bm. 8, IsM.j 



gain. It robs the Park of beautiful and accessible scen- 

 ery, of a magnificent game preserve. It giyes in ex- 

 change an inaccessible mountain region, which tourists 

 will never visit, and which heavy winter snows render 

 incapable of supporting game. 



v.— Precedent. 



Congress has always been very loth to let any railroad 

 enter the Park lest it open the way to their general con- 

 struction there. The desire to avoid establishing this 

 precedent has led some faithful friends of the Park to 

 support the Segregation Bill, because under that bill the 

 railroad is left out of the Park. 



But such a course is simply jumping out of the frying 

 pan into the fire. It is impossible for Congress to pass 

 an act without creating a precedent. The question there- 

 fore, is not one of avoiding a bad precedent, but of choos- 

 ing between two bad precedents. Of these two evils, 

 then, supposing that one must be accepted, which is the 

 least? 



Under the Segregation Bill, stirely every evil that ap- 

 plies to the Right of Way Bill will exist. The railroad 

 in both cases occupies precisely the same territory. The 

 ruin of an important tourist route, the danger from fires, 

 the frightening away of game will be the same in one 

 case as in the other. But the Segregation Bill carries 

 with it far greater evils. It cuts off a large and import- 

 ant part of the Park. Ifc permits objectionable people to 

 hover on the very borders of the reservation where the 

 policing of the Park will be most difScult. In short, it 

 enhances ten-fold every evil which would result from 

 the Right of Way Bill. As a precedent, we can easily 

 imagine what will be the result to the Park if it is thus 

 to be cut down for every attempt to get a railroad across 

 its territory. Certainly the Segregation Bill will form 

 the graver precedent. If it ever, unhappily, comes to a 

 question of choice, Congress should by all means favor 

 the Right of way Bill and reject the other. 



This is the view of the Superintendent of the Park, as 

 is shown by the following quotation from the report al- 

 ready referred to: "If a';line through the Park is essen- 

 tial, then a right of way confined to the north bank of the 

 streams is unquestionably preferable to a cut-off." 



VI. — Previous Attitude of Congress. 



It is said that these bills in one form or another have 

 frequently met the favorable recommendation of Con- 

 gressional committees, and that therefore there must be 

 something in the claims of Cooke City. Why have they 

 received favorable report? Except for routine official re- 

 ports the case on the part of the Government han thus far 

 gone by default. 



The Park is public property. What is everybody's 

 business is nobody's business, and no one feels called upon 

 to assume the burden of defending a public institution. 

 Had one tithe of the energy, persistency and money been 

 expended in the defense of the Park that have been ex- 

 pended against it, these bills would never have seen light 

 outside of the committee room. Judging from their re- 

 ports, the committee could have received only ex 2mrte 

 ■evidence. 



To show how utterly erroneous are the data upon which 

 they have based their recommendations let us examine a 

 few statements from their reports: 



"Cooke City is pronounced by mining experts the most 

 Valuable and extensive mining district in the world." 



(Compare Section I., above, "Wealth of the Cooke City 

 Mines.") 



"The road proposed is the only practicable route to 

 reach these mines.'' 



(Compare Section II., "Accessibility.") 



"There are no objects of interest along this portion of 

 the river." 



(Compare Section III., "Injury to the Park," paragraph, 

 '■'National Features.") 



"It is capable of complete demonstration that the part 

 of the Park through which the road should pass is utterly 

 valueless to the Park; it is a portion thereof which will 

 never be sought by tourists; access by wagons across it to 

 said mines must result in far more injury to timber 

 growth by tires and consumption than from a railway." 



Every word of this is absolutely and unqualifiedly con- 

 trary to fact. 



"We ask no cutting down with any speculative object 

 in view." (Quoted in report.) 



The effrontery of this statement is scarcely less than 

 sublime. See a subsequent Section, IX,, "Real Animus 

 of the Movement." 



And so it goes throughout the reports. Is it strange 

 that favorable reports have been secured when they are 

 based upon such utterly one-sided information. 



VII. — Views of Government Officials.^ 



But how stands the case with those persons whose 

 laificial duties have made them thoroughly familiar with 

 the question? The Secretaries of the Interior, Superin- 

 tendents of the Park, and Engineer Officers in charge 

 •of the Park improvement, have (vs^ith very few excep- 

 tions, mostly explicable on the grounds of personal inter- 

 est) taken a strong stand against the whole movement. 

 In short, simply to understand the case ia to pronounce 



the building of any railway along the Yellowstone River 

 prejudicial to theinterests of the Park. 



VIII.-Relief for Cooke City. 



Admitting the force of all these arguments, there are 

 still many who think that something ought to be done to 

 relieve the situation at Cooke City. They are right, and 

 the peculiar thing about the Cooke City case is that ef- 

 fective relief is at hand if she will only accept it. We do 

 not now refer to the practicable railroad approaches from 

 the outside; nor to the well-known fact that an import- 

 ant railroad system is at present looking in that direction , 

 and not imxjrobably will soon give Cooke City a'far bet- 

 ter outlet than the one she now seeks. We refer to an 

 entirely different form of relief. For ten years it has 

 been a part of the Government project for the imjjrove- 

 ment of the Park to build a substantial highway over the 

 route sought by the railroad. The grades will be no 

 heavier than those of the railroad, and over them a team 

 could haul from three to five tons. It is capable of dem- 

 onstration that freighting could be contracted for at rates 

 but a trifle if any in excess of the railroad freight. Time 

 is not an important element in the delivery of such 

 freight as ores. The cost of the railroad would be at 

 least three million dollars. The wagon road will cost 

 Cooke City not a cent. The ^difference in the cost of the 

 railroad and the wagon road, in this case amounting to 

 the full cost of the railroad, will pay the wagon freights 

 for fifty years to come. 



But this is not all. The money for the railroad will be 

 largely spent in Eastern car shops and steel manufac- 

 tories, and in the hire of inported labor. A single freight 

 train per day will yield but little money to the commu- 

 nity. In the case of the wagon road every cent spent in 

 its construction goes to people in that vicinity. The 

 freight contracts would give employment to hundreds of 

 persons and the raising of grain and hay for forage to 

 hundreds more. The commercial business in wagons, 

 supplies and the like would materially enhance the 

 prosperity of both Livingston and Cooke, In all respects 

 the wagon road will be of more permanent benefit to 

 these two towns and to the surrounding country than the 

 railroad. The wagon road is something that can be had 

 just as soon as the Government is relieved of the menac- 

 ing spectre of the Segregation Bill. The railroad is, to 

 say the least, a doubtful possibility. Very few believe 

 that it will be built even if the right is obtained. 



IX.— The Real Animus of tlie Movement. 



It will now be asked. If such is a correct presentation 

 of the case, why does Cooke City persist in her demands? 

 The explanation is not hard to find, But to clearly grasp 

 it, it is necessary to understand the relation of the town 

 of Livingston to the project. Livingston is on the North- 

 ern Pacific at the north terminus of the Park route, and 

 she hopes equally with Cooke City to profit by the pro- 

 posed. railroad. She wants the Cooke City business to pass 

 her way. For this reason she contributes the major part 

 of the expense of the Cooke City lobby in Washington, 

 The fact also explains why the Park route is persistently 

 demanded, where for Cooke City alone the other routes 

 would be better. Now hundreds, perhaps thousands, of 

 persons have bought land or taken up mines at Cooke 

 City or have bought town lots in Livingston. These 

 people have invested purely on speculation. They pur- 

 pose to develop no mines, to build no mills or smelters. 

 They are waiting for the "unearned increment.'- They 

 have been allured into investment by the fraudulent 

 representations of that class of professional boomers and 

 land sharks who have been the curse of every Western 

 community. They are paying assessments, interest and 

 taxes, and are eager to sell. To these people "wagon 

 road" has an ugly sound. Nothing but the magic sound 

 of "railroad" is adequate to the inception of a boom, and 

 a boom of all things is what they are after. The perma- 

 nent good of the towns is to them a matter of entire in- 

 difference. "Only let the bill be a law for one week and 

 I don't care," said a hard -up mine owner the other day. 

 A grand movement to "unload" undesirable property — 

 such is the true "inwardness" of the whole scheme. 



Finally the movement receives the" unanimous support 

 of all that objectionable population whose methods of 

 gaining a livelihood are, to say the least, very question- 

 able. To quote again from Captain Anderson's report: 

 "There is gradually settling about the Park boundaries a 

 population whose whole subsistence is derived from hunt- 

 ing and trapping." These people seek no greater bonanza 

 than to invade the rich game fields to be thrown open by 

 the Segregation Bill, and to dig that region full of holes 

 in the futile hope that they may find mineral there, 



X. — Duty of the Government. 



In a case like the present one it is the manifest duty of 

 the Government not to rely upon an ex parte presenta- 

 tion of the case, but to send a committee of investigation 

 to the ground, aided by expert assistance, to study the 

 subject in all its bearings. It should examine the ques 

 tion of accessibility to Cooke City, of tourists' routes, of 

 game, of forest fires, and of all other matters relating 

 thereto. It could then form a fair judgment of the 

 case, It would see that justice to Caoke City requires 



the immediate carrying out of the National programme 

 adopted in 1888, that of building a good wagon road to 

 the northeast corner of the Park. By doing this it would 

 set the vexed question jtermanently at rest. 



It is urged that the Government is placing a question 

 of mere sentiment before that of actual material wants. 

 So it is, and very properly. The National Park is founded 

 in sentiment. It is a legislative recognition of the exist- 

 ence in human nature of something higher than the sor- 

 did love of gain — than the mere question of dollars and 

 cents. No one supposes that the wonderful geyser forma- 

 tions, the Grand Canon of the Yellowstone, or the multi- 

 tudes of game in the Park will ever materially simplify 

 the problem of daily bread. This question of sentiment 

 was settled when the act creating the Park was passed. 

 The people for twenty years have scrutinized the act and 

 have declared that it is good. These same considerations 

 of sentiment should therefore control future Park legis- 

 lation. 



To all that class who unblushingly place their little in- 

 terests above a great public interest, who without scruple 

 would inaugurate measures which mxist lead to the ruin 

 of the National Park, Congress should oppose but one 

 answer, and that should be written in distinct characters 

 on every lx>rder of the Park : 



"Thus fae shiVlt thou cojie and no further.'" 



^^orlBttim ^attt[ki 



MAROONING IN HIGH ALTITUDES. 



BY CHARLES HALLOCK. 

 Chapter II. 



In my introductory sketch of the wonderful mountain 

 region which the completion of the Pacific extension of 

 the Great Northern Railroad has so recently made accessi- 

 ble to the tourist and sportsman, I made bold to assert 

 that Lake Macdonald, situated in the main range of the 

 Rockies, was destined to become the most popular resort 

 in America. In thus hypothecating its transcendent 

 claims I indulge in no rhapsody, for extended travel has 

 made me something of an expert in comparative physi- 

 ography. Certainly, if Luzerne and the high Alps have 

 in course of time become the Mecca of tourists from all 

 parts of the world, this rare Rocky Mountain gem with 

 its superlative attractions has at least an equal chance. 



Right here in our own America we have the counter- 

 part of Switzerland, though on a grander scale; and it is 

 reached without the tedium and hazard of an ocean voy- 

 age. Furthermore, it is exempt from all those uncon- 

 scionable exactions and petty vexations which always 

 mar a visit to foreign lands. For here there are no 

 restrictions on tourists, no tolls or fees to pay, no tips to 

 dole, and no streams and forests posted. Everywhere the 

 physical scope is enlarged. The outlook is extended and 

 amplified. There are more dominating peaks, rising 

 from six to nine thousand feet. The glacial areas are 

 broader, the waterfalls more copious, and the varieties of 

 mountain climbing found more numerous and nimble. 

 Mont Blanc, with its conspicuous elevation of 15,000ft., 

 alone is lacking in the landscape. 



Most mountain ranges are disappointing to the sight- 

 seer. Standing in groups they do not show their full 

 proportions like isolated peaks. But on Lake Macdonald 

 the enraptured beholder may stand at the outlet and 

 gaze northward up the entire length of the sheet through 

 a vista eighteen miles in length, and see the sharply cut 

 outlines of no less than nine bald peaks defined against 

 the sky, the humblest of which is higher than Greylock 

 or Mount Washington. 



The glaciers of this region, I venture to submit, are of 

 themselves enough to insure the successful future of Lake 

 Macdonald. There are two within easy access. These 

 must attract crowds of curious visitors every summer, to 

 whom the wonders of the Muir and Humboldt glaciers 

 have so often been recited. No need any more to toil up 

 the precarious precipices of the Matterhorn with alpen- 

 stock and safety ropes, or undertake the interminable 

 voyage to Alaska, or even to climb Mt. Ranier or the 

 Seikirks with infinite hardship, camping out on the snow 

 night after night, and shivering in its icy breath. In 

 this favored location an omnibus next year will take the 

 visitor a couple of miles over the level road from the 

 depot at Belton, Mont,, 45 miles west of the summit, to 

 the outlet of the lake. A steam lauoch will carry him to 

 the head of the lake, from whence it is but an eight miles' 

 horseback ride over a mountain trail to the edge of the 

 mer de glace, where all the wind phenomena of the 

 "Silent City Mirage" of the Muir Glacier are duplicatrd 

 with fidelity. The glacier covers an area of 35 or 30 

 miles. Of course it is not an iceberg maker. Like those 

 of Europe it is a spent glacier, whose remnants are annu- 

 ally wasting away by melting and evaporation from lack 

 of replenishment. Yet many glacial phenomena are exhib- 

 ited to the observer, and the attentive student may wit- 

 ness the visible demonstration of dynamic problems 

 which have perhaps before seemed puzzling. In the 

 morning a thick mist gathers over it, but as the tardy 

 sun gradually comes over the encampment of the moun- 

 tains the veil lifts, and all the knobs and spiracles of ice 

 which roughen the surface of the ice field become dis- 

 torted by the refraction of the vapor, and transformed 

 into spires, domes, pinnacles and turret?, like the strange 

 vraisemblances which we notice on semi-arid plains in 

 the fervent heats of midsummer. 



We all know what cumulative success followed Paul 

 Smith's venture at >St. Regis Lake in the Adirondacks, 

 and how from small beginnings in a log cabin in the fifties, 

 his hostelry enlarged until it could not hold the hundreds 

 of eager guests who sought its commons. The humble germ 

 of just such a great caravansary noAv stands at the outlet 

 of Lake Macdonald, beside which St. Regis is tame and 

 insignificant. A two-mile walk from the railroad depot, 

 over a dry, smooth, level trail, through a forest of tamar- 

 ack, pine and fir, brings ua to the pebbly margin of Mac- 

 donald Creek, and as we emerge from the inclosing for- 

 est we discover the hospitable log cabin with its spacious 



