is necessarily short lived, it is gratifying to be reminded
from time to time of important services rendered to the nation
in a past which, though really recent, seems to the
younger generation far away.

The service which you performed for the United States,
and indeed for the world, in describing the Yellowstone
Park, and in setting on foot and persistently advocating the
plan to make it a national pleasure ground, will always be
remembered; and it is well that public acknowledgment
should be made of it occasionally, so that the men of this
generation may not forget what they owe to those of the
past.

Yours very truly,

GEO. BIRD GRINNELL.

The Act of Congress creating the Park provided that this region should
be "set apart for a public park or pleasuring ground for the benefit and
enjoyment of the people," but this end has not been accomplished except
as the result of untiring vigilance and labor on the part of a very few
persons who have never wavered in their loyalty to the Park. It may
never be known how nearly the purposes of the Act of Dedication have
escaped defeat; but a letter written to me by George Bird Grinnell and
an editorial from _Forest and Stream_ may reveal to visitors who now
enjoy without let or hindrance the wonders of that region, how narrowly
this "Temple of the living God," as it has been termed, has escaped
desecration at the hands of avaricious money-getters, and becoming a
"Den of Thieves."