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Proclamation 501—Establishing the Lewis and Clark Forest Reserve in Montana

June 09, 1903


By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

Whereas, The Lewis and Clarke Forest Reserve and The Flathead Forest Reserve, in the State of Montana, were established by proclamations dated February twenty-second, eighteen hundred and ninety-seven, under and by virtue of section twenty-four of the Act of Congress, approved March third, eighteen hundred and ninety-one, entitled, "An act to repeal timber-culture laws, and for other purposes", which provides, "That the President of the United States may, from time to time, set apart and reserve, in any State or Territory having public land bearing forests, in any part of .the public lands wholly or in part covered with timber or undergrowth, whether of commercial value or not, as public reservations, and the President shall, by public proclamation, declare the establishment of such reservations and the limits thereof";

And Whereas, it is further provided by the Act of Congress, approved June fourth, eighteen hundred and ninety-seven, entitled, "An act making appropriations for sundry civil expenses of the Government for the fiscal year ending June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight, and for other purposes", that "The President is hereby authorized at any time to modify any Executive order that has been or may hereafter be made establishing any forest reserve, and by such modification may reduce the area or change the boundary lines of such reserve, or may vacate altogether any order creating such reserve";

And Whereas, it appears proper that the areas embraced in said forest reserves, modified by various additions thereto and the elimination of certain lands, should be included in one reserve, and be designated by one name; and it appears that the public lands in the State of Montana, within the limits hereinafter described, are in part covered with timber, and that the public good would be promoted by setting apart and reserving said lands as a public reservation;

Now, Therefore, I, Theodore Roosevelt, President of the United States, by virtue of the power vested in me by the aforesaid acts of Congress, do hereby make known and proclaim that the proclamations heretofore issued respecting said forest reserves are hereby superseded and The Lewis and Clarke Forest Reserve is hereby established in place thereof, with boundaries as follows, to wit:

Beginning at the south-west corner of Township thirty-three (33) North, Range twenty-five (25) West, Principal Meridian, Montana; thence northerly along the surveyed and unsurveyed range line between ranges twenty-five (25) and twenty-six (26) West, allowing for the proper offset on the Ninth (9th) Standard Parallel North, to the point for the intersection with the International Boundary Line between the State of Montana and the British Possessions; thence easterly along said boundary line to the north-west corner of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation; thence south-easterly along the western boundary of said Indian reservation as defined and described in the Act of Congress approved June tenth, eighteen hundred and ninety-six, entitled, "An Act making appropriations for current and contingent expenses of the Indian Department and fulfilling treaty stipulations with various Indian tribes for the fiscal year ending June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and ninety-seven, and for other purposes", to the south-west corner of said reservation; thence in a general easterly direction along the southern boundary of said reservation to the point due north of the point for the south-east corner of Section thirty-three (33), Township twenty-eight (28) North, Range ten (10) West; thence southerly along the unsurveyed section lines to the point for the south-east corner of said Section thirty-three (33); thence easterly to the point for the north-east corner of Township twenty-seven (27) North, Range ten (10) West; thence southerly to the point for the north-west corner of Section seven (7), Township twenty-seven (27) North, Range nine (9) West; thence easterly to the point for the north-east corner of Section nine (9), said township; thence southerly to the point for the north-west corner of Section twenty-two (22), said township; thence easterly to the point for the north-east corner of Section twenty-three (23), said township; thence southerly to the point for the south-east corner of Section thirty-five (35), said township; thence easterly to the point for the north-east corner of Township twenty-six (26) North, Range nine (9) West; thence southerly along the surveyed and unsurveyed range line, allowing for the proper offsets on the Sixth (6th) and Fifth (5th) Standard Parallels North to the point for the north-west corner of Township eighteen (18) North, Range eight (8) West; thence easterly to the point for the north-east corner of said township; thence southerly to the point for the south-east corner of said township; thence easterly to the point for the north-east corner of Township seventeen (17) North, Range seven (7) West; thence southerly, allowing for the proper offset on the Fourth (4th) Standard Parallel North, to the point for the south-east corner of Township sixteen (16) North, Range seven (7) West; thence westerly along the surveyed and unsurveyed township line, allowing for the proper offsets on the range lines, to the south-east corner of Township sixteen (16) North, Range thirteen (13) West; thence northerly to the north-east corner of Section twenty-five (25), said township; thence westerly to the south-west corner of Section nineteen (19), said township; thence northerly to the north-east corner of Township sixteen (16) North, Range fourteen (14) West; thence westerly along the surveyed and unsurveyed township line to the point for the intersection with the eastern boundary of the Flathead Indian Reservation; thence in a general north-westerly direction along said boundary to the north-east corner of said Indian reservation; thence westerly along the northern boundary of said reservation to the point of intersection with the eastern shore of Flathead Lake; thence northerly along the shore of said take to the point for the intersection with the township line between Townships twenty-five (25) and twenty-six (26) North; thence easterly along said surveyed and unsurveyed township line to the south-west corner of Section thirty-four (34), Township twenty-six (26) North, Range eighteen (18) West; thence northerly along the unsurveyed section lines to the north-west corner of Section three (3), said township; thence westerly along the surveyed and unsurveyed township line to the south-east corner of Township twenty-seven (27) North, Range nineteen (19) West; thence northerly along the surveyed and unsurveyed range line to the point for the south-east corner of Section twenty-four (24), Township twenty-eight (28) North, Range nineteen (19) West; thence westerly to the south-east corner of Section twenty-one (21), said township; thence northerly along the surveyed and unsurveyed section lines, allowing for the proper offset on the Seventh (7th) Standard Parallel North, to the point for the north-west corner of Section twenty-two (22), Township thirty-two (32) North, Range nineteen (19) West; thence westerly along the unsurveyed section lines to the point for the south-west corner of Section eighteen (18), Township thirty-two (32) North, Range twenty-one (21) West; thence northerly to the north-east corner of Township thirty-two (32) North, Range twenty-two (22) West; thence westerly along the Eighth (8th) Standard Parallel North to the north-east corner of Township thirty-two (32) North, Range twenty-four (24) West; thence southerly to the south-east corner of said township; thence westerly to the point for the south-west corner of Township thirty-two (32) North, Range twenty-five (25) West; thence northerly to the north-west corner of said township; thence westerly along the Eighth (8th) Standard Parallel North to the south-west corner of Township thirty-three (33) North, Range twenty-five (25) West, the place of beginning.

Excepting from the force and effect of this proclamation all lands which may have been, prior to the date hereof, embraced in any legal entry or covered by any lawful filing duly of record in the proper United States Land Office, or upon which any valid settlement has been made pursuant to law, and the statutory period within which to make entry or filing of record has not expired: Provided , That this exception shall not continue to apply to any particular tract of land unless the entryman, settler or claimant continues to comply with the law under which the entry, filing or settlement was made.

Provided further , That nothing herein shall give any force or effect to any claim or right to any of the lands heretofore embraced within the reserves hereby consolidated which would not have been entitled to recognition if said reserves as heretofore established had been continued in force without being merged into a single reserve as herein-before provided.

Warning is hereby expressly given to all persons not to make settlement upon the lands reserved by this proclamation.

The lands hereby eliminated from the reserve shall be open to settlement from the date hereof, but shall not be subject to entry, filing or selection until after ninety days' notice by such publication as the Secretary of the Interior may prescribe.

The rights and privileges reserved to the Indians of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation by Article 1 of the agreement set forth in, and accepted, ratified, and confirmed by, the Act of Congress approved June tenth, eighteen hundred and ninety-six, hereinbefore referred to respecting that portion of their reservation relinquished to the United States by said Article 1, shall be in no way infringed or modified by reason of the fact that a part of the area so relinquished is embraced within the limits of the boundaries herein described and set apart as a forest reservation; nor shall the right of occupation, location, and purchase of said relinquished lands under the provisions of the mineral-land laws, accorded by said Act of Congress, be abridged.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the city of Washington this 9th day of June, in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and three, and of the Independence of the United States the one hundred and twenty-seventh.

Signature of Theodore Roosevelt

THEODORE ROOSEVELT

By the President:

JOHN HAY,

Secretary of State.

Theodore Roosevelt, Proclamation 501—Establishing the Lewis and Clark Forest Reserve in Montana Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/206172

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