MINING "CLAIMS" IN THE GRAND CANYON 



227 



FINISHED ROAD OVER A MIXING CLAIM 

 In the immediate foreground the road is part of one of the mining claims on the rim of the Grand Canyon. 



ment, reaffirming the principles an- 

 nounced by this Department in the Yard 

 case in 1909, which had been overturned 

 by the Cy Smith decision in 1913. 



As soon as this court decision was ren- 

 dered, the Interior Department issued an 

 order restoring the rights and responsi- 

 bihties of the Department as declared 

 in 1909. 



It is significant that this latest decision 

 cites numerous convincing precedents, 

 including a clear-cut opinion rendered by 

 the Supreme Court of the United States 

 (Knight vs. U. S. Land Association, 142 

 U. S. 161) in which Justice Lamar says: 

 "The Secretary (of the Interior) is the 

 guardian of the people of the United 

 States over the public lands. The obli- 

 gations of his oath of office oblige him 

 to see that the law is carried out, and 

 that none of the public domain is ivastcd or 

 is disposed of to a party not entitled to it. 

 . . . The mode in which supervision shall be exercised 

 in the absence of statutory direction may be prescribed 

 by such rules and regulations as the Secretary may 



adopt. It could not be a sufficient an- 

 swer against the exercise of his power 

 that no appeal had been taken to him 

 and therefore he was without authority 

 in the matter. The Secretary is given 

 the superintending and supervisory power 

 which will enable him in the face of un- 

 expected conditions to do justice." 



These same convincing precedents had 

 been cited in 1909 in the Yard case, yet 

 they were swept aside for three years by 

 the influences which placed the rights of 

 individuals to acquire private title to lands 

 in public reservations as paramount to the 

 lights and welfare of the public or the 

 responsibilities of the Department to pro- 

 tect those rights. But the Department 

 of Interior, encouraged by the vigorous 

 stand taken by the courts, has now, at 

 last repudiated the Cy Smith decision 

 and is free to deal with fraudulent loca- 



THE LINE OF A MINING CLAIM 



On this road around the Grand Canyon the portion finished by the Government, and the unfinished 

 section on the only mining claim where the road is uncompleted, are plainly discernible. 



tions in the Grand Canyon or elsewhere. The control 

 of the Grand Canyon is now secure forever to the people 

 of the United States. 



'X'HE report covering the spring and fall forest fire sea- 

 -'■ sons of 1916, issued by the Pennsylvania Department 

 of Forestry, shows that while almost as many forest fires 

 burned in Pennsylvania in 1916 as in 1915, the area 

 burned over was less than half that of 1915, and 

 the timber loss was only a trifle over one-fourth as 

 large. 



T^HAT mine timbers of white spruce, Sitka spruce, white 

 -■- birch, and western hemlock grown on the Chugach 

 Nadonal Forest, Alaska, are fully as good as Douglas fir 

 from the Rocky Mountain region and are superior to other 

 Rocky Mountain species for use as mine timbers has been 

 demonstrated by the Forest Products Laboratory at 

 Madison, Wisconsin. 



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