Agreement with Departments of Agriculture and War relative to protection of forests from fire...... 21 ILLUSTRATION. Map of Yellowstone National Park................. Page. 22 REPORT OF THE ACTING SUPERINTENDENT OF THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, OFFICE OF SUPERINTENDENT, Yellowstone Park, Wyo., October 1, 1912. SIR: I have the honor to submit annual report of the condition of affairs in and the management of the Yellowstone National Park from October 15, 1911, to the present date. GENERAL STATEMENT. The Yellowstone National Park, set aside by act of March 1, 1872 (secs. 2474 and 2475, R. S., 17 Stat., 32), is located in the States of Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho. It has an area of about 2,142,720 acres, and an average altitude of about 8,000 feet. The military force available for duty in the park consists of one squadron of cavalry and a machine-gun platoon containing the normal quota of officers and an enlisted strength increased by 75 men. The headquarters is located at Fort Yellowstone, but the command also garrisons 15 soldier stations scattered throughout the park, requiring 200 men during the tourist season and from 75 to 100 during the remainder of the year. A telephone system connects the soldier stations and the post. In addition to the military force which is maintained by the War Department, the Interior Department furnishes certain civilian employees, namely, a clerk, scouts, a buffalo keeper, etc. During the past season two officers of the command, who were selected as specially fitted for the work, were kept constantly in the park, going from one station to another and having general supervision over the work of the enlisted men in their respective districts. In addition, frequent inspections were made by myself, troop commanders, and other officers. The medical officers stationed at Fort Yellowstone made frequent sanitary inspections of hotels, camps, etc., throughout the park, and one of them was stationed at the lake outlet during the greater part of the summer, to look after the health of the men on station and others in the upper park. The results have been most excellent; the strenuous duties required of the enlisted men serving on station, including the hard work of opening the roads for the tourist season, repairing bridges and culverts, and keeping them in a passable condition until late in the summer, when the Engineer Department could secure necessary funds, have been cheerfully and conscientiously performed. The regular appropriations by Congress for the construction and maintenance of roads, bridges, etc., in the reservation are expended by the War Department under the direction of the Chief of Engineers. The lack of funds prevented any work under that department until after July 1, and then the amounts allotted were so smail that little material good was accomplished during the tourist season, and the condition of the roads was bad. There was no sprinkling of roads beyond Mammoth Hot Springs. TRAVEL. During the winter and spring large detachments of troops were used to keep the road open between the Mammoth Hot Springs and Gardiner, Mont., at the northern entrance. A large earth slide in Gardiner Canyon required frequent cleaning out to keep the road passable, and even then it was at times dangerous for teams to pass and always very uncertain as to when it might be completely blocked. As no funds were available to fix it before the opening of the tourist season, in order to make sure of some way of getting travel in from Gardiner, the department allotted $500 from park revenues for repairing the old trail back of Mammoth Hotel leading to Gardiner, and this was expended in widening the trail and repairing bridges. The trail was put in such condition that wagons could get over it in case of necessity, and it was so used on many occasions during the summer. The repairing of this trail was essential for use of saddle and pack animals coming in from Gardiner, as the regulations probihit them from traveling over the main road during the tourist season. While not in the best condition, the roads on the main belt line. in the park, and the approaches from the two main entrances at Gardiner on the north and Yellowstone on the west were open for travel at the beginning of the season, June 15. The road from Cody on the east, which passes over a high divide, was not open until June 26, and that over the top of Mount Washburn and through Dunraven Pass on July 10. The aggregate number of persons making park trips during the season of 1912 was as follows: Travel during the season of 1912. Monida & Yellowstone Stage Co., entering via western entrance. Yellowstone Park Transportation Co., entering via northern entrance... Holm Transportation Co., entering via eastern entrance....... Others at hotels, traveling with private or Government transportation, bicyclists, foot travelers, etc. With other licensees of personally conducted camping parties. 2, 582 3, 351 69 6,002 2,232 3, 285 22, 739 231 22,970 |
