on Indian
lands, 216 ff.

Timber and Stone Act, 28, 98, 99, 124

Timpanogos Cave, 287

Tippecanoe, 209

Tombigbee Valley, 51

Tonopah, 67

Tontp, 286, 291

Trading, Indian, 219, 220

Trees, of original forests, 89 ff.; subor-
dination of deciduous to coniferous,
95. 975 great western, 96

Tribes, Indian, 200, 201

Trinity National Forest, wild life in, 322

Tulip trees, in original forests, 90

Tumacacori, 286, 291

Umatilla reclamation project, 162, 167
Uncompahgre project, 162, 165, 167
Union Pacific Railroad, grants to, 31
United States, first land holdings, 5, 6,
24; cost to, of motor, n, 12; area of,
20; resentment of Public Land States
to, 22; policy of giving away land, 23,
24; land purchased by, 27; growth and
development, 27, 28; land reclaimed
from railroads, 32-34; unidentified
land of, 39 ff.; areas of territorial pos-
sessions, 52; mineral wealth of, 65;
timber consumption in, 85; creation of
Forest Service, 116; Health Service,

221

"United States Forest Policy, The," 102

United States Geographical Survey Bul-
letin, quotation from, 29, 30, 66

University of California, 259

Utah, national possessions in, 10; area
of, 19; Public Lands in, 21, 22, 159;
mining in, 64; federal roads in, 71;
Plateau country of, 75; National For-
ests in, 129, 130, 144; wild life in, 149;
reclamation project in, 162, 167; min-
eral withdrawals and classifications
in, 197; value of Indian property in,
215; National Monuments in, 286,
287, 293, 294

Ute Mountain Reservation, oil reported
in, 216

Vale project, 162

Valley of the Kings, 268, 269

Vancouver Island, 320

Van Dyke, John C., 334

Vermont, area of, 19; neglected land in,

182
Verrill, A. E., 308

360

INDEX

Vicksburg National Military Park, 298

Virgin Islands, area of, 19, 52

Virginia, area of, 19; charter, 55; Na-
tional Forests in, 130, 144; neglected
lands in, 182; proposed National
Parks in, 258

Volcanoes, in National Parks, 237, 238;
rejection of possible National Park,
247

Walcott, Charles D., in, 169, 260, 348

Walnut, black, in original forests, 90

Walnut Canyon, 287, 291

Walsh, Thomas B., 269

Wapatki, 287, 291

Wars, Indian, 209, 210

Wasatch Mountains, 75, 94

Washington, area of, 19; Public Lands
in, 21, 22, 159; mining in, 64, 65; fed-
eral roads in, 71; trees, 96; forest laws
passed by, 106; National Forests in,
129, 144; wild life in, 148, 149; desert
reclaimed in, 154; reclamation proj-
ects in, 162, 167; potential water
power in, 185; developed water power
of, 195; mineral withdrawals and
classifications in, 197; value of Indian
property in, 215, 216; National Monu-
ments in, 286, 294

Washington, George, 219

Water power, government regulation of,
44; percentage of U. S. reserve, 46;
public stewardship of, 118 ff.; esti-
mated U. S., 184, 185; beginning of
American, 186; authority of federal
control of, 187; development of, 187,
193; distribution of, 193-195; possi-
bilities of future achievement of, 193;
a national enterprise, 196

WeekslBill, '125 ff.

Weeks, John W., 126

West Virginia, area of, 19; National
Forests in, 130, 144; wild life in, 149;
coal in, 185

Wheeler National Monument, 286, 292

Wheelock, Eleazer, 223

Whipple, Bishop, 223

White, Stewart Edward, 335

White Mountains, 93, 130

Whitman, 223

Whitney, J. D., 106

Whittlesby, Charles, 106

Widtsoe, John A., 169

"Wild Animals I Have Known," 334

Wild life, conservation of, 78-81, 148 ff.,
294, 305 ff., 339, 340; original wealth
of, 301 ff.; destruction of, 302-306;

restoration of, 317 ff.; surplus of, 322,
323; refuges, 332

Williamsons, the, 223

Williston project, 162, 167

Willits, Edwin, 310

Willow, in original forests, 89

Wilson, James, 125, 131

Wilson, Woodrow, 267, 268

Wind Cave National Park, 233, 248,
275, 276

Winter, Charles E., quoted, 154, 155

Wisconsin, area of, 19; Public Lands in,
21, 70; forest laws passed by, 106; de-
veloped water power of, 195; value of
Indian property in, 215

Wolves, original wealth of, 302

Women's Clubs, General Federation of,
resolutions of, 255, 256

"Wonderland National Park," pro-
posed, 74

Wood River country, 146

Worcester, Samuel, 223

Work, Hubert, 168, 169, 295; quoted,
57-62, 65, 180-183, 206, 251

Wyoming, area of, 19; Public Lands in,
21, 22, 159; mining in, 64, 65; federal
roads in, 71; forest laws passed by,
106; National Forests in, 129, 144;
wild life in, 148, 149; reclamation
project in, 162, 167, 168; mineral
withdrawals and classifications in,
197; Indian wealth in, 214, 215; Na-
tional Monuments in, 286, 293, 294

Yakima, 154; reclamation project, 162,
167, 174

Yale, school of forestry founded at, 112,
114

Yavapai Point, 263

Yellowstone National Park, 237, 238,
258, 330; creation of, 232, 235, 245,
246; description, 232; visitors to, 276;
wild life in, 306, 319, 323; area devoted
to absolute primitive, 324, 325

Yosemite National Park, 235, 238, 246,
247; description, 232; nature guide
service in, 261; visitors to, 276, 277;
museum in, 263; undisturbed primi-
tive conditions, 323-325

Young, Brigham, 156

Yucca House, 287, 291

Yuma reclamation project, 161, 167

Zeisberger, David, 223
Zion Canyon, 76

Zion National Park, 75, 76, 234, 236,
238, 257, 275, 276

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