To counter these proposals Steel and other like-minded conservationists in Oregon put up a stiff lobbying effort with President Cleveland and Secretary of the Interior Smith. On March 6 General Land Office Commissioner Lamoreaux responded to Mitchell with the support of Cleveland by observing:
I have the honor to report that the creation of the “Cascade Range Forest Reserve” was recommended by the ”Oregon Alpine Club,” endorsed by various State, City and Boards of Trade officers, and others, and by a Special Agent of this office after an apparently careful and thorough personal investigation into all of the facts and circumstances involved, who in his report states that the citizens generally are unanimously in favor of the reserve being made.
In view of these facts of record, I do not feel warranted in recommending the sub-dividing of the reserve and the restoration to the public domain of nearly three-fourths of the area embraced therein, without first having a careful and thorough field examination made, by competent and reliable special agents, to ascertain the exact portions of the reserve which are valuable for agricultural or mining purposes, and should be open to entry or location; and as such an examination would involve the services of not less than three special agents for several months, at a heavy expense, I do not feel justified in ordering such an examination to be made unless so directed by the Department. [31]
The lobbying efforts led by Steel against the potential breakup of the Cascade Range Forest Reserve were channeled through the Mazamas, a mountaineering club that he had organized in 1894. A preliminary organization was formed and on July 17, 1894, some 350 persons met at Steel’s ranch on the south slope of Mount Hood to hold a campfire. Two days later the club, named after a vanishing species of mountain goat, was formally established on the summit of Mount Hood by some 197 persons who had participated in the ascent. Thereafter, Steel used the club as a vehicle to champion the preservation of the forest reserve against the depredations of timber companies, sheepherders, and land developers. Representing the executive council of the Mazamas, Steel went to Washington to urge Congress and Department of the Interior officials to take more stringent measures to protect the natural resources and scenery of the reserve.
In an attempt to promote preservation of the reserve the Mazamas at Steel’s suggestion held a summer outing and mountain-climbing excursion at Crater Lake in August 1896. The trip had the nature of a scientific expedition, since a number of professional men were invited to join the group. These included C. Hart Merriam, chief of the U.S. Biological Survey; J.S. Diller, geologist of the U.S. Geological Survey; Frederick V. Colville, chief botanist of the U.S. Department of Agriculture; and BartonW. Evermann, an icthyologist with the U.S. Fish Commission. Some fifty Mazamas joined these men on the crater rim in mid-August, along with several hundred individuals traveling by wagon and on foot from Ashland, Medford, Klamath Falls, the Fort Klamath Indian Reservation, and the nearby army post at Fort Klamath. Guided nature walks and campfire lectures by the scientists on the flora, fauna, and geology of the region occupied the group’s time. A meeting of the executive committee of the Mazamas was held in the crater of Wizard Island. The excursion culminated in the christening of “Mount Mazama,” the mountain containing Crater Lake, with appropriate ceremonies on August 21. [32]
The most important result of the excursion was that each of the scientists eventually recommended passage of a bill creating Crater Lake as a national park. Their arguments were made on the basis that the area was a natural wonder favorably situated for a healthful and instructive pleasure resort; potentially valuable for scientific study; a potential contributor to the economic prosperity of the region; and too susceptible to forest fires and worthy of greater care than it was receiving as a forest reserve. [33]
