GRENDEUR OF AMERICA BELONGS TO ALL THE PEOPLE
Neuberger, Richard L.
Grandeur Of America Belongs To All The People By RICHARD L NEUBERGER Portland, Ore. NEAR the northwestern corner of the State of Wyoming stretches a broad alluvial basin known as the Jackson...
...And miners, lumbermen, and irrigationists also looked with avidity at this treasure-trove of natural resources...
...Fortunately, President Roosevelt stood by his guns and vetoed the bill...
...The issue frittered along for nearly 2 decades...
...The argument against the Jackson Hole Monument is that its approximately 200,000 acres are far in excess of the intent of the Antiquities Act...
...Already certain towns in Oregon and Washington have started looking longingly at the timber in the National Forests at their doors...
...So did Franklin D. Roosevelt...
...Congress passed Wallgren's bill...
...Let Bob finish the tale: "Then some one came out with a rifle, fired a shot or two, the antics were over, the interest at an-end, and the ebb tide carried out to sea the carcass of the'first sea lion ever to venture so far inland...
...The reasons were obvious...
...The Grand Tetons and the Salt River Mountains frame it against a background of snowy peaks and forested precipices...
...This measure authorized the President to preserve Indian ruins "and other objects of historic and scientific interest...
...What about the people 200 miles away who drink water from a river which rises in a watershed protected bv these trees ? What about the man 1.000 miles away who plans to camp in the shade of those trees on a future vacation...
...Jackson Hole is so stirring a spot that 20 years ago John D. Rockefeller, Jr., bought 35,000 acres in the region to give to the American Government, to be held in trust and reserve for the people of the nation...
...NEAR the northwestern corner of the State of Wyoming stretches a broad alluvial basin known as the Jackson Hole...
...A few stockmen could graze their cattle in the lush meadows and add to their earnings...
...But in order that one man could have a thrill lasting a few seconds, the sea lion was killed...
...Herbert Hoover favored acceptance of the lands...
...Rights Of The Next Generation The propaganda was so effective that Congress pas«ed a bill specifically abolishing the Jackson Hole National Monument...
...And so the Olympics were preserved...
...The Public Interest But Jackson Hole has a place in contemporary history as well...
...With its rivers and meadows and forests and lakes, all thrown against a mountain tapestry, Jackson Hole is a prize example of Western grandeur...
...It had taken the "rain forests" 3,000 years to grow...
...The Monument stayed in existence...
...The eventual outcome of this struggle may determine the fate of the vast Public Domain of the West...
...A few big-game hunters might have a grand time slaughtering the elk in Jackson Hole...
...Had the man with the rifle not shot the sea lion, the animal might have stayed in the bay indefinitely, and little children could have looked for the visitor when they went to school...
...At this juncture a nationwide propaganda campaign against the President's proclamation got under way...
...Bitter and unrelenting fights were waged against the establishment of such National Parks as Grand Canyon, Crater Lake, Mount Rainier, Kings Canyon, and Olympic...
...But once the bunch-grass was gone, there would be no more anchor for the top-soil...
...Their towering firs, rising out of primeval undergrowth of ferns and bushes, could not be replaced for countless centuries...
...Does a region like Jackson Hole belong to a few thousand people in that immediate area, to be exploited at will...
...A vigorous effort will be made to pass this legislation...
...It is almost as old as the nation...
...These critics forget, however, that Theodore Roosevelt established, by proclamation, the Grand Canyon National Monument of 600,000 acres and Herbert Hoover actually proclaimed a Monument of 2,000,000 acres in New Mexico...
...The issue at stake is basic...
...What about the next generation of Americans, and the next...
...What about the people 3,000 miles away who take assurance and spiritual strength from the fact that, somewhere in America, there is preserved a facsimile of the land that the Pilgrim Fathers and Daniel Boone and Lewis and Clark looked upon...
...Jackson Hole—yes, and all the replicas of Jackson Hole throughout the country—belong to all the people of the United States and not just a few folks who happen, either by accident or purposefully, to live nearby...
...Then in 1943 President Roosevelt, by executive proclamation, created the Jackson Hole National Monument...
...Local papers reported that "an interested crowd of spectators watched the-antics of the animal...
...It is the object of one of the most amazing political struggles of recent years...
...The great "rain forests" of the Olympics would provide boards for shipyards, houses, bungalows, fences, and railroad ties...
...One day a sea lion was sporting in Coos Bay on the coast, white-haired Bob Sawyer told me...
...There was no more sea lion to take an interest in...
...President Roosevelt established the Jackson Hole National Monument under the provisions of the Antiquities Act of 1906...
...BUT do these trees belong to local communities...
...Pressure to invade National Parks will increase...
...But a handful of men did not want the Jackson Hole region incorporated in the National Park system...
...So that a few men could fatten their herds, a great national scenic spectacle would be lost...
...Did not they have a claim to these forests, too...
...It still was not fair game for the hunters, stockmen, and loggers...
...Rockefeller kept his lands, dutifully paying taxes to the county and holding open his offer...
...And of course President Roosevelt was accused of being a dictator, although every Chief Executive since Theodore Roosevp-1*- had, at one time or another, established National Monuments by proclamation...
...Some of the wealthiest ranchers in the Far West were pictured as poor, downtrodden farmers about to lose their grazing rights...
...Jackson Hole receives tribute in both water and scenery from two great National Parks, Yellowstone and Grand Teton...
...The Monument comprised 170,308 acres of Public Domain, 33,795 acres of John D. Rockefeller's lands, and approximately 16,101 in private holdings...
...The Bureau of the Budget, however, objected to a provision calling for $10,000 annual payment, over a period of 5 years, to Teton County to replace taxes lost on the Rockefeller grant...
...Lumbermen will try to erode Forest Service conservation practices...
...All previous rights in the private holdings were maintained by the proclamation...
...Should they be taken out of production forever...
...Jackson Hole, instead of being an upland paradise, would be a, desolate pocket in the hills...
...Barrett of Wy- ' oming has introduced another bill to abolish the Monument...
...Greed vs...
...Landowners with hank accounts in 6 figures were portrayed as humble sharecroppers in danger of losing the water that kept their meager acres from searing...
...It is linked closely, too, with Western history—with Capt...
...But the propaganda continues...
...Benjamin L. E. Bonneville, with Kit Carson, and with John Colter of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, the first "white man to see the wonders of the Yellowstone...
...Did the people of a single generation have a right to lay waste these groves forever...
...The sod would commence to blow...
...Jackson Lake, a blue diadem in the bottom of Jackson Hole, is one of the principal sources of the Snake River, which twists for nearly 1,000 miles across Wyoming, Idaho and Washington to its junction with the Columbia...
...To permit the sectional exploitation of our scenic grandeur would be to destroy one of the great assets of this nation...
...Among these men were big-game hunters, who wanted to continue to slaughter elk in Jackson Hole...
...But once they had cleaned out the herd, there would be no more elk for visitors from all over America to see...
...This is not a new issue...
...Bills were introduced in Congress to provide for formal acceptance of the gift...
...This analogy applies to the Jackson Hole region...
...Or, rather, does it belong to all the people of the United States, not only during this generation but for generations yet to come...
...There also were ranchers, who wanted to graze sheep and cattle in the basin...
...Local sawmills have cut off practically all the privately-owned timber...
...So the bills did not pass...
...When Mon C. Wallgren, then a member of the House of Representatives, dropped in his bill creating the Olympic Peninsula National Park, the lumber interests in the Northwest raised a terrific rumpus...
...But these towns seek to keep going economically by reaching out for the trees in the National Forests...
...As our natural resources become increasingly scarce, this problem will become proportionately critical...
...After that the man with the rifle went home and the crowd began to look for something else interesting...
...I have a friend in the Oregon town of Bend who tells an analogy that i' like...
Vol. 9 • July 1945 • No. 31
