{"id":"proc-563","type":"proclamation","number":"563","tr_sequence":null,"lord_number":null,"date":"1905-06-02","date_precision":"day","title":"Redesignating the Wichita Forest Reserve, Oklahoma, as a Game Preserve","title_source":"American Presidency Project","date_notes":[],"citations":{"app":{"number":563,"url":"https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/proclamation-563"},"statutes":{"volume":34,"page":3062,"last_page":3063,"cite":"34 Stat. 3062–3063","page_image":"https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/STATUTE-34/pdf/STATUTE-34-Pg3062.pdf","statutes_date":"1905-06-02","table_title":"Establishing a game preserve in the Wichita Forest Reserve, Oklahoma."}},"text":{"paragraphs":["WHEREAS, it is provided by the Act of Congress, approved January twenty-fourth, nineteen hundred and five, entitled, “An Act for the protection of wild animals and birds in the Wichita Forest Reserve”, That the President of the United States is hereby authorized to designate such areas in the Wichita Forest Reserve as should, in his opinion, be set aside for the protection of game animals and birds and be recognized as a breeding place therefor. “Sec. 2. That when such areas have been designated as provided for in section one of this Act, hunting, trapping, killing, or capturing of game animals and birds upon the lands of the United States within the limits of said areas shall be unlawful, except under such regulations as may be prescribed from time to time, by the Secretary of Agriculture; and any person violating such regulations or the provisions of this Act shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall, upon conviction in any United States court of competent jurisdiction, be fined in a sum not exceeding one thousand dollars or be imprisoned for a period not exceeding one year, or shall suffer both fine and imprisonment, in the discretion of the court. “Sec. 3. That it is the purpose of this Act to protect from trespass the public lands of the United States and the game animals and birds which may be thereon, and not to interfere with the operation of the local game laws as affecting private, State, or Territorial lands ”; And whereas, for the purpose of giving this Act effect, it appears desirable that the entire Wichita Forest Reserve be declared a Game Preserve;","Now, therefore, I, Theodore Roosevelt, President of the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested by the aforesaid Act of Congress, do hereby make known and proclaim that the Wichita Forest Reserve, in the Territory of Oklahoma, is designated and set aside for the protection of game animals and birds, and shall be rec- ognized as a breeding place therefor, and that the hunting, trapping, killing or capturing of game animals and birds upon the lands of the United States within the limits of said area is unlawful, except under such regulations as may be prescribed from time to time by the Secretary of Agriculture.","IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.","Done at the City of Washington this 2nd day of June, in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and five, and of [SEAL.] the Independence of the United States the one hundred and twenty-ninth."],"source":"Statutes at Large, 34 Stat. 3062","kind":"statutes_digitization","verified":false,"note":"GovInfo digitization of the printed Statutes at Large; not proofread. Check the page image before quoting.","marginal_notes":["Game preserve, Wichita Forest Reserve, Okla.","Preamble.","Vol. 33, p. 614.","Post, p. 3207.","Vol. 32, p. 1973.","Wichita Forest Reserve, Okla., set apart as a game preserve."]},"signed_as":"T. Roosevelt","countersigned_by":{"name":"Francis B. Loomis","role":"Acting Secretary of State"},"summary":"Designated the entire Wichita Forest Reserve in Oklahoma Territory as a game preserve and breeding place for game animals and birds, making hunting or trapping there unlawful except under Agriculture Department regulations.","categories":["wildlife","forests"],"action":"transfer","places":[{"name":"Wichita Forest Reserve","kind":"forest","state":"Oklahoma"}],"states":["Oklahoma"],"people":[],"significance":4,"stories":[18],"day_by_day":"https://daybyday.labs.trlibrary.com/day.html?date=1905-06-02","impact":{"reception":[{"text":"The proclamation itself drew little controversy: it covered land already reserved, in a lightly settled territory, under a specific act of Congress.","source":"research entry","date":"1905","story":18},{"text":"When the bison arrived at Cache in October 1907, the town turned out along with a band of Comanche people, some of whom camped at the corrals on October 20.","source":"Elwin R. Sanborn, Zoological Society Bulletin No. 28, pp. 409–10","date":"1907-10","story":18}],"political_impact":[{"kind":"congress","text":"Congress appropriated $15,000 to fence the preserve, build sheds and maintain a buffalo herd presented by the New York Zoological Society, the first federal money spent developing land for wildlife.","source":"Act of June 30, 1906, ch. 3913, 34 Stat. 696","date":"1906-06-30","story":18},{"kind":"administrative","text":"Work began on a steel-wire fence seven feet six inches high, shelter sheds, a hay barn and flood-gates, and the first year's hay was bought.","source":"American Bison Society, First Report (1905–1907)","date":"1906","story":18},{"kind":"administrative","text":"With the renaming of the forest reserves as national forests, the preserve became the Wichita Mountains National Forest and Game Preserve.","source":"research entry","date":"1907","story":18},{"kind":"administrative","text":"Fifteen bison from the New York Zoological Park traveled 1,858 miles by rail to Cache, with Forest Service guard Frank Rush riding along to take charge of the herd.","source":"American Bison Society, First Report (1905–1907), pp. 64–67","date":"1907-10","story":18}],"legacy":[{"text":"The transplanted herd took hold and grew, in one of the first deliberate reintroductions of a native species to its former range in North America.","source":"research entry","story":18},{"text":"The Wichita became the template for later big-game refuges, including the National Bison Range in Montana in 1908.","source":"research entry","date":"1908","story":18}],"today":[{"name":"Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge","kind":"wildlife_refuge","relation":"origin","state":"Oklahoma","since":"1905-06-02","note":"59,020 acres of mixed-grass prairie and granite uplands; still home to descendants of the 1907 bison herd, along with elk and longhorn cattle.","source":"U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge, About Us","story":18}],"later_actions":[{"date":"1906-06-30","text":"Congress appropriated $15,000 for a fence, sheds and the maintenance of a buffalo herd on the preserve.","source":"34 Stat. 696","story":18},{"date":"1907","text":"Renamed the Wichita Mountains National Forest and Game Preserve when forest reserves became national forests.","source":"research entry","story":18},{"date":"1909-12-15","text":"Taft's Executive Order 1147 reserved about 16,420 acres for Fort Sill's water supply, describing land partly within the game preserve of June 2, 1905.","source":"Executive Order 1147","story":114}],"uncertain":["Whether the Comanche leader Quanah Parker was at Cache when the bison arrived is not known; neither 1907–08 eyewitness account names him.","Current head counts for the refuge's bison, elk and longhorn herds are not published."]},"related":[{"id":"uo-111","relation":"same_subject","note":null,"story":114,"inferred":true,"date":"1905-06-02","title":"Wichita Forest Reserve, Oklahoma, redesignated as a game preserve.","type":"unnumbered_order","number":null,"label":"Unnumbered order (Lord no. 111)"},{"id":"proc-628","relation":"enlarged_by","note":"Roosevelt enlarged the Wichita reserve on May 29, 1906.","story":18,"date":"1906-05-29","title":"Enlarging Boundaries of the Wichita Forest Reserve, Oklahoma","type":"proclamation","number":"628","label":"Proclamation 628"},{"id":"proc-694","relation":"same_subject","note":null,"story":31,"inferred":true,"date":"1906-11-28","title":"Setting Aside Game Preserve in Grand Canyon Forest Reserve, Arizona","type":"proclamation","number":"694","label":"Proclamation 694"}],"label":"Proclamation 563","type_label":"Proclamation","has_text":true,"category_labels":[{"slug":"wildlife","label":"Wildlife and bird reservations"},{"slug":"forests","label":"Forests"}],"state_refs":[{"name":"Oklahoma","slug":"oklahoma"}],"story_refs":[{"number":18,"slug":"wichita-game-preserve-1905","title":"The Wichita Forest and Game Preserve","dek":"Proclamation 563 turned the whole Wichita Forest Reserve in Oklahoma Territory into a federal game preserve, the first ground set aside to let big game recover and breed.","url":"https://executiveactions.labs.trlibrary.com/story.html?n=18"}],"significance_label":"Notable","duplicates":[{"id":"uo-111","label":"Unnumbered order (Lord no. 111)","date":"1905-06-02","title":"Wichita Forest Reserve, Oklahoma, redesignated as a game preserve."}],"prev":{"id":"proc-562","label":"Proclamation 562","date":"1905-05-29","title":"Establishment of the Sawtooth Forest Reserve, Idaho"},"next":{"id":"proc-564","label":"Proclamation 564","date":"1905-06-02","title":"Establishing the Lassen Peak Forest Reserve, California"},"url":"https://executiveactions.labs.trlibrary.com/document.html?id=proc-563","reconciliation_note_html":null}