LETTER FROM THE SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE 
RELATIVE TO THE PROPOSED WIND 
Cave RESERVE 
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, 
OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY, 
Wasuincton, March 14, 1912. 
Pror. FRANKLIN W. Hooper, 
President, American Bison Society, 
Brooklyn, N. Y. 
Dear Sir: I am in receipt of your letters of February 27 and 
March 6, with enclosures, in which you state that the American 
Bison Society, after conference with the senators and representatives 
in Congress from South Dakota and after a careful examination of 
the ground, recommends the establishment of a National Bison 
Range and Game Preserve on the Wind Cave National Park in 
South Dakota. You further recommend that certain private lands 
adjacent to this park be acquired at a cost of not more than $15,000, 
for the purpose of affording an adequate and permanent supply 
of water for the reservation, and that an appropriation be secured 
from Congress for fencing the entire area at an estimated cost of 
$17,000; and you state that as soon as such a game _ preserve is 
established and enclosed with a suitable wire fence, The American 
Bison Society agrees to place thereon a herd of not less than fifteen 
pure-blooded American bison. 
In reply I beg to say that the department fully appreciates the 
generous offer of The American Bison Society, as well as the public 
spirit shown by the Society in formulating this project and in col- 
lecting the data necessary for submission to Congress. The National 
Bison Range in Montana, established at the suggestion of, and 
stocked with buffalo presented by, your Society, has been remark- 
ably successful, and has demonstrated the importance of having 
several such preserves at suitable points in the original buffalo 
country. The Wind Cave National Park seems to offer a location 
equal to that of any preserve thus far established; and if the plan 
which you outline can be consummated, it will afford another range 
as desirable as that in Montana. 
The matter will be taken up at once, and your plan will be sub- 
mitted to the Secretary of the Interior and to Congress in the hope 
that the necessary legislation may be secured. 
Respectfully, 
JAMES WILSON, 
Secretary. 
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