Department of Conservation of Louisiana 443 



adapted for a winter feeding and resting refuge for mi- 

 gratory wild fowl, and I determined, if possible, to secure 

 ails land, also, as a permanent wild life refuge. 



On October 12, 1912, assisted by Messrs. Sol Wexler 

 and John E. Bouden, Jr., I paid $8,000.00 for an option on 

 this property, subject to the examination of the title. Mr. 

 John Dymond, Jr., and Mr. A. Giffen Levy undertook this 

 title examination, and they having approved the title, I 

 secured an additional option for six months, on December 

 11, 1912— by the payment of $20,000.00 in cash— to pur- 

 chase the property. 



I at once went North to again call on my sportsmen 

 friends for assistance, and met with the same hearty re- 

 sponse, securing pledges for a little more than $45,000.00 

 in less than two months, Mrs. Russell Sage again nobly 

 coming to the front with a donation of $5,000.00. Before 

 this option expired I had secured pledges sufficient to war- 

 rant my purchasing the property. As I could not use any 

 of the pledge money until all the purchase price had been 

 raised, I bought the property in my own name on June 12, 

 1913, paying $27,500.00 in cash, and giving vendors' lien 

 notes for $185,000.00, thus completing the purchase price 

 of $212,500.00. 



Through the able assistance of Messrs. Robert W. and 

 Henry W. DeForest, the merits of my wild life refuge 

 plan were brought to the attention of of the Rockefeller in- 

 terests, and after many conferences and much correspond- 

 ence, Mr. Star J. Murphy, attorney for the Rockefeller 

 interests, was instructed to investigate the merits of the 

 proposition. Mr. Jerome D. Green, secretary of the Rocke- 

 feller Foundation, was sent to Louisiana for this purpose 

 in the early fall of 1913, spending six days in a most thor- 

 ough investigation. On his return North, Mr. Green re- 

 ported favorably on the project, and I was called to New 

 York for a conference. Several months were spent in per- 

 fecting this deal, before the Rockefeller Foundation pur- 

 chased the 86,000 acres for a perpetual wild life refuge, 

 paying for it $212,000.00 cash, on the 20th of May, 1914. 



In order to have the wild life on this great sanctuary 

 afforded immediate protection, I urged the Rockefeller 

 Foundation to place its control in the hands of the Con- 

 servation Commission of Louisiana. On May 27, 1914, the 

 Rockefeller Foundation passed a resolution offering full 

 control of this property to the Conservation Commission 

 of Louisiana, for a period of five years. There was some 

 local opposition to the Commission taking over this land 

 and giving it protection, but at a meeting of the full Com- 



