Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 20.pdf/418



"In 1909 Mr. C. B. Watson, one of the members of the Commission, called the attention of the Commission to the beauty and grandeur of the Josephine County caves and asked that steps be taken to preserve and keep them, in their original beauty as a national monument. The Commission took up the matter with Mr. Gifford Pinchot, then Forester of the United States, and on July 12, 1909, the caves were by proclamation of President Taft duly set apart as a national monument under an act approved June 8, 1906, under the name 'Oregon Caves.' These caves are under the immediate care of the Forest Service, being in a national forest. They are of great beauty and will be preserved as a public monument forever."