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Thursday, June 09, 2022 - Friday, February 03, 2023

04:00 PM - 07:00 PM

In a letter to Hayden dated 27 October 1871,Jay Cooke’s publicity man states that Congress should ’pass a bill reserving the Great Geyser Basin as a public park foreverjust as it has reserved that far inferior wonder the Yosemite Valley and the big trees.This proposal came from Judge William Darrah Kelley,a Republican congressman from Pennsylvania and business associate of Cooke.Sheridan have both telegraphed that the report will be a splendid one from the expedition at this end.Hayden in his report to Congress that the Geyser region around Yellowstone Lake shall be set apart by government as park,similar to that of the Great Trees &other reservations in California.Would this conflict with our land grant,or interfere with us in any way?Please give me your views on this subject.It is important to do something speedily,or squatters and claimants will go in there,and we can probably deal much better with the government in any improvements we may desire to make for the benefit of our pleasure travel than with individuals.’Your October thirtieth and November sixth rec’d.We do not want to see the Falls of the Yellowstone driving the looms of a cotton factory,or the great geysers boiling pork for some gigantic packing house,but in all the native majesty and grandeur in which they appear today,without,as yet,a single trace of that adornment which is desecration,that improvement which is equivalent to ruin,or that utilization which means utter destruction.Their efforts on behalf of the park were immediately successful.It is little wonder that the bill passed quickly with only token opposition.Similarly,the profit motive for railroads emerged in the establishment of other early national parks in the nineteenth century.They were profit motivated,but their actions resulted in the preservation of cornerstones in our national park system.These were the ’amenities’provided by early dude ranch entrepreneurs.Whether they were native Westerners who had started as cattle and horse ranchers,or eastern ’dudes’who returned to the West to live forever the life they had first experienced as guests on someone else’s ranch,they brought with them their own unique interests,attitudes,and background.As they developed their holdings,each ranch began to reflect the special personality of its owners.The dudes came to recognize these differences and selected their ’own’ranch accordingly.After many treks west,Howard,the eldest,headed for the Dakota Badlands to start a cattle ranch,and his brothers soon followed.The spread they acquired by squatter’s rights became known as the Custer Trail Ranch.In addition to being a successful cattle and horse operation in the late 1870s,the ranch was a place for the Eatons’friends from the East to enjoy ranch life.As their guest list grew beyond their immediate circle of friends,they began charging for the services of the ranch.In 1879,the Eatons moved their cattle and dude ranching operation to the Big Horn Mountains in Wyoming because the setting provided more scenery and opportunities for recreation.Others were also capitalizing on the market for ranch life and preserving the associated amenity values.The adventuresome earl settled near Estes Park,Colorado,for the purpose of establishing a cattle operation.’’Herbage was plentiful,and cattle could feed all winter,for the snow never lay.From 1874 to 1880,the earl acquired 8,200 acres of land.His efforts to acquire the entire 20,000 acres of Estes Park were eventually stymied,however,by other entrepreneurs who wanted to capitalize on the dude ranching potential of the area.With elk hunting and trout fishing,plus cattle ranching,the earl’s property offered guests a grand spectacle of the American West.’’A hundred people living at a lodge create less confusion,less muss and fuss,than a hundred camping out.’In removing the historic buildings,the National Park Service has lost a part of the cowboy culture,but at least much of the natural environment preserved by the dude ranching entrepreneurs remains intact.A Forest RetreatJustas the influence of the iron,copper,and lumber booms was fading in the Great Lake states,Americans in the Upper Midwest and Northeast were retreating to the woods for their summer vacations.Entrepreneurs in northern Michigan responded by creating hunting and fishing camps and land clubs that provided the opportunities and facilities that vacationing visitors sought.The process preserved a very extraordinary place.In the middle of the nineteenth century,Michigan’s Upper Peninsula was a mecca for loggers and miners.In 1862 over 100,000 tons of ore passed through the Sault Ste.Marie Canal that linked Lakes Superior and Huron,and the next year,that amount almost tripled.Lumberjacks also were scouring Michigan’s lower peninsula searching for an alternative to New England’s sagging timber production.When timber supplies in the lower peninsula dwindled,those loggers moved to the Upper Peninsula.4As virgin forests became scarcer in the 1880s,recreationists from the industrialized centers of the Upper Midwest and Northeast were discovering the beauty of the Huron Mountain region,located near the mouth of the Pine River on the Lake Superior side of the Upper Peninsula.And they were not just from Michigan,but from all over the greater industrial Northeast.In the words of one visiting sportsman from Pittsburgh,’Game was abundantdeer,wild pigeons,and grouse.Pigeons fed in great numbers on the huckleberries in the woods between the mouth of the river and Pine Lake.The forest was practically untouched.Longyear,a prosperous land dealer,with the idea.Longyear initially rejected Seymour’s idea,believing that the area was too remote and rugged to draw tourists.He did allow,however,that he would join Seymour in the venture if Seymour could interest other prominent people.When Seymour approached Longyear again in 1889,he had a much stronger case for a land club in the Huron Mountain area.Seymour had found prominent individuals from both Detroit and Marquette willing to become club members.In addition,hunting and fishing camps and land clubs were springing up ’like flowers’along the Lake Superior coast near Sault Ste.Marie,and they were spreading west toward the Huron area.No doubt Longyear’s enthusiasm was enhanced by his ownership of the steamboat company that provided exclusive service to the area from the lower peninsula and his ownership of several parcels of land near what would be the club’s boundaries.Needless to say,he joined Seymour and theothers in the venture.The club’s initial emphasis was on enhancing hunting and fishing opportunities and on improving facilities for hunters and anglers.Additional staff was hired,and a workshop,bathhouses,and boathouses were built on the property.Club employees constructed hiking trails and even built several fish hatcheries to ensure that its lakes and streams had ample supplies of fish.To create a community atmosphere and a stronger incentive to stay with the club through the years,the board ruled that club members could build cabins on the property,leasing sites from the club for $1 per year.

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