necessary as an entrance to the park-the Government departments would not say this is a necessary thing to get into the Yellowstone Park, but it would provide another very scenic gateway.

Senator MCKELLAR. And you think the road ought to be built?

Mr. ALBRIGHT. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you very much, Mr. Albright.

Senator WALSH. In line with what I have been saying, Mr. Shelley has just handed me this letter which was called to my attention some time ago. It is from the National Parks Association, 1512 H Street, NW., Washington, D. C. All of the distinguished gentlemen associated with the National Parks Association have their names recorded on the letterhead. They include George Bird Grinnell, president; Nicholas Murray Butler, John Barton Payne, former Secretary of the Interior; Robert Sterling Yard, and so The letter is dated February 20, 1928, and reads as follows:

Hon. CASSINS C. DOWELL,

Chairman Committee on Roads,

House of Representatives, Washington, D. C.

DEAR MR. DOWELL: Referring to H. R. 8294.

I wish to be recorded in favor of relieving Yellowstone National Park as quickly as practicable from further need to use its roads for commercial purposes, and against any building of new, roads within Yellowstone for any commercial purpose whatever. If public money is to be spent for bettering road communication between Cooke City, Mont., and the highways of the country, it should be spent wholly outside national-park boundaries.

I believe that this will express the attitude of millions of persons throughout the country to whom the defense of national parks from any use whatever except park uses is a major desire.

Sincerely,

ROBERT STERLING YARD,
Executive Secretary.

I do not know whether you have this incorporated in the record or not, but I would like to have it incorporated. It is a letter from Mr. Horace M. Albright, superintendent of the Yellowstone Park. The CHAIRMAN. Under what date is it? Senator WALSH. June 3, 1926. [Reading:]

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,

NATIONAL PARK SERVICE, Yellowstone Park, Wyo., June 3, 1926. DEAR MR. SHELLEY: I have just got around to the clearing up of accumulated mail and I found your letter of May 21. I am sorry that I could not have answered it earlier.

We lifted the ban on travel to Cooke City early in May. I think that we had heavy trucking stopped about one month. About the middle of May I visited Cooke City for the first time this year and found our road beyond Tower Falls very badly cut up, but the damage no worse than it has been during several previous years. The most serious damage was to gravel surfacing which we put on sections of the road last year. This gravel was cut clear through by the heavy trucks.

As you suggested to me the other day over the telephone, I sent a telegram to our Washington office, urging our people to cooperate in the conference proposed to be held to-morrow, June 4, with Colonel Greeley of the Forest Service, for the purpose of having an order issued to make a location survey of the Red LodgeCooke City Road.

Please write me again if you think I can be of any further assistance.
With warm regards, I am,

Sincerely yours,

HORACE M. ALBRIGHT, Superintendent.

STATEMENT OF O. H. P. SHELLEY, RED LODGE, MONT.

Mr. SHELLEY. Mr. Chairman, I did not know I was going to have a hearing on this bill or I would have brought along some other material that I have accumulated in the interest of it.

I think most of the members of the committee are familiar with the fact that we have presented this matter to the Post Office Committee for the third time. We have had a favorable report from this committee each time, and the bill which you now have under consideration was passed by the Senate and a hearing was had before the Committee on Appropriations, at which time Mr. Mather the director of parks, appeared before the committee.

I am sorry that I did not know that there was to be this hearing, for I would like to have incorporated that part of his statement, before the record is printed, as to the benefit that this road would be to Yellowstone Park.

The CHAIRMAN. You may state the substance of it.

Mr. SHELLEY. I could not state it without having it here, because he was questioned by the committee for quite a while.

Senator FRAZIER. Can it not be furnished to the committee.
The CHAIRMAN. Have you the document?

Mr. SHELLEY. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. You may supply it for the record, please.

Mr. SHELLEY. I was going to ask if I might have the opportunity of including it in the record.

The CHAIRMAN. Yes.

Mr. SHELLEY. I would like also to include in the record an affidavit from people in Cooke City, and a list of petitions asking Congress to build this road. They are of recent date. I have not those with me because I did not know there would be any hearing. The CHAIRMAN. Are they in Washington?

Mr. SHELLEY. Oh, yes; I can supply them to-morrow.
The CHAIRMAN. That may be done.

Senator BROOKHART. How many will this road serve?

Mr. SHELLEY. Of the people that have mining interests there are about 68, I think, that have signed a petition and that live in Cooke City and have an interest in Cooke City.

Senator BROOKHART. How large is Cooke City?

Mr. SHELLEY. It is only a small place, because there is no way of getting in or out except through Yellowstone Park, as Senator Walsh has told you.

Senator BROOKHART. What is the nature of the mines there?

Mr. SHELLEY. Copper, gold, silver, lead, and, I think, some zinc. Senator BROOKHART. Would transportation increase the development in there?

Mr. SHELLEY. It would increase it a thousandfold, because they have now practically no way of getting in and out except through Yellowstone Park. The superintendent of Yellowstone Park, and rightly so, has to provide regulations for the benefit of the park, and they do not improve the roads from Tower Falls up to Cooke City any more than they have to, which, of course, makes it impossible for them to haul any loads of any consequence in or out.

Senator BROOKHART. This road, if it is built, would furnish a good road for heavy trucking?

Mr. SHELLEY. It would.

I might say that last year after Congress adjourned and the bill failed to pass the Senate and the House, the Secretary of Agriculture issued an executive order ordering a location survey. The men came in about the 19th of May and finished on the 8th or 9th of October, and the grade stakes have actually been driven and figures have been completed as to the exact cost of the road. Of course, they have added on to that what they naturally think would be a conservative estimate which it might exceed in case they can not get a bid for what it really should be.

We had very little opposition except from one or two people in Cooke City. It had been contended that this is not a feasible road. I have not the original of this letter, but I have a copy. I put the original in the record in the House hearings. Mr. H. E. Mitchell, the engineer in charge, wrote me a letter on August 18, 1927, after he had reached Beartooth Lake on the survey. That is over top of the divide and about 44 miles of the road had been completed. Senator FRAZIER. Is that the Government survey?

Mr. SHELLEY. Yes, sir. He is the engineer of the Bureau of Public Roads. He wrote me and said:

Mr. O. H. P. SHELLEY,

Red Lodge, Mont.

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULture,
BUREAU OF PUBLIC ROADS,
Beartooth Lake, August 18, 1927.

MY DEAR MR. SHELLEY: In reply to your inquiry as to snow conditions on the survey of the proposed Red Lodge-Cooke City highway, I am pleased to state that so far we have been able to avoid all drifts of sufficient magnitude to cause an early closing and late opening of the highway. In the higher altitudes in the survey we have been able to keep to the southern and western exposures where no drifting occurs, I anticipate no difficulty in avoiding snow for the remainder of the survey.

Respectfully yours,

H. E. MITCHELL.

The original of that was put into the House hearings.

I can not add very much to what Senator Walsh has said as to the great benefit and value that this road would be not only to the people of Cooke City but to the people who live in the West and want to visit the Yellowstone Park or visit the mountains.

The scenery outside of Yellowstone Park along this road is as grand as it is inside Yellowstone Park. There are hundreds of lakes filled with fish, and it would be a real playground for outdoor life, This is about 150 miles nearer the mountain for the people who live in the East than any other entrance.

In the hearings over at the House I put in the record a list of all of the mines and the probable tonnage, and also the amount of timber. As I say, I am not prepared, because I did not know this hearing was going to be held to-day.

The CHAIRMAN. Can you summarize that for this record?

Mr. SHELLEY. I would be glad to do that and hand it in, because I have the figures at home where I can do it.

The CHAIRMAN. That may be done.

Senator BROOKHART. Do you think there will be a big summer resort developed in there, outside the park?

Mr. SHELLEY. There will be thousands of summer homes built along this highway, because it has beautiful scenery and lots of

timber and fine water. I will say that, of course, the Government gets revenue for all that. As I recall the figures, the rough estimate is about 400,000,000 feet of timber available now that could be sold which otherwise might burn up at any time. There is no way to get into it without a pack outfit.

Senator PHIPPS. What is the present population of Cooke City, approximately?

Mr. SHELLEY. Of the people who stay there in the wintertime it would probably be about 250.

Senator PHIPPS. You have more in the summer time?

Mr. SHELLEY. Yes, sir.

Senator PHIPPS. How many do you have in the summer time? Mr. SHELLEY. Last year there were about 150 men working at one mine. I would say that perhaps the population increases to 500 or 700 in the summer time. When this road is built there will be a population of 5,000 up there.

Senator WALSH. Will you tell us about the present state of the mineral development?

Mr. SHELLEY. You mean, of the mines that are there now?
Senator WALSH. Yes.

Mr. SHELLEY. I went into the mines year before last with Mr. Dunlap, Assistant Secretary of Agriculture. One tunnel is 3,700 feet deep into the mountain and then 500 feet above that there is another tunnel that taps into the face, and then they have cross-cut this, and there is another tunnel connecting that where they drop down. It has been cut to a distance of 300 feet across and about 300 feet in. They have a hundred-ton smelter all complete, ready to operate, and just about the time that they get ready to operate there is a ban put on the park and they are handicapped. In fact, they can not operate. They will not be able to operate until they get some means of transportation. This mine is the Western Smelting & Power Co. The other mine that has the greatest development is the Glengary. They have got their tunnels in four or five hundred feet. It is very rich ore, but, as I say, it is impossible for them to make any marked progress for the simple reason that a ban is put on it when they get ready to operate.

Senator BROOKHART. Will this ore all be transported out of there? Mr. SHELLEY. It will be smelted. One of the main advantages is that the big coal mines of the Northern Pacific Railroad Co. are located at Red Lodge.

Senator BROOKHART. And is the smelter at Red Lodge?

Mr. SHELLEY. No; at Cooke City. They can reduce 3 or 4 tons of that ore with 1 ton of coal, so they will haul the coal in and reduce the

ore.

Senator BROOKHART. There is no coal at Cooke City itself?
Mr. SHELLEY. Oh, no; there is no coal at Cooke City.
Senator PHIPPS. The road goes by way of Tower Falls?

Mr. SHELLEY. No.

Senator PHIPPS. And that is outside the park from Cooke City to Tower Falls?

Mr. SHELLEY. That is all inside. If this road is constructed from Red Lodge. to Cooke City, that is all outside the park. Cooke City lies just outside the park, at the northeast corner of the park. They come back in a southwesterly direction until they strike the main

loop at Tower Falls, and then they go over the loop road to Mammoth

Senator WALSH. All of the original Cooke City road except a few miles is within the park.

Senator PHIPPS. I got the impression some place that part of the road now used out of Cooke City was not within the park limits. Mr. SHELLEY. Cooke City lies about 3 miles outside the park. Senator PHIPPS. Then it is much closer than I had been led to believe.

Mr. SHELLEY. Yes. The improvements lie 5 miles on up toward Red Lodge; so that if this road from Red Lodge to Cooke City is built to the mine it would practically be about 60 miles.

Senator PHIPPS. How has that road been maintained up to the present time by the mining companies or by the counties? Mr. SHELLEY. By the mining companies.

Senator PHIPPS. But the mining companies have not contributed toward maintaining the road they use through the park, have they? Mr. SHELLEY. Oh, yes; they have done lots of work on that. Senator PHIPPS. To what extent?

Mr. SHELLEY. I could not say as to that, but I know that they do do work inside of the park. There are times when the road is impassable unless they do do some work there. It is not within the province of the Yellowstone Park to furnish a road for transportation for commercial purposes when it is devoted to scenery or outdoor life.

Senator PHIPPS. That is quite true; but if the route by way of Tower Falls through the park were the most feasible from the standpoint of economy in operation, why would it not be possible to have a double road, say, devoted, one to the tourist traffic and the other to the transportation of commercial products, rather than go to the expenditure of $1,900,000 to build over an elevation of 10,000 feet, when you are bound to have the road closed quite a good portion of the year during the winter?

Senator BROOKHART. Could a commercial road be built through the park more cheaply than this road could be built?

Mr. SHELLEY. The contention of the Park Service is that it can not. What I would have to do would be to hazard a guess.

Senator PHIPPS. Do you imagine it cost the Park Service anything like $1,900,000 to construct the road that now leads to within 3 miles of Cooke City?

Mr. SHELLEY. No. There isn't any road, Senator. There practically is no road. It is just a trail. If you went over it you would think they had not spent anything on it.

Senator PHIPPS. They speak of it as gravel surfaced road.

Mr. SHELLEY. Only in little places. You have been in the park, have you not, Senator?

Senator PHIPPS. Yes; but not very recently, and I confess that I am not familiar with that particular line down there. I do not think I was ever over it.

Mr. SHELLEY. They put on some gravel up towards Buffalo Ranch. That is about 9 miles, I think, up from Tower Falls. And they have had some gravel above that. They are using the buffalo ranch as a part of their scenic tour in the park. They have put in some gravel there, but very little. I have been over the road several times in the last two or three years and I would say that there is no