Mt. Rainier National Park. The Congressional enactment had been so cleverly prepared in the start, and later fortified by Congressional proceedings of a similar character, that the great railway company was granted autocratic power in the selection of tracts in lieu of those surrendered, and clothed with an authority in this respect that was denied individuals or competitors of any kind. In round numbers, the Northern Pacific was privileged to select 1,000,000 acres of Government lands by this process, giving in exchange whatever "culled" or worthless tracts it possessed in the two reservations, and retaining any portions therein that were valuable for their timber.
Of the 1,000,000 acres of base in this condition, about 540,000 acres have been used by the Company in making its own selections; approximately 200,000 acres sold to speculators for selection purposes—for which the Company derived $8 an acre—and 260,000 acres of its lands in the reserves were transferred to the Weyerhaeuser Syndicate at $6 per acre. The latter embraces lands that were considered too valuable to trade to the Government even as exchange for other desirable tracts, being the cream of the forest that was set aside when the Rainier Mountain Forest Reserve was established.
The lands selected by the Northern Pacific in Oregon are today worth $100 an acre, or $32,000,000 altogether; those taken in Washington are equally as valuable, so far as they go, and at $100 an acre are worth $10,000,000; while
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