TACTICS USED BY MUIR AND STEEL
W. Drew Chick, Jr. displaying a transom of the boat Cleetwood
to Park founder Will G. Stell, July 19, 1931.
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Once the components of the Yosemite and Crater
Lake proposals had been formulated, Muir and Steel used some remarkably
similar methods to achieve their aims. Although the two men were only
acquaintances, they did have common interests and were in intermittent
contact from 1888 to 1912.(16) This would explain some
of the similarities, particularly with respect to the development and
use of constituencies to back their proposals.
Both Muir and Steel obtained early local support, something that
sustained them throughout their campaigns. The major cities of their
respective states furnished each man's base of support: Muir in San
Francisco and Steel in Portland. Having already emerged as a literary
figure, Muir had many powerful friends in California who could provide
him with introductions to useful contacts. Likewise, Steel was
well-situated within Oregon's Republican Party and had two brothers who
were Portland financiers. Each man received the support of their states'
major newspapers early in their campaigns. This move proved useful when
sheep and timber interests tried to dismantle Yosemite National Park and
the Cascade Forest Reserve. They also gave public lectures as a way to
enhance their proposals' credibility. The fact that each man was a
renowned climber and participant in the scientific study of mountain
areas helped attendance.(17)
Both men started their campaigns by writing articles in literary
magazines. Muir had a national audience while Steel's notoriety remained
largely regional.(18) Nevertheless, Steel was the
first to write a book that he could use to promote his proposal. The
Mountains of Oregon was published in 1890 as a loosely-organized
anthology of articles on mountaineering and proposed parks. Steel
highlighted the longest piece, one about Crater Lake, when he mailed
copies of the book to congressmen and other federal officials. The
book's title is interesting in light of an acknowledgment that Muir
wrote to Steel after receiving a copy:
I thank you for a copy of your little book The Mountains of Oregon +
congratulate you on the success with which you have brought together in
handsome shape so much interesting + novel mountain material.
With pleasant memories of my meeting with you the year I was on Mt.
Rainier.(19)
Muir's The Mountains of California was published in 1894. Far
more cohesive than Steel's book (which was a hasty arrangement of
material originally intended to be published in separate pamphlets), it
enhanced Muir's reputation among scientists and brought him critical
acclaim from the public. With the Caminetti bill looming over Yosemite
in 1895 and the forest reserves threatened by hostile interests, Muir
began to intensify his literary efforts. Ten of his essays were
published in the Atlantic Monthly starting in 1897 and later
appeared as a book entitled Our National Parks in 1901.(20) Six of the ten pieces were devoted to Yosemite,
while three others focused upon the fate of the forest reserves.
Both men found that groups organized to enjoy the outdoors could
form a useful constituency. Steel predated Muir in this regard by
organizing the Oregon Alpine Club on September 14, 1887. It was largely
a social fraternity whose purpose was "to attract attention to the
scenery of our [Pacific Northwest] mountain ranges.. By late 1892, the
expense of a mountaineering museum had bankrupted the club and
personally cost Steel $1,000. Membership had dwindled to less than a
hundred and most observers thought the club was dead.(21)
Steel eventually realized that an active mountaineering club might
have a longer life. On July 19, 1894, amid great local publicity, 193
climbers ascended Mount Hood and became the first Mazamas. According to
Steel, one of the group's aims was to make the Oregon Cascades famous
and to sponsor regular outings.(22) After being
elected its first president, Steel organized an outing to Crater Lake in
August 1896. The group gave it wide publicity and supplied the event
with an interesting touch by christening the mountain that contains the
lake "Mazama."(23)
The Sierra Club was organized May 25, 1892, and evolved from a
proposal that R. U. Johnson made to Muir in 1889 regarding an
"association for preserving California's monuments and natural
wonders."(24) The public meetings in San Francisco
were heavily attended at first and the club began publishing a regular
bulletin. As president, Muir's attendance at meetings was erratic so the
organizing fell to other board members. Almost nonexistent by 1898, the
club was revived when its new secretary William Colby sold the idea of
sponsoring regular outings. The first was held from a base camp in
Tuolumne Meadows in 1901 and was an immediate success. Aimed at
attracting new members, the outings included organized hikes as well as
natural history lectures by Muir and other club leaders.(25)
The differences between the Yosemite and Crater Lake proposals also
shaped the way each group responded as a constituency. Muir aimed to
provide better management for an area where there was substantial human
impact, so the Sierra Club aimed at becoming a Yosemite Valley resident.
As early as 1894, the Sierra Club's board of directors wanted to
establish a patrol system in the valley to help enforce state park
regulations. This would be "the first step in the direction of
preserving the Valley from the wanton destruction of visitors."(26)
What evolved was an information bureau housed in a refurbished wood
frame cottage in Yosemite Valley from 1898 to 1902. In 1903, the bureau
was moved to the newly completed LeConte Memorial at the base of Glacier
Point. The structure's completion coincided with the chaos arising from
a disastrous fire which burned from the Wawona Road to Glacier Point.
This happened largely because the state commissioners and U.S. Army
authorities could not agree who should fight the fire. The case for
recession was further strengthened that summer when the state
commissioners notified the transport companies not to allow more
visitors to enter the valley until overcrowded conditions were
relieved.(27)
The Mazamas' response to its founder's proposal was different
because Steel wanted national park status for a feature little known to
science. As a result, the group fostered scientific investigation at
Crater Lake on one occasion and used the findings to promote the
proposal. Although their involvement was largely peripheral, the
Mazamas' facilitation was important in allowing scientists to build upon
what an earlier expedition had done at Crater Lake.
During the summer of 1886, the U.S. Geological Survey sounded the
lake and mapped the area's topography.(28) Much of its
success was due to Steel, who, in his role as special assistant to the
expedition, was responsible for transporting the boats and equipment.
His role in the undertaking gave him credibility and allowed the Oregon
Alpine Club to cosponsor the O'Neal Expedition of the Olympic Mountains
in 1890. Another success followed so Steel felt confident in organizing
an even larger undertaking, the Mazamas outing of 1896. By arranging the
trip so that the Mazamas were climbing nearby Mount McLoughlin while
scientists from various government bureaus made their investigations, he
hoped to give the proposal both scientific merit and wide publicity.
After their climb and an excursion to Wizard Island, the Mazamas
assembled on a site overlooking Crater Lake so the findings could be
presented.(29) The outing also allowed the scientists
to meet with members of the National Forestry Commission, a body whose
purpose was to make recommendations about the disposition of the forest
reserves. For this to happen, Steel cut his participation in the Mazamas
trip short so he could bring the commission to the lake less-than a week
later.(30)
Neither Muir nor Steel were strangers to state and national politics
by the time they finished their park campaigns. Both found ways to
secure influence with businessmen, legislators, and government officials
through various lobbying techniques. In addition, each man chose an
unexpected intermediary when his proposal reached a crucial stage.
After years of petitions, testimonials, and localized legislative
support, the proposals began to move toward realization when Theodore
Roosevelt assumed the Presidency in 1901. It was Roosevelt's influence
that allowed the Crater Lake bill to come up for debate in the House of
Representatives in April of 1902.(31) Muir's most
publicized lobbying for recession came when he and Roosevelt camped
alone in Yosemite for three days in May 1903.(32) This
led to the president's intervention when Senate cooperation was needed
to add the valley to Yosemite National Park in 1906.
Although Roosevelt was a key figure in the adoption of both
proposals, Muir and Steel had to use unusual intermediaries before the
President could sign either bill. In Muir's case this proved to be E.H.
Harriman, president of the Southern Pacific Railroad. Harriman made use
of the railroad's influence on the California state legislature after
Muir and William Colby did some hard lobbying for recession. When the
measure came up for a vote in February of 1905, nine crucial votes
turned the tide and it passed. About a year later Harriman came to the
rescue again when a joint resolution accepting the valley stalled in the
House.(33)
Although Harriman's actions can be explained largely by his
friendship with Muir, the Southern Pacific also wanted control of
transportation to Yosemite.(34) In spite of the
railroad's ulterior motive, Muir accepted Harriman's assistance. He
reasoned that federal control of the entire park area would lessen the
destruction caused by the numerous concessioners (27 at the time of
recession) and other entrenched interests. Furthermore, the Sierra
Club's board declared that Yosemite's poorly-maintained toll roads and
the valley's substandard accommodations were hurting California's
economy.(35)
Steel's intermediary was Gifford Pinchot. At first this seems
strange, especially given the view that Pinchot's name never appeared in
connection with the promotion of national parks.(36)
But he did seem to have been more enthusiastic about Crater Lake than
Muir, whose writing about his visit in 1896 indicated that the most
impressive feature of southern Oregon was its variety of tree species.(37) Pinchot camped with Muir at the lake and later
wrote:
. . .we drove to Crater Lake, through the wonderful forests of the
Cascade Range, while John Muir and Professor [William H.] Brewer made
the journey short with talk worth crossing the continent to hear. Crater
Lake seemed to me like a wonder of the world.(38)
A somewhat similar situation developed in February 1902 when Steel
was eliciting testimonials for the bill which would establish Crater
Lake National Park. Muir begged off in his response:
I don't know the Crater Lake region well enough to answer the
question "Why should a national park be established to include Crater
Lake."
You know this region much better than I do. I should try to show
forth its beauty + usefulness explaining its features in detail +
pointing out those which are novel + which require Government care in
their preservation etc. . .(39)
By contrast, Pinchot's reply was ecstatic:
. . . You ask me why a national park should be established around
Crater Lake. There are many reasons. In the first place, Crater Lake is
one of the great natural wonders of this continent. Secondly, it is a
famous resort for the people of Oregon and of other States, which can
best be protected and managed in the form of a national park. Thirdly,
since its chief value is for recreation and scenery and not for the
production of timber, its use is distinctly that of a national park and
not a forest reserve. Finally, in the present situation of affairs it
could be more carefully guarded and protected as a park than as a
reserve.(40)
The bill was passed unanimously by the committee but was opposed by
the Speaker of the House who refused to let it be debated. He relented
only after Pinchot had spoken to Roosevelt about the bill.(41) After it passed the Senate, Pinchot wrote Steel
again:
. . You give me more thanks than my small share in getting the
Crater Lake bill passed deserves, but I am sincerely glad it has got
along so far. There is no doubt, in my judgment, that the President will
sign it. . .(42)
Steel's triumph came a week later on May 22, 1902 when Crater Lake
became a national park. His ability to get along with Pinchot allowed
the proposal to get over the final hurdle. This is in contrast to Muir
who had severed all ties with the forester in 1897 over the issue of
sheep in the forest reserves.
The best explanation for why Pinchot was willing to do Steel's
bidding might be common interest. Passage of the Crater Lake bill
occurred three years before Pinchot created the U.S. Forest Service and
stimulated transfer of the reserves from control by the Interior
Department's General Land Office to the Department of Agriculture. Steel
started the first forestry organization in Oregon and had surveyed the
Stehekin section of the Washington Reserve when Pinchot was "special
forest agent" for Interior in 1897.(43) They shared a
vehement dislike for the GLO's administration of the reserves, and Steel
had at one point begun to waver from his previous position on sheep.(44) It was only when Pinchot attempted to bring the
national parks under Forest Service administration in 1904 that this
coalition began to wither.
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RAMIFICATIONS OF THE PARK CAMPAIGNS
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Although Muir and Steel at last saw their
proposals favorably received by Congress, neither park retained all of
what Steel obtained in 1886 and Muir won in 1890. Crater Lake National
Park was established without the adjoining Diamond Lake area which had
been in the original reservation. The opposition generated by Pinchot's
Forest Service has been successful in stopping Diamond Lake's
incorporation into the park and all but two minor extensions.(45) Yosemite National Park was reduced by boundary
changes in 1905, which allowed some notable giant sugar pines to pass
into private ownership. The trees were restored to the park in 1939 over
the objection of the Forest Service, but they seemed small compensation
for the part Pinchot played in damming Hetch Hetchy.(46)
Perhaps the long campaigns waged by Muir and Steel also have a
lesson. Park management continues to deal with problems that both men
thought were going to be solved by enactment of their proposals. It may
have saddened Muir to find the National Park Service having difficulty
implementing its plan to reduce congestion in Yosemite Valley. A similar
irony exists at Crater Lake where extensive research is being conducted
to determine if a geothermal energy company's drilling outside the park
could affect the lake.
We owe an enormous debt to these two men and other activists who
have seen their proposals added to the National Park System. They were
willing, as few people have been, to carry a considerable burden for
little material gain. In most cases (Muir is a notable exception) the
reward of activists has been obscurity. Nonetheless, as Steel expressed
it in 1930, there is an intangible satisfaction:
Plundering through this wilderness of sin and corruption, tasting
of its wickedness, forgetting my duty to God and man, striving to catch
bubbles of pleasure and the praise of men, guilty of many
transgressions, I now look back on this my 76th birthday, and my heart
bounds with joy and gladness, for I realize that I have been the cause
of opening up this wonderful lake for the pleasure of mankind, millions
of whom will come and enjoy a and unborn generations will profit by its
glories. Money knows no charm like this and I am the favored one. Why
should I not be happy?(47)
Acknowledgments: The author wishes to thank Mark Wagner, Maureen
Briggs, Melanie Smith, and Kent Taylor for their assistance in the
preparation of this paper. It was originally presented to the 43rd
annual meeting of the California History Institute in Stockton,
California.
NOTES
1. This growth has occurred in spite of some
government officials expressing the view that this category was "rounded
out" in 1940 by the establishment of Kings Canyon National Park in
California. Over 40 sites are currently targeted by the National Parks
and Conservation Association (a group that has lobbied Congress since
1919 to defend, promote, and improve the National Park System) as
potential additions to the natural area branch of the System. Over half
are in the western United States.
2. It took Ralph Starr Waite 25 years to see the
Great Basin proposal accepted. In Idaho, Paul Fritz took considerably
less time because there was less perceived conflict among other groups.
3. Edith J. Hadley in her PhD. dissertation, "John
Muir's Views of Nature and their Consequences" (Univ. of Wisconsin,
1956), states that Muir toyed with the idea of a national park at
Yosemite as early as 1872. There is some indication that Muir was
willing to take steps publicly to further the cause of forest
conservation before he met with Johnson; J.D. Hooker to Muir, March 19,
1886, microfilm reel 19, Microfilm edition of the John Muir Papers, R.H.
Limbaugh and K.E. Lewis eds. (Stockton, CA; University of Pacific,
1986).
4. R.U. Johnson, "Personal Impressions of John
Muir," Outlook 80 (June 3, 1905), 303-304.
5. Ibid., p. 304. The articles were: "The
Treasures of Yosemite", Century 40 (August 1890), 483-500;
"Features of the Proposed Yosemite National Park," Century 40
(September 1890), 656-667. Several open letters that Muir sent to
Johnson may have also been a factor in the passage of legislation
creating a Yosemite National Park; see the Sierra Club Bulletin
29 (October 1944), 45-49.
6. Muir quoted in "Proceedings of the Meeting of
the Sierra Club," November 23, 1895, in Sierra Club Bulletin 1:6
(May 1896), 271-284.
7. San Francisco Examiner, January 15, 1895,
p. 9; also cited in William F. and Mamie B. Kimes' John Muir: A
Reading Bibliography, (Fresno, CA: Panorama West Books, 1986), 150.
8. The "stump forest" is referred to in "The
Treasures of the Yosemite", but the water supply argument is more fully
developed in Muir's "Hunting Big Redwoods", Atlantic Monthly 88
(September 1901), 304-320. This is a point upon which Muir agreed with
the utilitarians in the forestry movement; see Gifford Pinchot, A
Primer of Forestry, Part II-Practical Forestry, USDA-Bureau of
Forestry Bulletin No. 24, (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office,
1900), 87. The degree to which forests affect water supply was an
important part of subsequent U.S. Forest Service research; see Raphael
Zon, Forests and Water in the Light of Scientific Investigation
(Washington: GPO, 1927).
9. Quoted in Harlan D. Unrau, Administrative
History Crater Lake National Park, Oregon, USDI-National Park
Service, (Denver: NPS, 1988), 27-28. Steel has a different account in
"Crater Lake and How to See It", The West Shore 12:3 (March
1886), 104-106; also "Crater Lake Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow,"
Steel Points Junior 1:2 (August 1925), n.p.
10. Special Session, Oregon Legislature, "S.J.M.
No. 5", adopted November 18, 1885, Steel Letters, Box 1, Item 211,
Museum Collection, Crater Lake National Park. Executive Order, February
1, 1886, Record Group 49 [General Land Office], Division R, Box 125,
Rogue River file, National Archives, and "The President's Order",
Steel Points, 1:2 (January 1907), 73.
11. LeConte to Steel, January 5, 1886, Steel
Letters, Box 1, Item 210, Museum Collection, Crater Lake National Park.
Dutton expressed similar thoughts upon going back to Washington, D.C.;
Dutton to Steel, February 27, 1886, SL, Box 1, Item 195.
12. Unrau, op. cit. 37.
13. LeConte noted the effects of large fires on
his 1885 trip to Crater Lake; Sierra Club Bulletin 1:6 (May
1895), 269-270. Muir mentioned fire's effect on the Crater Lake area in
his journal entry of August 31, 1896; Linnie Marsh Wolfe, John and
the Mountains: the Unpublished Journals of John Muir (Boston:
Houghton-Mifflin, 1938), 357.
14. The Cascade Forest Reserve consisted of
4,883,588 acres when it was proclaimed on September 28, 1893. Next in
size was the Sierra FR which was established on February 14, 1893, and
had 4,096,000 acres.
15. An 18 page letter that Waldo wrote to the
President on April 28, 1896, was probably the most eloquent defense of
the reserve; a typescript copy of it is in the Oregon Historical Society
Library, Portland. Steel also saw the Cascade Reserve as giving Crater
Lake another layer of protection. Without its creation, he feared the
possibility of the Crater Lake townships reserved in 1886 being restored
to entry. An order by the Secretary of Interior was revoked for a brief
time in 1890 at Sequoia before park proponents succeeded in getting
national park designation for the Giant Forest and other groves; George
W. Stewart to Col. John R. White, June 8, 1929, in Fry and White's
Big Trees (Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press, 1930),
26-27.
16. Their first meeting was in 1888 when Muir
climbed Mount Rainier. Both of them attended the National Park
Conference of 1912, held at Yosemite; see Proceedings
(Washington: GPO, 1913).
17. Muir began giving public lectures in 1876 and
throughout the next decade went to west coast cities to speak about
glaciers, botany, and his travels. By the time he became an activist,
he was a popular speaker whose income from other sources allowed him to
be very selective. Steel's career as a speaker began when he returned
from Crater Lake in 1885 and broadened over time to include several
lecturing trips across the country.
18. Although Muir began his literary career by
mostly writing for newspapers, he found the national literary magazines
not only paid better but were a more effective way of promoting his
proposals; see Stephen Fox, John Muir and his Legacy: the American
Conservation Movement (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1981).
Steel's writings, by contrast, were generally newspaper articles whose
distribution was limited to the Pacific Northwest.
19. Muir to Steel, October 2, 1892, SL, Box 1,
Item 164.v
20. Originally published in Boston by
Houghton-Mifflin; a reprint by the University of Wisconsin Press
appeared in 1981.
21. Portland Oregonian, December 28, 1892
in Steel Scrapbook 9:1, Mazamas Library, Portland.
22. Medford (Oregon) Mail, September 27,
1895, in Steel Scrapbook 2:2, Museum Collection, Crater Lake National
Park. Article II of the Mazamas' constitution is precise: "The objects
of this organization shall be the exploration of snow-peaks and other
mountains, especially those of the Pacific Northwest; the collection of
scientific knowledge and other data concerning the same; the
encouragement of annual expeditions with the above objects in view; the
preservation of the forests and other features of mountain scenery as
far as possible in their natural beauty and the dissemination of
knowledge concerning the beauty and grandeur of the mountain scenery of
the Pacific Northwest."
23. John D. Scott, We Climb High, A Chronology
of the Mazamas 1894-1964 (Portland: Mazamas, 1969), 3. In 1895,
Muir and LeConte were among the first three honorary members to be
elected by the Mazamas.
24. Johnson to Muir, November 21, 1889, microfilm
reel 6, Muir Papers, also cited in Fox, p. 106. The second issue of the
Sierra Club Bulletin (June 1893, 31-39) showed that the club was
interested in more than just California from the beginning. Club member
Mark Kerr wrote an article about Crater Lake based on his experiences as
topographer on the USGS expedition of 1886.
25. Linda Greene, Historic Resource Study,
Yosemite National Park, (Denver: NPS, 1987), 355-356.
26. Elliott McAllister, "Report of the Board of
Directors", Sierra Club Bulletin 1:4 (May 1894).
27. Muir, et. al., "Statement Concerning the
Proposed Recession of Yosemite Valley and Mariposa Big Tree Grove by the
State of California to the United States," Sierra Club Bulletin
5:3 (January 1905), 242-250.
28. "Report of Capt. C.E. Dutton," Part 1, USGS
Eighth Annual Report, 1886-1887, (Washington: GPO, 1887), 156-159; more
detail is in his letters and scrapbooks held by Crater Lake National
Park.
29. The scientists were J.S. Diller (USGS),
Frederick Coville (Bureau of Plant Industry), C. Hart Merriam
(Biological Survey), and Barton Evermann (U.S. Fish Commission); their
papers were later published in Mazama 1:2 (October 1897),
161-238.
30. Steel later recalled that he had to walk from
Crater Lake to Medford (some 85 miles in two days) so he could escort
the commission back to the lake. Although the group recommended Mount
Rainier and Grand Canyon for national park status, they failed to reach
a consensus about whether to include Crater Lake. Its members were:
Charles S. Sargent (Harvard University), William H. Brewer (Yale
University), Arnold Hague (USGS), Henry S. Abbott (U.S. Engineer Corps),
Alexander Agassiz (Coast and Geodetic Survey), Gifford Pinchot, and
Muir.
31. Unrau, p. 100; Steel to Roosevelt, May 10,
1902, SL, Box 2, Item 11.
32. Muir, et. al., "Statement Concerning the
Proposed Recession", 245.
33. Harriman's role in the recession is discussed
in Fox, pp. 127-128. See also Richard J. Orsi, "Wilderness Saint and
'Robber Baron': The Anomalous Partnership of John Muir and the Southern
Pacific Company for Preservation of Yosemite National Park", Pacific
Historian, 29:2/3 (Summer/Fall 1985), 136-156.
34. John Ise, Our National Park Policy,
(Washington DC: Resources for the Future, 1961), 74.
35. Muir, et. al., "Statement Concerning the
Proposed Recession", 247.
36. Ise, p. 87.
37. Muir, "The National Parks and Forest
Reservations," Harpers Weekly 16:2111, (June 5, 1897), 566;
"Forest Field Studies", microfilm reel 28, Muir Papers; Wolfe, John
of the Mountains, 356-357.
38. Breaking New Ground (New York: Harcourt
Brace and Co., 1947), 101.
39. Muir to Steel, February 19, 1902, Steel
Scrapbook 22:2, p. 46, Museum Collection, Crater Lake National Park.
Another request for a short piece on the lake met with a similar
response; Muir to Steel, December 15, 1906, SL, Box 2, Item 22.
40. Pinchot to Steel, February 18, 1902, SL, Box
2, Item 20A.
41. Thomas H. Tongue [Oregon Congressman] to
Steel, April 18, 1902, Box 2 Item 21F.
42. Pinchot to Steel, May 15, 1902, SL, Box 2,
Item 20D.
43. The Oregon Forestry Association was founded in
1896 as another way to defend the Cascade Reserve. Pinchot made it a
point to visit Stehekin that summer after Steel failed to receive a
patronage appointment as forest superintendent in Oregon. Steel,
however, was more inclined toward forest recreation than was Pinchot;
see Steel, "The Valley of the Stehekin", The State 2:1 (July 20,
1898) in Steel Scrapbook 10:2, Mazamas Library, Portland.
44. Wolfe in John of the Mountains,
379-380, gives Muir's journal entry for May 29, 1899: "Met Judge George.
Had a long talk on forest protection, found him lukewarm. Mr. Steel
uncertain on the same subject. Told him forest protection was the right
side and he had better get on record on that side as soon as possible.
He promised to do what he could against sheep pasture in the Rainier
Park and also in the Cascade Reservation"
45. No national parks have been established in
Oregon since the Forest Service was created. The Forest Service
administered Oregon Caves National Monument from its proclamation in
1909 until 1993, when it was transferred to the National Park Service by
executive order. John Day Fossil Beds National Monument is a former
state park.
46. The sugar pines discussed in Ise, pp. 406-407,
as is the Hetch Hetchy controversy on pp. 85-96.
47. Quoted September 7, 1930, History Files,
Crater Lake National Park.
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