The Boone and Crockett Club 



protected. In August, 1884, he was succeeded by 

 R. E. Carpenter, who was removed in May, 1885. 

 David W. Wear was the next and last civilian 

 Superintendent. 



Meantime, in the year 1882, soon after the 

 completion to the Park of the Northern Pacific 

 Railroad, the region and its wonders became acces- 

 sible to the public. Among those who visited it 

 were a number of men controlling some capital and 

 more or less familiar with large affairs. They saw 

 the possibilities of the Park as a pleasure resort, 

 and at once set to work to gain such control of it 

 as they could, and to secure a monopoly of any- 

 thing that might fall in their way. They succeeded 

 in securing from the Assistant Secretary of the 

 Interior a provisional lease, said to have been for 

 ten plots of six hundred and forty acres, each at a 

 different point of interest. These plots were to be 

 so located as to cover the various natural wonders 

 of the Park, where this was practicable. The 

 syndicate, as it was called the Yellowstone Park 

 Improvement Company started a saw-mill and 

 began to cut and saw timber in the Park for the 

 construction of their various hotels and other 

 buildings. As laborers in large numbers were to 

 be employed through the winter, the company 

 tried to give out a contract for twenty thousand 



445 



