It is admitted by all that black bear cubs are among nature’s most interesting creatures. They are the “Happy Hooligans” and “Katzenjammer Kids” of the Park. What a spectacle they provide, standing Jesse James-like along the highway, tumbling over each other in fun, or scampering up a tree in fright! “Do you mean to tell me those cute creatures will harm anyone?” says a lady, “Why they smile and wiggle their tails in the most cunning manner!” “Yes, lady,” replies the ranger, “but you must not believe either end of a bear.”
When a serious injury or a death occurs strong resentment is expressed against the administration. It is advised to decide either to turn the Park over to the bears or to the people. Then a party of tourists expresses great disappointment over not having been “held up” by a bear. What will be the outcome of this tug-of-war? It is to be hoped that the public will eventually learn to obey the regulation, “Do Not Feed or Molest the Bears.”[321]
Grizzly, king of the Rockies.
The American bison was probably saved from extinction in Yellowstone. Although native to the region, the joint ravages of poachers and septicemia finally reduced the herd to a mere remnant. In 1895 a hay harvesting project was started in Hayden Valley. This enterprise was subsequently moved to the Lamar Valley where a buffalo ranch, now called the Lamar Unit, was established. Feeding these animals in the coldest months during winters of exceptional severity has proved salutary. Another precaution was taken in 1902 when twenty-one head were purchased from the Goodnight and Allard herds in Texas and Montana, respectively. Since then the herd has flourished and is now stabilized at eight hundred head. The increase is reduced periodically and distributed among near-by Indian agencies.
A reduction policy has also been adopted to control the northern elk herd. Summer is lavish in its gifts to Park elk. Lush grasses, shady dells, and cool weather make an ideal condition for them. Fall finds them fat and sleek, with bulls bugling in every glen. Perhaps the summer range is adequate for thousands of them, but then winter comes, with its weakening cold and deepening snows, and they are forced by storms into restricted areas where hunger stalks them on every side. It is evident, therefore, that the maximum must be limited by the winter range capacity. In view of these conditions the officials of the Park and the state of Montana have worked out a satisfactory policy of diminution. A number of elk-hunting permits are issued to citizens who foregather along the northern boundary to participate in a bombardment that is swift and effective. In this manner the Park herd is kept in balance, and surplus elk do not migrate to the valleys to bother the ranchers. Of course an advantage accrues to these hunters because each one is very sure of getting his elk. This program should preclude a repetition of the agitation aroused during World War I when proposals were pressed upon the Food Administrator to allow hunting parties a free reign in securing Park elk and buffalo.[322]
More serious attempts to invade the Park’s wilderness area came in the form of several irrigation projects, a railroad, and the northern boundary segregation issue. Each of these propositions, which threatened to modify the natural character and unity of the reservation, was strenuously resisted by Park administrations and the public generally.
In 1919 an irrigation project was sponsored by Idaho interests. It was a comprehensive plan that contemplated a dam on Yellowstone River, thereby raising the level of Yellowstone Lake. The water from this mighty reservoir would then be tapped by a tunnel through the Continental Divide, which would deliver the water into the Snake River. Other dams were designed to impound water along Fall and Bechler rivers. When bills S3925 and H.R.10469 reached their respective floors they were subjected to strong denunciation and defeated.[323] The next year, 1920, Senator Walsh, of Montana, also introduced a bill for the purpose of building a dam across the Yellowstone River at the lake outlet. This project also contemplated the generation of electricity. Extensive hearings before the Senate Committee on Irrigation resulted in the bill’s death at that stage.
The movement for the extension of the Northern Pacific Railroad from Cinnabar to Cooke City, Montana, was not so easily arrested. From the first discovery of gold on Clarks Fork, in 1870, there had been a campaign for a railroad, as the early prospects were promising. However, little progress was made, and when the railroad bill of 1894 was defeated certain mining interests in Montana became alarmingly hostile. Frustrated in the extension of a line through the only accessible route, because of National Park sentiment, these interests came out for segregation. On March 1, 1894, the Helena Independent declared:
Congress should make the Yellowstone River [Lamar] and Soda Butte Creek the northern boundary of the Park and charter a railroad to Cooke City on the north of these Streams....[324]