Yellowstone Park Protection Act 



afforded in its provisions ample protection to the Park, 

 while it added largely to its area on the south and on 

 the east, embracing the great breeding grounds of the 

 elk. This bill was introduced by Senator Vest. But 

 new difficulties now arose, more serious than any hitherto 

 encountered. By the completion of the Northern Pacific 

 Railroad a large influx of travel set in toward the Park. 

 It was now thought money was to be made there. Rail- 

 roads through it were talked about. Mines, situated 

 near its northern border, were said to contain untold 

 wealth, needing only a railroad for their development. 

 A mining camp, called Cooke City, was started, and it 

 was urged that a railroad could reach it only by going 

 through the Park. Corporate influences made them- 

 selves felt. The bill introduced by Senator Vest again 

 and again, in session after session, passed the Senate: 

 The promoters of a railroad through the Park thought 

 they saw their opportunity. Afraid to launch their 

 scheme of spoliation before Congress as an independent 

 measure, they sought to attach it as a rider to the Park 

 bill. They reasoned that those who desired the passage 

 of that bill regarded it as so important that they would 

 be willing to consent to its carrying a railroad rather 

 than see all legislation on the subject dropped or de- 

 feated. The plan was well conceived, but failed of 

 execution. The friends of the bill recognized that it 

 was wiser to leave the Park unprotected than to consent 

 to what would be its destruction. They recognized that, 

 once railroads were allowed within the Park, it would be 

 a reservation only in name, and that before long the 

 forests and the game would both disappear. They there- 

 fore refused the bait held out to them by the railroad 



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