THE MINNESOTA NATIONAL PARK. 
be able to fish a new lake twice each day. 
The canoeist could keep on traveling over 
the silvery bosom of the lakes, and in a 
month’s trip would not see the same bit of 
shore twice. The bicyclist would here 
find nature unadorned, in all her fresh- 
ness and beauty. 
The invalid and the consumptive in this 
region of fir and balsam, 1,300 feet above 
the level of the sea, can drink in disease- 
destroying ozone until, revived in health 
and strength, he can return to his home 
with tanned skin and sparkling eye, a sur- 
prise to his family and friends. 
To the explorer this country is as fertile 
as were the West Indies to Columbus. 
As an instance of what is in store for 
those who like new and changing scenes— 
You can take a team, boat, tent, and sup- 
piles from Bermidji, and going West 6 
miles, you reach Grant creek. Here you 
slip your boat into the water; load it with 
tent and supplies, and dismiss your wagon. 
You float down stream, surrounded by the 
wildest and grandest forest scenery, for 
miles, until you strike the Mississippi and 
continue down that. For 60 miles you 
keep on this journey, camping by the way, 
rarely putting oar into the water to pro- 
pel the boat, except where lake or lagoon 
is encountered. At every turn new scenery 
opens to you, and at numbers of quick 
bends in the streams you come face to 
face with moose or deer, standing knee 
deep in the water. Wild ducks are con- 
stantly taking wing ahead of the boat, 
or rising in clouds from the surrounding 
wild rice. Ruffed grouse are heard or 
seen along the banks, and vast muscalonge 
and pike are freely taken from the waters. 
The trip can be made in 2 days or 2 
months, and when your journey ends you 
row your boat up to the !anding stage 
at Bermidji, the very spot from whence 
you started. That you have covered 
these 60 miles in the wildest and 
grandest country one could think of, drift- 
ing nearly all the way, and have landed 
at your starting point without a single 
portage or carry, seems almost incredible. 
What will be done with the Indians? 
Leave them where they are, undisturbed, 
to earn their living by weaving baskets, 
raising garden truck, picking berries, gath- 
ering wild rice, fishing, and paddling 
canoes for the visitors. They will all be 
needed when the great Minnesota Na- 
tional Park becomes a fact. 

AGAINST THE “COOPER SCHEME’”’, 
Duluth, Minn., Aug. 14, 1809. 
Editor RECREATION: 
A short time since I received a circular 
addressed to members of the L. A. 
S., of whom I have the honor to be one, 
319 
calling a meeting in Chicago to organize 
for the purpose of pushing a certain plan 
for a park in Northern Minnesota. The 
circular is written in very glowing terms, 
calling on all sportsmen as a duty to stand 
behind the movement. This meeting has 
since been held, with perhaps hardly the 
enthusiasm for the park project that was 
anticipated by the projectors. Neverthe- 
less, the organizers of the movement still 
intend to enlist the aid of all sportsmen 
to bring pressure to bear on congressmen 
and others to carry the project through, 
and plan to give congress, and all govern- 
ment officials who will go, a free junket- 
ing trip to the woods. 
It might be well for sportsmen who 
have taken this matter’seriously, or who 
have favored this project for a game and 
timber preserve, to look a little more 
closely into the reasons for this movement. 
It is well known that this plan origin- 
ated in Minneapolis,and has been endorsed 
by commercial clubs of that city and St. 
Paul. What is the reason for this inti- 
mate connection between commerce and 
game preservation? 
Many of the readers of RECREATION will 
remember in connection with the Indian 
trouble at Leech lake last year, that the - 
cutting of “dead and down timber’ was 
an important factor in the cause of the 
trouble. This is no place to discuss this 
practice. It is sufficient to say that con- 
gress was prevailed on to allow permits 
for cutting such timber, the ostensible pur- 
pose being the just one of saving to the 
Indians the value of timber which had 
been scorched by fire and killed; that out 
of this has grown one of the most system- 
atic and scandalous steals ever perpe- 
trated under the guise of justice. It is a 
matter of common knowledge in this vicin- 
ity that fires are intentionally set by In- 
dians in the employ of the lumbermen, in 
order that the timber may be cut by them, 
the price paid being a fraction of what 
the stumpage is really worth. These 
“dead and down” lumbermen are known 
to be behind the park project, with the 
evident intention of carrying on these 
same operations in peace, without having 
to buy the stumpage from settlers. It 
would be interesting to see how long the 
forests of the “forest preserve” would last 
under these practices. Almost all the 
timber in the district designated in the 
Cooper plan is tributary to Minneapolis, 
by means of the Mississippi river. 
On the other hznd: This same country 
consists largely of good farming lands, 
only awaiting the clearing of the timber 
to develop into a rich farming country, 
which would’ naturally be tributary to 
Duluth by rail. What more natural than 
that Minneapolis should try to kill 2 
birds with one stone, at once helping 
