CR - BURIAL AND MEMORIAL - Theodore Roosevelt National Park Establish - 1927

CONCURRENT  RESOLUTION

(Signalness and Tester)

ROOSEVELT PARK

Memorializing the Congress of the United States to Establish the Roose­velt National Park in Billings County, North Dakota; and to Provide for the Substitution of Public Lands of the United States for the State School Lands Located Within the Proposed Park Area.

Be It Resolved by the House of Representatives of the State of North Dakota, the Senate Concurring:

WHEREAS, there is now pending in the Congress of the United States a bill to establish the Roosevelt National Park in Billings County, North Dakota, introduced by Congressman Sinclair of North Dakota, December 7th, 1925, being H. R. 3942, and,

WHEREAS, the tract of land in such proposed park consists of the petrified forest and the famous "Bad Lands," lying on both sides of the Little Missouri River in Billings County, North Dakota. where Theodore Roosevelt operated his historic cattle ranches and hunted wild game in the early history of Dakota territory, and which tract is admirably fitted by nature for scenic purposes, and preserves in its natural state the mountainous character and wild unchanged condition which existed in the West fifty years ago, and which tract it is practicable and appropriate to preserve as a National Park in the honor of Theodore Roosevelt, in the interest of American scenic beauty and as a relic of the traditional pioneer conditions of the West which have all but disappeared" from the North American Continent ; and,

WHEREAS, there is included in said proposed park area approxi­mately forty-two thousand (42,000) acres of public lands belonging to the State of North Dakota known as State school lands, which was granted to it by the United States under Sections 10 and 11 of the Enabling Act of February 22nd, 1889, to be held in trust by the State of North Dakota for the common schools, which lands, on account of its rough and barren character, cannot be sold for the minimum price of ten dollars ($10.00) per acre as prescribed in Section 11 of said Enabling Act, and from which the State of North Dakota gets only a nominal income; and, it further appearing that it would be expedient to exchange the said State school lands located within such proposed park area, for public lands of the United States of like quantity, character, and value located in the vicinity of such proposed park;