JOINT MEMORIALS.

House Joint Memorial in relation to the Yellowstone national park.

To the Honorable the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States in Congress assembled:

Your memorialists, the Legislative Council and House of Representatives, composing the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Montana, would respectfully represent that the portions of the public domain which, by the act of congress, approved March 1st, 1872, entitled, "An Act to set apart a certain tract of land lying near the head waters of the Yellowstone river as a public park," is one of the greatest interest to the adventurer, the seeker for the wonderful and curious, and for scientific observers. No like geographical area presents so much to absorb attention, excite curiosity, invite study, and gratify a love of the romantic in nature. Its invigorating breezes and pure waters promote health, and it is destined in a near future to become the resort of travelers from all portions of the civilized world. During the past summer and autumn it was visited by at least five hundred of our people. Its confines are within seventy-five miles of the settlements of Montana, while highways have been constructed by our people along the Yellowstone and Madison rivers, to the northern portions thereof, each leaving an extension of about eighty miles necessary to enable tourists to visit with ease and pleasure all that is there curious or wonderful.

Your memorialists would further represent that with a single exception the entire park is without a permanent occupant interested in preserving intact the facilities of ingress and egress and the curiosities which do there so greatly abound.

Your memorialists do further represent that said park is guarded by immense mountain ranges upon its southern confines, which render it particularly inaccessible from that di

rection.

Your memorialists do further represent that only a small portion thereof is within the limits of the Territory of Montana, as they are defined by the act to provide a temporary government therefor, approved May 26th, 1864, and that for that reason your memorialists can legislate to preserve only a small portion of what is there curious, wonderful and rare.

Your memorialists would further represent that the tourist through that region for a distance of nearly two hundred miles is prevented by the present incomplete provisions of the laws of the United States, from procuring such accommodations as the situation requires, and that authority to construct roads, hotels, baths, trails, observatories, boats, and other necessary and convenient facilities for travelers, should be granted at an early day.

Your memorialists are of the further opinion that the members of the legislative assembly of this territory, by reason of their proximity to and consequent familiarity with this pleasuring ground and their interest in having all that is there found protected from mutilation may be securely trusted to legislate for its preservation.

Your memorialists would therefore most earnestly pray your honorable body, First, That an appropriation of one hundred thousand dollars be made by congress, to be expended as you shall direct in the construction of necessary roads and trails therein.

Second, That so much thereof as now lies within the Territory of Wyoming be detached therefrom and be attached to the Territory of Montana.

Third, That such legislation be had by your honorable bodies as will permit at an early day the construction of hotels at the upper and lower geyser basins upon the Madison river, and at the Yellowstone lake, the lower falls of the Yellowstone, and at the White Mountain hot springs on Gardiner's river, and their occupancy by persons who will preserve the curiosities there from mutilation.

And your memorialists, as in duty bound, will ever pray. Approved January 20th, 1874.

House Joint Memorial in relation to irrigation.

To the Honorable the Senate and House of Ropresentatives of the Congress of the United States of America:

Your memorialists, the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Montana, would most respectfully represent that the portion of the public domain lying between the ninety-ninth meridian of longitude west from Greenwich and the Pacific Ocean is generally incapable of cultivation, except by means of irrigation.

That this arid region embraces more than one-third of the geographical area of the United States, or over one million square miles, and comprises the territories of New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Idaho, and Montana, and the state of Nevada, and large portions of the states of Oregon, California, Nebraska, Kansas, and Texas, and of the territories of Washington and Dakota. That the soils of this vast region are remarkable for their productiveness when subjected to irrigable agriculture.

That the water supply of its rivers and smaller streams is abundant to reclaim millions of acres that now lie waste and unproductive.

That a system of irrigation that will meet the wants of the country will be too extensive and costly for either individuals, private corporations, territorial or state governments to successfully construct.

That the present agriculture of this region is confined to the immediate valleys of the water courses, where irrigating canals are of easy construction and comparatively inexpensive, and it will remain so confined to these narrow limits, unless some extensive system of irrigation can be established.

That for these reasons vast areas of land will remain unsold by the government for years to come, or perhaps forever, unless they can be made available to the agriculturist by irrigation.

That the public domain, outside of this region, subject to the homestead and pre-emption laws, is comparatively exhausted, and the tides of immigration westward, annually

increasing in volume, are unable to make available under these beneficent laws the millions of acres of rich lands embraced in this region, by reason of the aridity of the climate and their financial inability to construct adequate irrigating canals.

That no interest is more important to the nation than the development of its mineral resources. Thousands of gold and silver mines are now unworked, for lack of water to drive the machinery to crush the ore. This can be secured only by governmental aid. Reservoirs constructed near the sources of mountain streams will furnish the necessary supply, and the water, after driving the stamp mills at the mines, will flow onward to enrich and fertilize the arid plains we are now seeking to reclaim for cultivation.

That the general government has established ample and numerous precedents for the granting of the relief we now ask, by the donation of lands to various states, to aid in the construction of canals for navigation, and for the building of railways, and by the outright gift of all swamp and overflowed lands to all the western states.

That the aid we ask is an absolute necessity to the states and territories named, and will contribute far more to the general prosperity of the whole nation than any or all of the above classes of donations.

That the control of the water supply and its distribution for irrigation should forever remain in the hands of the people, through their representatives — the legislative assemblies of the several states and territories and should in no case or degree be surrendered to individuals or corporations.

Therefore, your memorialists would most respectfully pray that a law be enacted by your honorable body, embracing the following general provisions :

First. To grant to the several states and territories named in the preamble to this resolution one-half of all the arid lands, not mineral, within their borders; said lands, or the proceeds thereof, to be devoted to the construction of irrigating canals and reservoirs, for the reclamation of said arid and waste lands.

Second. That the construction and maintenance of irrigating canals and reservoirs shall be under the exclusive control and direction of the territory or state, as sole owner thereof, under such laws, rules, and regulations as the legislature thereof shall from time to time provide.

Third. That the territorial and state legislatures shall have power to make all needful rules and regulations, and take all needful steps for the proper construction and maintenance of such canals, and that such power shall include the power to provide by-laws for the issuing of the bonds of the territory or state for the construction of such canals.

Fourth. That the proceeds of said lands, herein granted, shall be kept as an exclusive fund by the territory or state, first, for the payment of the principal and interest of all bonds so issued as aforesaid; second, that any balance remaining after the payment of the bonds issued as aforesaid shall be used in the maintenance of said canals, or the construction of other canals, as the legislature of said territory or state shall from time to time by law direct.

Fifth. That any lands within said territory or state, which shall be filed on, under the provisions of the pre-emption and homestead laws of the United States, after the passage of this act, shall be subject to the operation of this act, if the said lands shall be brought under irrigation by the construction of said canals.

Sixth. That the lands so donated to the several states and territories, herein named, and the remainder of the public domain therein, belonging to the general government, shall be disposed of under revised and more strict pre-emption and homestead laws than are now in force, and that no title shall issue until the claimant shall be a bona fide actual settler upon the land claimed.

Approved January 21, 1874.