Muir’s third point was that recession of the valley — ceding from state ownership back to the federal government — was tied to protecting surrounding forests whose primary importance was conservation of water supplies. He used the water supply argument to lobby against the Caminetti bill of 1895 which would have reduced Yosemite National Park by half and severely damaged the recession campaign.(7) Muir’s opposition to the bill also stemmed from the belief that the newly created federal forest reserves (which were later to become national forests) should not be compromised by inholdings. During this period thousands of acres of formerly public domain forest land slipped into private hands, often by fraudulent means. Once the timber was cut, there were aesthetic problems and difficulties in maintaining enough water for irrigation and municipal supplies. Without federal control, he saw the infamous “stump forest” in Yosemite Valley being duplicated on a larger scale throughout the Sierra.(8)
The components of Muir’s campaign matched those of Steel’s, though the beginning of the Crater Lake effort predated attempts at Yosemite recession. William Gladstone Steel (1854-1934), like Muir, enjoyed something of an early victory by seeing ten townships around Crater Lake reserved from settlement in 1886. This was done as a necessary first step in the creation of a national park, but soon encountered the reluctance of many congressmen who viewed such reservations as a drain on the Treasury.
Born in Ohio, Steel finished high school in Portland, Oregon. He became a postal carrier after short stints as a newspaperman, railroad promoter, and publisher. His first visit to Crater Lake came on a short vacation from the Portland post office in 1885. Steel and a friend went to southern Oregon to meet up with geologist Joseph LeConte who was studying the volcanic features of the Pacific Coast. After seeing the lake for the first time, Steel wrote:
Not a foot of the land about the lake had been touched or claimed. An overmastering conviction came to me that this wonderful spot must be saved, wild and beautiful, just as it was, for all future generations, and that it was up to me to do something. I then and there had the impression that in some way, I didn’t know how, the lake ought to become a National Park. I was so burdened with the idea that I was distressed. [For] Many hours in Captain Dutton’s tent [Dutton was head of a small military party assigned to accompany LeConte], we talked of plans to save the lake from private exploitation. We discussed its wonders, mystery and inspiring beauty, its forests and strange lava structure. The captain agreed with the idea that something ought to be done–and done at once if the lake was to be saved, and that it should be made a National Park.(9)
Upon returning to Portland, Steel began circulating a petition that eventually found its way to the state legislature. It was favorably received and a resolution recommending a public park around Crater Lake was forwarded to the Secretary of the Interior Lucius Q.C. Lamar. As a result, ten townships were withdrawn from entry by executive order of President Grover Cleveland on February 1, 1886.(10)
Like Muir, Steel contended that his proposal was of national concern. He did not support LeConte’s view that efforts to establish a state park at Crater Lake might be more fruitful.(11) Steel was convinced that Oregon could not afford proper maintenance and protection of Crater Lake, so he opposed the state park bills introduced to Congress in 1889, 1891, and 1893.(12)
Provision was made in Steel’s proposal for enforcement of the regulations by resident authorities. Uppermost in his mind was the damage caused by sheep. Their trampling had so destroyed the area’s vegetation in the years before the park was established that the result could still be seen in the 1930s. Fires, whether started by lightning or sheepmen, were another nemesis which Steel wanted controlled.(13)
The park proposal was also tied to the larger goal of protecting forests in Oregon’s Cascade Range. As with the Sierra, the primary justification for their retention in public ownership was water supply. Steel fought for the establishment of a 300-mile-long forest reserve stretching from the Columbia River to the California border. This was proclaimed by President Cleveland in 1893 and included the Crater Lake reservation. The Cascade Forest Reserve was the largest in the nation and was subsequently attacked by sheepmen and timber speculators.(14) Steel and a state supreme court justice named John Waldo (both of whom envisioned a reserve managed much like a national park) worked to defend it throughout the 1890s.(15)
