February, 1921 
FOREST AND STREAM 
59 
Photograph by Geo. Shiras III. 
View in the Upper Yellowstone Valley, the home of probably 1000 moose. This shallow feeding ground would be destroyed 
if Yellowstone Lake was raised and in place of green vegetation would appear an unsightly flat of mud and dead trees 
tures of the lake not well known to 
others. 
T HE Bill introduced by Senator 
Walsh, of Montana, in December, 
provides for the erection of a dam 
on the river several miles below the out- 
let. The increased water level will flood 
the lower banks of the river, its marshes 
and islands and would back up the lake 
so as to cover more than one hundred 
and fifty miles of shoreline and all the 
Islands. In many places the width of 
this overflow will extend for a mile or 
more. The Bill grants the State of 
Montana, or to the organizations to 
which it may delegate its authority 
(representing purely private interests) 
the perpetual use of the dam site and 
overflowed territory, involving practic- 
ally a ceding of the land itself. This 
will amount to thousands of acres in the 
center of the Park. 
In a previous article I pointed out the 
anomalous position of Yellowstone Park 
in the matter of Government control, 
for not being in a State or Territory it 
resembles the District of Columbia, and 
cannot be conveyed to any State or pri- 
vate owner for any purpose, since such 
attempted alienation of its use would 
leave the area without any civil or 
criminal jurisdiction thereover. The 
State of Montana would find itself con- 
fronted with grave questions of juris- 
dictional control, in the maintenance 
and use of lands, super structure and 
waters neither within its borders nor 
contiguous thereto. 
The public is using Yellowstone 
Park more each year, and at the present 
time the customary routes and camping 
places are overcrowded. Many miles of 
new roads should be opened up in the 
southern and southwestern portions, the 
localities most seriously threatened by 
several irrigation projects. Any action 
which will circumscribe for present or 
future generations the largest and most 
popular of our Parks should meet with 
the energetic resistance of the public, 
and should be backed, as it doubtless 
will, by all broad-minded and provident 
members of our National Congress. No 
plainer test of vested public rights 
against selfish private privileges could 
be imagined than this threatened inva- 
sion. 
HE suggestion as to the character 
of the land in the Yellowstone 
National Park, referred to by 
Mr. Shiras in the last part of the above 
article, is expressed in the following 
memorandum which was filed with the 
Rules Committee at the Hearing of 
May 25, 1920, and printed in the re- 
port. [Editors.] 
YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK 
NOW IN THE INALIENABLE 
POSSESSION OF THE CITI- 
ZENS OF THE UNITED 
STATES 
W HEN this park was authorized by 
Congress and created out of 
portions of the territories of 
Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho, there 
was brought into existence a Federal 
domain wholly anomalous in char- 
acter. Unlike other national parks, it 
does not lie within a State, Territory, 
or insular possession. In that re- 
spect it resembles the District of Col- 
umbia, but lacks its constitutional ori- 
gin or provision for government. 
This park was “dedicated and set 
aside as a public park and pleasure 
ground for the benefit and enjoyment 
of the people.” As such it has been 
used for nearly 50 years, and in its 
many improvements millions of dollars 
have been paid out of the public 
Treasury. Today it is generally re- 
garded as the most beautiful scenic 
wonderland of the world. For the pur- 
pose of recreation, scientific research, 
the preservation of wild life, and in the 
perpetual protection from pollution of 
the waters of this great central water- 
shed, there should be a united support 
of the citizens of the United States. 
Our people, in a legal way, are joint 
tenants with the right of survivorship 
in future generations. In a moral 
sense, at least, there has never been 
more clearly created a public trust 
intended for perpetual use or in which 
the rights of the public have been more 
clearly vested than in the case of the 
Yellowstone National Park. 
But there is a legal phase which, so 
far as I know, has never been present- 
ed for public consideration, to wit: The 
practical inability, amounting to disa- 
bility, of Congress to exercise a juris- 
diction thereover whereby this particu- 
lar tract can be made subject to its 
(CONTINUED ON PAGE 94) 
