20 FQKEST RESERVES IN IDAHO. 



But 541,160 acres of this reserve are in Idaho. Of this area less 

 than 9,000 acres, or 1.6 per cent, are susceptible of any forni of a«:ri- 

 culture, and over half of this is patented or under valid claim. The 

 remainder should undoubtedly be made available for settlers, and 

 will be on the passage of the la^v recommended for that purj:>ose by 

 the public lands commission. It consists of scattered meadows, 

 which do not warrant any general elimination. The proposed addi- 

 tion to this reserve in Idaho contains no homestead entries, and, t»y 

 the most liberal estimate, not over 1,800 acres, or 0.3 per cent, are at 

 all suitable for agriculture. The old classification of tlie Northern 

 Pacific grant estimated about 40 per cent of tliis area to be mineral 

 land, but it did not prove to be so and prospecting has long been 

 abandoned. The Continental mine, on the summit of the Cabinet 

 Range, near the Canadian line, is the only valuable prospect in the 

 entire addition. 



coEUR d'alexe. 



Of the temporary Avithdrawal of 13S,'240 acres for the proposed 

 Coeur d'Alene Reserve, Senator Heyburn asserts that " it works the 

 greatest injury to that section of the country,'' and that " it covers 

 one of the best mineral regions in northern Idaho.'' While this state- 

 ment is not final, since the region is merely in the prospecting stage, 

 it is most easily disposed of by recalling that prospecting and loca- 

 tion are not disturbed by reserve regulations. Senator Heyburn is 

 under the impression that the reserve as now proposed '* will include 

 the mines of the Coeur d'Alene country, which have produced more 

 than $200,000,000 in wealth, and are to-day producing one-half of the 

 lead product of the United States, besides millions of dollars in silver 

 and gold." Here he is misinformed as to the area contemplated to 

 be reserved, for the only actual producing mining operations within it 

 are the Beaver Creek placers. The large mines he refers to lie south 

 of the proposed reserve. He adds that '' men will not invest capital 

 in mines or in the development of a country under the forest-reserve 

 rules and limitations." Of this statement it is sufficient to say that 

 the whole history of the forest reserves is in diametrical opposition 

 to it, both as to mining and as to other industries. 



The Coeur d'Alene Reserve is designed almost wholh^ to preserve 

 for the very mining industry he champions its only practicable 

 future timber supply, which at best is inadequate for the future, 

 and is already sought by export lumbermen. In his letter of ^larch 

 15 Senator Heyburn says : " The Government holds the lands in 

 trust for the present and future inhabitants of the State only. 

 Neither the timber nor an}^ other resources should, in my judgment", 

 be considered a fund upon which the East or any outlying section of 

 the country may draw to increase its prosperity." 



Although with another object, he here presents the chief argument 

 for the Coeur d'Alene Reserve. It is an established fact that the 

 Coeur d'Alene mines need this timber, and no less true that the agents 

 of lumber firms are endeavoring to locate the timber for immediate 

 cutting and exportation to other States. In spite of the assertion 

 that this tract is wholly mineral, six townships have recent!}^ been 

 surveyed for the purpose of timber and stone or homestead location 

 for timber only. 



