Proclamation 495—Establishment of the Luquillo Forest Reserve

Whereas, it is provided by section one of the Act of Congress, approved July first, nineteen hundred and two, entitled, "An Act Authorizing the President to reserve public lands and buildings in the island of Porto Rico for public uses, and granting other public lands and buildings to the government of Porto Rico, and for other purposes", "That the President be, and he is hereby, authorized to make within one year after the approval of this Act, such reservation of public lands and buildings belonging to the United States in the island of Porto Rico, for military, naval, light-house, marine-hospital, post-offices, custom-houses, United States courts, and other public purposes, as he may deem necessary";

And Whereas, the public lands in the island of Porto Rico, within the limits hereinafter described, are in part covered with timber, and it appears 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 in me vested by section one of the aforesaid Act of Congress, do hereby make known and proclaim that there are hereby reserved and set apart as a Public Forest Reservation all those certain tracts, pieces or parcels of public lands, not heretofore appropriated or reserved, lying and being situate in the island of Porto Rico, and within the boundaries particularly described as follows, to wit:

Beginning at the point where the parallel of eighteen (18) degrees and twenty-two (22) minutes, north latitude, intersects the meridian of sixty-five (65) degrees and fifty-five (55) minutes, west longitude; thence due east along said parallel to its intersection with the meridian of sixty-five (65) degrees and forty-five (45) minutes, west longitude; thence due south along said meridian to its intersection with the parallel of eighteen (18) degrees and fourteen minutes, north latitude; thence due west along said parallel to its intersection with the meridian of sixty-five (65) degrees and fifty-five (55) minutes, west longitude; thence due north along said meridian to its intersection with the parallel of eighteen (18) degrees and twenty-two (22) minutes, north latitude, the place of beginning.

Warning is hereby expressly given to all persons not to occupy or use the lands reserved by this proclamation.

The reservation hereby established shall be known as The Luquillo Forest Reserve.

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 17th day of January, 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.

THEODORE ROOSEVELT

By the President:

JOHN HAY,

Secretary of State.