Proclamation 539—Establishing the Pinal Mountains Forest Reserve, Arizona

Whereas, it is provided by section twenty-four of the Act of Congress, approved March third, eighteen hundred and ninety-one, entitled, "An act to repeal timber-culture laws, and for other purposes", "That the President of the United States may, from time to time, set apart and reserve, in any State or Territory having public land bearing forests, in any part of the public lands wholly or in part covered with timber or undergrowth, whether of commercial value or not, as public reservations, and the President shall, by public proclamation, declare the establishment of such reservations and the limits thereof";

And Whereas, the public lands in the Territory of Arizona, within the limits hereinafter described, are in part covered with timber, and it appears that the public good would be promoted by setting apart and reserving said lands as a public reservation;

Now, Therefore, I, Theodore Roosevelt, President of the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested by section twenty-four of the aforesaid Act of Congress, do hereby make known and proclaim that there are hereby reserved from entry or settlement and set apart as a Public Reservation all those certain tracts, pieces or parcels of land lying and being situate in the Territory of Arizona, and within the boundaries particularly described as follows:

Beginning at the point for the north-west corner of Section eleven (11), Township one (1) South, Range fourteen (14) East, Gila and Salt River Meridian, Arizona; thence easterly along the unsurveyed section lines to the point for the north-east corner of Section eight (8), Township one (1) South, Range fifteen (15) East; thence southerly to the point for the south-east corner of said section; thence easterly along the unsurveyed section lines to the point for the north-east corner of Section fifteen (15), said township; thence southerly to the point for the south-east corner of said section; thence easterly along the unsurveyed section lines to the point of intersection with the western boundary of the White Mountain Indian Reservation; thence in a southwesterly direction along said boundary to the point for its intersection with the unsurveyed section line between Sections seventeen (17) and twenty (20), Township two (2) South, Range sixteen (16) East; thence westerly along the unsurveyed section lines to the point for the south-west corner of Section fourteen (14), Township two (2) South, Range fourteen (14) East; thence northerly along the unsurveyed section lines to the point for the north-west corner of Section eleven (11), Township one (1) South, Range fourteen (14) East, the place of beginning.

Excepting from the force and effect of this proclamation all lands which may have been, prior to the date hereof, embraced in any legal entry or covered by any lawful filing duly of record in the proper United States Land Office, or upon which any valid settlement has been made pursuant to law, and the statutory period within which to make entry or filing of record has not expired: Provided , that this exception shall not continue to apply to any particular tract of land unless the entryman, settler or claimant continues to comply with the law under which the entry, filing or settlement was made.

Warning is hereby expressly given to all persons not to make settlement upon the lands reserved by this proclamation.

The reservation hereby established shall be known as The Pinal Mountains Forest Reserve.

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 20th day of March in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and five, and of the Independence of the United States the one hundred and twenty-ninth.

THEODORE ROOSEVELT.

By the President:

ALVEY A. ADEE,

Acting Secretary of State.