Sec. 2. That said public park shall be under the exclusive control of the Secretary of the Interior, whose duty it shall be to make and publish, as soon as practicable, such rules and regulations as he may deem necessary or proper for the care and management of the same. Such regulations shall provide for the preservation from injury or spoilation of all timber, mineral deposits, natural curiosities, or wonders within said park, and their retention in their natural condition. The Secretary may, in his discretion, grant parcels of ground at such places in said park as shall require the erection of buildings for the accommodation of visitors; all of the proceeds of said leases, and all other revenues that may be derived from any source connected with said park, to be expended under his direction in the management of the same, and the construction of roads and bridle paths therein. And through the lands of the Pacific Forest Reserve adjoining said park rights of way are hereby granted, under such restrictions and regulations as the Secretary of the Interior may establish, to any railway or tramway company or companies, through the lands of said Pacific Forest Reserve, and also into said park hereby created, for the purpose of building, constructing, and operating a railway, or tramway line or lines, through said lands, also into said park. He shall provide against the wanton destruction of the fish and game found within said park, and against their capture or destruction for the purposes of merchandise or profit. He shall also cause all persons trespassing upon the same after the passage of this Act to be removed therefrom, and generally shall be authorized to take all such measures ^ shall be necessary to fully carry out the objects and purposes of this Act.
Sec. 3. That upon execution and filing with the Secretary of the Interior, by the Northern Pacific Railroad Company, of proper deed releasing and conveying to the United States the lands in the reservation hereby created, also the lands in the Pacific Forest Reserve which have been heretofore granted by the United States to said company, whether surveyed or unsurveyed, and which lie opposite said company's constructed road, said company is hereby authorized to select an equal quantity of non-mineral public lands, so classified as non-mineral at the time of actual Government survey, which has been or shall be made, of the United States not reserved and to which no adverse right or claim shall have attached or have been initiated at the time of the making of such selection lying within any State into or through which the railroad of said Northern Pacific Railroad Company runs, to the extent of the lands so relinquished and released to the United States: Provided, That any settlers on lands in said National Park may relinquish their rights thereto and take other public lands in lieu thereof, to the same extent and under the same limitations and conditions as are provided by law for forest reserves and National Parks.
Sec. 4. That upon the filing by the said railroad company at the local land office of the land district in which any tract of land selected and the payment of the fees prescribed by law in analogous cases, and the approval of the Secretary of the Interior, he shall cause to be executed, in due form of law, and deliver to said company, a patent of the United States conveying to it the lands so selected. In case the tract so selected shall at the time of selection be unsurveyed, the list filed by the company at the local land office shall describe such tract in such manner as to designate the same with a reasonable degree of certainty; and within the period of three months after the lands in eluding such tract shall have been surveyed and the plats thereof filed by said local land office, a new selection list shall be filed by said company, describing such tract according to such survey; and in case such tract, as originally selected and described in the list filed in the local land office, shall not precisely conform with the lines of the official survey, the said company shall be permitted to describe such tract anew, so as to secure such conformity.
Sec. 5. That the mineral land laws of the United States are hereby extended to the lands lying within the said reserve and said park.
Approved March 2, 1899.
Could the human mind conjure a more cunning device for flim-flamming the public than is contained in this measure? Consider all phases of the situation, and what is the result? Here was a vast extent of country already embraced within the protecting folds of a forest reservation, and within the limits of which the Northern Pacific Railroad Company owned fully 1,000,000 acres of various kinds of lands—good, bad and indifferent—all available for use as base in the selection of other lands under the Act of June 4, 1897. In order to clothe itself with even greater and more exclusive privileges than were enjoyed under the Forest Reserve Act, the company—through its hirelings in Congress—secures the passage of a law so cleverly drawn that it operates as a blanket in the better protection of the Company's base lands. The process was simple enough after it is understood properly; by creating a National Park within the limits of an established forest reserve, and inserting a sufficient quantity of "jokers" in the measure, making the National Park project possible, the railway corporation is
