A History of Forest Conservation in the Pacific Northwest, 1891-1913

I. Background

The story of boundary work in Oregon is a complex one. As in the case of the Cascade Range reserve, it involved fraud by manipulation of faulty land laws. So far as the work has been studied, it has been studied from this point of view. But there are many other factors that deserve consideration. [1]

The same governmental bureaus—the Land Office, the Bureau of Forestry, and the General Land Office—were involved in administration and boundary work in the reserves. But a new factor, in regard to Oregon, was that two of the head administrators in the work—Binger Hermann of the Land Office, and H. D. Langille in charge of the Bureau of Forestry's boundary work—who were themselves native Oregonians. They were on this account more subject to public pressures, and their work was subjected to a searching analysis by the press.

These bureaus were also subjected to pressure by members of Congress who personally and directly benefited by manipulation of the land laws. In Washington, Senator A. G. Foster and Representatives Cushman and Jones had sponsored protests against the reserves; but there is no evidence that they personally profited by so doing. Quite the contrary was the case in Oregon, where most of the Oregon delegation was found guilty of complicity in the land scandals.

There were, in Oregon, strong forces favoring forest conservation and creation of new reserves. The early reserves had been the creation of the people themselves, and the urban and recreational groups who had done this desired to continue their work. Also the success of the Coville report in settling range matters in the Cascades led Oregon wool growers to desire establishment of reserves in eastern Oregon, where range problems of an even more complex nature existed. There was an extensive feeling at the grass roots level that the reserve system should be extended.

But there were other groups which favored extension of the reserves for more selfish reasons. The Forest Lieu section of the act of 1897 provided that when an unperfected claim or patent was included within a forest reservation, the settler or owner thereof might relinquish the tract to the government, and select another tract outside the reserve. By receiving advance knowledge of the creation of a reserve speculators could file on land—usually school land—and profit by the creation of the reserve. Thus the petitions of those who desired reserves for timber preservation were backed by those who only sought means of exchanging poor land for valuable holdings.

The groups which opposed the conservationists were also mixed. Since the grazing policies of the government favored local stockmen, they included 'tramp' sheepmen, i.e., those who had no fixed range but roamed the public domain, encroaching on the range of others. Out-of-state stockmen, who sent migratory herds from Idaho and California to utilize the Oregon range, also opposed the reserves. They were joined by miners, accustomed to free cutting on the public domain, and by timber speculators, who feared the contraction of the area open for exploitation.

Another group of opponents were those who were not ordinarily opposed to conservation, but who, having seen scoundrels benefit by the manipulation of land laws and officials who could not tell a tamarack from a cockle-burr, concluded that the whole forest administration was a front for criminals. This suspicion was intensified by the action of the Bureau of Forestry and the Geological Survey in fighting the lieu land clause. To get ahead of the timber speculators, they made large withdrawals of land from entry, to be created into reserves after due examination. [2] If they were made a permanent part of the reserve, those who had entered on school land would have a "base" for exchange; so the expedient was adopted of holding the areas as temporary withdrawals until the lieu land act was voided in 1905. This expedient certainly prevented the school land men from profiting, and left them holding the bag; but many people misunderstood the policy. The temporary withdrawals left the land in a state of limbo, neither subject to entry nor under the administration of the forest administration, and worked something of a hardship on many local communities. Moreover, the size of the temporary withdrawals led many to believe that they were created primarily to give "base" to the land looters.

II. The Cascade Range Reserve

During this time, an effort to cut down on the size of the Cascade Range reserve was blocked by effort of the recreational group. B. J. Pengra of Salem was an engineer and speculator, who had been one of the incorporators of, and superintendent of, the Oregon Central Military Wagon Road. [3] Pengra petitioned the government to set aside nine townships on the middle fork of the Willamette River from the reserve, as agricultural land. The elimination would consist of T. 21, 22, and 23 S., R. 8 E., and T. 21, 22, and 23 S., R. 9 E., all W.M. Pengra's purpose was evidently to enlarge the holdings of the Oregon Land Company, a subsidiary of the Booth-Kelly Timber Company, which had considerable land adjoining this tract, in the Oregon Military Wagon Road grant, to the south. [4]

The proposal met with a storm of opposition from the friends of the reserve. G. G. Allardt, a civil engineer living in California, who had done considerable work in the northwest, wrote to protest the matter. The petition, he said, was uncalled for, since the area was timbered land and not very accessible timber at that. Moreover, the timber protected the headwaters of the Deschutes River, a stream of great potential use for irrigation; and deforestation would diminish the flow. Allardt stated that he was familiar with conditions there, having surveyed the area earlier that year to determine irrigation possibilities. [5]

W. G. Steel took up the cudgels to attack Forest Superintendent S. B. Ormsby. Steel, Ormsby wrote to Land Commissioner Hermann, stirred up excitement locally over the matter, by claiming that the effort was being made to have the townships restored to the public domain in the interest of an eastern corporation engaged in the sheep business, and blaming "Winchy Hermann" and Ormsby as the chief movers in the affair. Ormsby denied any responsibility in the matter, claiming that the whole thing was the result of Pengra's petition, and Steel was simply stirring up trouble. Ormsby's recommendation to Hermann on the action was that two townships be eliminated and seven remain in the reserve. [6]

John B. Waldo also took up the matter. Writing to Ormsby, he stated that he was personally acquainted with the area, through his explorations in the mountains. The land, he said, was poorly suited for agriculture and but poorly suited for grazing. The timber, mostly yellow pine, was good, but grew slowly in the pumice soil. As the source of the Deschutes, the area should be preserved within the reserve; grazing would make it less valuable as a source of water. The testimony of Pengra himself could be brought to bear. As Superintendent of the Oregon Central Military Road Company, he had, on November 29, 1895, written a report for the office at Eugene. In it he described the area as good for grazing but of little account for agriculture. Waldo pled with Ormsby to protect the integrity of the Cascade Range Reserve, and ended with a fine quotation from the Scotch geologist, Archibald Geike:

It must be owned that man, in much of his struggle with the world around him, has fought blindly for his ultimate interests. His contest, successful for the moment, has too often led to sure and sad disaster. Stripping forests from hill and mountain, he has gained his immediate object in the possession of their abundant stores of timber, but he has laid open the slopes to be parched by drought, or swept bare by rain. Countries once bright in beauty, and plenteous in all that was needful for its support, are now burnt and barren, or almost devoid of their soil." [7]

The protests were heeded, and the elimination was not made. In the northern part of the state, at about the same time, additions were made to the reserve. Wasco County cattlemen in the neighborhood of Dufur had difficulty over division of the range with the twenty thousand sheep which grazed north of the White River. There was also friction in the area between cattlemen and farmers, whose crops were damaged by grazers. A group of the cattlemen circulated a petition asking that T. 1, 2, 3, and 4 S., and T. 1 N., all in R. 11 E., W. M., be placed in the reserve to regulate sheep grazing. They stated that they had consulted with the Oregon Wool Growers Association, and there would be no protest. Some seven hundred signatures were secured for the petition, which was then transmitted to the Land Office. Malcolm Moody, the Congressman from the district, also endorsed the petition.

The area was examined by Superintendent Ormsby, and was made a part of the Cascade Range Reserve on July 2, 1901.

The withdrawal, however, benefited the group of speculators who profited by the lieu land laws. Land speculators, before the withdrawal, got wind of it, located on the school land, and had "base" to exchange for good timber land. [8]

The Wasco withdrawal had the effect of launching the Oregonian on a campaign against lieu land frauds which lasted for four years. In an editorial of July 4, 1901, the paper asked for lieu selection on a "value for value" rather than "acre for acre" basis. On July 8 the paper exposed the methods of the lieu land speculator, in answer to a letter obviously "planted" of an alleged timber speculator. On August 4 the paper broke the story of the Wasco addition. Pointing out that the reserves had been started for legitimate reasons, the paper told the story of how speculators profited by manipulation of the land laws. It was pointed out that the proposed St. Helens addition to the Mt. Rainier reserve would give the Northern Pacific 380,160 acres for lieu selection, and that the railroad owned 103,680 acres in the Washington Forest Reserve which could be used as "base."

In addition, state land in the St. Helens addition totaled 44,884 acres; in the Rainier Forest 18,195, and in the Washington Forest 61,762 acres. The paper ended by asking western congressmen to introduce better land laws.

The Oregonian's suspicions prevented what may have been another lieu land coup. On August 2, 1901, a correspondent of the Oregonian in Salem, in conversing with Ormsby, found that Ormsby had recommended to the Land Office on May 18, 1900, that 529,920 acres in T. 5-17 S., R. 4 E., and T. 22-31, S., R. 1 E., W. M., be added to the reserve. Much of this, the correspondent claimed, was in the O. & C. grant. Ormsby denied that he had recommended the withdrawal; his conversation with the correspondent, he said, had been but a casual one rather than an interview, and as nearly as he could recall, his had been a recommendation that the area be examined only. He had no official correspondence on the matter. The Oregonian reporter, however, stated that his report had been a true one, and asked Ormsby why he didn't keep copies of his official correspondence. [9]

Several other areas were added to the Cascade Rang. reserve for one reason or another. The Board of Water Commissioners of Oregon City petitioned for addition to the reserve on the north fork of the Clackamas River, to protect their water supply. [10] Much of the land was already alienated as part of the O. & C. grant, but several townships were withdrawn. In the Santiam and Roseburg area, the Bureau of Forestry examined several areas in 1903. Much of this land was also alienated, the odd sections being in the Southern Pacific grant. The withdrawals also met great opposition from speculators, locators, and squatters, who found strident spokesmen in the local boards of trade and in Oregon's members of Congress. Nevertheless, the areas were withdrawn. [11]

III. The Siskiyou Reserve

The Siskiyou reserve is located in the extreme southwestern part of Oregon. The area is a wild, rugged section of the Coast Range, maturely dissected by streams, and harboring in its shoestring valleys a sparse population who have tightly clung, almost to the present day, to frontier folkways. Here again the forces of lieu land fraud, Land Office incompetence, and Oregon journalism played their parts.

On March 10, 1898, Binger Hermann, the Commissioner of the Land Office, asked a special Land Office agent named Edward Bender to examine the area at the headwaters of the Coquille River, to determine whether it would be withdrawn as a forest reserve. Later that year Bender reported to Hermann, suggesting that twelve townships be withdrawn in Josephine, Coos, Curry, and Douglas Counties. He reported that the area was better for forest land than any other purpose, and suggested the "Hermann" forest reserve as a good name for it. Hermann forwarded Bender's report to the Office of the Geological Survey, and Charles Walcott, the Director of the Survey, wrote to Hermann on May 2 asking that this area, as well as some others in the vicinity, be withdrawn from entry. Another report on the area was made in 1899 by K. L. Miller, another special agent, as a final check. He made three brief reports; they were, as Harry Brown later wrote, "looked upon as the most ridiculous statements ever made by a special agent. They are absolutely of no value in determining whether or not a reserve should be created, and they have been treated according to their worth." It is doubtful if either Bender or Miller saw the country.

In 1901 the projected reserve came to the attention of Harvey Scott, who had just finished his blast at the Wasco County lieu land fraud. He believed—falsely, as it turned out—that the projected reserve had a considerable amount of O. & C. land in it. The Oregonian correspondent in Washington, Harry Brown, cornered Hermann and asked him point-blank about the reason for creation of the reserve. Hermann made am evasive answer, stating that his recommendation had been made at the request of the special agent, Edward Bender, with whom he was "personally acquainted," and that both Bender and the Geological Survey had acted in good faith. This dispatch, printed on July 2 brought an immediate answer from a Myrtle Point correspondent. Stating that the reserve seemed to be a family affair, the writer pointed out that Hermann's "personal acquaintance" with Bender was certainly true, since bender was Hermann's brother-in-law, who had at one time been postmaster at Myrtle Point, succeeding in that post Frank Hermann, brother of the Commissioner, and being succeeded by Binger Hermann's son. The other special agent, K. L. Miller, was also a brother-in-law. Hermann had a large family, the correspondent wrote, and they all had jobs.

The attack on Binger Hermann and his official family was extended to an attack on the projected reserve. In the Oregonian for July 14, 1901, the purpose of the reserve was stated; that of July 15 had a map of the area proposed for a reserve, and that of July 27 an editorial stating that there was no local demand for the reserve, and creation of it would cause a lieu land scandal. On July 27, Hermann announced he had reversed his decision on recommending the area for a reserve. The next day the Oregonian announced:

Every good citizen in the Pacific Northwest must rejoice to know that Commissioner Hermann has heard something drop. The dull thud which has arrested his none too acute hearing is that caused by the exposure in the Oregonian of the concerted raid made on Oregon's public land through a new forest reserve. Why he was so long in finding this out would perhaps be unprofitable to inquire. Why he happened to notice it just upon the appearance of the protest may also be covered with a veil.

By August 8, Hermann denied for the paper that he had ever recommended creation of the reserve; he had merely, he said, passed along the recommendation to the Secretary of the Interior for detailed information. In a long, detailed report dated January 11, 1902, he again stated his objection to the reserve. It contained, he said, agricultural and mineral land as well as railroad land and an exchange of land in question with the railroad, recommended by the Geological Survey, would be impracticable. He suggested that any reserve be confined to the top of the coast range, where it would not inconvenience the settlers. [12]

The reserve was revived again under the less political and more efficient Bureau of Forestry. The area was again withdrawn in 1903, and a thorough examination made by W. T. Cox of the Bureau of Forestry. On the basis of his examination, H. D. Langille recommended that the area be made a reserve, despite numerous remonstrances from the citizens of Curry County and the Grants Pass and Roseburg Boards of Trade. [13] The area had been badly burned, with hardly twenty per cent of the timber left undamaged; but Langille pointed out that reproduction had begun in the burned areas, and that the land was more valuable for timber than for any other purpose. Also settlement in the area was sparse; there was need to protect the elk in the mountains against professional hide-hunters; and, most important of all, professional locators for eastern lumber syndicates were waiting to enter on the region. Of the people actually resident in the area, ranchers and miners favored the area, while lumbermen, cruisers, and professional timber locators opposed it. [14]

IV. The Blue Mountain Reserves

The lieu land frauds. The creation of reserves in eastern Oregon presents a complex story. On the one hand it offers a study of lieu land fraud and of efforts, state, federal, and local, to bring the malefactors to justice. The other story is that of examination and creation of reserves by governmental bureaus, and of local attitudes and pressures.

In the northeastern part of Oregon, sprawled like a giant starfish, lie the Blue Mountains, covering parts of Umatilla, Baker, Grant, Malheur, Wheeler and Crook Counties in Oregon, and extending over into Garfield, Asotin, and Columbia Counties in Washington. The mountains are marked by even contours, broken by occasional domed or rugged peaks, and range in elevation from 3,000 to 8,000 feet. The timber is the typical east-side open stand of yellow pine, and of commercial importance in being the only timber body of any size between the Cascade Range and the Rockies. The area had once been one of the best range areas in the west, with stands of Pacific bunchgrass so deep on hillsides and plains that it was mowed by machine for hay; but by 1901 the range had become overgrazed.

There was need for reserves in the region. The ubiquitous timber locators and speculators were operating, locating the best timber bodies, taking up land under the Homestead or Timber and Stone Act, and buying school land. A great deal of illegal cutting of timber went on, by mills and miners. There was also a difficult range situation. Here, as elsewhere in eastern Oregon, sheep and cattle wars had broken out. Migratory bands of sheep, on their drive east from Wasco, Crook, Gilliam and Umatilla Counties to Idaho and Wyoming, ate the grass to the very doors of homesteaders; and tramp sheepmen (those with no home range) encroached on the range of resident stockmen, In addition the Pacific Livestock Company, an Oregon subsidiary of the great Miller and Lux firms of California, had taken up forty sections controlling springs and waterholes, directing their cowboys to locate homesteads on these tracts, and then paying them fifty dollars for their title and ranch. By ownership of these few sections they had control of thousands of acres of the range. [15]

The Blue Mountain Reserve, like so many others, had its origin in the need of a city to protect its water supply. The route of the eastern sheep trail, from Heppner or Umatilla to Idaho, passed near Baker City on its way to the crossing of the Snake. In 1901, migratory sheep trespassed on the Elk Creek watershed, from which Baker City got its water. The citizens of that city promptly petitioned that a reserve be created, that their water might remain unpolluted. Gifford Pinchot and Malcolm Moody, the Representative from the district, examined the area, and it was withdrawn as the Elk Creek Reserve. [16]

About this time the Oregon school land ring, led by S. A. D. Puter, decided to try a new coup, by getting a reserve created in the Blue Mountains. [17] Their men filed entries on school land in the area, and then on June 25, 1901 a petition, purporting to be from citizens of Malheur County, was sent to Senator John H. Mitchell, asking for a reserve. They stated that the timber was needed to protect the water supply; that the reserve would make for peace on the range; and that the area was without settlement. Reservation was asked of the Strawberry Mountain area, the north and middle forks of the Malheur River, Silvies Creek, and its tributaries, and the south fork of the John Day River. A similar petition came also, from alleged citizens of Harney County, asking for a reservation in that area. The real signers of the petitions were barflies and floaters, gathered by Puter to further his plan, rather than genuine residents of the area, though the alleged value of the reserve was correct enough. Superintendent Ormsby, after an examination of the area and a conference with Puter, asked that the Strawberry Mountain area be withdrawn for the purposes mentioned. He reported a hundred land entries on the land, mostly of stockmen to control summer range.

Notice of the proposed withdrawal caused a flurry of resolutions pro and con. The chief objections came from Canyon City, in the center of the proposed reserve. On June 21, 1901 George Catternach, of the law firm of Catternach & Wood, wrote to the Land Office objecting to the proposed reserve. It would, he said, interfere with mining and homesteading. He was supported by Orin Patterson, editor of the Blue Mountain Eagle, who pictured it as a scheme by the reclamation companies to increase the water supply in the southern part of Harney County, at the expense of grazing and mining in Grant County. His objections were echoed by both the Republican and Democratic parties in their county conventions, and by many citizens of Canyon City. On the other hand, the Oregon Wool Grower's Association, at their annual convention in Pendleton September 16, passed a resolution asking for the reserve, and farmers of Prairie City also so petitioned. [18]

In 1902 a temporary withdrawal of 60,000 acres was made, and the Geological Survey was in the field making surveys for more withdrawals. Also, people in the western part of the state began taking notice of the reserves. The Oregonian, on July 29, 1902, printed a map of the area withdrawn, and the Portland Chamber of Commerce appointed a committee to report on the matter and make recommendations. A group of twenty business men from Burns submitted a memorandum describing the reserve as "the underhanded method of a few unscrupulous land warrant sharks of securing forest reserve scrip and preventing the advancement and happiness of people who are striving to build homes," and on August 7 the newly founded Oregon Journal published a letter by Fr. Joseph Schnell of Sumpter on the activities of lieu land sharks in that vicinity. [19] However, the Oregonian continued to support the reserve editorially, and on September 26 the Chamber of Commerce Committee unanimously approved creation of the reserve, as an aid to small farmers and a hinderance to the operation of timber speculators.

This support antagonized many people in the vicinity of the proposed reserve. Orin Patterson of the Blue Mountain Eagle wrote to Commissioner Hermann on September 17. The Oregonian, he wrote, was for the reserve, "and not a word can be gotten into that paper on the other side of the question." As for the Oregon delegation to Congress, Senator Simon, he reported, would be of no help, as Grant County had been against his election; Malcolm Moody was out on a trip with the Geological Survey, and unavailable; and J. N. Williamson was for the reserve. His only hope was in Senator Mitchell and in Binger Hermann. A. D. Leedy, apparently acting as spokesman for a sizeable group of people, wrote a long letter to the Oregonian on October 6, sending a copy to the Land Office along with another petition against the reserve from Grant County residents. He protested the reserve on a large number of grounds, some good, some bad: (1) that the reserve was favored by land scrip dealers; (2) that it would hinder resident stockmen at the expense of nomadic sheepmen; (3) that it was a scheme of land corporations who hoped to profit under the Carey Act; (4) that no timber would be available for homes in the area if the reserve went through; (5) that only a small part of the timber in the region was of commercial value; (6) that there was much mineral land and agricultural land in the proposed reserve; (7) that if a reserve was created, people would leave Grant County for greener pastures; and (8) that much of the land was untimbered. The omnibus petition was followed by a delegation of citizens from Baker County, who went to Portland in order to see Senator Mitchell, one of the Oregon congressional delegation later found guilty of working with the land looters; there they protested against the reserve, and against the action of the Portland Chamber of Commerce in endorsing the reserve. In its story of the delegation, however, the Oregonian gave it a humorous twist, and in an editorial of October 27, stated that the reserve was needed for water and forest conservation. Perhaps, it stated, the initial recommendations were too large; but if the loggers and miners had their way they would skin the country.

Meantime, the land pirates continued their work. However, Ethan Allen Hitchcock, the new Secretary of the Interior, found evidence of lieu land fraud in California and Arizona shortly after taking office. He began house cleaning, and presumably urged the Commissioner to take greater care in preventing frauds. Late in 1902, Representative Williamson asked for an area to be reserved, and Binger Hermann's suspicions were aroused. He checked up on the ownership of the land—a precaution, as Harry Brown wrote, "never before taken." Hermann found that "to reserve the townships recommended by Mr. Williamson would create an acre of base for every acre reserved," and on November 26 he denied Williamson's petition. Subsequent investigation indicated that in one township all but eleven sections had been entered; in another, half the acreage was withdrawn, and in two others, one third. "Had these lands ever been drawn into a permanent reserve " Brown wrote, "there would have been lieu base in plenty for somebody." The projected withdrawal also reflected on the Geological Survey, which had recommended the area also.

A similar incident took place in regard to a request of the Crook County Stockman's Association, which wrote to H. D. Langille, the officer in charge of the Geological Survey group in the vicinity, stating that they desired certain lands in Crook County reserved. Langille took the petition at its face value, but Hermann, after investigation, found much of the land was alienated, and thought it not advisable. [20] Of this incident Brown wrote:

This case is typical of the slight ground on which field officers have been in the habit of making forest reserve withdrawals. Langille, without any personal knowledge of these lands, hastened to recommend their immediate withdrawal. Yet this same Langille . . . frankly told the Land Office that he had erred in making that recommendation, for he had subsequently learned upon examination how much of the lands referred to had passed from the government. [21]

In 1903 several changes came about. Binger Hermann was dismissed from his post, partly for nepotism and inefficiency, partly for having suppressed a report by a special agent on the Benson-Hyde lieu land operations. He was succeeded by W. A. Richards, a former governor of Wyoming, who had more ability and less family loyalty than Hermann. Also, the Bureau of Forestry took over the boundary work from the Geological Survey, and H. D. Langille was transferred to that bureau to take charge of the work. The investigations of the Bureau were more thorough than those of the Survey, taking into consideration matters of land ownership and public opinion as well as the technical matters. [22] Finally, the administration had become alert to the dangers of lieu land fraud. Roosevelt, on his western tour, was warned of this danger by Harvey Scott and Governor Chamberlain. On May 21, 1903, he wrote to Commissioner Richards:

I have been greatly interested in what Governor Chamberlain of Oregon and Mr. Scott, of the Oregonian, have told me in reference to the forest reserves in the western part of the state. Both gentlemen say that formerly the railroads benefited immensely by the extension of the reserves to cover their land, which enabled them thereby to exchange their scrip for very much more valuable land in consolidated bodies. They tell me, moreover, that on the proposed reservation in southern Oregon a wagon road company will profit enormously, as well as a railroad company.

Will you kindly have a competent investigation made, and have your representative not only personally investigate on the ground but see Governor Chamberlain and Mr. Scott, and go over the whole matter with them. The very fact of my anxiety to extend the various reserves as rapidly as we can makes me unwilling to extend them in any way that will do damage instead of benefit to the cause. Please also have your representative explain in full to both Governor Chamberlain and Mr. Scott exactly what the policy of the Department is in the management of the reserves; that they are used for the permanent benefit of the settler, the ranchman, the lumberman. [23]

The housecleaning in the Department of the Interior did not receive a great deal of publicity, and by 1903 the Oregonian became concerned about possible fraud in entire Oregon reserves through operation of the lieu land acts. On September 7, in a front page article, the fact was proclaimed that one fourth of the state had been withdrawn. The areas withdrawn were:

The story continued that the policy of large scale temporary withdrawals had begun about a year previously. Hasty surveys of the Geological Survey had been enlarged by the Bureau of Forestry. Some withdrawals had been made to forestall the operation of timber speculators; but many had been made indiscriminately, with examination of only one or two townships in a section. The paper called attention to the fact that many wagon road grants were in the vicinity—the Willamette Valley and Cascade Military Wagon Road grant in the Blue Mountains, The Dalles Military Wagon Road, also in the Blues, and the Oregon Central Military Wagon Road grant in the Warner Mountains; and it was felt that the owners of these grants might profit by operation of the lieu land law.

The next day the paper enlarged on the subject. Boasting of its past record in uncovering graft in the creation of reserves, and acknowledging the need for better federal controls, the paper stated that there had been altogether too much dishonesty in the government:

When it is seen that in the creation of each reserve some corporation has a selfish interest to be subserved; when it is seen that some few individuals get a "tip" concerning future actions of the Land Department, so they can supply themselves with "base" in the forthcoming withdrawal of land from entry, and when it is known that reserves are being proposed for the conservation of water when such a purpose is absurd, the presumption is unavoidable that the forest reserve policy is being manipulated, by selfish private interests.

The paper attacked the lack of responsibility on the part of those concerned with the work.

There is evidence of an intention to cover up information which the people are entitled to and which they would have if the newspaper correspondents were given access to records which may be published without injuring the public business.

The Land Office decided to let the Oregonian correspondent have access to Land Office records dealing with the reserves. They may have been motivated partly by a desire to appease the paper; more likely, they had by this time their case against the lieu land sharks ready, and desired to lay a propaganda background before filing suit. [25] On October 5, Harry Brown was given access to the papers and wrote a fine series of muckraking articles. His articles on the Rogue River withdrawal accused Hermann of nepotism and carelessness; that on the Blue Mountain reserve indicated that Williamson and Ormsby were in league with the land sharks, and both indicated that the Geological Survey and Bureau of Forestry were careless in their work. In the issue of October 12, he discussed the methods of the land speculators, with special reference to Congressman Williamson; and on October 8, the origins of the proposed Warner Mountain, Joseph and La Grande reserves.

The position of the Land Office was also clarified. In interviews with Brown on October 19 and 23 Richards explained the Land Office policy. There was, he said, evidence of collusive acts of fraud. The only possible way to prevent such action under the present lieu land law was to put the land out of reach of scrip speculators and land grabbers by making temporary withdrawals. Action was being taken to stop leaks in the Land Office, and to repeal the lieu land law. Meantime, the temporary withdrawals would stand, and no permanent withdrawals would be made until the lieu land act was repealed.

The Oregonian felt it had won its campaign. In an editorial of November 2, the dispatch was quoted, and the paper remarked:

This assurance will remove practically all opposition to the creation of reserves in forested regions. The extensive withdrawals of public land for reserve purposes . . . were sufficient to arouse apprehension that the old program was to be repeated. . . . The administration's intentions regarding forest reserves is quite clear now, and a better feeling will result from the understanding. [26]

The editorial campaign of the Oregonian continued, but its main focus came to be on the Oregon land fraud trial, which ultimately involved the Oregon school land ring, S. B. Ormsby, and all but Fulton of the Oregon Congressional delegation. This, though a tempting bypath, is not the main theme. But in another aspect of the fight against fraud in land administration the editor of the paper played an important part. This was in regard to reform of the Land Office on the local level.

By late 1903, it was evident that the registers and receivers in many of the local land offices were in corrupt alliance with the timberland speculators, and several in Oregon were fired. Naming of such officers was traditionally a piece of senatorial patronage; but the senators of Oregon were suspected of being in with the land sharks. Bartlett, the register who has already been mentioned in connection with the Grande Ronde Lumber Company, was among those discharged, and Senator Fulton asked that he be replaced by one Knowles. This President Roosevelt refused to do. In a letter to Fulton on August 25, 1903, Roosevelt stated that it was the President's duty to appoint the successor, not that of the Senator. If the Senator would give him the name of a good man, he would appoint him; but Fulton's candidate was not "strong enough to prevent free swing being given to lumber concerns, timber locators, and other corporations and individuals whom it would be his duty to oppose." Instead, Roosevelt appointed another man whom he knew to be honest. Meantime, Roosevelt added, there was need for new men at the Lakeview office, and Fulton was urged to recommend "some first class men" for the positions.

A copy of the letter was sent to Harvey Scott, and a few days later Roosevelt wrote to Scott. Anticipating a fight with Fulton on the patronage, he gave Scott permission to make public the letter to Fulton if a coalition of Oregon and Washington senators developed over the patronage. A good type of man was needed for the posts, Roosevelt wrote, and "no possible coalition in the Senate could force me to appoint any particular man." If worse came to worse, he said, he would ask Scott for the names of people for the different offices; but his hopes were that the Senators would send in the names of honest men.

The Senators did not do so, and it soon became evident that they had close ties with those involved in land frauds. Roosevelt sought advice from the sources in Oregon he could trust, ignoring his own Senators, and crossing party lines. For advice on appointments, he relied on Governor Chamberlain (a Democrat) and Harvey Scott, using as intermediaries Malcolm Moody and the State Land Agent, Oswald West. [27]

Creation of the Blue Mountain Reserve. Between 1903 and 1906, boundary workers of the Bureau of Forestry explored the land covered in the early withdrawals, adding new bodies of timber in a race against land thieves, and eliminating areas earlier withdrawn but on examination found not suitable for reserve purposes. Langille traveled tirelessly over the region, examining areas, meeting people, and explaining the purposes of the reserve. He found much of the hostility due to ignorance of the benefits and purposes of the reserve; and after explanation the hostility died. At Canyon City, the center of hostility to the reserve, stockmen had organized the "Honest Forest Reserve Association" to oppose the reserve, and had prepared a remonstrance for the Land Office. Langille met with them in a saloon—the common meeting place for discussion of serious business—and explained to them the value of the reserve. They adjourned without action, and abandoned the remonstrance. Once the purpose of the reserve was explained, Langille found a large number in favor of it; and this became more true when the fact became evident that the reserve was not an attempt to aid land speculators. Land locators, lieu scrip dealers, and miners, he found generally opposed to the reserve; resident stockmen favored it. [28]

A few tracts were added to the reserve, and many tracts eliminated. Sumpter, like Baker City, asked for land to be reserved to protect the municipal water supply, and these were added. Several tracts of land were added in the Powder River country at the request of irrigators. A large number of tracts taken up under the Timber and Stone Act, the Homestead Act, the Timber Culture Act and the Desert Land Act were eliminated, though much of this was later added when claims were canceled for non-compliance with the law. The grant of the The Dalles Military Wagon Road, and some tracts of state land, were also eliminated. [29]

Two lumber companies requested eliminations from the reserve. The Grande Ronde Lumber Company requested through Senator Mitchell that eleven sections in T. 4 S., R. 36 and 37 E., W. M., be eliminated from the reserve, for the benefit of settlers and the company. Langille's reply was:

The fact that the Grande Ronde Lumber Company desires these lands not included in the reserve is to me sufficient reason to justify their inclusion within the boundaries. The Grande Ronde Lumber Company has recently been absorbed by the Oregon Lumber Company, which owns and has operated on large areas of the Pine Belt of Eastern Oregon. All sections contiguous to the Grande Ronde River have been logged over by them and left in a hopelessly denuded condition. It is only natural that they should desire to continue their operation and cover all of the desirable timber bodies in that region. [30]

The Oregon Lumber Company, with headquarters at Baker, also asked for elimination of an area along the line of the Sumpter Valley railroad; this, also, was not granted. [31]

Creation of the reserve was delayed at least a year by the land fraud trials involving Williamson, Hermann, Ormsby, Mitchell and others; the papers dealing with the reserve were used as evidence in the trial. At length, however, on March 18, 1906, the reserve was proclaimed, covering an area of 2,627,270 acres.

V. Other Reserves in Eastern Oregon

The Heppner reserve. The area which later became the Heppner reserve was a spur of the Blue Mountains west and south of the main range, in form a high plateau averaging 4,500 feet in elevation. The timber type was much the same as in the Blue Mountains, primarily pine on the southern slopes, trending into tamarack on the northern. The timber was badly needed for protective cover, to preserve the springs that had their sources in the woods. Forage was of the Pacific bunchgrass type.

The mountains had coal mines, and there had been a timber boom in the mountains in 1902, when timber locators found the rich timber bodies and "located scores of patriots on the lands for the consideration of $100 per location." The main industry, however, was grazing. California sheep used the area for a range, and in 1902 a range war broke out, when miners and cattlemen joined to keep the sheepmen out. Colts and Winchesters were used to protect the range; one owner lost 400 sheep, and others in proportion, and several herders were wounded. The whole sympathy of the people was with the cattlemen. As the Oregonian reporter wrote, "No Grant County jury that it would be possible to assemble would convict a Grant County man for shooting a sheepherder engaged in pasturing 'outside' sheep on Grant County range." [32]

There was need for a reserve there for a variety of reasons. The prime need was to regulate grazing. Every acre that could grow a blade of grass was in demand. In addition to the resident stockmen, the spur was used as a driveway to the main range of the Blue Mountains, and many transient sheep found it a substitute range. The area was badly overgrazed; some twenty bands of 2,000 sheep grazed the area, and partial users brought the number up to 360,000.

The temporary withdrawal of the area was made on May 29, 1902, on the recommendation of H. D. Langille. He had, at the time, no personal knowledge of the country, but was aware of the fact that a large number of timber land entries were being made at the La Grande Land Office, and desired to protect the local timber supply. The initial withdrawal covered parts of Morrow, Umatilla and Gilliam Counties, and included

The original withdrawal was about 334,000 acres. Much of this had proved to be unsuitable, but other vacant land had been added. The area of the revised reserve was 261,600 acres, of which 18,320 acres had adverse title through homestead, Timber and Stone entries and school land.

Langille examined the area in 1903, and found sentiment generally favorable to the reserve. He arrived at Heppner just after a flash flood had nearly destroyed the town, and probably found people willing to listen to his discussion of the value of protective cover. Aside from this, however, both cattlemen and sheepmen desired the reserve to get a stable grazing policy; and the Heppner Gazette strongly supported its creation. [33]

The Maury Mountain reserve. The situation on the small Maury Mountain reserve was much like that in the Heppner reserve. This tract, like the Heppner, was withdrawn to forestall timber speculators. As Langille wrote in asking for the withdrawal,

Several sections of the timber land have already been covered with lieu scrip secured by base within the proposed Blue Mountain reserve, but this base cannot be valid at this time, hence it is my desire to secure these lands for forest purposes before it is too late. [34]

The ninety sections were withdrawn April 21, 1903.

The area was valuable to protect the sources of the Crooked River, which rose in the area and received no additions below the timber. The grazing situation was much the same as in the Heppner. Sheep were shot every spring, ricks, barns and houses burned, and threats of personal violence made by cattlemen against sheepmen. One of the sheepmen had lost thirty-six tons of hay and seven barns by burning, and had 2,000 sheep shot. Much of the public domain had been illegally fenced by the leading cattleman. In addition, timber theft was common in the locality, with one mill cutting 6,000 feet a day in the area withdrawn.

Sheepmen, the investigator reported, were largely in favor of the reserve, feeling that it would help solve their grazing difficulties. Cattleman, on the other hand, opposed it, thinking that they could handle matters in their own way. [35]

The Wallowa and Chesnimmus reserves. The Joseph River temporary withdrawal was made May 21, 1903, on the recommendation of H. D. Langille, who feared that this area, like the Heppner and the Maury Mountain areas, would be used for speculative purposes. The withdrawal was in the Powder River country, the most rugged area of land in northeastern Oregon, with peaks ranging up to 10,000 feet in height. Little agriculture was practiced in the area, as much of it was above timberline, and all was at a high elevation. Bull pine in places grew to the volume of 10,000 board feet per acre; but the timber was badly scarred by light-burning. The area, of 747,910 acres, was classified as follows:

Some lumbering activity was carried on in or near the reserve. Nine mills, operating mainly to supply the needs of the miners, were located between Union and Pine Valley on the south side of the reserve, and three operated on the north side; their combined output amounted to three million board feet per year. There was some mining, particularly in the vicinity of Cornucopia, but grazing was the main activity in the region. Sentiment was favorable toward the reserve, with seventy per cent for, ten per cent against, and twenty per cent indifferent. Much of the opposition centered at Baker City, where people were interested in the mining at Cornucopia.

Adjoining this withdrawal was the Chesnimmus withdrawal, another grazing reserve with the same general characteristics and activities as the former. The withdrawal of this area was at first contested by people from Wallowa City, where business had been aided by an influx of timber locators, and where some farmers had been alarmed at the withdrawal of agricultural land. By 1904, however, eighty-five per cent of the people affected were for the reserve. [36]

The Wenaha reserve. The Wenaha reserve was the only reserve in the region situated partly in both states. The area is a high one between the Grande Ronde and the Snake Rivers, in northeastern Oregon and southwestern Washington, covering parts of Columbia, Walla Walla, Garfield and Asotin Counties in Washington, and Umatilla, Union and Wallowa Counties in Oregon. It consists of high broken mountain ranges, basalt rim rocks and narrow gorges, and ranges in elevation from 1,700 to 7,000 feat. The area rises gradually from a series of benches on the Grande Ronde River to narrow divides and deep canyons in the north. The foothills had once been a tract of unbroken coniferous forests, but in 1904 these were cut over, and the hill tops burned and denuded by overgrazing of sheep. Higher up, there was bull pine and white fir, with the white fir extending its area at the expense of the bull pine; higher still, a mixed stand of red fir, tamarack, white fir, and lodgepole pine.

This area was bunchgrass country, and furnished grazing for 200,000 sheep, 40,000 cattle, and 15,000 horses. Most of the sheep were home-owned, in Asotin, Walla Walla, Garfield, and Columbia Counties in Washington, and in Umatilla, in Oregon, with some coming in from Idaho. For winter range the desert was used—the scab land, so called from its outcrops of trap and basalt. In spring, after the lambing season, the herds were taken to the hills in bands of 1,500 to 2,500, leaving the desert in May, going up the slopes in June, to arrive in the timbered land by July or August, and reach the alpine meadows by September. They returned to the lowlands in October.

This reserve was another of those which had their origin in the needs of cities. On July 17, 1900, E. H. Libby, President of the Lewiston Light and Power Company, and founder of Lewiston, asked the Land Office for examination of the mountains in the vicinity of Asotin Creek, that a reserve might be created there to protect the stream flow. The area was ade a temporary withdrawal in October, 1902; and immediately a large number of petitions pro and con came into the Land Office. [37] R. R. Peabody of Dayton, Washington, and a number of others who claimed residence in T. 9 N., R. 41 E., W. M., protested on the grounds that they had homes in the area contemplated. The Asotin County Wool Growers also protested against the reserve. On the other hand, Cary B. Toflin, an Idaho man interested in the reserves, made a trip there in 1902 to see for himself; and in a letter to the Land Office of March 2, 1902, he stated that many people protested the reserve because of misrepresentations by sheep men. He himself favored the reserve for its favorable effect on water supply. By 1903 sentiment swung strongly toward the reserve. D. F. Welch, County Clerk of Asotin County, and W. H. Hooper, a local farmer, wrote favoring the reserve for its effect on water needed for irrigation, and before the end of the year many petitions came in from the residents of Garfield, Asotin and Wallowa Counties asking that the temporary withdrawal be made permanent. [38]

W. H. B. Kent made an inspection of the area in 1903-04. In his report he strongly favored making the reserve a permanent one. He wrote,

Local sentiment is strongly in favor of this reserve. The only opposition comes from nomadic sheep men from beyond the Columbia and Snake Rivers and from misapprehension of settlers on unsurveyed lands who have been led to believe that that a forest reserve would make it impossible for them to obtain title.

Farmers, water mill men, irrigation interests, cattlemen, and local sheep owners all favored the reserve. The chief administrative problem, Kent wrote, would be division of range between cattle and sheep. Kent favored alloting the bunchgrass range on the lower slopes of the mountains to the cattle, leaving the ridge tops and interior hills to the sheep. [39]

VI. Reserves in the Southern and Eastern Oregon Grazing Lands

The same general conditions that furnished the background to creation of reserves in northeastern Oregon also operated in southern and central Oregon. Range wars, conflicts of resident stockmen with tramp or out-of-state sheep owners, and timber speculation, all played their part.

In Klamath and Lake Counties there is a high plateau, broken by basin ranges with internal drainage, and many alkali lakes and swamps. In the northern part of the region lies the headwaters of the Deschutes River. The main cities, Bend and Prineville, are on the outskirts of the area, and serve as outfitting centers, while within the area itself are small towns, such as Lakeview, Paisley and Silver Lake. Grazing was, and is, the main industry.

The Warner Mountain withdrawal (later the Fremont reserve) was originally concerned with the protection of the water supply. In 1898 Forest Superintendent B. F. Allen, of California, made investigations which culminated in creation of the Modoc National Forest, just below the California border. In a report to Commissioner Hermann of May 27, 1900, Superintendent G. I. Teggard asked that an additional reserve be created in northern California and around Goose Lake across the Oregon border, on the grounds that it would protect the water supply and stop unlawful cutting of timber around Goose Lake. Teggard reported that a great majority of the people were for the reserve, with the only objectors sheepmen, sawmill men and shake makers. Disastrous fires, he reported, had been caused by the light-burning sheepmen; and shake makers had ruined millions of feet of sugar pine. The Geological Survey, however, rejected consideration of the reserve in 1902, giving "characteristically" no cause. [40]

The settlers themselves decided to take action. They were having difficulty over grazing matters. Local ranchers grazed some 13,800 cattle, 2,200 horses and 38,500 sheep. The local range would support this number; but the local stockmen were troubled by nomadic herds. The area was overrun each year by thousands of mutton sheep, traveling on the California sheep trail. They would drive up the Deschutes Valley ostensibly to a California market, but in reality to graze in the area and head north again in the fall. Probably 100,000 foreign sheep grazed in the area annually, devastating the local range. Range warfare broke out, and large numbers of the visiting herds were killed. Some settlers were forced to rent range on the nearby Klamath Indian Reservation.

Encouraged by the success of grazing regulation in the Cascade Mountains, the settlers sought relief by asking for creation of a reserve. Local ranchers circulated a petition for a hundred miles to the north and to the south of Silver Lake, asking for instant creation of a reserve, that grazing might be regulated. Not a rancher in the district affected refused to sign; W. H. B. Kent compared the list of names on the petition from settlers of the Deschutes Valley, Silvies and Summer Lake Valleys, and Paisley, with the list of actual settlers, and found sentiment unanimous for the reserve. One remonstrance against the reserve was circulated by F. W. Chrisman of Silver Lake, a hotel keeper who desired to stand in well with the timber locators; but it was signed by floaters and timber locators rather than bona fide residents.

In May, 1903, the Bureau of Forestry investigated the area and recommended its temporary withdrawal, which was accomplished on July 27, 1903. In 1904 840,010 acres, on examination, were released as unsuitable for a reserve, and other areas in the Oregon Central Wagon Road Grant were released. The area was permanently withdrawn as the Fremont National Forest in 1906. [41]

An additional temporary withdrawal, which eventually became a part of the Fremont Reserve, was added on the western edge of the Fremont in 1904. The area was part of that affected by a great speculative boom in timber, begun in 1900 and at its height in 1902, which concerned the area between Ashland and Klamath Falls on the west and upper Klamath Lake and Summer Lake on the east. Rumors were prevalent that a railroad would be built into the area from the south, making large stands of bull pine and sugar pine accessible. Speculators came into the region by the hundreds, entering by way of Ashland or Klamath Falls, traveling by wagon across country and locating in the mature bull pine country around Sprague River and Summer Lake. The majority of the speculators were from Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota, much to the disgust of native Oregonians in the area. By October 23, 1902, two thousand entries had been made on timber land in Klamath and Lake Counties. [42]

The examiner found most of the best timber taken up, usually under the Timber and Stone Act, though, as he reported, "A few, being short of ready cash, have made entries under the Homestead Act, and are going through the usual flimsy pretext of making a home and farm, with a 9 x 9 log shack and a square rod of scratched-up gravel." About ten per cent of the land in the proposed reserve had been alienated in this way. Here, also, as on the adjoining sections of the Fremont, sheep had driven out the cattle. Little opposition to the reserve was voiced by bona fide residents; there was some, however, from timber locators and tramp sheepmen. [43]

VII. 1907 Reserves

Boundary work, and creation of new national forests, continued until 1907. In that year an amendment to the appropriation bill took away from the President, and gave to Congress, the power to create national forests in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Colorado, and Wyoming. This amounted to repeal of section 24 of the law of 1891. Had the blow fallen full force, it would have given the forest administration a severe blow. Roosevelt and Pinchot, however, had the facts available on timbered areas in the states concerned; and in the time before Roosevelt signed the bill, he proclaimed twenty-one new reserves, or additions to old ones, in the area concerned, totalling more than sixteen million acres. [44]

Writers have contended that Roosevelt's action was violently opposed in the west, but this verdict must be subjected to some qualifications. Most of the area had been examined by the Bureau of Forestry or the Forest Service long before the withdrawal, and the action was not an unexpected one. Press opinion in the Puget Sound area was violently opposed to the action; but that press had always been unfriendly to the conservationists and often irresponsible in attacks on them. [45] Both Portland papers supported the President's action.

Lumbermen's opinions varied. Puget Sound papers editorialized that the reserves would redound to the benefit of timber barons, who owned tracts of land around the reserves and could buy from them as well as log their own holdings. Small loggers, on the contrary, lacking transportation or access, could get no such sales. [46] However, the Secretary of the Pacific Coast Lumber Manufacturer's Association told Roosevelt that western lumbermen approved of his action; and the Oregonian, in interviewing Oregon lumbermen, found a general feeling that the action would have little effect on the lumber market. The Inman-Paulsen interests, which owned the largest mill in Portland, and the Western Lumber Company, supported the reserve policy heartily, and little adverse sentiment was recorded by the interviewer. [47] The policy of cooperation between the industry and the forest administration was well established by this time, and there is nothing in the lumber trade journals to indicate a wave of indignation over the action. It is likely that the editorials in the conservative papers represented, as E. T. Allen put it, "the feelings of a very small coterie of Bellingham timber speculators" rather than the feelings of the region as a whole. [48]

Official stands of the states varied greatly. In Washington the official opposition was headed by E. W. Ross, the State Land Commissioner. Mr. Ross will be the subject of detailed attention in a later chapter; it is sufficient at this time to say that he was the implacable enemy of the Forest Service, and responsible for much of the bad publicity the Service received in the Seattle and Tacoma newspapers. It was he who was primarily responsible for two long legislative memorials against the reserves, one containing thirty-two, the other thirty-eight, "whereases." [49] E. T. Allen, at the time of the session, had gained permission to present the point of view of the Forest Service to the members of the joint legislative committee on forest affairs; but hardly had he begun to do so when Ross took the floor, attacked the Service bitterly, asked for an executive session and hustled Allen out the door. Allen had no chance to present the Government's case. [50]

In Oregon the situation was different. Here Roosevelt, Governor Chamberlain, Pinchot and regional members of the Forest Service worked closely on conservation matters. The Oregon State Legislature also petitioned Congress that year; but their petition related to administrative matters, rather than asking for reversal of the President's action. [51]

In the areas immediately affected by the reserves, the answer is easier to arrive at. The Bureau of Forestry, and later the Forest Service, in their boundary work, took great pains to get the views of those living in, or using the forests. Their reports are entitled to a high degree of credibility, since they were made on the spot by trained and honest men, and were confidential reports for the Chief Forester, rather than propaganda prepared for public consumption. From their reports, it would appear that in a substantial majority of the cases, the people immediately effected by the reserves favored such additions.

TABLE 2
ROOSEVELT RESERVES OF 1907