to make the necessary details of troops to prevent trespassers or intruders from entering the park for the purpose of destroying the game or other natural objects therein, or for any other purpose prohibited by law, and to remove such person from the park, if found therein. [1]
After examining the bill the House Committee on Public Lands recommended passage of the legislation with one amendment on March 3. The amendment proposed by the committee was to strike the prohibition against mining in the proposed park. With that exception the committee gave its enthusiastic endorsement to the park bill stating:
The area included within the proposed park is situated in the Cascade Mountain Range in southern Oregon, and does not embrace in its limits any agricultural lands; the altitude is from 6,000 to 8,000 feet above sea level. While a large part of the tract is covered with timber, it is not of a character suitable for lumber, most of it being what is known as lodge-pole pine, and of very little commercial value.
Near the center of the proposed park is situated Crater Lake, which is conceded by all who have visited it to be one of the greatest scenic wonders in the United States, if not in the known world. Increasing numbers of scientists visit it from year to year for the purpose of making additional investigations, and all of them regard it as one of the greatest natural wonders of our country. The people of the West, as well as tourists, with one accord join the scientist in the wish that this grand work of nature may be preserved in its original beauty for the instruction and pleasure of all who may desire to visit it.
There are no settlers within the limits of the proposed park; hence its establishment would in no way interfere with any vested or squatters’ rights, and for this reason it is desirable that the proposed park be authorized at an early day.
Another argument in favor of such action is the fact that the park would be easily accessible by means of roads already constructed.
We are fully satisfied that the land designed to be set aside for the purpose contemplated by this bill is of such a character that it can not be utilized for agricultural purposes, nor with profit for any purpose of trade whatever, but is chiefly valuable for the purpose for which the proposed act seeks to appropriate it. . . .
The report included supporting letters of endorsement from Binger Hermann, Commissioner of the General Land Office, Acting Secretary of the Interior Thomas Ryan, and the aforementioned scientists J.S. Diller, C. Hart Merriam, Barton W. Everman, and Frederick V. Colville. [2]
The bill died on the House floor, the result of lobbying efforts by timber and other speculative interests. Tongue introduced an identical bill (H.R. 2976) on December 8, 1899, and it was again reported favorably by the Committee on Public Lands on March 6, 1900, this time without recommending the removal of the ban on mining. The bill, however, met a fate similar to its predecessor on the House floor. [3]
Action on the Crater Lake National Park bill focused on the Senate where Oregon’s two senators introduced bills virtually identical to those submitted by Tongue. The bills, however, encountered opposition from various political interest groups and died in the Committee on Public Lands.
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