Whereas, it is provided by section twenty-four of the act of Congress,
approved March 3d, 1891, entitled, "An act to repeal timber-culture
laws, and for other purposes," "That the President of the United States
may, from time to time, set apart and reserve, in any State or Territory
having public land bearing forests, in any part of the public lands
wholly or in part covered with timber or undergrowth, whether of
commercial value or not, as public reservations, and the President
shall, by public proclamation, declare the establishment of such
reservations and the limits thereof;"
And whereas, the public lands in the State of Wyoming, within the limits
hereinafter described, are in part covered with timber, and it appears
that the public good would be promoted by setting apart and reserving
said lands as a public reservation;
Now, therefore, I, Theodore Roosevelt, President of the United States,
by virtue of the power in me vested by section twenty-four of the
aforesaid act of Congress, do hereby make known and proclaim that there
is hereby reserved from entry or settlement and set apart as a Public
Reservation all those certain tracts, pieces or parcels of land lying
and being situate in the State of Wyoming and within the boundaries
particularly described as follows, to wit:
Beginning at the point where the range line between ranges seventy-six
(76) and seventy-seven (77) west, sixth (6th) Principal Meridian,
Wyoming, intersects the boundary line between the States of Wyoming
and Colorado; thence westerly along said state boundary line to a
point where it intersects the range line between ranges eighty (80) and
eighty-one (81) west; thence northerly along said range line, allowing
for the proper offset on the third (3rd) Standard Parallel north, to the
southeast corner of township fourteen (14) north, range eighty-one (81)
west; thence westerly to the southwest corner of said township; thence
northerly along the range line allowing for the proper offset on the
fourth (4th) Standard Parallel north, to the northwest corner of
township seventeen (17) north, range eighty-one (81) west; thence
easterly to the northeast corner of said township; thence southerly to
the southeast corner of said township; thence easterly along the fourth
(4th) Standard Parallel north to the southwest corner of township
seventeen (17) north, range seventy-nine (79) west; thence northerly to
the northwest corner of said township; thence easterly to the northeast
corner of section five (5), township seventeen (17) north, range
seventy-eight (78) west; thence southerly along the section lines,
allowing for the proper offset on the fourth (4th) Standard Parallel
north, to the southeast corner of section thirty-two (32), township
fifteen (15) north, range seventy-eight (78) west; thence westerly to
the northeast corner of township fourteen (14) north, range eighty (80)
west; thence southerly to the southeast corner of said township; thence
easterly along the township line to the northeast corner of township
thirteen (13) north, range seventy-seven (77) west; thence southerly
along the range line, allowing for the proper offset on the third (3rd)
Standard Parallel north, to the point where it intersects the boundary
line between the States of Wyoming and Colorado, the place of beginning.
Excepting from the force and effect of this proclamation all lands which
may have been, prior to the date hereof, embraced in any legal entry or
covered by any lawful filing duly of record in the proper United States
Land Office, or upon which any valid settlement has been made pursuant
to law, and the statutory period within which to make entry or filing of
record has not expired: _Provided_, that this exception shall not
continue to apply to any particular tract of land unless the entryman,
settler or claimant continues to comply with the law under which the
entry, filing or settlement was made.
Warning is hereby expressly given to all persons not to make settlement
upon the lands reserved by this proclamation.
The reservation hereby established shall be known as The Medicine Bow
Forest Reserve.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of
the United States to be affixed.
[SEAL.]
Done at the city of Washington this twenty-second day of May, A.D. 1902,
and of the Independence of the United States the one hundred and
twenty-sixth.