In area it contains 1,420,000 acres, and the creation of this great
preserve was accomplished on April 13, 1909.

THE WICHITA NATIONAL GAME PRESERVE.--In the Wichita Mountains, of
southwestern Oklahoma, there is a National game preserve containing
57,120 acres. On this preserve is a fenced bison range and a herd of
thirty-nine American bison which owe their existence to the initiative
of the New York Zoological Society. On March 25, 1905, the Society
proposed to the National Government the founding of a range and herd, on
a basis that was entirely new. To the Society it seemed desirable that
for the encouragement of Congress in the preservation of species that
are threatened with extermination, the scientific corporations of
America, and private individuals also, should do something more than to
offer advice and exhortations to the government.

Accordingly, the Zoological Society offered to present to the
Government, delivered on the ground in Oklahoma, a herd of fifteen
pure-blood bison as the nucleus of a new national herd, provided
Congress would furnish a satisfactory fenced range, and maintain the
herd. The offer was at once accepted by Hon. James Wilson, Secretary of
Agriculture, and the Society was invited to propose a site for a range.
The Society sent a representative to the Wichita National Forest
Reserve, who recommended a range, and made a report upon it, which the
Society adopted.

By act of Congress the range was at once established and fenced. Its
area is twelve square miles (9,760 acres). In October, 1908, the
Zoological Society took from its herd in the Zoological Park nine female
and six male bison, and delivered them at the bison range. There were
many predictions that all those bison would die of Texas fever within
one year; but the parties most interested persisted in trying
conclusions with the famous tick of Texas.

Mr. Frank Rush was appointed Warden of the new National Bison Range, and
his management has been so successful that only two of the bison died of
the fever, the disease has been stamped out, and the herd now contains
thirty-nine head. Within five years it should reach the one-hundred
mark. Elk, deer and antelope have been placed in the range, and all save
the antelope are doing well. The Wichita Bison Range is an unqualified
success.

THE MONTANA NATIONAL BISON RANGE.--The opening of the Flathead Indian
Reservation to settlement, in 1909, afforded a golden opportunity to
locat