Our Forty-Third Anniversary 
ITH this issue FOREST AND STREAM celebrates its forty-third birthday, the paper 
having been established and introduced as a weekly in August, 1873. At the time 
mentioned there was practically no natural history periodical of popular interest 
published in the United Stales, and FOREST AND STREAM at once offered to scien¬ 
tific men, naturalists, nature lovers and sportsmen a vehicle for the expression of 
their views on a variety of subjects of great interest to the general public. 
To what an extent that interest developed, and how it attracted to the columns of FOREST AND 
STREAM a brilliant array of talent which has always been—and still is—a feature of this jour¬ 
nal, older readers of FOREST AND STREAM can well recall. The policy of the ideal in outdoor 
journalism which distinguished FOREST AND STREAM from the beginning is still in force, 
and it is pleasing to set down here that at no time has the future of the paper appeared brighter. 
To recall what this paper has accomplished may seem like self-praise, but in its long career 
it has done many things of importance to the nature lover, the naturalist and the sportsman. 
Its famous propaganda for the abolishment of the sale of game, thus contributing to the 
preservation of many interesting and important species, may be mentioned in this connection. 
About 1881, when nitro powders were first experimented with in small firearms, they were 
uncertain in action, dangerous, and burst many guns. FOREST AND STREAM had admitted 
to its columns advertisements of these nitro powders under the impression that the manufac¬ 
turers’ experiments had been conducted to a point where the safety of the powder had been 
demonstrated. When it found this was not the case, it made a series of experiments for itself, 
and finding the powder too uncertain for common use, declined to accept the advertisements of 
the manufacturers not meeting the test. At the time this made a great stir in the shooting world. 
About 1883 efforts were made by a syndicate of capitalists to exploit the Yellowstone National 
Park for private o'ain. FOREST AND STREAM took this matter up and for a dozen years con¬ 
ducted a nation-wide campaign in behalf of the protection of the Park and the keeping it what 
the Law said it should be—a pleasure ground for the whole people. 
In 1886 the paper established the Audubon Society, and wholly supported it for four years. 
In 1885, in order to report actual conditions, a member of the staff of FOREST 
AND STREAM, visited what was known as the St. Mary’s country. It was then a portion of the 
Blackfeet Indian Reservation. This portion of the Reservation was sold to the Government in 
1895, and was thrown open to mining. Thorough prospecting failed to develop any considerable 
mineral deposits. Shortly after that the Editor of FOREST AND STREAM suggested that this 
region should be made a National park. FOREST AND STREAM aroused Senator Carter’s 
interest in the matter, and for years carried on a campaign of education, which finally, in 1910, 
resulted in the passage of a Bill establishing the Glacier National Park. 
Perhaps all this may he regarded by the present-day reader as reminiscent, and therefore inter¬ 
esting only historically. 
To speak of the future might also be misinterpreted. But the publishers of FOREST AND 
STREAM do not need to make specific promises in this particular. The paper as a monthly 
has gained at least 20,000 regular subscribers, as compared with the weekly edition, and is still 
gaining at a proportionate rate. 
Under such happy circumstances FOREST AND STREAM’S family—some of whom have 
been members since the first birthday of the paper forty-three years ago and who, still hale, 
hearty, healthful and happy will for the most part help celebrate the semi-centennial of the 
journal a few years hence—may be assured that the FOREST AND STREAM of 1917 will be 
better than the paper of 1916, and that no effort will be spared nor expense evaded toward this end. 
To the Nimrod readers of FOREST AND STREAM, Good Hunting! To the angling frater¬ 
nity, All the joys that Isaak Walton ever conjured up. To the Nature lover, a closer view, 
and participation in delightful discovery! To the naturalist, a successful interpretation of nature’s 
secrets. To our readers, one and all. Our best wishes for success in their particular fields of 
life, and continued enjoyment in their chosen forms of recreation. 
THE EDITORS OF FOREST AND STREAM. 
