PARKS FOR FOREST PRESERVATION. 



37 



tion is uniformly sandy, and practically 

 worthless for any other purpose than the 

 growing of pine. 



Under the guise of throwing this reser- 

 vation open for settlement, the lumbermen 

 of the State are advocating the removal of 

 the Indians to another reservation, miles 

 distant, and the selling of this land, prac- 

 tically worthless because of its sandy na- 

 ture, to the emigrant. Inasmuch as the 

 sandy worthless ground will not yield even 

 the poorest crops, it really means the cut- 

 ting of the timber, the abandonment of the 

 land to the State for taxes, and a conse- 

 quent desolation of stumps and sand, only 

 too often fire-ridden by the inflammable 

 refuse tree tops left bv the lumbermen. 



And here again has a society been 

 formed, under the name of the Minnesota 

 National Park Association, to prevail on 

 the Government not to drive the Indians 

 off from this land, and not to open it up 

 to settlement (simply another name for 

 turning it over to the lumbermen) but to 

 preserve it for all time as a recreation 

 ground for the people. Unlike the Yellow- 

 stone Park, the region is within 18 hours' 

 ride of over 30,000,000 of people. In this 

 region can one see the Indians living in 

 their villages, roaming the woods, and 

 paddling their canoes, as in the days of 

 Fenimore Cooper. Here do they hunt and 

 fish, gather their wild rice, weave their 

 baskets, and make the thousand and one 

 trinkets of bead, feather, and shell work, 

 so dear to the heart of the Indian. In pre- 

 serving this reservation for the people as 

 a National Park, the rights of the Indians 

 will be respected, the timber preserved and 

 perpetuated under forestry conditions long 

 after the last pine tree outside of the res- 

 ervation shall have been cut and sold ; and 

 a pleasant ground will be secured for the 

 invalid, the camper, tourist, fisherman, and 

 lover of nature generally. 



To mature a pine tree from the seed- 



ling in the forest takes 100 to 150 years, 

 but to fell one of these mighty giants of the 

 forest takes only 5 minutes. Re-foresting 

 cut over lands will solve the problem, but 

 the next 100 years will not look on a great 

 white pine forest re-grown between the 

 stumps of one denuded within this genera- 

 tion. 



This reservation preserved, and its pine 

 perpetuated through forestry methods, will 

 be a lasting monument and reminder of 

 what the great forests of the Northwest 

 were in the days of DuLut, Marquette, 

 LaSalle, Fremont, and hundreds of other 

 pioneers who traversed this region in the 

 company of the Indian before the advent 

 of the settler and the lumberman. It is 

 within the power of the Government to 

 retain this great tract of forest, lake and 

 stream, for the people and their children's 

 children, as a pleasure ground, as long as 

 grass grows and water flows. Between 

 the people and Congress at Washington 

 stands the grasping lumberman, the man 

 who is already rolling in wealth gained 

 honestly or dishonestly from the pine land 

 of the government, but who yet wants 

 more, and who is attempting to influence 

 legislation for his own gain as against the 

 wishes of the people. But the spirit of 

 greed and gain in this case must not and 

 will not prevail. 



At this time efforts are being made in 

 Washington by the friends of the Park 

 to have a joint commission appointed by 

 the 2 houses to thoroughly go into this 

 park project in all its bearings and then 

 report back to Congress. If such report 

 be favorable, and it very likely will be, 

 then may the Minnesota National Park be 

 looked on as a reality. For this end let 

 all lovers of the woods and streams and 

 advocates of srame preservation and friends 

 of the Indian work and pray — but not neg- 

 lect the work. 



She wrote a charming little verse, 

 Just sixteen lines and sweetly terse; 

 She sent it done in elite blue 

 To a paper published in St. Lou: 

 And when it came back marked "Declined" 

 It almost caused the tears to blind; 

 For there it was in brazen blue — 

 "Your feet will never, never do!" 



— Chicago News. 



