Early Days in the Forest Service Volume 4

Missoula, Montana
January 1976

TO THE FRIENDS OF THE NORTHERN REGION:

In keeping with our policy of preserving for posterity the rich and colorful history of the Forest Service, we are continuing with our series of publications known as "Early Days In The Forest Service." This, our Volume No. 4, is the latest in the series begun in 1944 by the then Regional Forester Evan W. Kelley

We continue in this volume the well-accepted style of its predecessors, namely, to publish the letters and articles from Northern Region retirees or about-to-be-retirees just as they wrote them or spoke them. In this way we feel that not only are the sights, sounds, and feel of that era better preserved, but that the character and personality of each of these former employees is more perfectly presented to those readers who either knew them personally or knew of them.

Since this present volume is appearing during the Bicentennial of the American Revolution, we are dedicating this published collection as a Bicentennial project. It also happens that this year marks one hundred years of Federal forestry. So this volume indeed makes its appearance at a particularly auspicious time.

I hope that all of you who read Volume 4 of these early days will get the thrill of going back into history and thus feel closer to those dedicated employees who, in many cases, endured hardship and privation in order to do their job to the best of their ability. By its very nature, the Forest Service is an agency, which has always attracted the best to its ranks. And I have every confidence that, as stewards and managers of much of America's forest and rangeland, the employees of the Forest Service will continue to create a colorful history.

Sincerely,

STEVE YURICH
Regional Forester

SPOTTED BEAR LOOKOUT Flathead National Forest from 1923 photo