n Ni 3avw '■-V pj- ' f/ ' 4 The person charging this material is re- sponsible for Its return to the library from which jt was withdrawn on or before th^ Latest Date stamped below. Theft, mutilation, and underlining of books are J^easons for disciplinary action and may result in dismissal from the University _^VERSITY of ILLINOIS LIBRARY AT URBANA-CHAMP. ir.K, igb m. mn z 9 1 f Bw NOV 2 8 NOV 2 7 1983 983 I?; > APR 3 0 m4 MAY 1 4 lap 1 y m Xl 1 8 1994 L161 — 0-1096 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2017 with funding from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Alternates https://archive.org/details/briefstatementofOOamer I LET EVERYONE HELP TO SAVE THE FAMOUS HETCH- HETCHY VALLEY AND STOP THE COMMERCIAL DESTRUCTION WHICH THREATENS OUR NATIONAL PARKS To the American Public: The famous Hetch-Hetchy Valley, next to Yosemite the most wonderful and important feature of our Yosemite National Park, is again in danger of being destroyed. Year after year attacks have been made on this Park under the guise of development of natural resources. At the last regular ses- sion of Congress the most determined attack of all was made by the City of San Francisco to get possession of the Hetch-Hetchy Valley as a reservoir site, thus defrauding ninety millions of people for the sake of saving San Francisco dollars. As soon as this scheme became manifest, public-spirited citizens all over the country poured a storm of protest on Congress. Be- fore the session was over, the Park invaders saw that they were defeated and permitted the bill to die without bringing it to a vote, so as to be able to try again. The bill has been re-introduced and will be urged at the coming session of Con- gress, which convenes in December. Let all those who believe that our great national wonderlands should be preserved unmarred as places of rest and recreation for the use of all the people, now enter their protests. Ask Congress to reject this destructive bill, and also urge that the present Park laws be so amended as to put an end to all such assaults on our system of National Parks. Faithfully yours. November, 1909. Read carefully pp. 20-21 and help to save the Park. A BRIEF STATEMENT OF THE HETCH-HETCHY CASE TO DATE. (Pages refer to more complete information contained in other portions of this pamphlet.) The Yosemite National Park is not only the greatest and most won- derful national playground in California, but in many of its features' it is without a rival in the whole world. It belongs to the American people and is among their most priceless' possessions. In world wide interest it ranks with the Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon oTthe Colorado. The Yosemite Park embraces the headwaters of two rivers • — the Merced and the Tuolumne. The Yosemite Valley is in the Merced basin, and the Hetch-Hetchy Valley, the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne, and the Tuolumne Meadows are in the Tuolumne basin. Excepting only the Yosemite Valley, the Tuolumne basin is the finer and larger half of the Park. Practically all of the Tuolumne basin drains directly into Hetch-Hetchy Valley, which is a wonderfully exact counterpart of the great Yosemite, not only in its crystal river, sublime cliffs and waterfalls, but in the gardens, groves, and meadows of its flowery park-like floor. This park-like floor is especially adapted for pleasure camping, and is the focus of all the trails from both the north and the south which lead into and through this magnificent camp ground. The Yosemite National Park was created in 1890 by Congress in order that this great natural wonderland should be preserved in pure wildness for all time for the benefit of the entire nation. The Yosemite Valley was already preserved in a State Parle, and the National Park was created primarily to protect the Hetch-Hetchy Valley and Tuol- umne Meadows from invasion. In spite of the fact that this is a national property dedicated as a public park for all time in which every citizen of the United States has a direct interest, certain individuals in San Francisco conceived the idea that here would be an opportunity to acquire a water supply for the city at the expense of the nation. They made application to the late Plon. E. A. Hitchcock, then Secretary of the Interior, for the privilege of using Hetch-Hetchy Valley and Lake Eleanor as reservoir sites from which to draw a municipal supply of water. After giving the question careful consideration, he denied these rights on January 20, 1903, and on a rehearing again emphatically denied them December 22, -1903. (P. 10.) Thereupon a bill designed to override Secretary Llitchcock’s decision was introduced in Congress but the Committee on Public Lands refused to give it standing. The matter was again taken up with the President, who referred it to Hon. Victor H. Met- calf, then Secretary of Commerce and Labor. He upheld Secretary Hitchcock’s opinion and again denied the right of the city to enter a national park. When Hon. James R. Garfield became Secretary of the Interior, the city advocates renewed their efforts to have these riglits granted which had l)cen so many times refused, and at last pre- vailed. Secretary Garfield on May 11, 1Q08, rendered an opinion so prejudicial to tlie interests of the American public in their National Parks, as to practically nullify the whole national park policy and throw those great public playgrounds open to all kinds of destructive in- vasion from local and comparatively private interests. Fortunately the rights granted by Secretary Garfield, if they possess any legality Read carefully pp. 20-21 and help to save the Park. 2 C^' ‘ O at all (p. n) are revocable at the discretion of any Secretary of the Interior. Armed with this Garfield permit to flood the Hetch-Hetchy Valley and destroy its use as a public playground, the Park invaders again applied to Congress in December, 1908, to confirm Garfield’s action and render it irrevocable by securing title to the floor of Hetch- Hetchy in fee simple. The matter was referred to the Public Lajids Committees of the House and Senate for recommendation. While a majority vote of eight in the House Committee favored the abandon- ment of this priceless national property, there were seven who voted against it, and one other member later joined the minority, making the vote a tie. (P. 22.) Many friends of the National Park system were ready to champion the people’s cause if the bill had reached the floor of the House, but the closing days of the session made it impossible to have the bill brought up. Before the Senate Committee the bill did not fare as well and it became known that, if brought to a vote, the result would have been unfavorable to San Francisco and this would have been fatal to future attempts to pass the bill. Therefore, the bill died with the Sixtieth Congress. • The same bill has been re-introduced in the present Congress, and a last desperate attempt to force it through will be made. If San Francisco could not obtain pure water elsewdiere, this great national sacrifice might be justified, but hydraulic engineers of un- questioned standing have reported on many other adequate and avail- able sources. In this respect, probably, no large city in the world is more favorably situated. (Pp. 4-6.) The unnecessary destruction of Hetch-Hetchy Valley is being opposed by the SOCIETY FOR THE PRESERVATION OF NATIONAL PARKS AMERICAN CIVIC ASSOCIATION AMERICAN SCENIC AND HISTORIC PRESERVATION SOCIETY PLAYGROUND ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA GENERAL FEDERATION OF WOMEN’S CLUBS - CALIFORNIA AND OTHER STATE FEDERATIONS OF WOMEN’S ^ CLUBS AMERICAN ALPINE CLUB " SIERRA CLUB OF CALIFORNIA APPALACHIAN MOUNTAIN CLUB OF BOSTON MAZAMAS OF PORTLAND MOUNTAINEERS OF SEATTLE CHICAGO GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY SATURDAY WALKING CLUB OF CHICAGO And innumerable other leading Clubs throughout America .... to permit a municipal corporation to intrench itself in the _Yosemite National Park, no matter how good that corporation prom- "ises to be, seems to “The Outlook” an indefensible and dangerous piece of inconsistency which will be thoroughly bad not only in its immediate effect but as a precedent for future action. — Editorial in N. Y. “Outlook,” January 80, 1909^3 "Where is the justice in taking what has been already dedicated to the American public merely to save San Francisco’s dollars? Read carefully pp. 20-21 and help to save the Park. 3 MANY OTHER WATER SUPPLIES ARE AVAILABLE EOR SAN FRANCISCO. ‘Tet ns say at once that we hold human life more sacred than scenery, than even great natural wonderlands, vastly as they contribute to save life and promote happiness; and if that were the issue, if San Francisco could . not otherwise obtain an abundant water supply, we should be willing to dedicate to that purpose not only Hetch-Hetchy, but even the incomparable Yosemite itself.” — Editorial by R. U. Johnson in “Century Magazine.” One of the first questions asked by those seeking information on this subject is whether there are other supplies available for the use of San Francisco. There are many. We have always favored going to the mountains for pure water. Look at a map of California. San Francisco is situated near the confluence of the two great rivers of the State, — the Sacramento and the San Joaquin. Tributary to these rivers and flowing west toward San Francisco down the Sierra are several large rivers, (among them the Tuolumne) any one of which will furnish ample water for San Francisco. North and South of San Francisco along the coast many streams waste their waters in the ocean. It is doubtful whether any other city in the world of the size of San Francisco has so many available water supplies. It is ridiculous to assert that the only water available for San Francisco runs down the Tuolumne shingle of the great Sierra roof. WHAT OUR OPPONENTS AND EMINENT ENGINEERS SAY ABOUT OTHER WATER SUPPLIES. C. E. Grunsky, former city engineer of San Francisco, and sometimes referred to as the “Father of the Hetch-Hetchy system,^’ says : “In the case of San Francisco, there is no single source of supply so pre-eminently available that it could without question rule out others from comparison.” — />. 15 of Reports on Water Supplies of San Francisco, 1908; p. 385 House Committee Hearings, January 21, 1909. Professor C. D. Marx, one of the city’s hydraulic experts, has stated that • “It can readily be shown that the drainage area needed for a water supply capable of furnishing 200,000,000 gallons per day can be had on a number of the Sierra streams. . . . That the drainage areas of streams north of the Tuolumne give better promise of meeting these requirements, cannot be denied. ... It cannot be said that the physical data now available are such as to admit of a reliable comparison of the relative values of the various sources of water supply for San Francisco from the Sierras.” — Transactions of Commonzvealth Club, June, 1907. “Mr. Phelan — There are no less than half a dozen water supplies from the Sierras. . . . Mr. Hammond — We have listened to the engineers, but T did not understand that the Tuolumne is the only Sierra supply. Mr. Phelan — By no means.” — Testimony before the Public Lands Committee of the House, January 21, 1909, p. 342. “Without a doubt the city can obtain water from half a dozen other sources which are now owned by private interests. . . .” — p. 36. “It is simpfi^ a question of which of the various sources of supply is the best one for the city of San Francisco to take. . . T — p. 38. “Without doubt the citv has the right, under California law, to condemn.” — p. 38. Secretary Gardcld in hearing before Public Lands Committee of House, January 9, 1909. “We do not deny that there are other sources of supply up and down the Sierra Nevada Mountains. . . .” — /. D. Galloway, p. 387, Hearings, January 21, 1909. Read carefully pp. 30-21 and help to save the Park. 4 In a brief filed by the San Francisco city attorneys in June, 1909, in the United States Circuit Court, Ninth Circuit, Equity Case No. 13,395, appears the follow- ing language used in behalf of the city in that suit (pp. 520-523) ; “The testimony discloses that several other substitutes (for the Tuolumne system) are available for the use of San Francisco.” . . . (Elaborate quota- tions from the testimony are made to demonstrate this fact.) “It appears from the evidence, therefore, that the Tuolumne is but one of the several possible sources from which a substitutional supply might be obtained.” “When you consider the matter of money alone, there are available quite a number of sites and a number of sources, probably more than a dozen.” — Marsdcn Alaiison, City Engineer of San Franeiseo, Senate Hear- ings, p. 123. James D. Schuyler, hydraulic engineer of Los Angeles, says that there are “A number of other available sources of water supply for San Francisco.” — Hearings, January 20, 1908, p. 307. “ ... It is feasible to provide an ample supply of pure water for San Francisco from nearer sources (than the Hetch-Hetchy) by works which would be much more economical, efficient, and reliable. . . . They can be developed to supply all the water required for the next 40 or more years.” — Frederiek P. Stearns, Chief Engineer of the M etropolitan Water Board that supplies Boston {pp. 308, 31 1, Journal of the Association of Engineer- ing Societies, December, 1908). Schuyler and Stearns were consulting engineers on the Panama Canal. “I do not consider that the Tuolumne (Hetch-Hetchy) supply would furnish a greater quantity of water, nor a water of better quality, than can be obtained from near,er sources.” — Rudolph Hering, the hydraulic en- gineer of New York and Philadelphia {testimony in Equity Case No. 13,395). Colonel W. H. Heuer, U. S. A. Engineer and chairman of the Executive Com- mittee of the Federated Water Committee of San Francisco, states that the present nearby sources “Can be increased by additional dams and raising some existing dams, so as to supply considerable more than 100 million gallons per day, or more than enough to supply the wants of San Francisco during the next forty years, and at reasonable cost. . . . Engineers who made surveys of Lake Eleanor and Hetch-Hetchy inform me that there are other Sierra supplies which can be brought here at much less cost than Hetch-Hetchy. The latter by persistent advocates has been preached, almost forced, into ac- ceptance by the people of San Francisco.” — San Francisco Merchants’ As- sociation Review, July, 1908. This view receives further corroboration from C. E. Grunsky (pp. 164-6, Sept. ’08, Journal of the Association of Engineering Societies), Prof. Geo. David- son, U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, and other engineers. San Francisco now uses only 35,000,000 gallons per day. On the Feather River is the Big Meadows reservoir site of about 20,000 acres. At the outlet of the Meadows the topography is such that by the construction of a comparatively small dam a storage reservoir can be created which will be one of the largest artificial bodies of water in the world, having a capacity of over 280,000 million gallons, or four times the greatest capacity of the Hetch- Hetchy reservoir. This water could be brought to San Francisco if necessary. DEFEND OUR NATIONAL PARKS. The precedent involved is one most dangerous to the welfare of the national parks generally, and the establishment of a reservoir in Hetch-Hetchy will compel a tremendous sacrifice in notable scener}^ and in public recreation grounds. Every citizen who believes in preserving the integrity of our national parks, everyone who regards these scenic treasures as national resources, hitherto supposed to be safeguarded for the benefit of all the people, should protest. Object to the surrender of any public land in any national park, and urge the need of extinguishing all private claims through purchase by the government. — By Appalachian Mountain Club. Read carefully pp. 20-21 and help to save the Park. 5 A DOZEN SOURCES OF WATER SUPPLY ARE AVAILABLE FOR SAN FRANCISCO. 1. Advantage of the STANISLAUS RIVER as a source of supply for San Francisco: — Collecting basin “adequate in area, with pure waters” (Marsden Manson, City Engineer). River rises in high granite mountains similar to Tuolumne and not in a national park. No scenery comparable to Hetch-Hetchy, Tuolumne Canon and Meadows, hence no danger of contamination from increas- ing tourist travel ; rainfall heavy ; watershed protected by forest reserve ; pipe line to city shorter than to Tuolumne supply; ample storage at Donald’s Flat, Relief, and Kennedy reservoir sites ; dams already constructed by Stanislaus Power Co., and to be constructed, thus insuring uniform maximum flow of water. Power company will sell ample power to pump water over coast range practically at cost. Saving by having dams and power plants already built will offset the comparatively small cost involved in purchasing full right to water. Company has guaranteed water rights and supply of water equal to all of city’s requirements. City has paid no attention to offer to build system and deliver water for ten per cent added to bare cost. 2. Advantages of the EEL RIVER as a source of supply. — Uninhabited mountain watershed in forest reserve, 325 square miles tributary to diversion point; 268 square miles tributary to Gravelly Valley reservoir; water rights guaranteed perfect ; average annual rainfall, 50 to 60 inches ; capacity of reservoir with 150-foot dam, 70,000 million gallons, or twice the capacity of Hetch-Hetchy Valley with the same height of dam; dam crest, 600 feet; 1500 feet of drifts already run demonstrate good character of dam foundation ; lOO-foot dam will be completed by fall of 1911; tunnel already constructed diverts flow to Russian River basin. Water can be diverted at waste gates or allowed to flow down Russian River to Cloverdale gravel beds and filtered naturally and piped to San Francisco via San Pedro and San Pablo Point crossing. This crossing can be accomplished by flexible pipe lines similar to those which have been in service at Dumbarton for twenty years. San Pablo crossing is only a little longer and deeper, and cost of lines carrying 60 million gallons daily has been estimated to be only about $1,500,000. Distance to distributing reservoirs less than Tuolumne. Gravity system following California and Northwestern Railroad grade, saving excessive costs of transportation and heavy pipe. Water would be taken through Berkeley and Oakland, thus supplying all bay cities at smallest expense. A. M. Hunt, an engineer familiar with water problems of San Francisco, reports that this water supply is ample and can be brought to the city for one-half the expense of bringing in an equal amount from Tuolumne system. Power company offered to sell water rights to city for very small figure, but city paid no attention to offer. 3. Pumping from SAN JOAQUIN RIVER as source of supply. — When nearby sources (which unbiased engineers report can be developed to three times present daily use of city) are exhausted, by pumping from San Joaquin River just below Altamont, city can secure all the additional water she wants free oi cost ; can filter to any degree of purity ; saving in head works, length of pipe line, rights^ of way, water rights, power plants, etc., would more than offest fixed pumping charge and cost of filtration. Supply is always available and need not be resorted to until necessity arises. -SACRAMENTO RIVER. 9. _mokelumne river. 10. —COSUMNES RIVER. 1 1. —CLEAR LAKE. 12. — BAY SHORE GRAVELS. -LAKE TAHOE. -YUBA RIVER. 7. — EEATPIER RIVER. 8. — AMERICAN RIVER. 13.— PRESENT SUPPLY ADDED TO SAN GREGORIO, PUR ISSIMA, PESCADERO, CALAVERAS, ALAMEDA, Etc. We do not contend that all of these supplies are suitable, but many of them are. .... while the Yosemite National Park might very properly be sacrificed to save the lives and health of the citizens of San Fran- cisco, it ought not to be sacrificed to save their dollars. — Editorial in N. Y. “Outlook,” January 30, 1909. Read carefully pp. 20-21 and help to save the Park. 6 THE EFFECT OF USING HETCH-HETCHY AS A MUNI- CIPAL RESERVOIR. Direct Effect . — To flood the floor of the valley as proposed will destroy its use by the public. The floor of this valley is four and a half miles long, averaging half a mile in width and almost level. It is beautifully wooded, being pronounced by Mr. George Frederick Schwarz, forestry and landscape expert, who studied in forest schools of France and Germany, after a careful examination, as “the most beautiful natural parkland” he had ever seen, and that in its wonderful forest growth of great variety and magniflcenf development it sur- passed the Yosemite Valley itself. IT IS A PARADISE FOR CAMPERS AND CAN ACCOM- MODATE TPIOUSANDS. It is one of the three great camp grounds in the Park — the others being Yosemite Valley and Tuolumne Meadows. All of the trails in this portion of the Park radiate from Fletch-Hetchy. It is the natural gateway to the wonderfully beautiful mountain region lying east and north of the valley. The walls of the valley are steep, perpendicular Yosemite-like cliffs. The Commonwealth Club of San Francisco, through a committee appointed to investigate this very question, recently reported as follows : “More important than the loss of scenic beauties we consider the loss of the opportunities of public enjoyment of them. At present any one may go and freely camp in the Hetch-Hctchy Valley and stay as long as his in- clination permits. If the valley is made into a reservoir, however, the camping-grounds will be destroyed as a place to visit, and the Hetch- Hetchy Valley will have been taken from the camper’s map. . . . “The importance of the Hetch-Hetchy Valley as an entrance path into the upper Sierras has been very strongly urged by those who presented their objections to Congress. While Hetch-Hetchy is now used for such a purpose by but few, it is probable that it would be so used by a very much larger number in the future, if the valley remained available. To the extent that this is true, the flooding of the valley is a serious matter to the mountain-climber. It is the natural camping base and the natural place for rest and recuperation from fatiguing journeys into the upper territory.” Imagine the floor of Yosemite Valley flooded! Where would there be the possibility of visiting the place and enjoying it. Every argu- ment in favor of flooding Hetch-FIetchy is equally applicable to flood- ing Yosemite itself. There are no camping possibilities on or near the steep walls or cliffs of Hetch-Hetchy. There is one small shelf above the lower end of the valley where a few could be accommodated. Feed for animals would last but a few days. The Superintendent of the Park informed us that though he wished to do so, he could not camp there for lack of drinking water, which disappears early in the season. Along the traveled approach to the valley, the nearest camp- ing places for parties of any considerable size are from eight to ten miles distant. .... If the Hetch-Hetchy Valley is turned into a reservoir, it will be for the purpose of supplying the city of San Francisco with water for drinking, washing and industrial purposes. These pur- poses cannot be hygienically carried out without careful supervision, not only of the Tuolumne River and the beautiful camping meadows near its head, but also of the watersheds on the north and south. — Editorial in N. Y. “Outlook,” January 30, 1909. Read carefully pp. 20-21 and help to save the Park. 7 TRAVEL INTO THE ENTIRE TUOLUMNE WATERSHED, BY FAR THE FINER HALF OF THE PARK, WOULD BE JEOPARDIZED. Indirect Effect . — Five hundred square miles of the Park drain directly into the proposed municipal system. Immediately above the valley itself and extending to the very source of the Tuolumne River, which flows through the Hetch-Hetchy, is the most wonderful scenery in the Park, including as it does the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne, nearly a mile deep, with its stupendous cliffs and waterfalls, and the magnificent Tuolumne Meadows at the head of the canyon, which are by far the most delightful and interesting high mountain camp grounds in the High Sierra. Travel to all of these natural wonders will be restricted if a municipal water system is allowed to store water which drains from these camp grounds. Marsden Manson, the city engineer, in an official report on this sys- tem says “that at no time in the future can conditions arise tending to impair the purity of the water flowing therefrom, zv'hich can not he rigidly controlled.’' Think of a city controlling all the people of the United States in their enjoyment of their own park! “Argument is scarcely necessary to indicate the impossibility of permitting public access to a reservoir intended to furnish a domestic water supply to any large center of population. The danger of pollution which would thus result would make the water supply thus acquired a menace instead of a benefit to the people of the city involved One case of ‘walking typhoid’ on the borders of the lake proposed to be established as a reservoir could start an epidemic of typhoid fever in the city to be supposedly benefited, causing the loss of hundreds of inno- cent lives. Countless experiences prove the correctness of this statement. The city of Reading, Pennsylvania, has had eight hundred cases of typhoid fever within less than eight weeks through the pollution of a supposedly guarded water supply. The epidemics at Plymouth, at Ithaca and elsewhere are well- known to have resulted from exactly the conditions which might be expected in respect to the city of San Francisco. It is thus apparent that full public access to the lake and the valley in which it shall be created can not be had if the health of the people of the city of San Francisco is of any importance to those who are seeking this water suppl}''. “Not only in the reservoir itself would danger from pollution exist, but a greater danger would arise through the possible pollution of the watershed feed- ing the reservoir proposed. A single case of ‘walking-typhoid’ again affecting a camper, or stroller, or ordinary visitor, who had acquired that typhoid on his way into the park, could make the proposed water supply a source of desperate danger to the city supposed to be benefitted. Nothing is better established in modern sanitary science than that the watershed of any domestic water supply must be jealously guarded and kept free from human occupancy at all times if that water supply is to result in other than the dissemination of disease and the bringing about of untimely death. No suggestion is made that the city of San Francisco has considered the filtration of the supposed water supply just pre- ceding its use, but much urgency is put upon the purity of the supply which is to be obtained within the Yosemite National Park. It is therefore obvious that if this purity is to be maintained, the whole watershed of the Hetch-Hetchy and Lake Eleanor reservoir sites must be given up to the purposes of the domestic water supply of the city of San Francisco. I am credibly informed that this involves the taking of an area but slightly less than half of that of the whole Yosemite National Park itself. If this be the intention of the proponents of this plan, it should be so definitely stated and the country should know that nearly one-half of an area of unequaled natural beauty, set aside by Congress as a great national park and playground, is to be given up to the purposes of the city of 3an Francisco, without any showing publicly made that there is no other source of water supply which would be less expensive to the people of the United States, whose property it is thus proposed to divert.” — By J. Horace McFarland, Presi- dent of American Civic Association, who has given the subject of sanitation of municipal water supplies careful consideration. Read carefully pp. 20-21 and help to save the Park. 8 SAN FRANCISCO WANTS WATER POWER AT THE EX- PENSE OF THE NATION. The park invaders object to these other available water supplies be- cause the water power rights have largely passed into private owner- ship. This is the crux of the whole situation. (See article by Marsden Manson, City Engineer, in California Weekly, June i8, 1909.) The same paper says editorially: “It is the possibility of a power supply that makes this proposition pre- eminently attractive.” “ . . . the other water supplies were all in private ownership. Of course the city could condemn and acquire these supplies. . . .” — Mr. Phelan’s testimony before Public Lands Committee, U. S. Senate, p. 26. Both Mr. Phelan and Mr. Manson, the City Engineer, say, “it is a matter of money.” (p. 386, House Hearings.) “There are no less than half a dozen water supplies from the Sierras, but they are all obstructed by ownership, developments made by power companies, used by power companies. . . .” — Mr. Phelan, House Hearings, p. 342. The development of power does not consume water. It is still avail- able for the city. The city would have to buy power for pumping. This expense would be offset by the fact that the city would not have to expend millions of dollars in construction of dams ^nd power plants The power companies have done and will do this. , In short, the city asks the nation to make her a priceless gift in order to save herself from having to pay fhe difference between the cost and the market price of water powerj The creation of the park has heretofore prevented the private acquisi- tion of the power and water rights in Hetch-Hetchy. The city has slumbered while other power and water rights in the Sierra have been acquired by others. In order to save a few dollars the city now demands the sacrifice of a national park and would selfishly destroy a wonder- land which wise and patriotic foresight has preserved all these years for the American people. THE BEAUTIFUL LAKE FALLACY. Landscape gardens, places of recreation and worship, are never made beautiful by destroying and burying them. The beautiful lake forsooth would be only an eye-sore, a dismal blot on the landscape, like many others to be seen in the Sierra. For, instead of keeping it at the same level all the year, allowing Nature to make new shores, it would of course be full only a month or two in the spring, when the snow is melting fast ; then it would be gradually drained, exposing the slimy sides of the basin and shallower parts of the bottom, with the gathered drift and waste, death and decay, of the upper basins, caught here instead of being swept on to decent natural burial along the banks of the river or in the sea. Thus the Hetch-Hetchy dam-lake would be only a rough imitation of a natural lake for a few of the spring months; an open mountain sepulcher the others. A FALSE ISSUE RAISED BY THE CITY’S ADVOCATES. The advocates of this plan for securing water are loud in their protestations that a mere handful of nature lovers who visit this region now are trying to stand in the way of the acquisition of a pure water supply for the “poor widows and orphans of San Francisco” and the half million who live about the bay. This accusation is unqualifiedly false. There are none more anxious than we that San Francisco should own and control a bountiful supply of the purest mountain water. As we have pointed out elsewhere, it is not necessary for her to invade and dismember a National Park in order to do this. Read carefully pp. 20-21 and help to save the Park. 9 HON. E. A. HITCHCOCK, SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR, DENIED SAN FRANCISCO THE USE OF HETCH-HETCHY VALLEY AS A RESERVOIR, DEC 22, 1903, SAYING: ‘Tt is proposed to convert Lake Eleanor and Hetch-Hetchy Valley, respectively, into reservoirs for the storage of a water supply for the city. Both are admittedly scenic features of the Yosemite National Park. . . . Hetch-Hetchy Valley is widely known for its wonderful natural conditions and marvelous scenic interest. . . . “The Valley proper is about three and one-half miles long and of a width varying from one quarter to three quarters of a mile. The rugged granite walls, crowned with domes, towers, spires and battle- ments, seem to rise almost perpendicular upon all sides to a height of two thousand five hundred feet above this beautiful emerald me^ow. . . . j^Tf natural scenic attractions of the grade and character of Lake Eleanor and Hetch-Hetchy Valley are not of the class which the law commands the Secretary to preserve and retain in their natural con- dition, it would seem difficult to find any in the park that are, unless it be the Yosemite Valley itself. In the absence of the clearest expres- sion to the contrary, it is inconceivable that it was intended by the Act of February 15, 1901, to confer any authority to be exercised for the subversion of those natural conditions which are essential to the very purposes for which the park was established^ “Presumably the Yosemite National Park was created such by law because of the natural objects, of varying degrees of scenic importance, located within its boundaries, inclusive alike of its beautiful small lakes, like Eleanor, and its majestic wonders, like Hetch-Hetchy and Yosemite Valley. It is the aggregation of such natural scenic features that makes the Yosemite Park a wonderland which the Congress of the United States sought by law to preserve for all coming time as nearly as practicable in the condition fashioned by the hand of the Creator — a worthy object of national pride and a source of healthful pleasure and rest for the thousands of people who may annually sojourn there during the heated months. “Having in view the ends for which the Park was established and the law which clearly defines my duty in the premises, I am constrained to deny the application.” VIEWS OF HON. JOHN W. NOBLE, FORMER SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR. Upon the policy of surrendering the Hetch-Hetchy Valley and its surroundings to the use of the city of San Francisco for water supply, allow me to express to you my conviction that such appropriation should not be made. Permit me also to recall that during the Harrison administration these reser- vations, in connection with Yosemite Park, were discussed and advanced, with the system then inaugurated of protecting our natural and wonderful scenery and our forests and other resources. It took labor and moral courage to with- stand the fierce opposition of local interests to do this. Among the most important reservations secured were these now asked for a city to be abandoned. It ought not to be done. The city has abundant water supply other than the reservoir to be constructed here, and it is not necessary to give tins up. There is a growing public opinion in favor of a strict preservation of what has already been redeemed for national reservations; and an appropriation of this, one of the chief works of John Muir’s patriotic foresight, will be deemed a sur- render of the national policy and a return to the idea that the nation has nothing that cannot be appropriated to other interests sufficiently persistent in assertion. Read carefully pp. 20-21 and help to save the Park. 10 THE GARFIELD PERMIT TO FLOOD HETCH-HETCHY VALLEY IS INVALID. The Act of 1890 creating the Yosemite National Park was a special act having for its object the preservation of Hetch-Hetchy Valley and other wonders of .the park in their natural condition, and none of its terms could have been repealed by the passage of the general law of 1901 authorizing the granting of rights of way, etc., by the Secretary of the Interior unless that intention were expressly declared in the general act, and there is no such language to be found in the act. Only rights of way, etc., which will not destroy the natural condition of wonders of the park are within the contemplation of the act of iQpiy^ It is the opinion, therefore, of many lawyers of high standing that : “The action of the Secretary of the Interior of May ii, 1908, in grant- ing the permit to flood Hetch-Hetchy Valley, was without authority of law. Such was the opinion of his predecessor in office. Honorable E. A. Hitchcock, (letter to the President of February 20, 1905), who was sup- ported by the opinion of Honorable V. H. Metcalf, Secretary of Commerce and Labor. (Letter to the President of March i, 1905.) The latter wrote: “As the law now stands, permission to use the reservation for purposes which will permanently change its natural conditions may he granted only by Congress/' The reasons for this view, as set forth by Mr. Hitchcock, are that “The act of 1890 (establishing the park) makes it obligatory to preserve and retain the natural curiosities and zuonders of the park in their natural condition.” The act of 1901, under the authority of which this permit has been obtained, allows grants of revocable rights of way “which are not incompatible with the public interest.” “It is inconceivable,” says Mr. Hitchcock, “that it was intended by the act of 1901 to confer any authority to be exercised for the subversion of those natural con- ditions which are essential to the very purposes for which the park was established. This is the common sense construction of the two acts.” — From Brief of Appalachian Mountain Club. ^‘Secretary Hitchcock said that public interest meant the preservation of me natural curiosities and wonders in their natural condition. Secretary Garfield said it meant a water supply for San Francisco, as that was the highest beneficial use, A study of the records of Congress will show, however, that Secretary Hitchcock grasped the real meaning of the later act. The Committee on the Public Lands, in reporting the act of 1901, said : “The several acts relating to this subject should be brought to- gether and harmonized in a new act, the terms of which should be broad and comprehensive enough to afford the widest possible use for all beneficial purposes of the waters on the public lands and reservations of the United States, so long as the same is consistent with the preservation of the public interests and the attainment of the purposes for which the various reser- vations are established.” “From the foregoing it would seem that it was the intention of the Com- mittee, and presumably the intention of the Congress, that the act should be availed of in a way that would not destroy the purposes of the park, which were the preservation of objects of beauty. And of those Hetch- Hetchy was notably one.” — From Report of Hon. Herbert Parsons, Mem- ber of the Committee of Public Lands of the House, p. 27, Report No. 2085; both Congress, 2nd session. “It is not within my power under the guise of giving a revocable right of way to give away one of the wonders of the park.” — Hon. E. A. Hitchcock, former Secretary of the Interior. Read carefully pp. 20-21 and help to save the Park. II HETCH-HETCHY AND THE YOSEMITE PARK IS A GREAT NATIONAL ASSET. According to the terms of the Garfield permit, San Francisco must first develop Lake Eleanor and Cherry River to their greatest capacity. It would be fifty years before Hetch-Hetchy Valley could possibly be used. Who can foretell what the travel to the Hetch-Hetchy will be by that time ? It is now numbered by the hundreds annually and in fifty years will reach so far into the thousands as to be almost unbelievable. A hundred years ago the travel into the Alps was negligible. Now it has become the “Playground of Europe” and consular reports indicate that over two million persons travel to the Swiss Alps annually. If San Francisco should secure the legislation she seeks granting her the floor of Hetch-Hetchy, it would mean that the destruction of the valley would only be a matter of time. How much more rational to let this question of the necessity for using the valley be determined when that necessity actually arises. The valley will remain in the park and can not be acquired by others. This situation demonstrates the sophistry of the water system advocates. They are afraid to let this question remain open to be decided by those who fifty years hence are rightfully entitled to decide it. If allowed to increase without restric- tion, travel to the Hetch-Hetchy fifty years from now will be so great as to make any scheme to destroy it unthinkable. The value of the Yosemite National Park as a commercial asset is simply incalculable. It is a gold mine for the State of California and a treasure house for the whole nation. The Hetch-Hetchy Valley is one of its most priceless attractions, and no community would suffer greater loss by the destruc- tion of Hetch-Hetchy than San Francisco herself. “The value of great scenic possessions is being increasingly recognized the world over. This value is now known to have a great influence upon the develop- ment of that best citizenship, without v/hich a country is poor indeed. Tt is also admittedly understood to relate very closely to the maintenance of the health of the people. There is, too, a recognized and most definite value in the mainten- ance of great scenery as a directly productive asset, attracting travel from all the world. It is admitted that more than twenty millions of dollars are annually expended in travel to see the Falls of Niagara. Capitalized at five per cent, and taking no account of the increasing travel, this would make the travel value alone of this one asset of American natural scenery exceed four hundred millions of dollars. The travel tribute paid to the Yosemite National Park is annually increasing, and as our population increase it must increase in larger proportion ; for more and more are men driven for necessary rest and recreation to the few remaining spots presenting undamaged nature’s sublimest works. It may there- fore be assumed, I insist, that all of the Yosemite National Park, which in its wisdom Congress set aside many years ago for just the purpose I have been urging, holds a very large value, inhering to all the people of the United States. This value, I insist, should not be interfered with except for a grave public necessit}’’,. and for cause fully shown to the satisfaction of the whole country, who own the Yosemite National Park.” — J. Horace McFarland, President of American Civic Association. “Conservation of our natural scenery is conservation of one of the nation’s greatest resources. “This threatened precedent of entering National Parks is wrong in principle and unnecessary in fact. “There is a vast economic reason for jealously guarding all of our scenic heritage in America.” — J. Horace McFarland, President of American Civic Association. 12 Read carefully pp. 20-21 and help to save the Park. OTHER ARGUMENTS OF THE PARK INVADERS ANSWERED. Those who would enter and destroy vital and essential features of our great national parks give as a reason that the Hetch-Hetchy Valley is flooded by the spring freshets of the Tuolumne River. The facts are these; For a few days in the spring portions of the lower end of the Hetch-Hetchy Valley are covered with water. The upper two-thirds, embracing the most beautiful parts of the park-like floor, is never flooded. After the v^^ater recedes from the lower portion, it leaves a dry sandy soil which becomes one of the most beautiful flower gardens in the Sierra. The Yosemite Valley floor is subject to the same periodic and extensive flooding at seasons of high water. The floor of Hetch-Hetchy Valley has been called a “mosquito marsh” by our zealous opponents. There are mosquitoes there in great numbers immediately following the spring overflow of the lower end of the valley, but they remain but a short time and disappear entirely when the water is drained off from the sandy flower gardens and meadows, as nature quickly accomplishes. Drainage and a liberal use of petroleum will eradicate even this temporary nuisance. There are great numbers of mosquitoes even in the Yosemite Valley itself. Let us drown the Yosemite if this argument is tenable. They argue that Hetch-Hetchy Valley is accessible only a few months in the year. With good roads it can be made accessible the whole year round, as the Yosemite Valley has recently been made accessible. The park invaders urge that but few visit Hetch-Hetchy Valley now and that the needs of a great city are paramount to the pleasures of a few. The same argument would have applied to Yosemite before good roads were made. We are not judging the needs of the Hetch-Hetchy Valley by present travel there. With good roads and trails connecting it with the Yosemite and the other important places in the park, travel to Hetch-Hetchy will increase just as travel to the Yosemite has increased. They urge that the city now owns all the patented land on the floor of the valley and that this bill in Congress merely provides for the exchange of other lands so that the city can secure control of the entire floor in fee simple. San Francisco has acquired by purchase some 720 acres in and about the floor of the Hetch-Hetchy Valley. In order to cover fully the rights she desires she will need about 2000 acres more that now belong to the American people and is a part of the national park. It is unfortunate that the nation ever parted with any of its title to these lands, but it is one of those mistakes made in the early days when our public domain was parcelled out without regard to consequences. This land was acquired under the guise of homesteads, etc., and in reality was used for a few years for pasturing sheep and stock. The government at that time never realized how priceless it was. The creation of the national park put an end to further sacrifice of one of the nation’s most valuable possessions. Now these park invaders argue that because the government made the monu- mental mistake of ever parting with title to an acre of this wonderland, it shall now commit the irretrievable folly of sacrificing it all! The land the city owns is valueless for reservoir purposes without acquiring control over all the remainder. The government called a halt when it created the park, and a wise policy will decree that the land which it foolishly patented before the creation of the park shall be either purchased or condemned like other private claims in other national parks. UNEQUAL NATURE OF PRpPOSED EXCHANGE BY THE CITY. The city proposes through the bill now pending in Congress to exchange for lands on or near the floor of Hetch-Hetchy an equal acreage of patented lands — some situated within the national park and some not even in the park, but in the adjacent forest reserve. The Hog Ranch is one of the tracts lying just outside the present park boundary. It is like thousands of other Sierra pastures, and to exchange Hetch-Hetchy Valley for Hog Ranch would be like exchanging Central Park in New York City for an equal acreage of cow pasture. Another private holding owned by the city is in Till Till Valley. The absurdity of this proposed exchange is demonstrated by the following fact. The special committee of the Commonwealth Club of San Francisco having this very matter under consideration reports that it “is extremely doubtful, con- sidering the difficulties of sanitation” whether Till Till “may be used for the accommodation of visitors” if Hetch-Hetchy becomes a municipal reservoir. Would the nation profit by such an exchange? The very land the nation would acquire could not be used by the public because the land the nation would sur- render to the city in exchange would be used as a municipal reservoir, which would be polluted by drainage from Till Till! Till Till would also be rendered practically inaccessible by the flooding of the Hetch-Hetchy camp grounds. THE ENDANGERED VALLEY: THE HETCH-HETCHY VALLEY IN THE YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK. By John Muir, Author of “The Mountains of California,” “Our National Parks,” etc. The fame of the Merced Yosemite has spread far and wide, while Hetch-Hetchy, the Tuolumne Yosemite, has until recently remained comparatively unknown, notwithstanding it is a wonderfully exact counterpart of the famous valley. As the Merced flows in tranquil beauty through Yosemite, so does the Tuolumne through Hetch- Hetchy. The floor of Yosemite is about 4,000 feet above the sea, and that of Hetch-Hetchy about 3,700, while in both the walls are of gray granite, very high, and rise precipitously out of flowery gardens and groves. Furthermore, the two wonderful valleys occupy the same relative positions on the flank of the Sierra, were formed by the same forces in the same kind of granite, and have similar waterfalls, sculp- ture, and vegetation. Hetch-Hetchy lies in a northwesterly direction from Yosemite at a distance of about eighteen miles, and is now easily accessible by a trail and wagon-road from the Big Oak Flat road at Sequoia. The most strikingly picturesque rock in the valley is a majestic pyramid over 2,000 feet in height which is called by the Indians ‘‘Kolana.’’ It is the outermost of a group like the Cathedral Rocks of Yosemite and occupies the same relative position on the south wall. Facing Kolana on the north side of the valley there is a massive sheer rock like the Yosemite El Capitan about 1,900 feet high, and over its brow flows a stream that makes the most beautiful fall I have ever seen. The Indian name for it is “Tueeulala.” From the edge of the cliff it is perfectly free in the air for a thousand feet, then breaks up into a ragged sheet of cascades among the boulders of an earthquake talus. It is in all its glory in June, when the snow is melting fast, but fades and vanishes toward the end of summer. The only fall I know with which it may fairly be compared is the Yosemite Bridal Veil; but it excels even that favorite fall both in height and fineness of fairy airy beauty and behavior. Lowlanders are apt to suppose that moun- tain streams in' their wild career over cliffs lose control of themselves and tumble in a noisy chaos of mist and spray. On the contrary, on no part of their travels are they more harmonious and self-controlled. Imagine yourself in Hetch-Hetchy on a sunny day in June, standing waist-deep in grass and flowers (as I have oftentimes stood), whiR the great pines sway dreamily with scarce perceptible motion. Look- ing northward across the valley you see a plain gray granite cliff rising abruptly out of the gardens and groves to a height of 1,800 feet, and in front of it Tueeulala’s silvery scarf burning with irised sun-fire in every fiber. Approaching the brink of the rock, her waters flow swiftly, and in the first white outburst of the stream at the head of the fall there is abundance of visible energy, but it is speedily hushed and concealed in divine repose ; and its tranquil progress to the base of the cliff is like that of downy feathers in a still room. Now observe the fineness and marvelous distinctness of the various sun-illumined fabrics into which the water is woven : they sift and float from form to form down the face of that grand gray rock in so leisurely and unconfused a manner that you can examine their texture, and patterns, and tones Read carefully pp. 20-21 and help to save the Park. 14 The Endangered Valley — John Muir. of color as you would a piece of embroidery held in the hand. Near the head of the fall you see groups of booming comet-like masses, their solid white heads separate, their tails like combed silk interlacing among delicate shadows, ever forming and dissolving, worn out by friction in their rush through the air. Most of these vanish a few hundred feet below the summit, changing to the varied forms of cloudlike drapery. Near the bottom the width of the fall has increased from about twenty-five to a hundred feet, and is composed of yet finer tissue, fold over fold — air, water, and sunbeams woven into irised robes that spirits might wear. So fine a fall might well seem sufficient to glorify any valley ; but here as in Yosemite Nature seems in no wise moderate, for a short distance to the eastward of Tueeulala booms and thunders the great Hetch-Hetchy fall, Wapama, so near that you have both of them in full view from the same- standpoint. It is the counterpart of the Yosemite Fall, but has a much greater volume of water, is about 1,700 feet in height, and appears to be nearly vertical though considerably inclined, and is dashed into huge outbounding bosses of foam on the projecting shelves and knobs of its jagged gorge. No two falls could be more unlike — Tueeulala out in the open sunshine descending like thistle- down, chanting soft and low like a summer breeze in the pines ; Wa- pama in a jagged shadowy gorge roaring and thundering, pounding its way with the weight and energy of an avalanche. Tueeulala whispers that the Almighty dwells in peace; Wapama is the thunder of His chariot-wheels in power. Besides this glorious pair there is a broad massive fall on the main river a short distance above the head of the valley. Its position is something like that of the Vernal in Yosemite, and its roar as it plunges into a surging trout-pool may be heard a long way, though it is only about twenty feet high. There is also a chain of magnificent cascades at the head of the valley on a stream that comes in from the northeast, mostly silvery plumes, like the one between the Vernal and Nevada falls of Yosemite, half-sliding, half-leaping on bare glacier-polished granite, covered with crisp clash- ing spray into which the sunbeams pour with glorious effect. Others shoot edgewise, through deep, narrow gorges, chafing and surging beneath rainbows in endless variety of form and tone. And besides all these here and there small streams, seldom noticed, come dancing down from crag to crag with birdlike song and watering many a hidden cliff-garden and fernery, doing what they can in the grand general harmony. The floor of the valley is about three and a half miles long, half a mile wide, and is partly separated by a bar of glacier-polished gran- ite across which the river breaks in rapids. The lower part is mostly a grassy, flowery meadow, with the trees confined to the sides and the river-banks. The upper forested part is charmingly diversified with groves of the large and picturesque California live-oak, and the noble yellow pine, which here attains a height of more than two hundred feet, growing well apart in small groves or singly, allowing each tree to be seen in all its beauty and grandeur. Beneath them the common pteris spreads a sumptuous carpet, tufted here and there with ceanothus and manzanita bushes, azalea and brier-rose, and brightened with Mariposa tulips, goldenrod, tall mints, larkspurs, geraniums, etc., amid Read carefully pp. 20-21 and help to save the Park. 15 The Endangered Valley — John Muir. which butterflies, bees, and humming-birds find rich pasturage. Near the walls, especially on the earthquake tali that occur in many places, the pines and California oak giVe place to the mountain live-oak, which forms the shadiest and most extensive groves. The glossy foliage, densely crowded, makes a beautiful ceiling, with only a few irregular openings for the admission of sunbeams, while the pale-gray trunks and the branches, gnarled and outspread in wide interlacing arches, are most impressively beautiful and picturesque. The sugar-pine, Sabine pine, incense cedar, silver fir, and tumion, occur here and there among the oaks and yellow pines, or in cool side canons, or scattered on the rifted wall rocks and benches. The river-bank trees are chiefly libocedrus, poplar, willow, alder, and flowering dogwood. Hetch-Hetchy Valley is a grand landscape garden, one of Nature’s rarest and most precious mountain mansions. As in Yosemite, the sublime rocks of its walls seem to the nature-lover to glow with life, whether leaning back in repose or standing erect in thoughtful atti- tudes giving welcome to storms and calms alike. And how softly these mountain rocks are adorned, and how fine and reassuring the company they keep — their brows in the sky, their feet set in groves and gay emerald meadows, a thousand flowers leaning confidingly against their adamantine bosses, while birds, bees, and butterflies help the river and waterfalls to stir all the air into music — things frail and fleeting and types of permanence meeting here and blending, as if into this glorious mountain temple Nature had gathered her choicest treas- ures, whether great or small, to draw her lovers into close confiding communion with her. Hetch-Hetchy weather is delightful and invigorating all the year. Snow seldom lies long on the floor, and is never very deep. On the sunny north wall many a sheltered nook may be found embraced by sun-warmed rock-bosses in which flowers bloom every month of the year. Even on the shaded south side of the valley the frost is never severe. The most delightful and wonderful campgrounds in the park are the three great valleys — Yosemite, Hetch-Hetchy, and Upper Tuol- umne; and they are also the most important places with reference to their positions relative to the other great feaures — the Merced and Tuolumne canons, and the High Sierra peaks and glaciers, etc., at the head of the rivers. The main part of the Tuolumne Valley is a beau- tiful spacious flowery lawn four or five miles long, surrounded by magnificent snowy mountains. It is about 8,500 feet above the sea, and forms the grand central High Sierra campground from which excursions are made to the noble mountains, domes, glaciers, etc. ; across the range to the Mono Lake and volcanoes; and down the Tuolumne Canon to Hetch-Hetchy. But should Hetch-Hetchy be submerged, as proposed, not only would it be made utterly inaccessible, but the sublime canon way to the heart of the High Sierra would be hopelessly blocked. That any one would try to destroy such a place seemed impossible, but sad experience shows that there are people good enough and bad enough for anything. The proponents of the dam scheme bring for- ward a lot of bad arguments to prove that the only righteous thing for Hetch-Hetchy is its destruction. These arguments are curiously 16 Read carefully pp. 20-21 and help to save the Park. The Endangered Valley — John Muir. like those of the devil devised for the destruction of the first garden — so much of the very best Eden fruit going to waste, so much of the best Tuolumne water. In these ravaging money-mad days monopo- lizing San Francisco capitalists are now doing their best to destroy the Yosemite Park, the most wonderful of all our great mountain national parks. Beginning on the Tuolumne side, they are trying with a lot of sinful ingenuity to get the Government’s permission to dam and destroy the Hetch-Hetchy Valley for a reservoir, simply that com- paratively private gain may be made out of universal public loss. This use of the valley, so destructive and foreign to its proper park use, has long been planned and prayed for, and is still being prayed for by the San Francisco board of supervisors, not because water as pure and abundant cannot be got from adjacent sources outside the park, — for it can, — but seemingly only because of the comparative cheapness of the dam required. Garden- and park-making goes on everywhere with civilization, for everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and_pray in, where Nature may heal and cheer and give strength to body and soul. It is impossible to overestimate the value of wild mountains and mountain temples. They are the greatest of our natural resources, God’s best gifts, but none, however high and holy, is beyond reach of the spoiler. These temple destroyers, devotees of ravaging commercialism, seem to have a perfect contempt for Nature, and instead of lifting their eyes to the mountains, lift them to dams and town skyscrapers. Dam Hetch-Hetchy ! As well dam for water-tanks the people’s cathedrals and churches, for no holier temple has ever been consecrated by the heart of man. Excepting only Yosemite, Hetch-Hetchy is the most attractive and wonderful valley within the bounds of the great Yosemite National Park and the. best of all the campgrounds. People are now flocking to it in ever-increasing numbers for health and recreation of body and mind. Though the walls are less sublime in height than those of Yo'semite, its groves, gardens, and broad spacious meadows are more beautiful and picturesque. It is many years since sheep and cattle were pastured in it, and the vegetation now shows scarce a trace of their ravages. Last year in October I visited the valley with Mr. William Keith, the artist. He wandered about from view to view, enchanted, made thirty-eight sketches, and enthusiastically declared that in varied picturesque beauty Hetch-Hetchy greatly surpassed Yosemite. It is one of God’s best gifts, and ought to be faithfully guarded. [Note. — The substance of the foregoing article has appeared in the Century Magazine, Sierra Chib Bulletin, and the Outlook, and it was written many years before this Hetch-Hetchy question arose.] .... If a municipal water-works is permitted to erect its plant in the Hetch-Hetchy Valley, it means that the Yosemite Park will be- I come the back-yard of a great municipal utility instead of a recrea- ) tion ground for all the people of the country. — Editorial in N. Y. j “Outlook,” January 30, 1909. t I Read carefully pp. 20-21 and help to save the Park. 17 WHAT THE PRESS THINKS. SAVING THE YOSEMITE PARK., “Before the damage is irremediably done we hope that Congress will investi- gate the entire Hetch-Hetchy controversy for the express purpose of authorita- tively finding out whether San Francisco cannot be adequately supplied with water from some other source. We urge our readers to write to their Representatives in Congress asking for Congressional action.”— Editorial in N. Y. Outlook, January 30, 1909. “There is cause for national congratulation in the fact that President Taft, while visiting the Yosemite Valley last week, was accompanied by John Muir, who thus had abundant opportunity to talk to him about San Francisco’s proposed conversion of the Hetch-Hetchy Valley into a water tank the next Congress will be asked to take away this superb valley from the nation and make a present of it to the city, which, as eminent engineers have shown, does not need it, as it has thirteen other available sources of good water. The grant, if made, would exclude campers and sightseers not only from the Hetch- Hetchy, but from practically one-half of the national park.” — Editorial in N. Y. Nation, October 14, 1909. “It behooves all nature-lovers to join Mr. Muir in his efforts to save this temple.” — Editorial in N. Y. Post, October 12, 1909. SHALL THE YOSEMITE BE DESPOILED? “Aside from the fact that the precedent involved endangers the perpetuity of national parks generally, this is really the first step toward the diversion from public to domestic use of what constitutes scenically more than one-half of the Yosemite National Park. It is time for public-spirited men to insist upon an exhaustive Congressional investigation of the ultimate issues involved in this grant. National parks should be inviolate against every claim except that of absolute public necessity.” — Editorial in N. Y. Independent, January 14, 1909. TO MAINTAIN THE WONDERS OF NATURE. “ .... A temporary agreement has been reached in Congress not to pass any legislation permanently granting a part of Yosemite National Park — the Hetch- Hetchy Valley — to San Francisco for a source of water supply for a year. This practically nullifies Secretary Garfield’s decision granting the city the right to appropriate the valley . . . .” — Editorial in World’s Work, April, 1909. (See also article entitled “San Francisco Against the Nation for the Yosemite,” by French Strother in the same issue.) HETCH-HETCHY, A VALLEY OF WONDERS NOW THREATENED WITH EXTINCTION. “Every lover of nature, every one who takes pride in our magnificent system of national parks, should earnestly protest against the threatened desecration.” — F. M. Fultz in The World To-day, May, 1909. “There are plenty of other sources of water supply for San Francisco or any other large city. Those same rivers can be stored further down at various points; it is true the cost would be greater. Let us keep these grand wild gardens that God has given to us and to all, for all ages to come.” — Christian Science Monitor, January 30, 1909. A RICH GRAB. [Editorial from The Oregonian, Portland, December 30, 1908.] The whole country is interested in the Hetch-Hetchy Valley. It is an im- portant part of the most valuable territory belonging to the American people. It lies in the Yosemite National Park and next to the Yosemite Valley the Hetch-Hetchy Valley is the most beautiful tract in that wonderful region. It belongs to the people and it should forever be preserved to the people as a source of health and pleasure. . . . San Francisco can get plenty of water else- where. Her present supply properly developed would furnish her 100,000,000 gallons daily, whereas she uses but 35,000,000 gallons. Moreover, there are other sources available without trenching on the national domain, which would supply all she needed forever. There are few cities in the world so well able to get abundance of good water as San Francisco. Why, then, this eagerness to grab the Hetch-Hetchy Valley and rob the nation of its property? .... The Hetch-Hetchy Valley belongs to the people and they ought to be able to keep it. Ex-President Roosevelt, in speaking of the Yellowstone Park in his last Annual Message to Congress, said : “This, like the Yosemite, is a great wonderland and should be kept as a national playground. In both all wild things should be pro- tected and the scenery kept wholly unmarred.” 18 Read carefully pp. 20-21 and help to save the Park. A HIGH PRICE TO PAY FOR WATER. APROPOS OF THE GRANT OF THE HETCH-HETCHY VALLEY TO SAN FRANCISCO FOR A RESERVOIR. [Editorial in the Century Magazine, Aug^ust, 1908.] Of this great park reservation, which is as large as the State of Rhode Island, the northern third — for the watershed of the valley even above the Tuolumne Meadows must go with the valley itself — is to be withdrawn from the use of the people of the whole United States and given to the city of San Francisco. This involves a new principle and a dangerous precedent, and is a tremendous price for the nation to pay for San Francisco’s water, and the burden of proof that it is necessary is upon those who advocated the grant. It is not enough that it should be thought merely desirable. [Editorial in the Boston Transcript, November 28, 1908.] The case is of interest to the country because it so vitally affects one of the principal national parks and because of its connection with the conservation of natural resources agitation. It is very generally supposed that national parks were established for the purpose of preserving in a natural state some of the chief scenic features of our country, and that once a park had been established it is for all time safe from any attack. Few ever suspected that it lay in the power of any cabinet officer to make a present of a slice of one of these national properties to some favored city. Such is the case, however, and if these parks are to be in fact held sacred in the future the laws governing them must be amended. If the people believe that these lands should be set aside for the preservation of their scenic charms and to furnish recreation grounds for the public amid these uplifting surroundings, then it is time for the individual citizen to bestir himself and as an individual and through organizations apprise the members of Congress of this belief. [Editorial in Out West Magazine.] If there is anything in the world which should enlist the untiring effort of every true Californian, it is the preservation of our Yosemites. . . . The very thing that makes the Yosemites glorious to every traveler that sees them, naturally appeals to the corporation hunting for a reservoir. It is perhaps not curious that God Almighty knows as much as our civil engineers know. A reservoir which should fill the Yosemite would be adequate to give all the baths, and all the fresh water drinks taken and to be taken by all the grafters and all the decent persons in San Francisco. But nobody will ever dam the well-known Yosemite. If we permit anybody to dam the Hetch-Hetchy, may we be able to die before our children and grand-children rise up to tell us to our face what vandals and scrubs we were. The whole thing is absolutely wanton. Out of this tremendous and alpine watershed there is no trouble as to the supplying of all the Golden State without a single vandalism or destroying something which belongs to the whole world. The more we of California can realize that our big trees, our Yosemites, our climate, belong to the world as long as there shall be one, the better we shall do for ourselves and for our children. A city must have water. There is no question about that. . . . There is always a way to get water. We have had a similar example in the case of Niagara Falls. It is a question whether Buffalo, New York, can peddle the falls out to manufacturers and kill them off for the whole world. The overwhelming sentiment, not only of the foreign world but of America, has been that the falls must be preserved. The overwhelming sentiment of California and of the world will be that our Yosemites must be preserved. It is simply a question of harnessing this public opinion in time. The matter is at an acute stage. The dollar-minded people are working for this robbery of a State of its glory and its worth to the world, in order to p’U water into San Francisco. Anybody American enough ought to object to this sort of infamy. — CJias. F. Lummis. DESTROYING A NATIONAL PARK. . engineers declare that there are a number of Sierra streams, anv one of which could satisfy the city’s needs. . . . Many people who appreciate ll>c great natural wonders of this country have petitioned their Representatives at Wasbing- ton to vote against the measure. . . .” — Harper's Weekly, September 4, 1909. Read carefully pp. 20-21 and help to save the Park. 19 HOW TO HELP TO PRESERVE THE HETCH-HETCHY VALLEY AND THE YOSEMITE PARK. 1. Write at once to Hon. Richard A. Ballinger, Secretary of the Interior, Washington, D. C., requesting him to revoke the Garfield permit to flood the Hetch-Hetchy Valley. 2. Send a copy of the letter to President William H. Taft. 3. See personally if possible, or write to, the Senators and Congress- men from your State, and as many others as you can reach, requesting them to vigorously oppose any bill having for its object the confirmation of the Garfield permit to flood Hetch-Hetchy Valley, and request them to favor legislation designed to protect our parks from invasion, and particularly to favor improving the Yosemite Park. After December I, 1909, address them either “Senate Chamber” or “House of Repre- sentatives,” Washington, D. C. 4. After December ist write to each member of the Public Lands Committees of both the Senate and the House, Washington, D. C., requesting them to oppose any and all legislation having for its object the destruction of the Hetch-Hetchy Valley and to favor any legisla- tion designed to protect the parks. Write to all if you can, but if yon cannot, at least write to the Chairman of each committee. (The names of the members of the committees will be found on the opposite page.) 5. Get as many of your friends as possible to write. Remember ! every letter and every protest counts. 6. Interest your newspapers and get them to publish editorials and news items and send copies to your Senators and Representatives. 7. Send the names and addresses of any persons who would be inter- ested in receiving this pamphlet to “Society for the Preservation of National Parks, 302 Mills Building, San Francisco, Cal.” EDITORS are respectfully requested to write brief editorials and news items informing the public and calling on them to write to their Congressmen and Senators and protest. CLUBS should send copies of resolutions they may adopt to Pres- ident Taft, Secretary Ballinger, and each member of the Public Lands Committees, and the Senators and Representatives from their State. FUNDS ARE NEEDED to carry on this fight. A few have gen- erously carried the burden of expense connected with the issuance of this literature, but more money is required to spread information. Those who would like to render pecuniary assistance may send their contributions to John Muir, President of Society for the Preservation of National Parks, 302 Mills Building, San Francisco, Cal. WHERE TO OBTAIN INFORMATION CONCERNING THE PROPOSED UNNECES- SARY DESTRUCTION OF THE FINEST HALF OF THE YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK. Putnam’s Magazine, May, 1909. “Camping Above the Yosemite,” by Harriet Monroe, pp. 221-6. The World To-Day, May, 1909. “The Hetch-Hetchy,” by F. M. Fultz, pp. 524-530. _ World’s Work, April, 1909. Editorial and article entitled, “San Francisco Against the Nation.” Suburban Life, March, 1909. Article entitled “Despoiling the Hetch-Hetchy,” by Wm. F. Bade, pp. 117-118. Outlook (N. Y.) January 30, 1909. Editorial, pp. 234-236; Article entitled “Dismembering Your National Park,” by R. U. Johnson, pp. 252-3. Outlook (N. Y.) February 13, 1909. Editorial, pp. 3 30-331 • The Independent (N. Y.) May 14, 1908. “The Hetch-Hetchy Valley,” pp. 1079-1084. 20 Read carefully pp. 20-21 and help to save the Park. Members of the Public Lands Com- mittee OF THE Senate. Hon. John H. Bankhead “ Geo. E. Chamberlain “ Clarence D. Clark “ Jefferson Davis “ Joseph M. Dixon “ Frank P. Flint “ Robert J. Gamble “ Weldon B. Heyburn “ Martin N. Johnson* “ Wesley J. Jones “ Samuel D. McEnery “ Knute Nelson (Ch.) “ FrancisG.Newlands “ Robert L. Owen “ Reed Smoot *Deceased Fayette, Ala. Portland, Or. Evanston, Wyo. Little Rock, Ark. Missoula, Mont. Los Angeles, Cal. Yankton, So. Dak. Wallace, Idaho Petersburg, N.Dak. No. Yakima, Wash. New Orleans, La. Alexandria, Minn. Reno, Nev. Muskogee, Okla. Provo TTtah Members of Public Lands Commit- tee, House of Representatives. Hon. Wm. H. Andrews “ Adam M. Byrd “ Wm. B. Craig “ Chas. A. Crow “ Scott Ferris “ Asle J. Gronna “ Thos. R. Hamer “ Dudley M. Hughes “ Eben W. Martin “ F.W. MondelKCh.) “ Dick T. Morgan “ Herbert Parsons “ Chas. E. Pickett “ Chas. N. Pray “ Geo. W. Rauch ‘ John M. Reynolds Joseph T. Robinson “ Sylvester C. Smith “ Edward T. Taylor “ Andrew J. Volstead Santa Fe, N. M. Philadelphia, Miss. Selma, Ala. Caruthersville, Mo. Lawton, Okla. Lakota, No. Dak. St. Anthony, Idaho Danville, Ga. Deadwood, So. Dak. Newcastle, Wyo. Woodward, Okla. New York Waterloo, la. Ft. Benton, Mont. Marion, Ind. Bedford, Penn. Lonoke, Ark. Bakersfield, Cal. Glenwood Spgs.,Col. Granite Falls, Minn. It is particularly urgent that you impress the members of the Public Lands Committees from your State with the importance of opposing any bill granting the Hetch-Hetchy Valley to San Francisco. See them personally if possible, write to them and send resolutions to them. After December ist address them, “Senate Chamber” or “House of Representatives,” Washington, D. C. HON House of Representatives or Senate Chamber, (as the case may be) Washington, D. C. Sir : — Our national parks are already too few in number. We are vitally interested in preserving intact those now existing. We earnestly protest against the destruction of any of the wonderful scenery of the Yosemite National Park and urge you to oppose any bill which will permit San Francisco to use Hetch- Hetchy as a municipal water tank. Strengthen our park laws instead of allowing them to be overriden. Very truly. (Write letters similar to the foregoing in your own language and in accord- ance with your own ideas.) Whereas : The Hetch-Hetchy Valley is one of the grandest and most important features of the great Yosemite National Park belonging to the ninety millions of people composing the American public ; Whereas: This valley is threatened with destruction by those seeking a water supply for San Francisco and the use of the park by the public would thereby be seriously restricted ; Whereas: The precedent thus established would destroy the integrity of our whole national park system ; Whereas: The need for great public playgrounds is becoming vastly greater instead of diminishing; Whereas: Eminent engineers report that this proposed invasion of a national wonderland is wholly unnecessary and that San Francisco can get an abundance of pure water elsewhere ; Now Therefore he it Resolved: That we are earnestly opposed to such a needless local use of a priceless national possession in which the entire citizenship is interested, and we petition the President and the Secretary of the Interior to revoke the revocable permit now existing and urge all Senators and Repre- sentatives, especially those composing the Public Lands Committees, to defeat any bill which proposes to confirm any such invasion ; and that a copy of this resolution be sent to the President, the Secretary of the Interior, our repre- sentatives in Congress and to the members of the Public Lands Committees. (Clubs should adopt resolutions similar to the foregoing.) “The national parks — all too few in number and extent — ought to be held absolutely inviolate, as intended by Congress. Intrusions for questionable water- supply needs, against the unselfish protests of those whose love of country cannot be impugned, should not be permitted.” — /. Horace McFarland. Read carefully pp. 20-21 and help to save the Park. 21 VIEWS OF MEMBERS OF THE COMMITTEE OF PUBLIC LANDS OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. ‘T am of the opinion that the city has failed to establish its contention that the Hetch-Hetchy is the only reasonably available source of water supply in the Sierras, and that, therefore, the interests of the people of all the country should be waived on behalf of San Francisco in its claim to exclusive use of this valley.” — F. W. Mondell, Scott Ferris, IV. B. Craig, Jno. M. Reynolds, D. W. Hamilton. '‘We are opposed to this resolution in its present form, as it does not sufficiently guard public interests. We believe that its passage will eventually exclude the public from the Hetch-Hetchy Valley and the Tuolumne Canon, and we are not willing that that should be done, as it does not appear that it is necessary for the city of San Francisco to obtain this property for a water supply. “It appears from the testimony given by the committee appointed by the city to urge this resolution before this committee that there are other available supplies in the Sierras.” — A. J. Volstead, A. J. Gronna. “The undersigned admits that if this source is essential to San Fran- cisco the grant should be made. But San Francisco has not made out a case showing that it is essential. The testimony indicates that there are a number of other sources. . . . “San Francisco is in an enviable situation for water supply. It has all the Sierras, with their mountain snows and lakes to draw upon. There are no less than sixteen different systems. . . . “The fact of the matter is that San Francisco, having its eye on the Hetch-Hetchy, has not thoroughly investigated other systems. . . . “Certainly the Federal Government is not bound to give up to San Francisco two fifths of a national park simply because it is cheaper. Why is it cheaper? It is cheaper because, having been made a national park, it has not been possible for private interests to file upon the water in the same manner that they could have if there had not been a national park. Had private interests been allowed to file upon the water, San Francisco would not have thought of going to Hetch-Hetchy any more than to any other place. It would have chosen the place that it most cheaply could have condemned. It goes to Hetch-Hetchy mainly be- cause it is cheajTst. Hetch-Hetchy is cheapest because it belongs to all the people instea l of to some of the people. It has been preserved and made cheap because the purpose was to use it as a national park. Hav- Cineinnafi, O. TET.EGRAM. Nov. 18, 1909. Resolution passed by the Ameriean Civic Association, Thursday, Nov. 18, 1909, recognizing the T»-isdom of the Congress in setting aside for public use the great national parks and believing that any aA^jidable interference with the scenic integrity of these parks is In the highest degree undesirable, the Ameri- can Civic Association in convention assembled urges the Secretary of the In- terior to revoke the permit and the Congress to refuse to confirm such permit under which the city of San Francisco is assuming to control eventually for a domestic water supply more than five hundred square miles of the best of the Yosemltel National Park, unless after a full and Impartial inquiry it shall be shown to the satisfaction of the Congress that no other suificient source of water supply is available to San Francisco. We further respectfully represent that the granting and confirmation of such a permit to invade the public do- main would create a most dangerous precedent under which other scenic pos- sessions of the United States would he unsafe from individual or corporate assault. J HORACE McFARUAND, Pres. RICHARD D. WATROUS, Secy. 22 Read carefully fp. 20-21 and help to save the Park. ing been made cheap in that manner, San Francisco now desires to use it for itself by spoiling the very purpose which has made it cheap. . . . “I believe that we owe it to all the people to preserve Hetch-Hetchy uninterfered with for the use and enjoyment of all the people and to carry out the policy intended when it was included within the boun- daries of the Yosemite National Park .” — Herbert Parsons. YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK. 3. The Hetch-Hetchy Valley is a wonderfully exact counterpart of the great Yosemite. 4. The Grand Canon of the Tuolumne is one of the finest canons in America with its wonderful cascades and waterfalls and tremendous cliffs and walls. 2. “The upper Tuolumne Valley is the widest, smoothest, most serenely spacious, and in every way the most delightful pleasure park in all the High Sierra.” — John Muir. The shaded portion represents substantially the area of the Tuolumne drainage which would be affected by the Hetch-Hetchy grant. W H W O w w p O H O 5 oi w s H Q o c/j i-H ^ ^ «■ I riagffi S P C/f^ W < J u w >. o o s ° c 0 . PIETCH-HETCHY EL CAPITAN Photo by Herbert W. Gleason. WAPAMA OR HETCH-HETCHY FALL. “IT IS THE COUNTERPART OF THE YOSEMITE FALL, BUT HAS A MUCH GREATER VOLUME OF WATER, IS ABOUT 1,700 FEET IN HEIGHT, AND APPEARS TO BE NEARLY VERTICAL THOUGH CONSIDERABLY INCLINED, AND IS DASHED INTO HUGE OUTBOUNDING BOSSES OF FOAM ON THE PROJECTING SHELVES AND KNOBS OF ITS JAGGED GORGE.”— 7o/tn Muir. Photo by Herbert W. Gleason. “THE MOST STRIKINGLY PICTURESQUE ROCK IN HETCH-HETCHY VALLEY IS A MAJESTIC PYRAMID OVER |.ooo FEET IN HEIGHT WHICH IS CALLED BY THE INDIANS ‘KOLANA.’ IT IS THE OUTERMOST OF A GROUP LIKE THE CATHEDRAL ROCKS OF YOSEMITE AND OCCUPIES THE SAME RELATIVE POSITION ON THE SOUTH WALL.”— /o/fH Muir. Photo by Herbert W. Gleason. W w H H W c/2 w § ffi < CO W W H >■ c/1 w w Pi w o « § H ffi S < s 1-5 W ^ >> P 2 O 2 < H i-l H p < g W ^ H o ffi ^ i-j K w u ^ W 9 ^ O : Ph o P kJ o >^ Pi H o P . < H w w w pin _ t, c/5 ^ H Q ^ W t-) Pi >-l Q < P S W o w ^ W w ^ w p 5 ” c/3 W P W H H “IT WAS A GARDEN OF PARADISE, THIS VALLEY; A LESSER YOSEMITE, BUT VERY DIFFERENT, WITH AN INFINITELY CHARMING INDIVIDUALITY OF ITS OWN; SMALLER BUT MORE COMPACT, LESS GRAND BUT NOT LESS BEAUTIFUL. IN ITS WONDERFUL FOREST GROWTH OF GREAT VARIETY AND MAGNIFICENT DEVELOPxMENT IT SURPASSES THE YOSEMITE VALLEY ITSELF .” — Harriet Monroe. Photo by J. N. Le Conte. <; ^ Q te : “S'. oi - w. -• fe o O (■ ' 1 i (fl !- * Q r W H ' \ Oi >* Q " u- W f .1 3 P- P s e o r- C 4-1 O a c 2 ^ 3 C d 6 3 ^ o «-> -G oj su > CA U 1 ) ^15 H> 0 j -. -3 - «-> s ^ a Z 9J 5 6 o:^ d ^ S 2 di C J-i ^.5:^ D. ■J-j (L) Oh O (jj ^ *-• -r^ ^ „ 2 -M = 'i ^ 00-5^ " O 'S g rt O ^ G dj 4-1 nj a JO tu ^ u ^ a.< (U O) rt G 'ri O 4—* 4-> (X) — H qj J-H c^ C CD Ut • ^ U-i • ^ • - X CD ^ i£ (D OJ ’!-• O- 1 > (U JD b cx ^ r#^ (U > . OJ G u. G O o X) >."^-£ S JS ^ rH O So.S-s G 5-Q *- 0 ^ .G * ''r^ > u- C ^ *-i oO ■S5^£ c« ^ n CD iU’*i3 C3 CO c« qj > c/3 dJ (X) o a. o ‘ c Si a; ^ M ^ 3 oJ 03 oJ O ^ ^ JO ■*-•■ _n S CX) ^ (d (lT o cj dJ C ^ G dJ 0 ) 0 ) M < u (d d D cx.ti: u G (D Ojd (U. ■ -G ^ m 4-1 4_l c/3 oi o^g: CX 4-1 oJ . CD Ir C/5 < ^ ^ H 2S gi U CJ z3 CX y 2 u S < u X H u. O U 4 y S QQ CO gl u 5 o X 6 •£ S 2 rt 3 2^ ^ a. O 2 o 3 W) rt 3 5 ;e a ” X o rt 3 3 3 03 1| cn -3 03 4^ c« rt «! -3 CO 3 d) O 03 •- .— OS « u O O (n ^ 03 PS O 3 M u w go t« a 3 s .2 03 3 B o o a -13 3 o ^ ’0 o g w I (- -3 c I* r^ /-^ .i: a the preservation of Niagara Falls, and has had much to do with the establishment of Federal control over the American portion of the cataract. We have had also to take interest in other important national scenic possessions, notably the Grand Canyon of the Colorado. Under this branch of our activities, there was presented at our last annual convention, held in Cincinnati, Ohio, in November, 1909 , a strong argument relating to the preservation of that portion of the Yosemite National 1^^ Prompt Attention and Action Desired, in regard to the SAVING FOR ALL THE PUBLIC of that portion of the Yosemite National Park known as the Hetch-Hetchy Valley. J. Horace McFarland, President, Harrisburg, Pa. William R. Howland, Treasurer, New York Clinton Rogers Woodruff, First VicC' Preside nt, Philadelphia Richard B. Watrous, Secretary, Washington, 1). C ^mntcan Ctbir .^^sonatton MAIN OFFICE: WASHINGTON, D. C. To Members of the American Civic Association: May 12, iQio. Your vigorous, intelligent and spirited action has been for five years the safe- guard of Niagara Falls for all the people. You are now asked to act in protection of another scenic glory of the United States. The accompanying pamphlet, issued and furnished by the Society for the Preservation of National Parks, gives the details. You are directed particularly to John Muir’s letter on page i and to the “ Brief Statement” on pages z and 3. At its annual meeting in Cincinnati, in November, .1909, the American Civic Association took action as detailed in the “Brief” which follows this. It was in response to this action, and because of a great mass of protest which came to him, that the Secretary of the Interior called a halt, in his “Letter to the Mayor and Supervisors of City and County of San Francisco,” under date of February 25, 1910, from which letter we quote the fourth paragraph : In view of the conclusions of Director Smith, a copy of whose report is herewith ^ attached, as to the sufficiency of the Lake Eleanor reservoir site when fully developed, / if* '■'S"' of the importance of the public interests involved in this matter, and the 4 UmiB^^^l^ernment s oDiigation in connection tnefSWTlIl, '1 feel il my (tuty lu vuii uiruii yua w -j show why the Hetch-Hetchy Valley and reservoir site should not be eliminated from I said permit. i A hearing has been set for May 18, 1910, at which both sides will be he.ard. You are urged to write AT ONCE to the Secretary of the Interior, affirming the position taken by your officers in the “Brief” which follows. He should know that these priceless scenic possessions of all the people must not be diverted from all the people without exhaustive investigation. Write at' once, and have your friends write. Letters will be useful that reach Washington even as late as May 23 ; but it is very desirable to make the demon- stration impressive about May 18. Get your newspaper interested. Act ! American Civic Association J. HORACE McFarland, President RICHARD B. WATROUS, Secretary WILLIAM B. HOWLAND, Treasurer BRIEF OF THE AMERICAN CIVIC ASSOCIATION IN RELATION TO THE HETCH-HETCHY VALLEY Hon. Richard A. Ballinger, Secretary of the Interior, April 2 g, IQIO. Washington, D. C. Sir: The American Civic Association is a voluntary philanthropic organization including a widespread mem- bership, and is devoted not only to the improvement of living conditions in American communities, but to the preservation of such great scenic possessions of the United States as tend to strongly influence the national life. In pursuance of this last mentioned aim, the Association has had occasion to conduct a national campaign for the preservation of Niagara Falls, and has had much to do with the establishment of Federal control over the American portion of the cataract. We have had also to take interest in other important national scenic possessions, notably the Grand Canyon of the Colorado. Under this branch of our activities, there was presented at our last annual convention, held in Cincinnati, Ohio, in November, 1909, a strong argument relating to the preservation of that portion of the Yosemite National Park known as the lletch-Hetchy Valley. After full discussion and careful consideration, in which both sides of the matter were presented, the following resolution was unanimously passed and telegraphed to you : " Recognizing the wisdom of the Congress in setting aside for public use the great national parks, and believing that any avoidable interference with the scenic integrity of these parks is in the highest degree undesirable, the American Civic Association, in Convention assembled, urges the Secretary of the Interior to revoke the permit, and the Congress to refuse to conlirm such permit, under which the city of San Francisco is assuming to control eventu- ally, for a domestic water-supply, more than live hundred square miles of the best of the Yosemite National Park, unless after a full and impartial inquiry it shall be shown to the satisfaction of the Congress that no other sufficient source of water-supply is available to San Francisco. “ W'e further respectfully represent that the granting and confirmation of such a permit to invade the public domain would create a most dangerous precedent, under which other scenic possessions of the United States would be unsafe from individual or corporate assault.” In line with this resolution, we have been glad to note the action evidenced in your letter to the Mayor and Supervisors of City and County of San Francisco, California, under date of February 25, 1910. Having been formally advised that you have appointed a hearing upon this matter, at the request of the authori- ties of the city of San Francisco, for May 18, 1910, and that you desire statements submitted in advance, we briefly present our views : 1 . -No higher use for water can be recognized than that it shall be devoted, in the purest possible form, to the purposes of a domestic water-supply. This we admit, and this position we have steadily maintained. 2 . It is essential, however, that such use of water for the purposes of a domestic supply shall include either a complete safeguard of the surroundings of its gathering and storing, to the end that it shall be practically pure when it reaches consumers, or that means shall be introduced for its satisfactory purification immediately before use. It is known that the average water-supply of American cities is not at all satisfactory, or indeed humane, in this respect, and that many deaths annually occur from water-borne diseases because of carelessness or inadequacy in the control or handling of domestic water-supplies. 3 . Only less important than its use in a pure state for human consumption is the influence of water in scenery upon human regeneration. Every man is the witness in himself as to the effect upon his consciousness of the sight of a great body of water, or of a cataract, or of scenery in which water forms an essential part. The vast expenditures Or travel to view great scenery ; the known effect on human efficiency, and the saving of life itself, through general access co great scenery, usually connected with water in some form, need but mention to any thoughtful man. Thus, we assert, the \alue to all the people of scenery in which water bears an important part is only second to the value of water in its relation to the needs of the human body. * 4 . Thj;pug h data . previously obtained by^this Association, and particularly through the statements in a letter a^resiea ^ yoti^oy tjcorge Otis Siuitii, Dire'etor of tfie Geological Survey, under date of February 25, 1910, it is mlde to appear, first, that the city of San Francisco has not shown that she can obtain a practicable and sanitary water-supply nowhere else than in the Hetch-Hetchy Valley of the Yosemite National Park ; second, that she has not shown the insufficiency of that portion of the supply which she was authorized to immediately develop under the perm’.x of your predecessor, Hon. James R. Garfield, dated May 11, 1908: and, third, that the proper domestic use of the water-supply involved in the control of the Tuolumne River in the Hetch-Hetchy Valley will inevitably require the separation and control of, and therefore the exclusion of the public from, the whole drainage area of the Tuolumne River, including approximately half of the Yosemite National Park. 5 . Through the testimony of men of national reputation, including John Muir, Robert Underwood Johnson, and others from whom you have heard and doubtless will hear directly, through statements made years ago in the publications of the Geological Survey, and through the further testimony of your own recent personal inspection and that of Director Smith and the Engineers of the Reclamation Service designated for the purpose, it is made evident that the scenic features of the Hetch-Hetchy Valley are of vast value to the whole American people, and should not be made inaccessible to the people except under the proven necessity of the requirement first mentioned in this brief. 6. It is not shown in any of the data submitted so far by the city of San Francisco that it is proposed to filter the water of the Tuolumne River before use, and some of the arguments and testimony accessible to the public show that it has been at times proposed that the impounding reservoir in the Hetch-Hetchy Valley should be made acces- sible as a pleasure lake, thus introducing the serious element of danger from human pollution. It is our insistence that there can be no safe middle ground in connection with a domestic water-supply. Either the water-shed gathering a water-supply to be used without proper filtration must be kept free from intrusion by means of a careful and con- tinuous patrol, in order that useless waste of human life may be prevented, or the water must be filtered immediately before use, by an improved method. 7 . In view of all these conditions, and particularly in view of the findings of the Director of the Geological Survey, as evidenced in his letter to you dated February, 25, 1910, and further because the Yosemite National Park was once fully set aside by the Congress of the United States for public use “ forever,” which setting aside would be largely nullified should the whole contention of San Francisco prevail, we now respectfully urge that the permit granted by your predecessor, Hon. James R. Garfield, under date of May 1 1, 1908, be revoked in so far as it relates to the development of what is known as the Hetch-Hetchy site in the Yosemite National Park, and that San Francisco be confined to the development of the Lake Eleanor site mentioned in the same permit, and be stopped from any interference, now or in the future, with the scenic features of the Hetch-Hetchy Valley as a portion of the Yosemite National Park. Respectfully submitted American Civic Association By J. HORACE McFarland, President RICHARD B. WATROUS, Secretary ii^"Prompt Attention and Action Desired, in regard to the SAVING FOR ALL THE PUBLIC of that portion of the Yosemite 0) o 0) X JS o (U X 0) c o c (S Pu « C t/3 Z & < o mm s q w u ^(5 >H <0 s> 5 Q Q Z O < O wm < !2: « o ° s W 5 4^ Q w 5 u o .u S ^1 c o ^ 'C Vi ^ (D (L) jr, u c a.) .S (U u -M u C c/5 I C/5 C -r: P (D _C 4-i 13 a. C j2 o o o ^ w VO ^ rt M - S a; S ^ 4-» O .y »-2 tin >5 (I) - O J- ct C ^ 3 OJ C/5 o i L>i ti o o o • u *_, (U o pm-S (U C O 3 O CS . ^ j3 ^ s- V M-l cA ^ ^ a^ V V V a u _ Oh- Vh Vi i5.= S^.“ y ii s'S'S ■r OhC/D o ^ (15 a St3.^ " c/5 p, gj U (L) 3 J3 03 03 ^ 0.5 o •s-^ll- C (D 5 Oh P3J2 4-»;i:3(L)C1iU(L)^^ oj ja 6/3 O 03 S._ O.Mrt o3 o ^ vt/ CD o bJO 6/3 03 3 03 ^ 03 ’-I nd Vh 03 (L) o- C 'S CJ 03 Ih 3 Lh^ o S-2 O ® U U >,o JD 4-* ■)-> ^ a a 'tOhh :3 ,u c . o c.S (U . 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