THE PORESTER. 



VOL. VI. 



DECEMBER, 1900. 



No. 12. 



THE PROPOSED MINNESOTA NATIONAL PARK. 



BY JOHN S. COOPER. 



THE REGION OF THE PROPOSED PARK. 



If you draw a line on the map of Min- 

 nesota, due west from Duluth about 200 

 miles to a point almost directly south from 

 the westernmost shores of Red Lake, then 

 north to our northern boundary at the Lake 

 of the Woods, and thence, following the 

 boundary line through that Lake, north, 

 and thence east and east by south through 

 the immense wilderness of waters which 

 marks the dividing line between the United 

 vStates and Canada to where Pigeon River 

 empties into Lake Superior, about 150 

 miles northeast from Duluth, and then 

 back along the western shore of that lake 

 to the starting point at Duluth, you will 

 have designated a territory which, in its 

 natural state, for its forests, lakes, rivers, 

 streams, climate, game, and fish, and at 

 present for its accessibility, should be the 

 wonder, delight, and happiness of the 

 modern world. 



The territory is vast enough to provide 

 space for all our people who enjoy their 

 vacations in the wilds of nature, even 

 when our population shall have trebled 

 and quadrupled its present numbers. De- 

 voted to such uses, that country would be 

 performing its greatest service for man- 

 kind. With inconsiderable exceptions, it 

 is not suitable for profitable agriculture. 

 It was of commercial value principally for 

 its merchantable pine in the forests and 

 iron ore in the earth. But both of those 

 could have been taken without the ruin 

 and destruction of the forests remaining. 



But alas! all of the region is not in its 

 natural state. The lumbermen have been 



very busy up there for twenty years ami 

 more. The Mesaba and Vermillion iron 

 mines have also been a matter of dollars. 

 The railroads have worked their way 

 through those beautiful forests, and 

 amongst the lakes and streams. 



Here and there will be found a poor ex- 

 cuse for a farm, originating at a time when 

 the Pine in that neighborhood was being 

 cut, and the mines being opened, and 

 when hay for the lumbermens' and miners' 

 horses and oxen, and potatoes and other 

 vegetables for their employees bore a high 

 price. 



There are also a few villages and towns, 

 whose prosperous days were contempo- 

 raneous with the cutting of the Pine for- 

 ests, or the opening of the iron mines in 

 their neighborhood. Some of those towns, 

 particularly those depending on the mines, 

 or those located in places where there is 

 still Pine to be cut, are even yet, prosper- 

 ous for lumbering and mining towns, 

 whose early decay and ultimate ruin have 

 been surely predestined by what has over- 

 taken all similar communities in America 

 for nearly a century, once the forests have 

 been destroyed or the mines exhausted. 

 But for the most part, all the country 

 whence the forests have been stripped, 

 presents a dismal scene, with blackened 

 stumps, shrunken lakes, rivers and streams 

 left as the ruins of \\liat was once a dream 

 of Nature. 



The reason is plain. The soil for tin- 

 most part is light and sandy, and unlit for 

 profitable agriculture. Where once stood 

 the great forests of tliolouer Mississippi 



