Letter from John Muir et al. to William Kent, 1913 Jun 27.

FOR REFERENCE USE ONLY Reproduced from the original in The Yale University Library Permission necessary for reproduction or publicationThe advisory Board of Army Engineers “is of the opinion thatthere are several sources of water supply that could be obtained and used by the city of San Francisco and adjacent communities to supple-ment the nearby supplies as the necessity develops. Prom any one ofthese sources the water is sufficient in quantity and is, or can feemade, suitable in quality.We are preparing data based on the reports of the Army Engineers which will demonstrate that San Francisco can obtain abundance of pure water from other sources than the Tuolumne Hetch Hetchy.So important a bill should not be rushed through Congress without mature consideration and time allowed for its opponents to be heard. Anything less would be unjust to the American people, therefore in behalf of all who appreciate our mountain: parks and believe A that they should be preserved, we call on you to laid us in postponingconsideration of, this destructive bill until the regular session of Congress, for we have not even seen a copy of the bill now being considered. Ever since of the establishment of the Yosemite National Park by Act of Congress October 8th, 1890, constant strife has been going on around its boundaries and is likely to go on as part of the universal battle between good and evil however much its boundaries may be broken or wild beauty destroyed.When this application was first made over ten years ago theSecretary of the Interior then holding office emphatically denied the right saying in partPresumably the Yosemite National Park, was created such by law because of the natural objects, of varying degrees of scenic im-portance, located within its boundaries, inclusive alike of Its beau-tiful small, lakes, like Eleanor, and its majestic; wonders, like Hetch Hetchy and Yosemite Valley. It is the aggregation of such natural scenic features that makes the Yosemite Park a wonderland which the Congress of the United States sought by law to preserve for all coming time as nearly as practicable in the condition fashioned by the hand of .the Creator - a worthy object of national pride and a source of, healthful pleasure and rest for the thousands of people who may annually sojourn there during the heated months. In behalf of all the people of the nation we ask your aid in putting an end to these assaults on our great national parks and to prevent this measure from being rushed through before it can be brought to the attention of the ninety millions of people who own this park.Faithfully yours[illegible]https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/jmcl/42738/thumbnail.jp