Part 24 (2/2)
(1.) They will mar, and in places destroy, that natural condition which is one of its greatest charms. From the first it has been the wish of those who know any thing of the Yellowstone that it should remain as nature made it. The instructions of the Interior Department to the first Superintendent of the Park, two months after the Act of Dedication became a law, thus announced the policy of the government upon this subject:
”It is not the desire of the Department that any attempts shall be made to beautify or adorn this reservation, but merely to preserve from injury or spoliation the timber, mineral deposits, and various curiosities of that region, so far as possible, in their natural condition.”
It requires no argument to show that nothing would so interfere with this natural condition as the construction of a railroad through that country; and the danger involved in these projects early became apparent to all who were well acquainted with the situation. As early as 1883, Lieutenant Kingman thus refers to this subject in his annual report, wherein he describes his proposed road system for the Park:
”The plan for improvement which I have submitted is given in the earnest hope and upon the supposition that it [the Park] will be preserved as nearly as may be as the hand of nature left it--a source of pleasure to all who visit it, and a source of wealth to no one. If the Park ever becomes truly popular and national, it will be when the people come to know and appreciate its delightful summer climate, the wonderful efficiency of its baths and its mineral waters, as well as the natural wonders, beauties and curiosities to be seen there. Then, if there are numerous small, quiet hotels scattered here and there throughout the Park, where visitors can have plain and simple accommodations at moderate prices, the overworked and the sick, as well as the curious, will come here, not to be awed by the great falls and astounded by the geysers, and then to go away, but will come here and will remain for weeks and months, and will find what they seek, rest, recreation and health. But if it ever becomes the resort of fas.h.i.+on, if its forests are stripped to rear mammoth hotels, if the race-course, the drinking saloon and gambling-table invade it, if its valleys are scarred by railroads, and its hills pierced by tunnels, if its purity and quiet are destroyed and broken by the noise and smoke of the locomotive; ... then it will cease to belong to the whole people, and will interest only those that it helps to enrich, and will be unworthy the care and protection of the National Government.”
The history of the twelve years since the above was written confirms in every point this forcible presentation of the case.
(2.) Railroads will unavoidably seriously cripple the present tourist routes. They must of necessity occupy the valleys. But it is through these that the tourist route pa.s.ses, and it is frequently the case that they are not wide enough for both. In many cases the roadway would be forced back upon the hills, and in others its present location would have to be changed. It is certain that the admirable system of roads, which the government is slowly working out, would receive irreparable injury at the hands of any railroad which might be built through that region.
(3.) Railroads would mean the inevitable destruction of the large game. The winter snows are too deep among the hills for game to subsist there. It is necessary to come down into the valleys, where there is more gra.s.s and less snow. But, as already stated, it is through these valleys that railroads must pa.s.s if at all. The trains would frighten the animals back into the hills, where starvation would await them. Moreover, the loss of game from poaching would be greatly aggravated by the increased facility of clandestine access to that region.
(4.) Railroads would destroy the Park forests. During July, August, and September, there are always long periods of dry weather when the dense bodies of fallen timber, the impenetrable tangles of underbrush, and the luxuriant prairie gra.s.s are a ma.s.s of inflammable tinder. A spark converts it into a conflagration. A railroad winding its way through this country would render protection against fires, even now a matter of great difficulty, wholly out of the question. Referring to this subject in his annual report for 1894, the Superintendent of the Park says:
”Six months from the entrance of the first locomotive within the limits of the Park, there will not be one acre of its magnificent forests left unburned.”
What such a catastrophe would mean to the future development of the surrounding country may be appreciated by a perusal of our chapter on the Flora of the Yellowstone.
(5.) As a matter of public policy, the granting of a railway franchise in the Park is objectionable because it necessarily creates a perpetual monopoly of a public privilege. There is no practicable way to avoid it. It has been proposed to compel the railroad to share the advantage of this monopoly with the public, by paying a certain percentage of earnings on its Park business to const.i.tute an improvement fund. With Union Pacific history fresh in the public mind, the government will not be likely to enter into a partners.h.i.+p of that precarious nature.
From the foregoing exposition, it is clear that only the most cogent reasons should ever sanction the construction of railroads in the Yellowstone Park. These reasons, from the standpoint of the railroad companies, as set forth by the promoters of a recent bill before Congress, fall under two heads.
In the first place, it is speciously urged that a railroad would render the Park more accessible, cheapen the cost of visiting it, and make it fulfill more perfectly its original design as a park for the people. To all this it may be replied that the people do not want the improvement at the price they must pay for it. By an almost unanimous voice they oppose it. It is true that the Park is not as accessible as one might wish it to be, or as it soon will be. But to make it easily accessible, it is by no means necessary that a railroad should pa.s.s through it. A line touching the southern boundary and communicating with the central portions of the country would answer every practical purpose. The pretext that a railroad across the Reservation will greatly aid the tourist is erroneous. The points of interest are so scattered about that a coach would be in any case a necessity, and all the railroad would really save to the tourist would be the distance from the boundary to the belt line.
Neither will such a railroad materially lessen the cost of a visit, which has always been, and will always be, in the main, getting _to_ that region. The Reservation is 1,500 miles from the center of population of the country, and it is this remote location that makes visiting it cost. The outlay after getting there is trifling in comparison with that of coming and going. Whether a railroad pa.s.s though the Park, or simply touch its southern border, will not appreciably affect this princ.i.p.al item.
In the second place, it is urged that the Park stands directly in the path of the railroads and so ”acts as a blockade to the development of three large states.” As this will always form the staple argument for granting a right-of-way for railroads across the Reservation, it will be well to scrutinize it somewhat carefully.
It is not at all a question of whether the country about the Park is at present sufficiently supplied with railroads. The important question is: Will any portion of this territory be better served by a railroad that may be built across the Reservation than by one coming from another direction? The most superficial examination of the map, even by one not personally acquainted with the country, will answer this question in the negative. The Yellowstone Valley on the north, the Bighorn Valley on the east, the Jackson Lake country on the south, and the Madison and Henry Fork Valleys on the west, find their natural outlets by routes not pa.s.sing through the Yellowstone Park. A railroad entering the Park on one side through a lofty wall of mountains, and leaving it on the other through a similar wall, after traversing the inclosed plateau for a distance of perhaps seventy-five or one hundred miles, would be almost as much lost to the country outside as if for this whole distance it were built through a tunnel. In fact, the true welfare both of the Park and of the surrounding country would be best served by a line pa.s.sing through the Wind River Valley, across one of the easy pa.s.ses into the Valley of the Snake, and thence along the southern border of the Park, past Jackson Lake and the northern spur of the Teton Range, into the valleys of Idaho and Montana. This would give the Park a needed southern approach, and would directly serve a vast tract of territory. Tributary either to this line, or to one north of the Park, or to both, another would soon be built along the extensive Valley of the Bighorn. No imaginable route across the National Park could so well subserve both local and public interests.
From an engineering point of view, the Yellowstone Park is poor railroad country. It could be crossed, to be sure, but not easily, and not at all except by monopolizing portions of the tourist route. The long winter season of nearly seven months would interpose an almost insuperable obstacle to the successful operation of any line which might be built. We quote again from the report of the Park Superintendent for the year 1894:
”The great amount of moisture furnished by the lake and its numerous tributaries gives a mantle of snow that will average fifteen feet in depth, and with the strong winds prevailing in this mountainous country no railroad could be kept running during the six months of winter without being entirely inclosed in snow sheds, which would prove destructive to the natural beauty of the Park.”
In short, it is certain that, were it not for the special inducements which a monopoly of Park travel offers, no railroad could afford to locate its line across that territory.
Closely related to this general subject is that of building an electric line for tourist transportation within the Park. It is at once apparent that the objections to such a railroad are much less formidable than to one operated by steam locomotives. The danger of fire is eliminated. The unsightly character of an ordinary railway outfit is exchanged for attractive tourist cars. The power plant, being located in canons and operated by water, would give no outward evidence of its existence. There being no long trains of cars, no smoke, no screeching of locomotives, the game would not be much more frightened by it than by the stage coaches. In winter, traffic would be suspended and the game would be undisturbed on the ranges. The line, by its greater speed, would be a convenience to tourists having but a short time at their disposal, and also to those, infirm in health, who find the long stage rides fatiguing.
Such are the merits of an electric railway for tourist transportation in this country. If the people really desired it, and if it could be built and operated by the government, so as to exclude as far as possible all corporate management of Park business, there would be no serious objection to the project. Of course it should never be permitted, as some times proposed, to use the present wagon roads.
These must not in any event be interfered with.
The question then is, Do the people desire this kind of transportation? Fortunately we can answer this question with authority. In 1892, a vote upon it was obtained from the tourists of that season. The result was a majority of more than five to one against it. In giving their votes, tourists frequently went beyond the specific question at issue to express their emphatic disapproval of the construction of any kind of railroad in the Park. The whole result was a gratifying proof of the deep-seated interest of the people in this Reservation, and of their unalterable wish that it remain forever free from the handiwork of man. In fact, to almost every body in these days, a coaching tour like that through the Yellowstone, is a decided novelty. There is no other place in this country, probably not in the world, where one approaching it can be had. The people enjoy it. They would prefer to see it developed and perfected, rather than replaced by the noisy car, to get away from which they have come so far.
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