or no profitability. The demand for metals was not constant, and so prices tended to fluctuate too greatly for mining to be viable. Once the region became a national park, some privately owned mining inholdings remained. One such inholding, the Thunder Creek mine, was still privately owned as of 1997. Unlike in many other regions of the Pacific Northwest, logging had little impact on the future park. The ruggedness of the terrain and the existence of more economically viable timber resources that were closer to transportation routes largely dissuaded the timber industry from logging in the area. In 1897 the Washington Forest Reserve was set aside, preserving the forestland that would later become the park. By 1905, the management of the reserve was transferred from the Department of the Interior to the Department of Agriculture. The Forest Service was subsequently created to administer these forest reserves nationwide, which were redesignated as National Forests. Though the Department of Agriculture allowed commercial enterprises to log the forest with a permit, most of the timber taken from the region was used only locally for the construction of cabins and similar small-scale enterprises. Logging expanded when the Skagit River Hydroelectric Project was commenced by the public utility Seattle City Light in the 1920s. Almost of timber would have been left underwater by the completion of the Ross Dam. A contract to extract the timber was awarded in 1945 and the project was completed in 1958. None of the dams or areas that were extensively logged are within the current boundaries of the national park, but they are in the adjoining Ross Lake National Recreation Area. Establishing the National Park The establishment of Yellowstone National Park in 1872, and Yosemite National Park in 1890, led preservationists to argue for similar protections for other areas. Even before the North Cascade region was designated as a Forest Reserve in 1897, activists argued the region should be afforded the greater protection accorded from a National Park designation. Washingtonians submitted a petition in 1892 to establish a national park to the north of Lake Chelan, as many who had visited the region believed it to have scenery "greater than Switzerland's". Further efforts took place in 1906, and again between 1916 and 1921, when artist Julian Itter and the Mazamas Alpine Club lobbied for a bill to designate "Mount Baker National Park". The proposals failed to gain approval from the