In October 1938 a meeting and field inspection was arranged with park officials and representatives of the Yawkey Lumber Company. It was found that while the sugar pine and yellow pine on the tract had been harvested, the work had been done with a minimum destruction to the forest cover. The fire and logging roads followed acceptable planning models, and efforts had been made for the care of the remaining forest cover which was principally fir. Following the field inspection Kimball made a proposition to the Park Service. The proposal was described as follows by Superintendent Leavitt:
Within the holdings of the Yawkey Lumber Company within the park is a strip of land 40 acres wide and half a mile long, which belongs to the government. No one seems to know why this particular strip was not included in the original acquisition of lands by the Yawkey Lumber Company or their predecessors but apparently it was due to some error which left it out of the original filings. In any event, it belongs to the federal government, and now is an island within this logged-over area. Within this island are 1301 M feet BM of yellow pine timber and 135 M feet BM of sugar pine timber.
The Algoma Lumber Company of Modoc Point, Oregon, has purchased all of the merchantable timber owned by the Yawkey Lumber Company and have been cutting on the company’s land within the park this last season. They have about one more season of cutting to do before all of the merchantable timber is removed. The Yawkey Lumber Company and the Algoma Lumber Company would like to secure the merchantable timber on this strip of government owned land. Mr. Kimball stated that Mr. Yawkey has agreed in return for the merchantable timber on this strip to deed the 1872 acres of their land within the boundaries of Crater Lake National Park. [60]
The proposal was quickly submitted to the NPS regional office in San Francisco for review. On October 24 Regional Forester Burnett Sanford responded to Kimball’s proposal:
. . . I do not believe it is a good policy for a Park to exchange timber for cutover lands as it increases the area of devastation within the park. In this case there is some justification for such an exchange since the government land which Mr. Leavitt proposes to exchange is completely surrounded by cutover area and as nearly as I can tell from the map lies adjacent to the Park boundary.
I feel that a value of $3.50 per acre is high for cut-over land as the Forest Service seldom pays more than $2.50. Actually this land will be costing the Park closer to $7.50 per acre due to the contemplated agreement on our part to burn the slash over the whole area. There is a compulsory slash disposal law in Oregon so we would be relieving the lumber Company of an obligation which I estimate would cost them in the neighborhood of $7500.00 if the job is done without excessive damage to the remaining timber. If broadcast burning of slash is practiced the job could be done for $1,500 but the value of the cut-over lands will be greatly depreciated.
I imagine that the government could purchase these cut-over lands for $4,000 cash and that would appear to be the most satisfactory solution of the problem. [61]
On November 5 NPS Chief Counsel G.A. Moskey offered his comments on the proposed exchange. He stated that it violated the NPS establishing act in that moneys received for timber sold under its provisions were to be deposited in the Treasury Department. The funds could not be used for the purchase of privately owned lands within the park.[62]
In October 1939 the Public Works Administration allotted $8,000 for the purchase of the Yawkey Tract. The Park Service immediately asked for and received assurances from the company to postpone slash burning, pending the final consummation of the purchase. In view of the interest of the U.S. Forest Service in acquiring the remaining lands by the Yawkey Lumber Company, the Park Service began exploring the possibility of collaborating with that agency in negotiating for the entire holdings of the company. It was assumed that such a joint effort might result in a more reasonable purchase price. [63] When the Forest Service demurred because of what it considered to be an excessive asking price, the Park Service pushed ahead for final condemnation proceedings which culminated on August 7, 1940. [64]
On August 18, 1941, the U.S. Attorney General stated that the Yawkey case could be considered closed, as he was satisfied from an examination of the abstract of title and a review of the proceedings that a valid fee simple title to the land was vested in the United States of America. To provide access to the tract for fire protection purposes, it was necessary to build a 5-stringer standard log bridge 43 feet in length across Annie Creek. The construction of the bridge shortened the travel distance to the area by approximately 15 miles. Slash burning operations were carried on until winter snows stopped the work. [65]
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