proportion of the Rainier Mountain Forest Reserve as a National Park. It was a veritable "wheel within a wheel" proposition, and it has never developed why any such action was necessary as a measure of common interest.
So far as Mt. Rainier was concerned, the forest reserve laws protected it fully as much as it could possibly be under the laws governing National Parks, hence the scheme of creating a National Park was in reality a cloak for some hidden purpose. In order to indicate precisely what that purpose was, there is presented herewith the full text of the bill creating the National Park. There is nothing on the face of the measure to show that it had to do with anything except the proper pri)tection of natural wonders that could not be preserved in any other way. Other National Parks were in existence at the time, so what objections could there be to adding to the list? The wonders of Yellowstone are thus guarded; so are those of the Yosemite Valley, the Calaveras BigTrees, and other notable points of interest throughout the country, but then it must be considered that they are marvelous attractions, and besides were not included in any forest reserve at the time of being converted into National Parks. True, the Crater Lake National Park was cut out of the Cascade Forest Reserve, but there are no signs that anybody got the benefit of exclusive privileges by the operation. It is between the lines of the Act creating the Mt. Rainier National Park where its worst features exist—where the "nigger in the woodpile" may be observed in all his sable glory—and it is this phase of the situation that shall be analyzed in detail during the course of this article.
The original Pacific Forest Reserve was located where the Mt. Rainier National Park now is. It included an area about twice as large as the present park and was proclaimed by the President, February 20, 1893. By a second proclamation, February 22, 1897, this Pacific Forest Reserve and a large addition was proclaimed to be the Mt. Rainier Forest Reserve. By act of IVIarch 2, 1899, the Mt. Rainier National Park was created. The Mt. Rainier Forest Reserve was withdrawn from settlement ]'Iarch 1. 1898. Recent additions were made March 2, 1907. What was called the Mt. Rainier Forest Reserve is now known as the Rainier National Forest. The law establishing the latter reads as follows:
CHAP. 377.—An Act To set aside a portion of certain lands in the State of Washington, now known as the Pacific Forest Reserve, as a public park, to be known as the Mount Rainier National Park.Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, that all those certain tracts, pieces, or parcels of land lying and being in the State of Washington, and within the boundaries particularly described as follows, to-wit: Beginning at a point three miles east of the northeast corner of township numbered seventeen north, of range six east of the Willamette meridian; thence south through the central parts of townships numbered seventeen, sixteen, and fifteen north, of range seven east of the Willamette meridian, eighteen miles, more or less, subject to the proper easterly or westerly offsets, to a point three miles east of the northeast corner of township numbered fourteen north, of range six east of the Willamette meridian; thence east on the township line between townships numbered fourteen and fifteen north, eighteen miles, more or less, to a point three miles west of the northeast corner of township fourteen north, of range ten east of the Willamette meridian; thence northerly subject to the proper easterly or westerly offsets, eighteen miles, more or less, to a point three miles west of the northeast corner of township numbered seventeen north, of range ten east of the Willamette meridian (but in locating said easterly boundary, wherever the summit of the Cascade Mountains is sharply and well defined, the said line shall follow the said summit, where the said summit line bears west of the easterly line as herein determined); thence westerly along the township line between said towii ships numbered seventeen and eighteen to the place of beginning, the same being a portion of the lands which were reserved from entry or settlement and set aside as a public reservation by proclamation of the President on the twentieth day of February, in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and ninety-three, and of the Independence of the United States the one hundred and seventeenth, are hereby dedicated and set apart as a public park, to be known and designated as the Mount Rainier National Park, for the benefit and enjoyment of the people; and all persons who shall locate or settle upon or occupy the same, or any part thereof, except as hereafter provided, shall be considered trespassers and be removed therefrom.
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