220 THE PRESENT AND FUTURE 
At present the American people are sorely puzzled by a 
remarkable elk problem that each winter is presented for 
solution in the Jackson Hole country, Wyoming. Driven 
southward by the deep snows of winter, the elk thousands 
that in summer graze and grow fat in the Yellowstone Park 
march down into Jackson Hole, to find in those valleys less 
snow and more food. Now, it happens that the best and 
most of the former winter grazing grounds of the elk are 
covered by fenced ranches! As a result, the elk that strive 
to winter there, about fifteen thousand head, are each winter 
threatened with starvation; and during three or four winters 
of recent date, an aggregate of several thousand calves, weak 
yearlings and weakened cows perished of hunger. The winters 
of 1908, 1909 and 1910 were progressively more and more 
severe; and 1911 saw about two thousand five hundred 
deaths. (S. N. Leek.) 
In 1909-10, the state of Wyoming spent $7,000 for hay, 
and fed it to the starving elk. In 1911 Wyoming spent 
$5,000 more, and appealed to Congress for help. Thanks to 
the efforts of Senator Lodge and others, Congress instantly 
responded with a splendid emergency appropriation of $20,- 
000, partly for the purpose of feeding the elk and also to 
meet the cost of transporting elsewhere as many of the elk 
as it might seem best to move. The starving of the elk ceased 
with 1911. 
In order to provide adequate winter grazing grounds for 
the Yellowstone-Wyoming elk, it seemed imperative that 
the National Government should expend between $30,000 
and $40,000 in buying back from ranchmen certain areas 
