May 26, 1894.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



448 



shrewd, practical and quiet. To him more than to]almost 

 any other one man in his State belongs the credit' of the 

 expose of the Cooke City Park railroad scheme. Contrary 

 to local sentiment and local timidity, Mr. Losekamp stood 

 out first alone and uttered the first word against the 

 scheme to open the Park to the railroads. He wrote the 

 first newspaper article against the Cooke City road that 

 Was ever written, and has since then seen local sentiment 

 change and local papers adopt the side of reason all over 

 the State. He has always been foremost in the fight 

 against the Cooke City project in all its phases, and he 

 has put out more information in regard to the true in- 

 wardness of the proposed deal than any other ten men 

 together. It was he who obtained for Forest and Stream 

 the Valuable letter from Civil Engineer P. M. Gallaher, 

 published last fall, which showed the practicability of a 

 road into Cooke City from the east, along the Clark's 

 Fork. 



"I notice that railroads are not doing things for fun," 

 said Mr. Losekamp, "and they don't do things backward, 

 either. Now, if there is mineral or coal to be had in that 

 New World district, the bulk of it will have to go east 

 for its main market. Does a railroad want to pull that 

 stuff west over the divide through the Park, around by 

 Cinnabar and Livingston, and then east again over the 

 same mountains to get back toward the market it wants 

 to reach? 1 don't think so. Mr. Oakes, of the Northern 

 Pacific, didn't think so, either. He was over that western 

 line, and saw Cooke City, and he reported that the 

 Northern Pacific didn't want any of it. I can't see why 

 a railroad should want to spend two or three million 

 dollars making a road across a landscape, just for the sake 

 of pulling its freight three, times as far over grades three 

 times as hard. Maybe they will, but I doubt it. 



"On the other band, we have the B. & M. assured for 

 Billings. [A. telegram announcing this was received by 

 Mr. Losekamp during my stay at Billings.] This road, if 

 once built into Cooke City, would be as good as any for 

 that town, if it was only after an outlet, as it claims. But 

 do they want any outlet from the west? Oh, no. Nothing 

 but the Park route will do them. Why? Well, you just 

 let the segregation scheme go through and you'll see why. 

 Cooke City '11 have something to sell then, and it won't 

 be ore, either. There isn't a dollar actually put up +o 

 build that road, though I don't doubt that the majority of 

 the boys who have claims there are sincere in their belief 

 that the road would be built if the bill once passed 

 Congress. They are simply ignorant, though sincere. If 

 the bill did pass, there would be a lot of money made be- 

 fore a shovel ever hit the dirt. Besides, long before that 

 road was begun, the best of the Park would be handed out 

 to other parties by way of other franchises. I can see no 

 Use for this. It's hard to get any road up to Cooke, and 

 any engineer knows this, but the route from the east, up 

 the Clark's Fork, has had the survey of a good engineer, 

 and it can be built. No one claims so much for the Park 

 route. If the Cooke City men have nothing up their 

 sleeve, and are only anxious for an outlet, why should 

 they oppose a cheaper and more practical route from the 

 east side? 



"Another thing is, strange as you may think it, after 

 all you have heard of Chinooks, and that is, there is four 

 times as much snow on the west side of the mountains 

 around Cooke City as on the east side. I will leave that 

 to your own observation. You see, the country the Cooke 

 City road would have to cross is not west of the Conti- 

 nental Divide, but east, just as this is." [It was two 

 weeks later than my Yancey's trip that I was at Billings, 

 but the truth of Mr. Losekamp's remark was no less 

 obvious than surprising. The snow was not there and it 

 never is there in such quantity as in the Park. We drove 

 far up the gentle Stillwater Valley and away up the Rose- 

 bud, but the ground was dry. On the opposite side of the 

 range the snow was 8ft. on an average, in drifts 40ft. or 

 more on the Bloctail, when we left. It never averages so 

 deep on the east slope at the same altitudes.] 



P. M. Gallaher, C. E., Billings. 

 Mr. Gallaher has already f avored Forest and Stream 

 with the most conclusive document ever published on this 

 subject, and it is needless to repeat his statement as to the 

 feasibility of the Clark's Fork route to Cooke City. Mr. 

 Gallaher is the best known engineer in Montana. He had 

 charge of the survey that ran the lines of the Timber 

 Eeserve of the Park for the Government, and has been all 

 over that entire region, as probably no other one man has 

 been except the old-time trappers and hunters. Mr. Gal- 

 laher I knew in this country twelve years ago, before he 

 went to Montana, and even then he had a reputation. I 

 can find no reason extant to-day for believing him any- 

 thing but a conservative and accurate man, with the prido 

 in his profession which is so singularly deep among civil 

 engineers as a class. Mr, Gallaher said : 



"So far as I know, no actual survey has ever been run 

 over the Park route to Cooke City, nor do I think it will 

 ever come to that, as any engineer can see the difficulties 

 of the route proposed. Of course, you cold build a road 

 there, and you could build, one anywhere, but it would 

 cost more money than any road could pay interest on. 

 The grades would be very severe, and the tremendous 

 snows of that region would tie the road up half the year 

 unless it were under shed. There must be a great incen- 

 tive before such a vast outlay of money is begun, and the 

 only incentive alleged is the mining camp of Cooke City. 

 Certainly it has good mineral, but is that enough to show 

 a corporation asked to put a road through such a. country? 



"On the other hand, on the Clark's Fork route you have 

 distance in which to climb. Of course you know what 

 that means. You can go any height, if you only have 

 room to do it in. Now, you have been up the Stillwater 

 and Rosebud valleys, and know the long grades of the 

 streams coming down this side of the slope. The Clark's 

 Fork is even more gentle, because it is much longer. You 

 see the long horseshoe it makes. That gives us distance 

 for our climb. Instead of heavy rock work all the way, 

 we have a Avater grade for the greater part of the way. 

 At the canon of our stream we have unquestionably got a 

 lot of expensive rock work to do; but we've saved enough 

 money to have some left to do it with, and after you get 

 over the canon, you are in easier sailing again. 



"Now., I'll draw you a little map. You know, there's a 

 road already built up to Red Lodge. Suppose we call 

 the point where this road makes its bend to the west of 

 the Clark's Fork 'point E.' Now we will call the Bear 

 Creek coal fields D. From E to D is 30 miles. Call the 

 box canon of the Fork C, and from D to C ia 20 miles 

 more. From C to A, which Jatter we will call Cooke 



City, is 55 miles further. As I have said, there would 

 be plenty of rock work on a limited part of this line, but 

 it could be built — and most of it could be built on a water 

 grade— below the heavy cuttings of the cation. This is 

 the natural route out from Cooke City, and the natural 

 way for a railroad to haul out mineral — down hill, not up 

 over the same hill a couple of times, 



"A very hard part of this road would be the getting to 

 Cooke over the last three or four miles, but while I pre- 

 sume this could be accomplished, the problem of an out- 

 let is practically solved if you get steam in so near as 

 that. 



"You will observe that the road from the east slope 

 has a double purpose to urge it to build. It has the Bear 

 Creek coal fields— almost as useful and valuable as gold, 

 for you must have good fuel at a practical distance in 

 mining or railroading, or in any branch of commercial 

 activity. You have on the east Cooke City plus the coal, 

 plus the natural grade; on the west you have only Cooke 

 City and an unnatural railroad proposition. 



"But I have not yet spoken of the very greatest induce- 

 ment for a road to go up at Clark's Fork, and this is 

 something which the Cooke City people do not seem to 

 think. They are sure of the wealth of their mines, but 

 the whole world, especially the railroad world, is not sure 

 of that. I do not say it is not true, doubtless it is true, 

 but railroads take no chances. They must see a certain 

 field, a country to be developed, lasting, industries to be 

 created, before they spend millions of dollars building 

 roads across mountain ranges. 



1 "Nothing appeals to railroad companies like an agricul- 

 tural proposition. There is their certain and big money. 



"Now, if you will look at this part of the country south 

 and east of the Park and west of the Big Horn Mountains 

 — all this section lying along the Stinking Water, Grey 

 Bull and Big Horn rivers and their tributaries, you will 

 be seeing what is known as the Big Horn Basin. There 

 are millions of acres of land there lying untouched, and 

 you can get water all over the whole of it. There is no 

 better watered part of the West than this basin. The first 

 railroad in there has an empire for itself. This is the 

 largest and best body of land owned by the United States 

 left undeveloped by the railroads, and it is the greatest 

 railroad proposition now left open, unless we later find 

 something to do in Alaska. All this region can be put 

 under ditch at unusually low expense, on account of the 

 many strong watercourses which cover it. The railroad 

 which goes in here, builds ditches and so makes possible 

 the settlement of this big district by an agricultural pop- 

 ulation, is going to have the best opening now left. Cap- 

 ital has no such chance left in America. I am not saying 

 this from hearsay or from personal reasons, for I know 

 that district thoroughly, although I own nothing there. 

 There is nothing worth owning until a railroad is built. 



"Now, let us call this point on the Grey Bull River, say 

 at Otto, B, and you know we called the canon of the 

 Clark's Fork C. From C to B is only 75 miles. That is, 

 the road which goes up the Clark's Fork has the Bear 

 Creek coal and the Cooke City mineral, and for 75 miles 

 more of road built to the south, it ha* also this Big Horn 

 basin for territory, worth unspeakably more than all the 

 rest. Perhaps this road will not be built, but it seems to 

 me more likely than that a road will ever be put through 

 over the rocky range from the west, with not one-twen- 

 tieth the rai'road reasons for existence, with ten times 

 the railroad difficulties to overcome, and against the wish 

 of the people of the United States, who have said they 

 wanted the wonders of the Park preserved, and who 

 always will want them to stay preserved as they are, so 

 long as they have a fair and truthful showing of the 

 actual facts put before them. Such a statement of facts 

 these Cooke City men have not offered. In their selfish- 

 ness they have been wUling to offer anything, to promise 

 anything, to do anything, to threaten anything, in order 

 to attain their own ends. The general sentiment of Mon- 

 tana is that that isn't right. The case should have a just 

 and fair and truthful showing to the public. Certainly 

 Forest and Stream deserves the utmost credit, for it is 

 the only paper on earth that has been accurate, just and 

 painstaking in getting all the facts on this question, and 

 broad-minded enough to hear both sides of the case 

 calmly and impartially." 



I shall make no comment on Mr. Gallaher's clear state- 

 ment of the above interesting facts. They do not need 

 comment. 



Chas. S. Fee, G. P. A. of the Northern Pacific. 



Mr. Chas. S. Fee is the general passenger agent of the 

 Northern Pacific road, and no man in the world is better 

 posted on the Park situation in every respect. To him 

 things must have a practical and not a theoretical value 

 or excellence. Mr. Fee's remarks had the brevity and 

 clearness usual with men of his calling, and their mean- 

 ing was unmistakable 



"The Northern Pacific road does not want to build into 

 Cooke City," said he, ' 'and the Northern Pacific road and 

 all its men emphatically do not want to see the Park 

 divided or touched in any respect. We make our money 

 by carrying people out to see the wonders of the greatest 

 wonderland on the face of the earth. Throw that won- 

 derland open to the rapacity of the few or of the many, 

 and you have no wonders left to see. The Park would 

 then be no better than any beaten road. I hear there is a 

 proposition made to Congress to grant a right of way to a 

 road down Soda Butte Creek, in the northeast corner of 

 the Park, and to run along a part of the Grand Canon 

 of the Yellowstone, thence across to the Firehole 

 Basin. I am a railroad man, but the thought of a thing 

 like that fills me with shame, A railroad in the Grand 

 Cation of the Yellowstone ! The idea is monstrous! No, 

 sir, if you ask whether we want to go through the Park 

 or etxij corner of it, for any purpose, my reply is, 'No, 

 emphatically no, not for any purpose whatever,' That 

 Park belongs just as it is, unchanged forever. 



"The Northern Pacific Railway," continued Mr. Fee, 

 "has done more for the National Park than the nation 

 itself ever did. If we did not stand behind the hotels 

 and the transportation, these services to the public would 

 no longer exist. This railway has shown a spirit which 

 the United States Congress never has. We have always 

 stood for the integrity of the Park, and have helped pro- 

 tect its lines and to promote its attractiveness. What has 

 the Government ever done? It won't pay even the cost 

 of one additional special officer to protect the game. It 

 shows no interest in the Park, apparently knows and 

 cares nothing about it, while all the time people come 

 from all over the earth to look at this most wonderful 



part of the earth It takes people from Europe to go into 

 ecstacies over the Park. If this Park were in Europe I 

 rather think it would be protected I The way Congress 

 has treated the Park is an outrage and a shame. To run 

 this road to Cooke through the Park may or may not be 

 possible. I am told by an engineer that it would be a 

 very difficult problem to build to Cooke from the east. 

 But be that as it may, this road doesn't want to go 

 through any portion of the Park, and doesn't want any 

 other road to do so. The Park is the Park, and belongs 

 as it is." 



The above hearty doctrine may be unpleasant to some 

 of the friends of the Cooke City scheme. 



E. Hofer, Park Guide, Gardiner. 



Lastly, I shall quote "Billy" Hofer, the Park guide, who 

 was my companion in the Forest and Stream winter ex- 

 pedition. This I do because he knows personally moi-e 

 about the game supply of the Park, where the game is to 

 be found, where it is at certain seasons, and how to get to 

 it, than does any other living man. In our trip over the 

 Yancey trail, Billy pointed out to me the line of the pro- 

 posed segregation road, as nearly as we could get to it. 

 We did not go over it, because that cannot very well be 

 done without a balloon, and we had no balloon. When I 

 saw a band of elk, I would ask Billy, "Are they across the 

 segregation line?" and he only too often replied that they 

 were. We probably saw 3,000 to 4,000 elk on country 

 which would bo cut off if the road were built. We could 

 not claim that we saw all there were, for our search could 

 not be thorough on so great and wild a region; but we 

 saw these and perhaps 1,000 more, for all I can say, the 

 latter south of the proposed line. They all might as well 

 be called outside of the line, for a road along the valley of 

 the East Fork, where we saw so many bands of elk, 

 would mean no boundary at all. and the killing would go 

 on on both sides the same as if it all were open, because 

 that is a region far from any patrol, and could only be 

 patrolled by the use of a large body of men. The north 

 line of the Park, nearest the settlements, now patrols 

 itself, because it crosses a range too hard to get into, so 

 rough, indeed, that no railroad could be built over it by 

 any mears on earth. 



"You can see," said Billy, "just what this road would 

 mean for the game. The antelope would all be killed or 

 driven from the Gardiner Flats back into the higher 

 mountains, where they could not live in winter, because 

 they can't paw snow to any depth. The elk that now 

 winter in the rough country along the Yellowstone, on 

 Hell Roaring or Slough creeks, and along the East Fork 

 and the streams coming in on the northeast, would all be 

 killed or run out. The elk have to come in here to winter, 

 because the country is bare. It is not 'hot country' to 

 any extent, but it is struck by the wind along the ridges, 

 and so has bare places where.the elk can get to the feed. 

 There is a good deal of snow on it, but the snow doesn't 

 lie all over like a deep blanket, the way it does in the 

 upper Park. As it is the elk are dying all through the 

 mountains in hundreds this winter. If you drove all these 

 elk out of this country where they are wintering, they 

 would have to go out of the Park or out of the game, for 

 if they had to go back into the big snow country, they 

 would starve to death. 



"They can say all they please about the Cooke City road 

 not hurting the game of the Park, and that there is 

 nothing in that part of the Park, but that is all nonsense 

 to anyone who knows anything about the facts. There is 

 no one thing that" could be done to hurt the antelope and 

 elk of the Park so much as to build that road. The worst 

 of it is, too, that the slice taken off would be practically 

 twice or three times as big as it measured, for there would 

 practically be no north line any more.' '2 



Are More Facts Needed? 



If the above facts, as stated in offset to the intemperate 

 utterances of the Cooke City factionists quoted last week, 

 are not enough to convince any one of the inadvisability 

 and the uselessness, if not the impracticability of the pro- 

 posed segregation road, then Forest and Stream will 

 give more facts and more reasons. Forest and Stream 

 will not "change its policy" on this matter, and it never 

 will quit the fight until it has won an unquestioned 

 victory there as it has in its other measures for the bet- 

 terment or the preservation of the National Park for the 

 people of the world. In this fight it has been alone in 

 the newspaper world. It has spent money and taken 

 chances to get at its facts, but it got them and has them, 

 and can use them and will use them. The Park police 

 bill just signed by the President of the United States and 

 so made a law is, as one must verily believe, the result of 

 no one cause so much as the unfaltering work of this 

 one newspaper. The segregation scheme is the next 

 thing. It is probably dead to-day. Ii it isn't will it 

 kindly wiggle its head? E. Hough. 



909 Security Building, Chicago. 



The Dead Buffalo Find. 



Later. — Under date of May 8 Capt. Anderson writes: 

 ' 'Burgess very carefully investigated your eight dead 

 buffalo in Hayden Valley, and found four of them were 

 really carcasses, while the other four were pieces of the 

 former that had been dragged off to some distance by wild 

 animals." 



This is twice as good as we feared. We had no means 

 of digging down to the carcasses. The strangest part of 

 it, however, is brought up by Billy Hofer's letter to me 

 of May 9, in which he writes: "Burgess says none of the 

 scalps or hides had been taken, and thinks the buffalo 

 died there, but that's too thin, for four buffalo would not 

 have died a natural death at that time of the year and all 

 so close together and at the same time." 



Either the poacher was scared away too soon or else 

 the buffalo were killed in wantonness. The new Park 

 police bill will prove useful. E. H. 



Our Yellowstone Park Work Appreciated. 



Hartford, Conn., May 7. — Editor Forest and Stream: The Forest 

 and Stream certainly deserves great credit for its successful, system- 

 atic efforts and enterprise in presenting to the public the true show- 

 ing up of the needs of the Yellowstone Park. Your report is unap- 

 proachable— emphatically so. Certainly the Forest and Stream 

 (which has no rivals) furnishes a never-failing fountain of interest 

 relating to sportsmen and the Yellowstone Park. This journal has 

 certainly surpassed all other papers in presenting to its many readers 

 a substantial and meritorious account of Howell's butchery in the 

 Park. Much good must come from your up-to-date, wideawake enter- 

 prise. A. C. Collins. 



