With the introduction of H.R. 4393, which was virtually identical to Tongue’s earlier bills, Steel began circulating a petition via Oregon’s newspapers. Addressed to “the Senate and House of Representatives assembled” the petition requested “favorable consideration” of the bill. It read:
Crater Lake is located on the summit of the Cascade range of mountains, in Klamath County, Oregon, and is one of the greatest natural wonders of the world. It is a portion of the unappropriated vacant domain of the Government, and in the opinion of your petitioners should be set apart and maintained as a National Park. To this end Hon. Thomas H. tongue has introduced in your honorable body H.R. 4393, for which we respectfully request your support.
The surface of the lake is 6,239 feet above sea level, it is nearly six miles in diameter and is completely surrounded by nearly perpendicular walls from 1,000 to 2,000 feet high. It contains a circular island, or cinder cone, 845 feet high, in the top of which is an extinct crater 90 feet deep. The water is clear as crystal, 2,000 feet deep and of the richest possible blue. Adjoining the lake and guarding its approaches the mountains are rugged, of great altitude and of no value for agriculture or mining. In spite of laws to the contrary, wild game in the Pacific Northwest is rapidly disappearing, and unless steps are taken in the near future to provide a refuge for it, many varieties will become extinct. [6]
By March 1902 the petition had been signed by more than 4,000 persons, many of them being political, business, and religious leaders in the state. [7] National periodicals contributed to the campaign effort by printing illustrated articles describing the beauties of the lake. [8]
Responding to publicity engendered by the Steel petition and the national periodical articles, the House Committee on Public Lands unanimously recommended passage of the bill without amendment on March 11. The report contained supporting letters of recommendation from Binger Hermann, Commissioner of the General Land Office; Thomas Ryan, former Acting Secretary of the Interior; Diller, Merriam, Everman, and Colville. [9]
Despite the favorable report by the committee, the bill encountered opposition from House Speaker David B. Henderson of Iowa. Because there were a number of national parks and battlefield bills before the House at the time Henderson refused to recognize any of them. Thus , when Representative John F. Lacey of Iowa attempted to call up the bill for consideration by the Committee of the Whole on March 14, Henderson refused to permit the bill to be debated. [10] Tongue, as well as Steel, took the matter to President Theodore Roosevelt, who supported the bill, and, at the request of the president the Speaker agreed to let the bill be considered by the full House.
As a result of these negotiations Tongue was permitted to bring up the bill for consideration by the House on April 19. After the bill was read it was subjected to considerable debate. Representative Charles L. Bartlett of Georgia requested that Tongue describe the character of the land that was “proposed to be appropriated as a park.” Tongue responded:
I think, possibly, I can best answer the gentleman’s question by reading from the report of Prof. Hart Merriam, chief of the Biological Survey, who has visited the park, and who makes this statement, which will be found on page 4 of the committee’s report:
The proposed park is a very small affair–only 18 by 22 miles, if I am correctly informed–and contains no agricultural land of any kind, but consists wholly of a mountain, a little more than 9,000 feet in altitude, whose summit has been destroyed by volcanic action, and is now occupied by a gigantic caldron nearly 6 miles in diameter and 4,000 feet in depth.
That is the character of the land included in the park. I requested Professor Diller, of the Geological Survey, who has visited this lake at different times, to draw the boundaries of this park so as to include no valuable land. Now, the object of the bill is simply this: Crater Lake is one of the most interesting natural objects on the continent, if not in the world. It is an extinct volcano. The top of the mountain has apparently been cut smoothly off. There is a cavity about 4,000 feet in depth, 2,000 feet of which is water. Along the sides of the mountains there seem to be an unusual variety of fauna and flora, a great variety of timber, of mammal, birds, etc. , rendering this place of great scientific value. The object of this bill is simply to withdraw this land from public settlement. The most of it has been withdrawn already by reason of being in a forest reserve, and also, which is the most important object, to punish mutilation and destruction of the natural objects of interest within the park and to preserve it in its present condition, in its natural beauty and native wildness, both for its great beauty and great scientific value.
This bill has been reported three times in three separate Congresses unanimously by the Committee on Public Lands. It has been recommended by the Secretary of the Interior, by the Commissioner of the Land Office, by the officers of the Geological Survey, by the Biological Department, and two or three others of the bureaus of the Agricultural Department, and is favored by all the scientific offices of the Federal Government. [11]
