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Proclamation 343—Reserving Forest and Fish Culture Lands in Territory of Alaska

December 24, 1892


By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

Whereas it is provided by section 24 of the act of Congress approved March 3, 1891, entitled "An act to repeal timber-culture laws, and for other purposes"--

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 provided by section 14 of said above-mentioned act that the public lands in the Territory of Alaska reserved for public purposes shall not be subject to occupation and sale; and

Whereas the public lands in the Territory of Alaska known as Afognak Island are in part covered with timber and are required for public purposes in order that salmon fisheries in the waters of the island, and salmon and other fish and sea animals, and other animals and birds, and the timber, undergrowth, grass, moss, and other growth in, on, and about said island may be protected and preserved unimpaired, and it appears that the public good would be promoted by setting apart and reserving said lands as a public reservation; and

Whereas the United States Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries has selected Afognak Bay, River, and Lake, with their tributary streams and the sources thereof, and the lands including the same on said Afognak Island and within 1 mile from the shores thereof, as a reserve for the purpose of establishing fish-culture stations and the use of the United States Commission of Fish and Fisheries, the boundary lines of which include the headsprings of the tributaries above mentioned and the lands the drainage of which is into the same:

Now, therefore, I, Benjamin Harrison, President of the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested by sections 24 and 14 of the aforesaid act of Congress and by other laws of the United States, do reserve and do hereby make known and proclaim that there is hereby reserved from occupation and sale and set apart as a public reservation, including use for fish-culture stations, said Afognak Island, Alaska, and its adjacent bays and rocks and territorial waters, including among others the Sea Lion Rocks and Sea Otter Island: Provided, That this proclamation shall not be so construed as to deprive any bona fide inhabitant of said island of any valid right he may possess under the treaty for the cession of the Russian possessions in North America to the United States, concluded at Washington on the 30th day of March, 1867.

Warning is hereby expressly given to all persons not to enter upon or to occupy the tract or tracts of land or waters reserved by this proclamation, or to fish in or use any of the waters herein described or mentioned, and that all persons or corporations now occupying said island or any of said premises except under said treaty shall depart therefrom.

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 24th day of December, A.D. 1892, and of the Independence of the United States the one hundred and seventeenth.

BENJ. HARRISON

By the President:

JOHN W. FOSTER,

Secretary of State.

Benjamin Harrison, Proclamation 343—Reserving Forest and Fish Culture Lands in Territory of Alaska Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/205457

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