The Olympic Peninsula is located in the upper northeastern corner of Washington State. The Pacific Ocean, the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Hood Canal are bordered by extensive forests, mountains and beaches that contribute to creating a pristine environment. Right in the center of the Olympic Peninsula lies Olympic National Park. President Franklin Roosevelt designated this area an Olympic National Park in 1938 after recognizing the need to preserve such pristine land. Unfortunately he made an effort too late as settlers and entrepreneurs with industrial ideologies left their mark on that pristine land in 1910. In the late 1800s Seattle, then the heart of the industrialized Olympic Peninsula, saw many changes. Industrialization is not an economical undertaking for cities, so Seattle hired workers from China. Whites and Native Americans viewed the Chinese as labor competition, and prejudices quickly developed. Victor Smith, chief and founder of the Puget Sound Cooperate Colony and an emerging entrepreneur, opposed the new workforce so strongly that he decided to move to an area where he could gain and maintain more power. In 1862 Smith obtained permission from President Abraham Lincoln to set aside 3,520 acres of raw land in the upper corner of Washington State. The same year Port Angeles was founded as a city, Thomas Aldwell, another entrepreneur, arrived by steamboat to the newly founded community: Aldwell traveled with the vision of exploiting unexplored lands. Without any consideration for the native Lower Elwha Klallam tribe of the Olympic Peninsula, Aldwell and Smith began pursuing their industrialization plans. Aldwell secretly purchased rights to the Elwha River in Olympic National Park and is said to have purchased the land… mid-paper… will the importance and dependence remain? Due to the tribe's resilience in fighting any opposition and maintaining traditional values, the river's importance will not diminish. Even as society has moved from traditional tribal life to the modern world, little cultural decline has occurred, except for the maintenance of the cultural language. While there is no longer a physical dependence on the river to feed an entire tribe, there is still an emotional dependence. As long as the elders continue to pass down stories with important values, the children will continue to protect their land. In addition to environmental groups, the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe is responsible for the major effort to preserve Olympic National Park's most important river. The Klallam tribe's strong ideology and political drive were responsible for the largest dam removal ever in the United States.