The Boone and Crockett Club 



The Act of March 3, 1891, was the result of a 

 compromise. It had come over from the House 

 to the Senate as a bill of a single section to repeal 

 the Timber Culture law. Senator Pettigrew, then 

 a member of the Public Lands Committee, states 

 that the bill was amended in the Senate Committee 

 by the addition of twenty-three other sections, of 

 which the one providing for the establishment of 

 forest reserves, was the last. 



Gen. John W. Noble was then Secretary of the 

 Interior, a man of the loftiest and broadest views 

 and heartily in sympathy with the efforts to protect 

 the forests. He induced President Harrison to 

 sign the bill, and later, to set aside the first United 

 State forest reserves, the earliest one being the 

 Yellowstone Park Timber Reserve to the east and 

 south of the Yellowstone Park. This was designed 

 to further protect the Yellowstone Park, and Mr. 

 Noble in determining the boundaries of this new 

 reservation consulted Mr. Hague, whose knowl- 

 edge of the matter was greater than that of any 

 other man. When the Presidential proclamation 

 establishing the reservation appeared, the boun- 

 daries were defined in the language used in Mr* 

 Hague's recommendation to Mr. Noble. 



The Boone and Crockett Club was quick to 

 acknowledge Secretary Noble's first acts under the 



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