The Boone and Crockett Club 



aside and designated "as a public park or pleasure 

 ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the 

 people. " The Park was to be under the exclusive 

 control of the Secretary of the Interior, who was 

 authorized to make regulations for the preserva- 

 tion from injury of all timber, mineral deposits, 

 natural curiosities or wonders within the Park. 

 This was essentially the language of the statute, 

 but no methods were indicated by which the Secre- 

 tary of the Interior should carry out the law. 



At the time Dr. Hayden drew the Park bill, the 

 country had not been surveyed, and no one knew 

 just where the territorial lines were to run, or, 

 indeed, where the Park lay. Dr. Hayden chose 

 for his initial points the natural features of the 

 landscape, and made his lines meridians and par- 

 allels of latitude. His selections were marvelously 

 fortunate. As Col. George S. Anderson has said, 

 "They seemed almost a work of inspiration. The 

 north line takes in the large slopes on the north 

 of Mt. Everts and the valley of the East Fork of 

 the Yellowstone, where the elk, deer, antelope and 

 mountain sheep wander by thousands; it leaves 

 outside every foot of land adapted to agriculture; 

 also and this is more important than all it 

 passes over the rugged and inaccessible summit of 

 the snowy range, where the hardiest vandal dare 



443 



