[16] 



which had caused the construction of these roads would be continued, and 

 the country be developed. There they have lived. Their famiUes have in- 

 creased, but many of the younger generation, ou coming to maturity, have 

 left the isolation of the pastoral life behind them, and have left many re- 

 maining who would follow their example if they could find purchasers for 

 their properties. They have endured the hardships that attend the occupa- 

 tion of raising cattle, horses, and sheep in that region, and the dangers in- 

 separable from the contiguity of the native race. There is no longer 

 necessity for the military roads by which to give succor there against In- 

 dian uprisings. 1'he projected Oregon Central and Eastern Railway (the 

 construction of which began on a financial basis furnished by two military 

 road grants) is impeded by the Cascade forest reserve. This road, if com- 

 pleted to the east line of the state, would answer more than all the purposes 

 of the military roads for national uses; as troops hereafter will be collected 

 in these range states of the interior and brought to the Pacific shores, where 

 the emergencies demanding military power are most likely to arise. Mean- 

 while the most important aid to an increase of homes in the central part 

 of the state of Oregon, and eastward and southward of that region, is a 

 railroad through that country, so that lumber for homes and fencing ma- 

 terial, and for irrigation projects, can be distributed with greatest economy. 

 In the valley and pass by which this line of railroad is now more than half 

 way across the Cascade range there are more than one hundred resident 

 homesteaders who were located within the limits of the forest reserve be- 

 fore it was proclaimed. Many of them were stopped in their eflforts for im- 

 provement and development of their homes by the prospect of an unendur- 

 able isoltaion, the proclamation in effect destroying all hope of the social 

 surroundings which are the best influences of civilization. To open that 

 reservation, two townships wide, to free acquirement of the land, under 

 any reasonable conditions as to harvesting of the timber, would be the btst 

 possible encouragement to those interested in this railroad enterprise which 

 this forest policy has so far stopped. It would encourage the completion of 

 the road, the manufacture of lumber through a fine timber belt eighty mi les 

 wide, and give healthful home-supporting opportunity to at least five thou- 

 sand heads of families; furnish lumber freights, both eastward and west- 

 ward, to the railroad line, and develop the numerous interests in connection 

 with this comparatively small opening, for which many people have been 

 waiting for more than twenty-five years. 



If the writer were desirous of suggesting the very best means within 

 his knowledge of lessening the dangers of the most extensive and destruc- 

 tive fires possible in the Cascade timber belt, this is the recommendation 

 we would make: Clear a gap across the range in the quickest and most ju- 

 dicious way possible. The committee on forestry recorded one undoubted 

 truth: "No human agency can stop a western (^Oregon) forest fire eifter it 



