The Secretary of the Interior is authorized and empowered to lease for a period not exceeding twenty years, at an annual rental to be determined by him, to any person, corporation, or company he may authorize to transact business in the Yellowstone National Park, separate tracts of land, not exceeding twenty acres each, at such places not to exceed ten in number to any one person, corporation, or company, in said park as the comfort and convenience of visitors may require for the construction and maintenance of substantial hotel buildings and buildings for the protection of stage, stock, and equipment.
Such lease or leases shall not include any of the geysers or any objects of curiosity or interest in said park, or exclude the public from free and convenient approach thereto, or include any ground within one-eighth of a mile of any of the geysers of the Yellowstone Falls, the Grand Canyon, or the Yellowstone River, Mammoth Hot Springs, or any object of curiosity in the park; nor shall such lease convey either expressly or by implication any exclusive privilege within the park, except on the premises held thereunder and for the time therein granted. Every lease made for any property of said park shall require the lessee to observe and obey each and every provision in any Act of Congress, every rule, order, or regulation made or which shall hereafter be made and published by the Secretary of the Interior concerning the use, care, management, or government of the park, or any object or property therein under penalty of forfeiture of such lease, and shall be subject to the right of revocation and forfeiture, which shall therein be reserved by the Secretary of the Interior.
The provisions of this section are not to be construed as mandatory upon the Secretary of the Interior, but the authority herein given is to be exercised in his sound discretion.