The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1938-05-05
Ry SIGuRD F. OLSON

April 28th issue of the Ely Miner in
answer to an article of mine in sup
port of the Quetico-Superior program
that his private estimate of my ability
or opinions is of no interest either to
me or to the public. do believe, how
ever, that the issues involved are OF
such Importance that the public should
be informed and for that reason, hope
that he will avail himself of the OPP
portunity to speak before the Ely Com
mercial Club on May Oath. 1t may be
that I can learn something from him
regarding the border country and if ]
may seem too presumptious, in view of
my ineXperience, it is possible that he
might learn something from me.
I do wish TO correct Mr.. Bessette on
one point and that my familiarity with
the issue at stake. For the past
eighteen years I have lived in this
region, know it intimately from one
border to the other, am home owner
and tax payer in both Lake and st.
Louis counties, have chosen Ely as my
home because like the country and
believe in its future. The welfare of
the area is therefore of utmost i'm
portance TO me and I would not sup
port an issue which would be to the
detriment of established industry or
the country as whole.
If Mr.. BeSSette will recall, the Fuller
Bill which he mentioned was an at
tempt to enlarge by acquisition the
boundaries of the Superior National
Forest. At that time the same hue
and cry was raised National Park-The
Throttling of Industry-Bankuptcy of
the Northern Countless There was
nothing in this bill which intimated
national park status any more than
there is in the Quetico-Superior pro-
poSal of today. 1t is very interesting
to note, however, that since then the
Superior Forest has enlarged far be-
yond the boundaries proposed by the
infamous Fuller Bill as he calls it;
that its main tenets have actually gone
into effect without further legislation
or objection. Another bill, the Ship
stead-Nolan, whose purpose was to
safeguard lakes and streams from eX-
ploitation has also been passed since
then in spite of similar opposition. In
other words the Fuller Bill is in effect
today even though it was defeated years
ago.
A point much misunderstood is the
acquisition policy of the U. S. Forest
- NJ ho
entire area will be made into a wilder
ness, resorts, private holdings of all
types eliminated, everything turned
back to primitive condition The &C
QUESTION program contemplates how
ever, taking over only wild land in the
canoe areas. 1t is not interested in
land near settlements or established
communities 1t wishes to safeguard
narrow strip of wilderness in the heart
of the best canoe area from unwiSe
exploitation and development and con-
centrate intensive resort and summer
home building along it's borders. AS
Mr. Bessette surely knows, acquisition
is purely voluntary action on the part
of those selling their land to the gov
eminent. No one is forced to sell.
There are no condemnation proceed
ings, no coercion or pressure. If an in
dividual owns a cabin, choice bit OF
wilderness land, or a resort within the
wilderness region, he can keep it as
long as he pays his taxes No attempt
will be made to force anyone out and
the claim that industry will be aban-
doned is highly ridiculous. Further
more, the acquisition program of the
Federal government, will go on as it has
in the past, whether the Quetico-
Superior plan goes into effect or not.
The proponents of the plan merely
favor speedy acquisition to consolidate
control Of vital areas to the program.
The Forest Service estimates that
some 901 900 acres of land are still in
private hands within the boundaries of
the forest. However, only half of this
amount is of great Importance from a
protection standpoint, roughly some
100000 acres distributed through St.
Louis, Lake and Cook counties An ap-
proXimate estimate of tax returns for
such land is in the neighborhood Of
15c per acre, which means that if such
lands were removed from the tax rolls
through federal acquisition, the counties
would loose roughly about $4,000 an
nually, taking into consideration that
one-third of all such lands are tax
delinquent. Divided between the three
counties in question it would mean
roughly $4,000 each. CThe above
figures based on data from county Of
fees are roughly approximate and sub
jest to correction)
While the amounts involved are not
large, in the cases of such sparsely
populated counties as Lake and Cook,
they without question mean something
as far as local administration is con-
cerned and do feel strongly that some
provision should be made to aid such
counties through adequate federal COM
pensation for lands removed through
acquisition. I also know that many of
those now openly in opposition to the
Quetico-Superior program would sup
port it strongly if they were assured
of sufficient federal support to carry on
GIlClI IONdl SONC1AullCAiIo. koulC1y IL e1Ai
the communities effected by this plan
worked toward this end, some salts
factory solution could be reached. Ger
tainly it is not wise to sacrifice the
broad benefits of such a far reaching
conservation measure because of fl
ancial difficulty such as this.
Eventually, I firmly believe that both
Lake and Cook counties will be fan
ahead financially through the intensi-
fled recreational development which i!
hound TO come once a definite polic1