Henry made a filing. He said he would make final proof, and cede it to Gering for a park. This did not materialize and later still Mrs. Gardner, the mother of Oscar W. Gardner, had a filing. She had a cabin in the bend in the bluff back of the country club house. She did not make proof, and the bluff then reverted back to the government in time to be caught in the reserve for irrigation. In the land business occasionally there would come to my attention and to others the idea that the mountain would make an ideal "garden" for recreation. Near Golden, Colorado, a table mountain was converted into a "beer garden." Should Scottsbluff have met such a fate it would destroy its beauty and usefulness for recreation, for at least a part of the people.

HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRAJ

50.?

The thought of preserving it to all the people was the Henry view, and the Gardner view, and it was the same that inspired me to suggest to Congressman Kincaid the introduction of a bill to set it aside for a park. He informed me of the national monument law, and went with me to the proper Washington department to make the necessary application to have it so set aside. I was asked to prepare a historic statement as a basis for the request and to designate the lands. This was done and the National Park magazine used the matter practically complete in describing the monument several years later. Will M. Maupin, the editor of the Midwest, at Gering, has been designated custodian, and the public are taking a natural pride. Winfield Evans and Robert F. Neeley are proposing the setting aside of a day, and a call for volunteers for tree planting, then get trees by the thousand from the National Forest at Halsey, Nebraska, and put in a day in foresting the monument.