AMERICA'S GREATEST PLAYGROUND 



49 



and each hour since the matter was first broached our enthusiasm has 

 increased. It has been the main theme of our conversation today as 

 we journeyed. I lay awake half of last night thinking about it; and if 

 my wakefulness deprived my bedfellow — Hedges — of any sleep, he has 

 only himself and his disturbing National Park proposition to answer 

 for it. 



"Our purpose to create a park can only be accomplished by untir- 

 ing work and concerted action in a warfare against the incredulity and 

 unbelief of our national legislators when our proposal shall be pre- 

 sented for their approval. Nevertheless, I believe we can win the bat- 

 tle." 



Those were able men. Let us disabuse ourselves of the belief that 

 our frontiersmen were ignorant men or wholly simple men. Montana 

 has had no abler citizens than those who came out in the early sixties. 

 So these men knew how to go to work. In brief, we may sum up the 

 results of their labors in the words of the act of creation of the Yel- 

 lowstone Park, which was and is its basic and sacred law: 



"Section 2474, R. S.: The tract of land in the Territories of Mon- 

 tana and Wyoming, lying near the headwaters of the Yellowstone river 

 and described as follows, to-wit, commencing at the junction of Gardi- 

 ner's river with the Yellowstone river, and running east to the meridian 

 passing ten miles south of the most southern point of Yellowstone 

 Lake; thence west along said parallel to the meridian passing fifteen 

 miles west of the most western point of Madison Lake; thence north 

 along said meridian to the latitude of the junction of the Yellow- 

 stone and Gardiner rivers; thence east to the place of beginning, 

 is reserved and withdrawn from settlement, occupancy, or sale under 

 the laws of the United States, and dedicated and set apart as a public 

 park or pleasuring ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the peo- 

 ple; and all persons who locate, or settle upon, or occupy any part 

 of the land thus set apart as a public park, except as provided in the 

 following section, shall be considered trespassers and removed there- 

 from. 



"Section 2475: Such public park shall be under the exclusive con- 

 trol of the Secretary of the Interior, whose duty it shall be, as soon as 

 practicable, to make and publish such regulations as he may deem 

 necessary or proper for the care and management of the same. Such 



