Olympic Forest Reserve was established in 1897 by Executive order, and
was surveyed during the next 3 years, by Messrs. Arthur Dodwell and
Theodore Rixon. They produced the first accurate map and gave a detailed
account of the forests.
Efforts to preserve the Olympic wilderness started in 1904 when
Representative Francis W. Cushman introduced a bill for the
establishment of Elk National Park. The bill did not pass. In 1906 and
1908, Representative William E. Humphrey introduced bills to create a
game refuge on the Olympic Peninsula. These bills also failed. Two days
before the end of the Theodore Roosevelt administration he asked the
President to set aside a National Monument in the Olympic Mountains
under authority of the Antiquities Act of 1906. By Presidential
proclamation, Mount Olympus National Monument was established in 1909.
The monument was within the boundaries of Olympic National Forest. From
1909 to 1933, it was administered by the Forest Service, U.S. Department
of Agriculture. By Executive order, the monument was transferred to the
National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, on June 10,
1933.
Efforts to establish a national park in the Olympics were renewed in
1935. Representative Monrad C. Wallgren repeatedly introduced bills to
have this done, but without success at first. President Roosevelt
visited the Olympic Peninsula in 1937 and expressed approval of a large
Olympic National Park. The act of June 29, 1938, established Olympic
National Park and abolished Mount Olympus National Monument. The park
now has an area of 1,400 square miles.