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CHAP. 377.-An Act to set aside a portion of certain lands in the State of
Washington, now known as the Pacific Forest Reserve, as a public park, to be known as
the Mount Rainier National Park.
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March 2, 1899
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Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States
of America in Congress assembled, that all those certain tracts, pieces, or parcels of
land lying and being in the State of Washington, and within the boundaries particularly
described as follows, to-wit: Beginning at a point three miles east of the northeast corner of
township numbered seventeen north, of range six east of the Willamette meridian; thence south
through the central parts of townships numbered seventeen, sixteen, and fifteen north, of range
seven east of the Willamette meridian, eighteen miles, more or less, subject to the proper easterly
or westerly offsets, to a point three miles east of the northeast corner of township numbered
fourteen north, of range six east of the Willamette meridian; thence east on the township line
between townships numbered fourteen and fifteen north, eighteen miles, more or less, to a point
three miles west of the northeast corner of township fourteen north, of range ten east of the
Willamette meridian; thence northerly subject to the proper easterly or westerly offsets,
eighteen miles, more or less, to a point three miles west of the northeast corner of township
numbered seventeen north of range ten east of the Willamette meridian (but in locating said
easterly boundary, wherever the summit of the Cascade Mountains is sharply and well defined,
the said line shall follow the said summit, where the said summit line bears west of the easterly
line as herein determined); thence westerly along the township line between said townships numbered
seventeen and eighteen to the place of beginning, the same being a portion of the lands which were
reserved from entry or settlement and set aside as a public reservation by proclamation of the
President on tho twentieth day of February, in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and ninety-three,
and of the Independence of the United States the one hundred and seventeenth are hereby dedicated and
set apart as a public park, to be known and designated as the Mount Rainier National Park, for the
benefit and enjoyment of the people; and all persons who shall locate or settle upon or occupy the
same, or any part thereof, except as hereafter provided, shall be considered trespassers and be removed therefrom.
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Mount Rainier
National Park,
Washington,
established.
Location
Vol. 27, p. 1063.
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Sec. 2. That said public park shall be under the exclusive control of the Secretary of the
Interior, whose duty it shall be to make and publish, as soon as practicable, such rules and
regulations as he may deem necessary or proper for the care and management of the same. Such
regulations shall provide for the preservation from injury or spoilation of all timber, mineral
deposits, natural curiosities, or wonders within said park, and their retention in their natural
condition. The Secretary may, in his discretion, grant parcels of ground at such places in said
park as shall require the erection of buildings for the accommodation of visitors; all of the
proceeds of said leases, and all other revenues that may be derived from any source connected
with said park, to be expended under his direction in the management of the same, and the construction
of roads and bridle paths therein. And through the lands of the Pacific Forest Reserve adjoining said
part rights of way are hereby granted, under such restrictions and regulations as the Secretary of the
Interior may establish, to any railway or tramway company or companies, through the lands of said
Pacific Forest Reserve, and also into said park hereby created, for the purpose of building,
constructing, and operating a railway, or tramway line or lines, through said lands, also into
said park. He shall provide against the wanton destruction of the fish and game found within said park,
and against their capture or destruction for the purposes of merchandise or profit. He shall also
cause all persons trespassing upon the same after the passage of this Act to be removed therefrom,
and generally shall be authorized to take all ench measures as shall be necessary to fully carry out
the objects and purposes of this Act.
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Secretary of the
Interior to make
regulations, etc.
Leases,
disposition of
funds.
Rights of way
to park granted
through Pacific
Forest Reserve.
Protection of fish
and game.
Trespassers.
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Sec. 3. That upon execution and filing with the Secretary of the Interior, by the
Northern Pacific Railroad Company, of proper deed releasing and conveying to the United States
the lands in the reservation hereby created, also the lands In the Pacific Forest Reserve which
have been heretofore granted by the United States to said company, whether surveyed or unsurveyed,
and which lie opposite said company's constructed road, said company is hereby authorized to select
an equal quantity of non·mineral public lands, so classified as non·mineral at the time of actual
Government survey, which has been or shall be made, of the United States not reserved and to which
no adverse right or claim shall have attached or have been initiated at the time of the making of
each selection lying within any State into or through which the railroad of said Northern Pacific
Railroad Company runs, to the extent of the lands so relinquished and released to the United States:
Provided, That any settlers on lands in said National Park may relinquish their rights thereto and
take other public lands in lieu thereof, to the same extent and under the same limitations and
conditions as are provided by law for forest reserves and National Parks.
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Grant of land to
Northern Pacific
Railroad in
exchange for land
relinquished.
Proviso.
Lieu lands to
settlers.
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Sec. 4. That upon the filing by the said railroad company at the local land office
of the land district in which any tract of land selected and the payment of the fees
prescribed by law in analogous cases, and the approval of the Secretary of the Interior,
he shall cause to be executed, in due form of law, and deliver to said company, a patent
of the United States conveying to it the lands so selected. In case the tract so selected
shall at the time of selection be unsurveyed, the list filed by the company at the local
land office shall deseribe such tract in such manner as to designate the same with a reasonable
degree of certainty; and within the period of three months after the lands including such tract
shall have been surveyed and the plats thereof filed by said local land office, a new selection
list shall be filed by said company, describing such tract according to each survey; and in case
such tract, as originally selected and described in the list filed in the local land office,
shall not precisely conform with the lines of the official survey, the said company shall be
permitted to describe such tract anew, so as to secure such conformity.
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Patent.
Description in
selection list of
unsurveyed land,
etc.
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Sec. 5. That the mineral land laws of the United States are hereby extended to
the lands lying within the said reserve and said park.
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Mineral land laws
extended to park.
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Approved March 2, 1899.
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