FOREST RESERVES IN IDAHO. 29 



the Shoshone Forest Eeserve, and which have only remained unset- 

 tled because the population of the country has not yet demanded 

 these Avaiting opportunities. 



lliis withdrawal is on the headwaters of the North Fork of the 

 Clearwater and the St. Joe rivers and on the south slope of the 

 South Fork of the Coeur d'Alene Kiver. Upon all of these streams, 

 lower down than the proposed reserve, prosperous settlements, towns, 

 and cities now exist, which are every year spreading to the eastvv^ard 

 up the streams to their sources, and, as I suggested at our recent 

 interview, if you Avill leave this country open to settlement and take 

 the census five years from now, it will present as large a percentage 

 of growth in settlement and prosperity as any other section of the 

 country. At the mouth of the Clearwater River, which is only 60 

 miles downstream from the withdrawal, figs were ripened in the 

 open air along the river during the last season, and the lands along 

 this stream and its tributaries up to the very edge of the reserve pro- 

 duce as fine fruits and vegetables as may be found anywhere. 



The oldest settlement in Idaho is at the very corner of the proposed 

 reserve — Pierce City — where the first discovery of gold was made in 

 the State, and which produced, according to Mr. Bancroft's reports, 

 $100,000,000 from its adjacent gold fields, and which to-day is a pros- 

 perous community of men engaged in mining and the raising of 

 grains, vegetables, and fruits. Every year sees the settlements push 

 farther up these streams, and there are now prosperous mining camps 

 and growing settlements ri^ht in the very heart of the proposed 

 reserve. 



Shoshone County has only recently made provisions for the build- 

 ing of a wagon road up P4acer Creek from Wallace, entirely within 

 the proposed withdrawal, which wagon road is to be built for the 

 accommodation of actual business and actual settlements sufficient 

 to satisfy the commissioners of Shoshone County that the road was 

 needed, a trail having been already constructed from Wallace to the 

 St. Joe River for the purpose of the preliminary accommodation of 

 these settlements. 



You will recall that the representative of the Forestry Department 

 stated that a large number of settlements had been found by their 

 representatives to be bogus. Their representatives are evidently unac- 

 quainted with the methods of settlers. They know nothing of the 

 genesis of the great West. It is so easy to condemn the enterprises 

 of other men and their judgment in entering upon the contract by 

 those who are not in sympathy with them or advised as to what 

 human energy can do. 



You will observe that the proposed reserve extends to the towns of 

 Wallace and Mullan. AVallace has a population of about -i,000 peo- 

 ple. This reserve will draw a dead line at the very door of that city, 

 and, as shown upon the map which the Department has furnished me, 

 will actually include a part of the corporate limits thereof. It 

 includes the wagon roads already constructed at great expense, mines 

 well developed ana producing ores, and vested interests which only 

 await the completion of the system of public surveys to be perfected 

 into titles. 



I am making a strenuous effort to extend and complete the public 

 surveys over this very portion of Idaho, in order that the settlers may 



