FORESTRY 



EDITED BY DR. B. E. FERNOW, 



Director of the New York School of Forestry, Cornell University, assisted by Dr. John C. Gifford, of same 



institution. 



THE FLATHEAD RESERVE. 



The following interesting letter recalls 

 the result of a long struggle to establish 

 federal forest reservations. The corre- 

 spondent wishes to know the statesman who 

 inaugurated the policy. As usual in such 

 movements, it is not any one man who ac- 

 complished such a policy, but a number of 

 men. The Flathead Reserve was the first 

 that had been proposed, long before the 

 policy of reservations was inaugurated. A 

 special bill to establish this Reserve at the 

 headwaters of the Missouri and Columbia 

 rivers was introduced into the Senate by 

 Senator Edmunds, if I am not mistaken, 

 and passed by that body in 1884, but failed 

 in the House. It was repeatedly intro- 

 duced, but with no success. On March 3, 

 1891, however, as a result of a persistent 

 propaganda by the American Forestry As- 

 sociation or the few men who represented 

 it, the policy of Forest Reservations was 

 established by the insertion of a brief para- 

 graph in the "Act to repeal timber-culture 

 laws, and for other purposes." This act 

 empowered the President of the United 

 States, from time to time, to set apart and 

 reserve public lands bearing forests. A 

 number of Forest Reservations were made 

 in 1891 to 1893, comprising more than 17,- 

 000,000 acres. But the Flathead Forest 

 Reservation, together with a dozen others 

 comprising more than 21,000,000 acres, was 

 not made until February 22, 1897. The 

 celebrated proclamation of President Cleve- 

 land which announced the establishment of 

 these reservations aroused such a storm in 

 the Senate and House on account of its 

 sweeping character, that the Forest Reser- 

 vation policy was nearly lost. 



Jacksonville, 111. 



Editor Recreation : 



Our government has made a start in the 

 right direction by establishing forest re- 

 serves. The man who inaugurated this 

 policy was a true statesman, and some day 

 when I have the time I shall try to learn 

 his name. I wonder how many really 

 appreciate the meaning of a forest re- 

 serve. I have had the pleasure of spend- 

 ing two summers in the Flathead reserve 

 in Northwest Montana and am looking for- 

 ward to a third summer in that land of 

 magnificent trees, blue lakes fed by streams 

 straight from living glaciers and hoary 

 mountains. This region is sure to be fam- 



ous. Far away as it is, it is quickly and 

 easily reached. One leaves Chicago at 6.30 

 in the evening in a palace car built of trop- 

 ical woods, provided with steam heat and 

 electric lights, and is in St. Paul for break- 

 fast. A few hours' intermission spent in 

 seeing the sights, and at 1.30 we settle our- 

 selves in the Great Northern Flyer, West- 

 ward bound, with no other change of trains. 

 At 10 o'clock next evening we leave the 

 train at Belton, Mont. The Flathead Re- 

 serve extends from Belton East to the top 

 of the main range of the Rocky mountains ; 

 North along this range to the Canadian 

 line; West some 50 miles more or less; 

 South to the Great Northern Railroad ; 

 thence East to Belton. The whole region 

 is unsurveyed and large parts of it, espe- 

 cially the Eastern, are unexplored. The 

 mountains are so steep and the timber so 

 dense that it is almost impossible to get 

 through, even afoot. As for trails, these 

 are few. There is a wagon road from Bel- 

 ton to Lake McDonald, 3 miles away. This 

 lake, set in among the mountains, is some 

 15 miles long and about 2 miles wide. At 

 the foot of the lake the Apgars have sev- 

 eral log cabins and are prepared to look 

 after, travellers. At the head of the lake 

 there are 3 claims, which were taken up 

 before the Reserve was established : Ge- 

 duhn's, Comeau's and Snyder's. Snyder 

 runs the Hotel de Glacier, a great pre- 

 tentious barn of a hotel, made of un- 

 painted sawed lumber. Geduhn, on the 

 other hand, has some half dozen delight- 

 ful log cabins fronting the lake and 

 it does one's soul good to look at them. 

 Last year an 8-foot trail was cut from Bel- 

 ton to Snyder's along the East side of th~ 

 lake. From the head of the lake a trail 

 leads to Sperry glacier, 7 miles away. 

 Another leads to Avalanche lake, a dis- 

 tance of 15 miles. This lak: is fed from 

 Sperry glacier and is at the bottom of a 

 great basin whose walls tower above \i 

 3,000 feet. Another trail extends North to 

 Granite park and Cheney glacier. The last 

 trail crosses the low range West to the 

 Camas lakes and prairies. This is the oH 

 Blackfoot trail and was used years ago by 

 the Indians who came here to secure their 

 winter's meat. These trails were in much 

 better condition last summer than the year 

 before, due to the fact that 2 rangers 

 had been assigned to this district. These 

 men are supposed to patrol the reserve, 

 cut out trails, watch for forest fires and 



J 5o 



