The Boone and Crockett Club 



many other members. From 1883 tQ the en d of 

 the year 1890 bills to remedy these dangerous con- 

 ditions passed the Senate at four sessions of Con- 

 gress twice by a unanimous vote but there was 

 a strong effort on the part of a lobby in the House 

 to use the National Park for private purposes, and 

 this lobby always succeeded in having attached to 

 the Senate bill a rider granting a right of way to 1 a 

 railroad through the Park. Members of the 

 Boone and Crockett Club fought this amendment 

 from the beginning. They felt that a railroad in 

 the Park would be a grave danger to the National 

 pleasure ground, and if one railway was permitted 

 to run its lines there, the same privilege might not 

 be denied to others, t and before long the reserva- 

 tion would be gridironed by tracks. 



As we all know, the efforts of the Yellowstone 

 Park Improvement Company to secure a monopoly 

 of the Park, and of the lobby to secure the right 

 of way for a railroad, were eventually blocked, but 

 much energy and hard work and a great amount 

 of ink was expended before this was accomplished. 



By the Act of March 3, 1883, the Secretary of 

 ;War was authorized on request from the Secre- 

 tary of the Interior to detail a force of troops 

 for duty in the Park, the commander of the troops 

 to be the acting Superintendent. The first officer 



448 



