26 THE NATIONAL PARK SERVICE 



gineers were withdrawn from Crater Lake, and the control of 

 the park service was at last complete throughout the entire 

 system. These changes were effected by transference of ap- 

 propriations in the sundry civil acts of 1918 and 1919 (40 

 Stat. L., 634, and 41 Stat. L, 163). This finally ended what 

 had always been an anomalous situation, involving a duplica- 

 tion and even a triplication of control. For example, in the 

 Yellowstone the Superintendent reported to the National Park 

 Service and had no control over the commandant of the troops 

 engaged in patrol work or the engineer officer in charge of 

 road construction. The commandant reported to the Western 

 Military Department at San Francisco, and the engineer officer 

 to the Chief of Engineers of the Army. It was thus neces- 

 sary to maintain at the park three distinct offices, three office 

 forces, and separate warehouses for equipment and sup- 

 plies. 



A word is in order here as to how this cumbersome .system 

 grew up. The organic acts creating the Yellowstone Park 

 and the three parks in California (17 Stat. L., 32; 26 Stat. 

 L., 478, 650) gave the Secretary of the Interior power to 

 make rules and regulations, but no means of enforcing them. 

 Considerable disorder and license resulted, and Congress met 

 the situation by including in the act of March 3, 1883 (22 

 Stat. L., 626) a clause authorizing the Secretary of the In- 

 terior to call upon the Secretary of War for details of troops 

 for protection of the Yellowstone. A similar dause was in- 

 corporated in the act of June 6, 1900 (31 Stat. L, 618) with 

 regard to the Sequoia, General Grant, and Yosemite parks in 

 California. The same act (31 Stat. L, 625) in making ap- 

 propriations for the Yellowstone Park under the War De- 

 partment provided that thereafter road extensions and im- 

 provements in the park should be made under, and in har- 

 mony with, a plan to be approved by the Chief of Engineers. 

 Engineer troops and officers came to be employed in some of 

 the other parks, notably Crater Lake and Mount Rainier, 

 gimply by the making of appropriations for ro^d construction 



