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A History of the Salmon National Forest
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PART 3
NATURAL RESOURCES AND FUNCTIONS
A. WATERSHED MANAGEMENT
The Salmon National Forest is composed of high and very rugged mountains, having no plains, plateaus, or deserts. The valleys lie along the Salmon and Lemhi Rivers, and while they are not within the boundaries of the Forest, they are dependent for their water upon streams that have their origin within the Forest, and their agriculture depends upon the grazing lands within the Forest.1 The major watersheds, all of which empty into the Salmon River, are: Lemhi River, North Fork and Middle Fork of the Salmon River, Panther Creek and Horse Creek. The headwaters of the Lemhi, North Fork, Panther Creek and Horse Creek are within the National Forest boundaries. The streams of the Salmon Forest are rapid and flow through narrow canyons and valleys.
1George Bentz, "Report for Forest Atlas," January 15, 1909, pp. 1-2.
The forest cover on the high mountains and ridges and the north slopes of the lower hills is rather dense, while on most of the southern slopes along the lower hills it is very sparse. In places the lower hills are barren. The cover is dense along the sources of all streams on the Forest, where it conserves the moisture and regulates the flow. Water stored in the high mountains in the form of snow and rain is released gradually through springs and streams for agriculture, domestic, and municipal use.
The first Forest-wide condition survey was made in 1938 and 1939. This was an extensive survey made by the Rangers using National guidelines. It was based on soil erosion primarily, by employing three erosion condition classes. The primary benefit of this effort on the Salmon was educational. Both Forest Officers and users began to appraise problem conditions more from the soil and water than in the past, judging from work plans and resource records.2
2Glenn Thompson
Inspectors Nord and Moncrief in 1947 reported the watershed cover in the Salmon Forest over the Salmon River, Medicine Lodge, and Birch Creek drainages to be with few exceptions in a very satisfactory condition. Rapid runoff and erosion was occurring in limited small areas damaged in times past by fire, over-grazing and from placer mining operations. Some erosion was still occurring in the Middle Fork Peak burn, and to some extent in the Ford and Tobias Creek tributaries of Hayden Creek on the common-use range, but control areas had been initiated. Impairment of watershed through burned area losses had been held to a favorable minimum. Vegetation had not become fully established on certain of the placer workings in upper North Fork. Very little geologic erosion in the national forest was observed. The main Salmon River, during spring runoff in heavy storm periods, became discolored and did carry some silt. This silt came largely from placer mining within the Challis and Salmon Forests and from outside watershed lands impaired from overuse and fire damage and geologic erosion. The Dump Creek wash was cited as a striking illustration of the quantities of material that can be transported by a small stream when balances are upset.1 This balance was upset when a small mining diversion reservoir failed, about 1897, sending waters of both Moose Creek and Dump Creek down the Dump Creek channel.
1Nord — Moncrief, pp. 12-16.
Dump Creek is one of the most serious cases of accelerated erosion that can be found on national forest lands in the west. Even with complete diversion of the water from its head, debris will continue to erode from the canyon for many years. Serious downstream damages have been felt. Roads, ranches and other improvements have suffered from flooding as the heavy material progressively works its way downstream.
The municipality of Salmon obtains its water supply from Jesse and Pollard Creeks. In 1947 the municipal watershed on the national forest comprised 10,800 acres and was closed to use except for certain Forest Service purposes. The administration of this area was covered by agreement between Salmon City Corporation and the Secretary of Agriculture under date of June 8, 1939.
Much of the soil in the Salmon Forest does not erode easily. It is heavy—infiltration of water is high—particularly where surface mantle of litter and normal vegetation is not disturbed. Where surface litter has been scalped by fire and overuse, exposing the soil, trampling of grazing animals on steep slopes has created instability and started some creepage of soil. In some areas restoration of perennial vegetation has been very slow. In 1947 this was noticeable in the Middle Fork of the Salmon where early abuse from overuse of forage was evident. The hydrological condition is generally good over most of the Salmon Forest. There are some minor exceptions on the higher elevations.
The entire Salmon National Forest is an important watershed. Most of the summer water produced on the Lemhi River is used locally. Sizeable amounts of water along the main Salmon River, North Fork of the Salmon River, and Panther Creek also are used locally. Recreation throughout the area is enhanced by water. The Salmon drainage is one of the most important spawning areas for anadromous fish.
B. TIMBER MANAGEMENT
Timber management began in this area with the creation of the Salmon National Forest at a time when the area was virtually in its primitive condition as a virgin forest. This is a contrast to the situation in many eastern states where large stands of forest had already been cut before forest management began. The first Salmon Forest Supervisor, George Bentz, predicted that by conservative cutting, not to exceed the annual growth, the Salmon National Forest could become a great asset to the State.1 He reported the timber in the area to consist largely of Douglas fir, lodgepole pine and yellow pine (Ponderosa), with small amounts of spruce, whitebark pine, "quaking asp," cottonwood and juniper occuring at different localities throughout the Forest. At that time there was an estimated two billion feet of timber of commercial and domestic value, with a very small part accessible to markets, which were strictly local. No outside markets were available. In these early days the timber cut was for such purposes as house logs, mine timbers, fence and corral posts and poles, and railroad ties.
1George Bentz, "Report for Forest Atlas", January 15, 1909, p. 16.
Benjamin Carman built one of the earliest sawmills, on Carmen Creek, soon after the town of Salmon was started. Charles Reynolds had an early sawmill in Wagonhammer Creek, later run by William Hoffman. Timber needed for placer mining operations was usually cut at the spot. The old mining towns of Yellow Jacket, Shoup, Ulysses, Singiser, each had sawmills to cut timber as needed. Timber was cut by hand with crosscut saws and pulled to the sawmill with horses. One early commercial use of timber was for ties for the Gilmore and Pittsburg Railroad, finished in 1910. These ties were cut in the Leadore area, some in Stroud, Lee, Zeph, and Nez Perce Creek drainages. Some of the ties were hand hewn, others were sawed.
One of the early duties of the Forest Rangers after the establishment of the Salmon Forest was the systematic marking of timber for sawmill operators. Fred Carl, ranger at Hughes Creek, 1907-1910, recalls marking timber for Bradshaw at Bull of the Woods, Hoffman on Wagonhammer, and Wright on Silverlead. These operators logged with a team and all hand labor. There were also many free use permits. Settlers would get their own logs and then hire a sawmill to saw them for $5.00 per thousand.2
2Fred Carl.
Early Silviculture on the Salmon Forest included cone picking. Both Joe Gautier and Ross Tobias tell about gathering fir and pine cones for seed to be used in reforestation. Joe Gautier related that soon after 1910, his crew gathered fir cones up Silverlead, near North Fork, and pine cones up Ditch Creek. They packed the cones by pack string to the ranger station, where they were thrashed in a square box four feet by four feet, resembling an ice cream freezer. They got many of the cones out of squirrel caches; in one cache they found over 50 bushel.1 Ross Tobias did his cone picking up the Lemhi in the fall of 1909, when he was at the Tendoy Ranger Station near the mouth of Hayden Creek. He and F. T. McLean made a drying rack for the seed. In October he made a churn to thresh out Douglas fir seeds and later entries in his diary mention time spent threshing out Douglas fir cones.2
1Joe Gautier.
2Ross Tobias, Forest Day Book Diary.
Fred Chase remembers scaling timber for Billy Mulkey and Pete McKinney at their sawmill up Mulkey Creek, around 1910. Guy Mulkey and his father were running two four-horse teams, hauling cottonwood cord wood to Salmon every day for 4 or 5 months, for sale. Vic Durand solved a transportation problem up Mulkey Creek by sawing big round blocks at the edge of the timber, and starting them rolling down the mountain toward the Salmon Hot Springs. Chase reports the blocks would roll around that basin for about three-fourths of a mile and then drop into the canyon right below where the hot springs are.3
3Fred Chase.
In 1916, C. N. Woods estimated seven billion feet of timber in the Salmon National Forest.4
4C. N. Woods, "Inspection Report," 1916, p. 18.
C. B. Morse, Assistant District Forester, after an inspection trip in 1923, reported the following:
Inspected was the area of the cordwood cuttings in Pollard Canyon. The town of Salmon depends largely on wood for fuel, and part of the fuel comes from Pollard Canyon, which drains into Jesse Creek. This creek furnishes the domestic and irrigation water supply for Salmon and therefore the watershed must be protected.
There is no wagon road up Pollard Canyon, but a snow road has been used in the winter, with ranchers and commercial wood haulers leaving Salmon in the morning with a team, cutting a load of wood and returning the same evening. A strip system of clear cutting has developed, brush disposal is impossible in the deep snow and few purchasers return in the spring or summer to burn the brush. ....Hauling the wood out the same date it is cut makes it difficult for the ranger to scale it.
The old purchasers should be notified that changes must be made: we must protect the watershed; clear cutting in strips is discontinued; an improvement cutting will be made on the selection system and thinning of small trees for increased growth; only marked trees can be cut; brush will be burned when cut after snow comes and the cooperative work fund will be used when cutting is done before the snow comes; sales will be made by estimate.1
1C. B. Morse, "Inspection Report," 1923.
Most timbered areas near Salmon have had mills at one time or another. Some of the areas and operators were: Ditch Creek — Bradshaw, later F. C. Miller, later Murray Crook; Mill Creek near Lemhi — Doty; Deer Creek Canyon — Friedorf; Long Canyon, Rainey; Timber Creek — Ferris, Swan Basin — Luke Blecha; Silver Moon — Pyeatt; Panther Creek — John Oyler; Sage Creek — Joe Moore. One lumber company built a flume in Jesse Creek in the early 1920's and floated down about five million board feet of logs. The remains of the flume can still be seen. Around 1928, Bolts and Oltmer attempted to float logs down Hayden Creek, but the logs were too large.
The first fair-sized mill was opened about 1925 on Ditch Creek by Murray Crook. He continued operation through World War II, his annual cut around two million board feet.
Progressive burning was being used on some of the Salmon Forest timber sales by 1929; burning the brush progressively during the winter as the trees were cut.
In 1935 the estimated timber stand of the Salmon National Forest was calculated at approximately eight billion board feet, of which almost four billion was considered merchantable. There was not a great demand for the timber at that time because of the vast stands still remaining in northern Idaho and the Pacific states that was more accessible to markets than that on the Salmon Forest. At that time the Salmon had an estimated annual growth of forty million board feet. There were several small sawmills on the Salmon Forest which supplied lumber and timbers for local needs. Farmers and other residents could obtain fuel wood, posts, poles, or house logs at moderate cost. No Forest products were being shipped out of the area.
In 1939 there were 14 active sawmills, all quite small, with nearly all of the lumber used locally. Chain saws and "cats" began to appear. The volume of timber cut in the Salmon country was stepped up during World War II to meet war-time needs, with new mills and new management of some of the earlier mills. This was the beginning of a market beyond the local needs. Henry Benson bought the Crook mill, moved it to Salmon; Henderson moved a mill into Silver Creek. This mill was later purchased by B. E. Robinson who now has a mill just north of Salmon. Intermountain Lumber purchased the Benson mill, and Idaho Forest Products set up a mill and factory near Robinson's mill. Livingston and Lynch purchased a timber sale and set up a mill on the North Fork.
Almost all of the products and lumber are now sold outside of the local area. Horses and mules have left the woods, replaced by tractors and heel boom loaders. The timber industry has changed from the family-owned mill with part time labor to a steady industry employing year around loggers and mill hands, with large highway truckers moving the products to market.1 The first helicopter sale was sold in April of 1973 in Spring Creek.
1Lester Gutzman, "Lumbering Industry Claims Interesting Progress Here, "The Recorder Herald, Diamond Anniversary Issue, 1961, p. 7.
Previous to 1952 the Salmon National Forest was divided into four working circles. The allowable cut for each varied from 250,000 board feet to three million board feet. A survey of the timber resources for the entire forest was initiated in 1953 with the entire forest considered as a single working circle. This gave enough basic information to indicate an increase in the allowable cut. The annual allowable cut was raised in 1956 to 20 million board feet. Past actual cut for the fiscal years 1955 through 1972 are as follows, for the Salmon Working Circle:
| 1955: | 9.7 million board feet | 1964: | 31.2 million board feet |
| 1956: | 13.0 | 1965: | 23.8 |
| 1957: | 11.9 | 1966: | 30.6 |
| 1958: | 18.1 | 1967: | 33.1 |
| 1959: | 22.8 | 1968: | 36.0 |
| 1960: | 23.5 | 1969: | 27.0 |
| 1961: | 23.1 | 1970: | 25.6 |
| 1962: | 16.5 | 1971: | 31.7 |
| 1963: | 22.5 | 1972: | 34.3 |
The present cut consists mostly of ponderosa pine and Douglas fir. Lodgepole pine is used for studs and mine timbers. Engelman spruce and alpine fir are sold in conjunction with other species.
Present timber management is concerned not only with assurance of production in the future as well as lumber for today; it is concerned also with the esthetics.
Between 1928 and 1932, sixty percent of the lodgepole pine on the Salmon Forest was destroyed by the mountain pine bark beetle. In these four years it took all the mature timber. The epidemic seemed to have run its course by 1932. No means were used to fight it. Large stands of timber stood dead from this epidemic. Forney and Lemhi districts were hard hit. Five districts were seriously affected. In 1930 new attacks were seen in Agency and Pattee Creeks. Assistant Supervisor Romano reported that the mountain pine beetles seemed to be working up the Lemhi River, killing most of the mature lodgepole pine. In 1931 the infestation was noted along the Long Tom — Skunk Camp telephone line. The effects of this epidemic were seen in later years.
Inspection reports in 1943 and 1947 noted that as these dead trees rotted and fell, they:
a. fouled telephone lines
b. clogged all trails through lodgepole stands
c. made it impossible to move cattle to their grazing allotments
d. constituted a most serious fire hazard.
Many of the accessible bettle-killed trees were cut for fuel. They were also in demand for ranch timber. The epidemic occurred during the depression and most people cut their own fuel, not having money for coal or oil.
Ponderosa pine was defoliated by an epidemic of pine butterfly from 1928 to 1930. This was a white butterfly with a two inch wingspread. Nothing was done to fight this infestation.
In 1947 the Nord — Moncrief Inspection Report mentioned that at that time the pine stands were quite free from insects. The east side fir pole stands were also clean, with little evidence of bettles or mistletoe. Former Douglas fir beetle attacks had been very severe over some areas. A current partial defoliation of young fir throughout the east half of the forest looked very serious for the future of watershed cover. Entomologists identified the trouble as a combined attack of a needle miner and a leaf disease. The epidemic had been spreading rapidly for three or four years and was expected to prove fatal if it persisted. A large volume of dead material was being salvaged under free use, and one sizeable dead timber sale had been made.1
1A. G. Nord and Lester Moncrief, "General Integrating Inspection Report," 1947, p. 5.
Spruce budworm reached epidemic proportions in Douglas fir on the east fork of Indian Creek in 1959. DDT was sprayed from planes for three summers. The first year 250,000 acres were sprayed, the second year, 700,000 acres. In 1964 the spraying was done with helicopters, to keep the spray from the streams so as not to affect the fish. The spray in 1964 was effective, but did not cover the entire infestation area of the Salmon Forest. In September of 1965 there was a killing freeze. The temperature and moisture conditions had been like spring up until September 17; everything was lush and green with no fall coloration of leaves. The temperature dropped to 18 and 20 degrees all over the area, killing most terminal branches of Douglas fir. These same branches had the young budworms in them. The next spring (1966) there was also a severe freeze. These two heavy frosts, along with the spraying that had been done, brought the budworm under control.2
2F. E. Powers
The Forest Service worked in cooperation with the Fish and Game Department to set up safeguards to minimize the effect of DDT on streamlife. The Forest kept records of fish runs to see if there was any adverse effect from the DDT. When a near record run of steelhead appeared in 1968 it was seen as an indication that the 1964 use of DDT on the Salmon Forest did not materially affect the run.1 By 1968 the use of DDT had been eliminated for all practical purposes from the Forest Service insect control measures.
1"Powers Recalls Spraying, Notes Large Run of Fish," The Recorder Herald, Salmon, Idaho, October 31, 1968, p. 1.
Further research led to the use of zectran, with a LIDAR device to control the distribution of the spray. Bear Valley Creek and McDevitt Creek were used as test sites for this development in 1966. The Salmon National Forest, the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Denver Wildlife Research Center cooperated in this project. The LIDAR device was developed at Stanford Research Center.2
2"LIDAR Tested on Salmon Forest," The Recorder Herald, July 28, 1966.
In 1970 dwarf mistletoe was one of the worst enemies on the Salmon Forest. It is a small parasitic plant that lives on Douglas fir, lodgepole pine, and ponderosa pine. These will not cross infect, being a different strain of mistletoe in each case, so a different specific is needed to fight each one. Two study plots were set up on the Salmon Forest, to spray trunks of infested trees. These plots are on the Stormy Peak road in the Diamond Creek area. This was one of three or four mistletoe test areas in the Intermountain Region.3
3Bruce Brown, Forester, 1970.
C. RANGE MANAGEMENT
When the Salmon National Forest was created, there were already cattle, horses, and some sheep grazing within the boundaries. These were allowed to continue unchanged until personnel had time to study the condition of the ranges and make recommendations which would assure future grazing and protect the watersheds.
In 1909 Supervisor Bentz reported that all stockmen owned ranches in connection with their herds: no absentee owners of transient herds. There were very few sheep in the Forest, and they had not been grazed there long enough to have any perceptible effect on the forage. They were held on the high ranges not then used by the cattle. Cattle here were nearly all sold to buyers from the Bighole Basin in Montana who drove them out in the fall, fed them in the Bighole all winter for the Butte and Seattle markets. There were no large horse outfits, but nearly all ranchers raised a few extra horses for transportation and freight. The surplus was sold to buyers who shipped them to various parts of the country.1
1George Bentz, "Report for Forest Atlas," January 15, 1909, p. 12
In 1909 only four stockmen grazed sheep on the Salmon Forest, while 128 had permits for cattle and horses.
In 1907 through the Forest Service and Bureau of Animal Husbandry, stockmen holding grazing permits in the National Forests were offered vaccine for the control of blackleg, tuberculosis and other animal diseases.2
2"Improving the Ranges," The Lemhi Herald, September 12, 1907.
At the time the Forest was established, some stockmen grazed their cattle for several months of each year on public land, and it had been customary to turn unneeded horses loose to fend for themselves year around. The horses became a range problem. There were few fences, the horses drifted long distances and were often several years on the range, with growing numbers of young unbranded horses. In May of 1908, ranchers and Forest officers spent several days rounding up a herd of 50 or 60 feral horses near the head of little Hat Creek. Foresters taking part were Supervisor Bentz, Deputy Ranger Laing, William Swan, Fred Carl, Ross Tobias and Ora Cockrell.3
3Ross Tobias, Forest Day Book Diary, May 10-18, 1908
The following list of stockmen with sheep on the Salmon Forest in 1911 was found in the Forest Diary of Ross Tobias.
Sheep on Salmon National Forest 1911
| Elmer D. Rees — | 6,000 | C. H. Benson — | 1,000 |
| Tendoy Livestock Assoc. — | 5,000 | Pattee Bros. | 800 |
| Mr. L. F. Ramsey — | 3,000 | F. S. Knight — | 750 |
| Mrs. Emma Yearian — | 2,000 | Olive Knight — | 750 |
| Capron & Son — | 2,000 | W. J Knight — | 750 |
| T. J. Stroud — | 2,000 | A. E. Knight — | 750 |
| Mr. Thomas Yearian | 1,500 | D. B. Thrasher — | 193 |
| Amas Shoup | 1,500 | ||
| TOTAL | 27,993 | ||
The early cattlemen marketed mainly three or four year old steers. They were not the gentle well-bred cattle we know today but often wild and difficult to manage. In October, 1912, Peter McKinney brought in 2400 head of Texas cattle in three trainloads to Armstead, where they were fed and rested, then driven to Salmon to the ranches of the Lemhi Irrigation and Orchard Company, Shenon Land Company and the Salmon Ranch Company. These mature cows all had long horns. They had to be dehorned with meat saws. In those days a three or four year old steer brought $28 to $30.
There were several cattlemen in the Forney — Middle Fork area in the early days, but the country was never suited to large numbers of cattle, mainly because of the difficulty of getting them in, and out to market. The trails were too rough and rocky and wore the cattle down too much with traveling. Some early cattlemen in the area were Earl Kingsbury, I. R. Wilson, Frank Allison, Max Oyler, the O'Connors, Mike Hogan, Tom McKinney, Albert Curry. I. R. Wilson, in 1919, bought land in the Middle Fork country, including the Walter Wade ranch at Three Forks, the Mormon ranch and the Reberg ranch on the Middle Fork. He and his son Bill moved 350 head of cattle from the Pahsimeroi to the Middle Fork. The last 14 miles, from Meyers Cove to the Middle Fork, was such a rough trail that it took them three days to make the 14 miles.1
1William Wilson.
In some areas close to the ranches the range became depleted for lack of control of the cattle, but C. N. Woods reported in 1916 that no part of the Salmon Forest that he inspected had been permanently damaged by overgrazing. Much range had never had large numbers of stock on it. He considered some of the easily accessible range adjacent to the main settle valleys and close to the railroad as still understocked. At that time Supervisor Pearson estimated that the Salmon Forest could carry 15,000 grazing cattle and horses, and 125,000 sheep. Inspector Woods believed this to be a conservative estimate.2
2C. N. Woods, "Inspection Report," 1916, p. 1-3.
The concept of grazing as a fire control measure changed over the years. In 1916 C. N. Woods warned of the fire danger on several districts of the Salmon because they had not been grazed enough, suggesting that when the accessible forage was fully utilized it would be a big step in saving the timber from possible destruction by fire, since the quick and wide spread of many past fires had been due to the presence of inflammable forage plants.1 In 1927 Inspector Stewart expressed a similar view, urging that the Forest Service be lenient with grazing fees and qualifications in the back country in order to assure more grazing to assist in keeping down the fire hazard.2 In more recent years the view of grazing to reduce fire hazard has been reversed on the theory that a 70% ground cover is necessary to protect the soil. If overgrazed, cheat grass and other more flammable grass comes in.3
1C.N. Woods, pp. 19-20
2J.O. Stewart, "Salmon Inspection Report," July 8, 1927, p. 13.
3F.E. Powers
Numbers of permitted stock were increased, reaching a peak in 1918 of 17,317 cattle and horses, and 129,830 sheep and goats. The ranges of the Salmon Forest suffered from these high numbers of stock permitted during the first World War.
In 1922 a Portland buyer contracted in the Salmon country for steers at 6¢ a pound on the hoof. Cows went for 4-1/2¢.
In 1924 Inspector Woods considered the biggest grazing problem on the Salmon Forest was trespass stock, particularly horses. Woods devoted a whole section of his report to this problem. Several years before, 35 head of trespass horses were rounded up in Swan Basin. In 1924 a roundup found 200 head of trespass stock, and 150 of these were horses. In the Leadore Ranger district alone there were 400 to 1000 trespass horses in 1924. Since most of the ranges were filled to carrying capacity with permitted cattle and horses, this trespass presented a serious problem of overgrazing. The custom had been that owners would remove trespass horses from the Forest and turn them loose on open range (public domain below the Forest boundary), from which they readily drifted back onto the Forest again. The Ranger on the Leadore District estimated in 1924 that there might be up to 100 owners of trespass horses, owning from one to thirty head, and that most of the horses were branded.4
4C.N. Woods, pp. 40-43.
In 1924 there was some grazing by permitted cattle along the Middle Fork, from Camas Creek to the mouth of Big Creek, but this area was mainly held for wintering of deer.
Indian-owned horses grazed part of the Jesse Creek range in 1927. It was not the custom of rangers to interfere with the Indians in the use of the range.
Large numbers of horses were found grazing on the Forest the year around by inspecting officer James O. Stewart in 1927. He recommended that all horse use should be made seasonal, the same as cattle, with no year round permits. Stewart felt that many ranchers had more horses than they wanted but did not see any way to get out of the horse business because there was little or no sale for the horses. Another problem with trespass horses and cattle was due to the fact that in many areas the National Forest lands were in the high country, with a border of public domain below the Forest boundary and above the ranches. After 1934 this part of the public domain was controlled by the Taylor Grazing Act, and later by the Bureau of Land Management, but in the earlier years this public domain lay open with no fence between it and the National Forest. Even with boundaries posted, it was difficult for a rancher to graze his stock on the public land below the Forest without them straying onto the Forest. Stewart recommended fencing parts of the National Forest boundary where this problem was most severe.
Trespass continued to be a problem. Allotments could not be controlled or adjusted fairly as long as unpermitted stock was using part of the forage and contributing to depletion of the range. Some fencing was begun, horses rounded up, cattle and horse associations formed and gradually the ranchers began to realize the necessity of controls for their own protection.
Extensive grazing studies were made in various parts of the Forest. In 1930, grazing studies in lower Haynes Creek basin included:
a) Enclosure to determine the change of vegetation and vitality if no grazing was permitted.
b) Two take-down enclosures, one to be taken down at vegetative readiness and the other at seed maturity.
c) One open plot to determine the spread of sagebrush.
d) A quadrat.
e) A plant development plot.1
1D. E. Romano, "Memorandum," July 19, 1930, p. 2
By 1939 two grazing problems had developed along the Middle Fork of the Salmon River: 1) there were too many deer for the amount of winter grazing available, and 2) there was not enough forage for pack stock and saddle horses used by campers, hunters and others traveling through.2
2A. L. Anderson, "Inspection Report," May 13, 1944, p. 13.
The CCC program carried out reseeding projects on Colson Creek and Panther Creek. Areas were plow-furrow terraced ten to twelve feet apart, and the terrace and overthrow seeded to crested wheat.
The manpower shortage during the second world war affected the stockmen as well as the Forest Service; it was difficult for the stockmen to get good management for their stock on the range.
By 1943 there was a definite trend from sheep to cattle on the Salmon Forest, particularly on the Lemhi and Birch Creek watersheds. There was still a problem from stock turned out in the valley on private and Grazing Service land, which naturally and inevitably drifted up the canyon bottoms onto the National Forest. Inspector Kinney recommended more cooperation with the Grazing Service locally and at regional and national levels, to work out some of the problems possibly through land exchanges. If this was not possible, Kinney recommended the building of fences to obtain practical boundaries and sufficient control of the livestock to get necessary resource management of the Salmon Forest ranges.
By 1943, the Salmon, Lemhi and Medicine Lodge ranger districts were able to remove large numbers of trespass horses without resorting to trespass procedures.1 In the 1940's, trespass horses remained a problem in various areas of the Salmon Forest, including all the Medicine Lodge district, Hat Creek and Parks Creek, Iron and Badger Creeks, Forney area, lower Panther Creek, and Meyers Cove — Middle Fork. In 1946 remarkable progress was made in reducing trespass, which had been the most outstanding range trouble. Horse trespass was drastically cut. With no bad reactions from anyone, the campaign against trespass resulted in known disposal of well over 500 horses and similar large numbers were removed to private lands by their owners. A closing order was obtained on lower Panther Creek which authorized disposing of about fifty horses. These horses had degenerated into small pony types, extremely wary and difficult to catch.
1J. N. Kinney, "Inspection Report," May 13, 1944, p. 13.
Serious damage was done in the Clear Creek — Big Deer Creek range by heavy grazing by sheep during the years 1918-1922. The range had not recovered by 1947. In 1947, approximate numbers of permitted livestock on the Forest were 13,000 cattle and 36,000 sheep. Total animal months of permitted livestock had dropped off 25 percent since 1938. Standard management plans had been prepared and were well accepted by the stockmen. General relations with stockmen were observed to be cordial excepting for one individual, a determined trespasser. The Bennett range on the Middle Fork continued to be a problem allotment because the total range was urgently needed for game.2
2Nord — Moncrief, pp. 5-8.
Recent range management methods include a system of rest-rotation whereby ranges are divided and the plots are rotated so that each plot gets a complete rest every three or four years and then is not always grazed at the same time of year. On the Salmon Forest seventeen allotments are practicing rest-rotation grazing. The stockmen who have tried it are enthusiastic about the results and are promoting it.
D. WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT
When Lewis and Clark came through the Salmon National Forest area in August and September of 1805, they reported seeing antelope, deer, elk, big horn sheep, hares, ruffed grouse, prairie fowl, goose, and salmon. The local Indians used the fur and hides of beaver, buffalo, wolf, coyote, fox, wolverine, martin, mountain sheep, deer, antelope, otter and weasel.
Peter Skene Ogden found buffalo (bison) by the hundreds in the upper Lemhi Valley in 1825.1 In 1831, John Work reported seeing a large herd of elk in the mountains near their camp on the Lemhi River, and a week later many buffalo on the upper Lemhi, probably in Timber and Eighteenmile creeks.2 Warren A. Ferris killed a grey wolf, probably on the North Fork, in August, 1832, and reported that it was fat and made a tolerable supper.3 Later that same year Captain Bonneville recorded eating venison, elk, and "mountain mutton" (big horn sheep).4
1Morgan, pp. 134-139.
2Work, pp. 114-119.
3Warren Angus Ferris, Life in the Rocky Mountains, ed. Herbert S. Auerbach and J. Cecil Alter (Salt Lake City: Rocky Mountain Book Shop, 1940) p. 130.
4Brosnan, pp. 74-78.
The bison west of the Continental Divide were called mountain buffalo. They were generally smaller, more active, more timid, with lighter, silkier robes than the bison of the plains. There are few reports of them after the 1840's and 1850's. It is believed that severe winters or disease, or both, caused their decline. There are sites in the Salmon National Forest area believed to have been used by the Indians to kill bison before the Indians had horses with which to chase their game. The Indians maneuvered the bison herd to stampede over a cliff (called a "buffalo-jump") and other Indians stationed below finished the kill. Bison skulls and bones found below the rocky bluffs on Pratt Creek suggest these bluffs may have been an ancient "buffalo-jump." One such site near Challis was confirmed by archaeologists in September, 1970, as having been used by Indians between 1500 A.D. and 1750 A.D.5 Several people have found buffalo skulls in the Salmon area. Retired Salmon Supervisor, F. E. Powers found buffalo skulls on Fourth of July Creek, Fenster Creek, Bear Creek off Hawley Creek, and Hawley Creek.
5Bob Johnson, "Father, Son Excavate Site of Ancient Bison Massacre," The Idaho Statesman, September 9, 1970, p. 14.
At the time of the early settlement of the Salmon Forest area, mountain sheep were very numerous and inhabited the lower rough country, as well as the high mountains. They were stricken with scabies and there was a big "die-off" around 1890, completely wiping out the mountain sheep in some areas. F. E. Powers reports riding up Rocky Canyon near Leadore about 1945 and counting 19 mountain sheep skulls in a short distance. These skulls were all mature, big rams, completely weathered. There are no known sheep now on the Forest on that side of the valley any place south of the North Fork drainage.1
1F. E. Powers
Whitetail deer were common when the area was first settled. Called brush deer, they were considered a pest by the settler. They rapidly declined in numbers and became a rarity.
When the Forest was established, wildlife included mule deer, mountain sheep, mountain goats, sage hen, blue mountain grouse, salmon, trout, salmon trout (steelhead), whitefish, bears, wolves, cougar, lynx, bobcat, and foxes. In 1909 bear could be killed at any time during the year, while the open season for deer, mountain sheep, and mountain goat was limited to September 1, through December 31. Elk, moose, and antelope were not mentioned as game animals.2
2James W. Ryan, "Report for Forest Atlas," February 11, 1910.
Wolves occupied the Salmon Forest area in early days. George Nichols, employed to hunt predators in the Junction area, killed 108 wolves in a period of 10 or 12 years. These were timber wolves, weighing from 90 to 120 pounds.3 Nichols' yearly report in 1908 included 23 wolves, 165 coyotes and a large number of lynx and bob-cat.4 Ralph Burr was a later hunter of predators in the upper Lemhi. William Wilson reports only a few wolves in the Forney and Middle Fork country from 1909 to 1920. Ross Tobias caught one in a trap at Ram's Fork in December, 1910. Wolverines have been reported seen in 1969 and 1972 in Carmen and Freeman Creeks.
3Interview with Earl Nichols, Salmon, Idaho, October 22, 1969.
4The Lemhi Herald, April 16, 1908.
The grizzly bear seems conspicuously absent from the Salmon Forest. George Nichols was once called to kill a grizzly east of the Continental Divide, on Bloody Dick Creek in Montana; Les Gutzman saw one west of the Middle Fork, and there have been grizzlies killed west of the Middle Fork in earlier years. None of the old timers could recall any grizzlies in the Salmon National Forest area, at least not since 1900. Ross Tobias as a boy accompanied Gilbert Yearian and Bert McNab on a bear hunt near Junction after a cow had been killed. They trailed, and finally killed the bear, which Ross remembers as a big grizzly. This was around 1900 or earlier.5
5Ross Tobias, May 1, 1969.
Bison and wolf have disappeared from the area. Fisher were introduced into the Chamberlain basin west of the Salmon Forest about 1955. It is believed they, too, are all gone now.
Conservation minded sportsmen joined Forest officers in promoting formation of game refuges at a time when game numbers were low. No hunting was permitted in the refuges. After the numbers of game animals increased, even to the point of seriously depleting their habitat and in extreme cases causing erosion of the land and starvation of animals, sportsmen and conservationists were reluctant to have their states allow more game to be killed. In addition, there had been a sustained effort in most areas, supported by sportsmen and stockmen alike, to kill off coyotes, cougars and wolves as predators of game and livestock. Gradually more and more people came to the realization that the numbers of wild game must be kept to a limit that could be supported in any given area, and today in many places studies of the available forage determines the carrying capacity of the area and game hunting limits are set accordingly.
The Big Creek Game Preserve (on Panther Creek) was established in 1917. It was abolished in the 1940's. There was also a game preserve on Hawley Creek which was abolished in the 1940's.
One long standing wildlife problem on the Salmon Forest is the congestion of deer on the winter range of the Middle Fork. There have been varied theories and opinions advanced concerning the causes and solution to this problem. Glenn Thompson, retired Salmon Supervisor, first saw the Middle Fork in 1924 and recalls that the winter range was then largely a cover of bitterbrush and mountain mahogany. During the next 25 years, nearly all of the winter forage was killed by three successive periods of overuse.1 Being in a roadless area has made it a difficult area to manage.
1Letter from Glenn Thompson, Caldwell, Idaho, February 9, 1971.
The Middle Fork Game Preserve established in 1925, included the entire watersheds of Yellowjacket Creek, Silver Creek, Camas Creek from Meyer's Cove to the Middle Fork, and the entire watersheds of all creeks emptying into the Middle Fork from Norton Creek to the mouth of Roaring Creek. The country is rough, varying from 3,404 feet elevation at the mouth of Waterfall Creek to 10,070 feet at Mt. McGuire. The winter range consists of a narrow belt extending back about three miles from each side of the river. It is about 25 miles long, very rocky, and rough in most places. The main concentration areas were around the mouth of Camas Creek and the Crandall Ranch.2 (now the Flying B).
2Lester T. Gutzman, Forest Ranger and Glen Richardson, State Conservation Officer, Lemhi County, "Game Management Plan — Middlefork Game Unit," March 10, 1944, p. 1.
One theory advanced concerning the Middle Fork deer winter range was that hunting pressure from surrounding areas pushed the deer down into the winter range area earlier than normal. Studies were made in 1933 by Forest Rangers Arthur Buckingham and Lester Gutzman, concerning deer wintering and effect of hunting on the drift of the deer. Buckingham observed that in the Loon Creek and Middle Fork areas, the hunting season and intensity of the hunting remained approximately the same for a period of years, but the drift of deer to winter range occurred at a different time almost every year, correlating closely with the weather conditions at the time. Buckingham reported that hunting did scatter the deer locally but did not materially affect the main drift to winter range in the areas he observed.1
1Orange A. Olsen, Inspector of Grazing, "Memo," January 9, 1933, pp. 1-5.
Another theory was that as the numbers built up in a game preserve, the deer would naturally move to other areas as food ran short. The Middle Fork deer herd was already established by the time the Game Preserve was started, and rapidly built up to a total of 4,000 or more. They did not move to other areas. During the heavy snow winter of 1931-32 they crowded the low winter range along the river and about 1500 starved to death. Heavy damage was done to the range.
In 1933 State Game Commissioner A. H. Eckert was of the opinion that the Middle Fork Game Preserve was in the wrong place, giving protection where it was not needed and Orange A. Olsen, Inspector of Grazing, recommended that it be abolished as it was serving no good purpose, and was overstocked. He felt opening it to hunting would not be disastrous because the area was inaccessible and could be reached only by pack outfits and airplanes.2 The Game Preserve was opened to hunting in 1934. Hunters did not respond, refusing to travel to such a remote area for one deer. In 1939 Inspector Anderson stated that the congestion of deer on the winter range of the Middle Fork was the biggest wildlife problem on the Salmon Forest. He recommended that the State Game Commission encourage more hunting on the Middle Fork.3
2Olsen, pp. 1-5.
3A. L. Anderson, "Inspection Report," September 28, 1939, p. 8.
In 1940 two deer were allowed in the Middle Fork area, with a longer season. There was a heavier take but not enough. The winter of 1942-43 again had heavy snow and a late spring. The loss was approximately one-half of the herd and the carrying capacity of the range was further reduced. In 1944 the carrying capacity of the range was only 40% of the 1928 figure.4
4Gutzman and Richardson, p. 1.
A Game Management Plan was worked out in 1944 by the Forest Service and the State Game Commission for the Middle Fork Game Unit. Richardson formulated the plan with the purpose of providing the greatest number of game animals that could safely be carried through the most severe winter conditions, based on what had happened in the past, without damage to the range, and to provide a means of maintaining an orderly balance between the different species of big game, game and domestic stock, and forage. In addition to deer, the plan included elk, mountain sheep and mountain goats.
The Middle Fork deer and forage problem continued. The Nord—Moncrief Inspection of 1947 mentioned the over-population causing serious destruction of watershed cover and reduced carrying capacity. They suggested that the hunting of cougars aggravated the situation. More cougars could help control the over-population. Hunting removed only about 100 deer in 1946—not enough for a herd of 2400.1
1Nord—Moncrief, pp. 8-9.
Ranger Henry Ketchie prepared another Game Management Plan for the Middle Fork Game Unit in 1950. Elk had increased in the area and there was range enough that mountain sheep and goat numbers could be increased. Domestic stock numbers had been cut.
At the present time (1973) the elk herd on the Middle Fork is expanding and the deer herd is decreasing somewhat. The range has not recovered from the earlier abuses of overuse.2
2Interview with Martel Morasche, Idaho Fish and Game Department, Boise, Idaho, March 9, 1971.
For many years there was a bounty on cougars. It was removed in 1959, but the number of cougars killed annually since 1959 has been larger than for most years when there was a bounty paid for cougars.3 In 1971 the cougar was taken off the predator list and is now considered a game animal. The Game Department reported about 60 cougars killed around Salmon in the winter of 1969-70, with the aid of snow machines.
3Letter from W. M. Shaw, Game Biologist, Idaho Fish and Game Department, Boise, Idaho, March 11, 1971.
In the wildlife report of 1944, Inspector Kinney listed three main wildlife problems on the Salmon Forest. First was the Middle Fork deer herd discussed above. Second was the elk herd in the North Fork. In 1943 Ranger Wheeler counted 60 winter-killed elk. He estimated about 150 native elk population and about 150 additional Montana drift. There was not sufficient winter feed on the Idaho side to care for the 100 percent increase due to Montana drift. The result was a heavy loss of elk from deep snow and starvation. Ranger Wheeler suggested that an open hunting season on the Idaho side would help to relieve the congestion due to the elk drift from Montana. The third wildlife problem on the Salmon in 1944 was that with the increase in forage production and reduction in livestock use, there was developing a heavy increase of game on the Forest, in both elk and deer. Kinney recommended this situation be carefully watched to prevent over-population and range depletion.4
4J. N. Kinney, "Inspection Report," May 13, 1944, pp. 16-17.
The Nord — Moncrief inspection in 1947 gave a resume of the wildlife situation on the Salmon Forest. At that time they reported the average visitor to the Salmon Forest looked at it first as a great fishing country and second as a vacation land with mountain sheep, mountain goat, bear, antelope, elk and deer. Fishing was famous, but was going downhill through depletion of the smaller streams, and needed fish planting to keep up with the outside fishermen. The mountain goat and sheep hunting ranked among the best in the country, but numbers were small and needed careful management to insure future growth. Bear were abundant, antelope increasingly common, especially on the Medicine Lodge District. Three elk herds were building up: Hawley Creek, Upper Panther Creek, and along the Continental Divide in the Hughes Creek District. Most acute problem was the deer overpopulation in the Middle Fork. Other deer problems existed but were not as acute. Packers and guides were rapidly increasing, creating a shortage of horse feed in the back country along concentrated travel routes and at the best camp sites. With the encouragement of the Supervisor the packers organized into an association which was a forward step toward solution of the complex problems involved.1
1Nord — Moncrief, pp. 8-12.
Wildlife Plantings.
Elk were planted on the Birch Creek drainage of Panther Creek in 1937, trucked from Mammoth and Gardiner in Yellowstone National Park. Les Aldous, Grant Ziemer and John Rose, with Mike Wilkins, Conservation Officer, brought in 62 elk.
Pheasants in the Salmon Forest area are a remnant of early plantings here.
Gambel Quail were introduced in several places in Idaho, including Salmon, around 1916. Twelve dozen were brought by train to Mackay and on to Salmon by wagon or car, and kept by Dr. Carnes, dentist, until released. The other Gambel Quail plantings in Idaho did not survive, but Gambel quail are still found near Salmon from Tower Creek to the Creeks near Baker, but not in great numbers.
Chukar partridge were brought in in the late 1940's and early 1950's.
An attempt was made in 1970 to introduce valley quail from Owyhee County.
Turkeys were brought into the area around Bernard Creek in the early days. Bill Wilson took them in in crates by pack string. They did not survive the first winter. Recent plantings of Merriam turkeys have been made on Wagonhammer Creek in 1971 and 1973.
There have been many trout plantings over the years. Most early plantings were made using pack mules carrying the trout in five-gallon milk cans. Later plantings have been made by truck and airplane. For many years the Fish and Game Department took rainbow trout eggs from Williams Lake, up to 8 million per year, to a hatchery at Hagerman.
Les Gutzman past district ranger at Copper Creek and Salmon reported on trout plantings in the Bighorn Crags during the period 1938 to 1945. Gutzman, together with Carl Gayer, planted 24 of the lakes. They deposited rainbow trout in the Wilson Lakes, Yellowstone cutthroat in the No-Name Lakes and Golden trout in Big Clear Lake, Crater Lake, Pot Hole and Goose Neck Lakes.
During the summer of 1957 Gutzman made a check of fishing in the lakes he had previously stocked. He found that trout catches were neither bountiful or of record length. The fish were quite uniform in size, the majority being 8 to 10 inches in length, several had big heads, and thin bodies, characteristic of underfed fish.1
1Newspaper article in The Post Register, September 1957 by Keith Barrette.
Wildlife Studies
There have been many wildlife studies carried out in the Salmon National Forest through the cooperation of the Forest Service, the Idaho Fish and Game Department, and the Idaho Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit of the University of Idaho. Some of these studies are:
Mountain Goat: Steward Brandborg, Carmen Creek, 1950's. Lon Kuck, Pahsimeroi, in progress, 1971. Mountain Sheep: Dwight Smith, 1950's.
Jim Morgan, Middle Fork, 1971.Cougar: Maurice G. Hornocker, with Wilbur Miles, carried out studies for five years in the Payette and Salmon National Forests, in the area of the Big Creek drainage and the Middle Fork of the Salmon River. This study was reported in the National Geographic Magazine, Vol. 136, No. 5, November, 1969, pp. 638-655. Cutthroat trout of the Middle Fork: Jerry Mallet, 1959-61. Elk: Moyer Creek, 1967-1972. Effects of timber cutting on elk calving areas. Anadromous fish study: Mouth of Hayden Creek, Quinton Doty and Terry Holubetz, 1966 —
In 1969 the big game harvest on the Salmon Forest included 4,756 deer and 975 elk.
E. RECREATION AND LAND USE
Recreational use of the national forests was one of the latest of the forest resources to be recognized and utilized. Stockmen, lumbermen and miners were recognized as users of forest resources and provisions were made for them much earlier. Gradually the vast opportunities for recreation in the forest became apparent to the public and the foresters alike, and the Forest Service began to develop recreational facilities. Recreational planning had to be coordinated carefully with plans for timber cutting, grazing and wildlife, to insure the balanced development of all resources and to prevent conflicts between recreation and other uses, and even between different kinds of recreation.1
1Bernard Frank, Our National Forests (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1955), p. 75.
In 1910, Supervisor James Ryan estimated that 500 people used the Salmon Forest for recreation, with about one-third coming from eastern states, and the remainder coming from areas adjacent to the Forest. Mr. Ryan felt that when the railroad was completed later in 1910, it would greatly increase the number of people coming to the Salmon Forest for recreation.2
2James Ryan, "Report for Forest Atlas," February 11, 1910.
The records for 1931 estimate 2500 visitors to the North Fork, 400 visitors to Hughes Creek, 1,000 hunters going through Shoup, and about 150 people visited the Idaho Primitive Area via the Salmon Forest.3 In 1931 Supervisor Kinney, in estimating the use of the Salmon River trail below Shoup, included 250 horse days use by hunters.4 In 1932, Kinney noted the heavy use by recreationists of the Williams Creek area, and a need for a road there.5
3Dana Parkinson, "Inspection Report," 1931.
4J. N. Kinney, "Memo," October 7, 1931, p. 2.
5J. N. Kinney, "Memo," September 28, 1932, p. 1.
During the depression of the 1930's, the CCC camps in the Salmon National Forest accomplished several much needed construction projects, including some recreational facilities. They built camping facilities, picnic tables and shelters at Twin Creeks and Cougar Point. They also developed camping facilities at Deep Creek (Panther Creek drainage), Yellowjacket Lake, and Long Tom. In 1937 Inspector W. B. Rice commented on the attractiveness of the facilities at Twin Creeks and Williams Creek (Cougar Point), but felt they may have been overdeveloped, since there would not be need for that many campsites. Rice commended the Salmon Forest for their excellent work in the field of recreation.6
6W. B. Rice, "Inspection Report," September 8, 1937, p. 3.
In 1939 Supervisor Godden recommended the building of simple campsites for hunters and fishermen, for fire protection and sanitation, possibly at the mouth of Dry Gulch, and other sites along the Middle Fork and Camas Creek.1 Inspector Anderson in 1939 reported that the Salmon Forest did not have intensive recreational use, but he did recommend development of campgrounds along the Middle Fork in the Primitive Area because of increased use there.2
1F. W. Godden, "Inspection," July 31, 1939, p. 3
2A. L. Anderson, "Inspection Report," September 28, 1939, p. 6
One of the land use problems on the Salmon Forest reported in 1943 was the taking up of minerals claims as a subterfuge for other uses. This resulted in practically no requests for summer home special use permits on the Salmon National Forest and a great variety of low standard buildings along the Panther Creek and Salmon River roads.3
3J. N. Kinney, "Inspection Report," May 13, 1944, p. 9.
Recreation Use of the Salmon National Forest 1941-1943:
| Number of Visitor Days | 1941 | 1942 | 1943 |
| Campgrounds | 1,371 | 530 | 500 |
| Picnic Areas | 3,320 | 1,900 | 1,040 |
| Primitive Area | 1,020 | 400 | 250 |
| Other National Forest Areas | 7,795 | 3,300 | 1,800 |
| Highways, Roads and Water | 5,100 | 3,400 | 1,850 |
| Yearly Totals: | 18,606 | 9,530 | 5,440 |
Difference in yearly figures is a significant result of war conditions. The 1944 report stated that due to its isolation, the Salmon National Forest could not be properly classified as a heavy recreation forest.4
The Appendix lists statistical charts showing the development of recreational sites on the Salmon Forest and recent visitor statistics.
4J. N. Kinney, "Inspection Report," May 13, 1944, p. 9.
There were an estimated 10,000 to 14,000 visitors to the Salmon Forest by 1947. Attractions were fishing, hunting, picnicking and camping, sight seeing, back country trips and winter sports. Cougar Point campground was receiving more use by local families and groups but at Twin Creeks it was considered that the upper one-fourth, or eight units, would be surplus of all future public needs.5 This camp was rebuilt in 1967, enlarged to 53 family units, and is one of the most popular recreation spots on the Forest, possibly because of its proximity to U. S. Highway 93.
5Nord—Moncrief, pp. 16-22.
In 1946, 585 visitors entered the Idaho Primitive Area via the Yellowjacket District; of this number 295 were classified as hunters 275 as fishermen and 15 unclassified. Approximately half came in by airplane. About 20 pack outfits were operating in and out of the Middle Fork in the Yellowjacket District. As many as 38 head of horses were used in one string. Range feed for horses was a very serious problem in this narrow river bottom. Transportation by service landing at Bernard Creek Guard Station and the Bennett Ranch landing field. The existence of private holdings with landing fields greatly complicated primitive area administration. The possibility of additional resort development was a threat to the intent of the wilderness area program. This Middle Fork area presented many problems not found in any other of the primitive area of Region Four. Patented homesteads and mining claims, numerous mineral entries subject to patenting, together with a wide range of mineral discoveries which were subject to location, well established use of airplanes on private and national forest lands, the limitation of horse feed accessible from desirable camp sites, and the problem of expanding resort developments on private holdings combined to complicate wilderness area administration. While the Idaho Primitive Area has not been officially established as a wilderness area, it is to be managed in harmony with wilderness area policy.1
1Nord — Moncrief, pp. 16-19.
By 1937 a winter sports area was being developed near Lost Trail Pass. This site is partly on Region 4 and part on Region 1, and receives heavy use from both sides.
Construction of recreation facilities on the Salmon Forest increased in the 1950's, with four new campgrounds. Sixteen new camping and picnicking facilities were added in the 1960's besides four Primitive Area minimum facility boating sites on the Middle Fork.
A visitor Information Center was established in 1966 on Lost Trail Pass as a joint project of the Salmon, Beaverhead and Bitterroot National Forests. The purpose of this Visitor Information Center is to aid the visitor in understanding the geology, biology, ecology, history or archaeology of the area, and the ways productive forests are managed to sustain and renew themselves.
The Primitive or Wilderness Areas in our national forests were not always wilderness, but have become such only since the advent of the automobile and the motor road. Before the days of roads, when people traveled on horseback and with packstrings, these "wilderness" areas were often full of travelers and had many residents.
The Middle Fork has long been a popular recreation area of the Salmon National Forest but the numbers of people visiting it were limited by its inaccessibility until later years. In the days of mining at Yellowjacket, Loon Creek, and Thunder Mountain, the Middle Fork was crossed by main thoroughfares of travel, and several homesteaders settled there in the early 1900's to raise food for the nearby miners. The lower part of the canyon, below the mouth of Big Creek, was labelled "Impassable Canyon" by those who came in to find the Sheepeater Indians during the Sheepeater War.
It is not known who first traveled the length of the Middle Fork, but as early as 1925, motion pictures were taken of a scow trip down the Middle Fork.1 Lester Gutzman recalls an early float trip on the Middle Fork around 1940, made by a party from Rogue River, Oregon, using a type of plywood boat called the Rogue River boat. They made two trips, with several boats each time. As they became available, rubber boats were put into use after World War II. Don L. Smith claims to be the first to use rubber boats on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River. It is estimated that by 1949 as many as 25 people were floating the river annually.
1Glenn Thompson.
Recreational use of the Middle Fork and main Salmon rivers increased phenomenally during the 1960's. Fishermen and hunters, and adventurers were running the river in float boats or power boats. The Cobalt District patrolled the Middle Fork by float boat, aiding travelers and bringing out garbage. The Salmon and Bitterroot National Forests jointly initiated a river patrol, operated by jet boats, along the main Salmon River adjacent to the Primitive Area from Corn Creek to Mackay Bar. On the Salmon River in 1968 there were 84 float boat trips with 441 people, 159 sightseeing trips by power boats with 860 people, plus 24 kayaks and one canoe. Hunters with guides checking through the area included 133 elk hunters and 40 mountain sheep hunters. There were 1380 visitors at the guard station at Lantz Bar.
As a result of the National Wild and Scenic River Systems Act of October 2, 1968, the Middle Fork of the Salmon River became one of the nation's first Wild Rivers. The popularity of Middle Fork float trips has created a problem of crowding and the possibility of having to schedule or limit trips in the future. One of the largest parties on the river in 1970 was one group of 77 people in 15 boats. The last night of their trip they camped at Otter Bar and another 40 people there made a total of 117 on the one sand bar. Over 200 people came off the Middle Fork during one two-hour period in August.2
2"Mark Looms for Boating on Salmon," The Idaho Statesman, August 10, 1970, p. 16.
F. FIRE CONTROL
The Big Fire of 1910 burned from the Canadian border south to the Salmon River and from Spokane, Washington, east past Missoula, Montana. It was not a single fire, but the joining of many fires and it reached the Salmon National Forest. Joe Gautier started working for the Forest in June, 1909, as a guard, and was sent down the Salmon River to fight the fire. When Gautier and two others reached the fire it had burned several sections. Three men were already there and Ranger Swan came to boss the fire crew. They had few tools, and were expected to find their own food. They worked all summer. The fire burned from Owl Creek up the Salmon River to the Sheepeater Creeks and to the north. Mr. Gautier remembered counting 17 fires from Blue Nose in one day. The fires finally grew together into one fire. The men could not put out the fire, but did keep it from jumping Owl Creek. They were aided by two settlers on Owl Creek, Reed Joseph and Elmer Groff. Charlie Haman, George Anderson and Frank Ayers were among the firefighters.1
1Interview with Joe Gautier, Salmon, Idaho, April 29, 1969.
Fred Chase recalls the 1910 fire as the worst he experienced in his years on the Salmon Forest. He was working on Hughes Creek, where the fire burned through some of the big yellow pine country. He was there all summer. He remembers that the sky was always smokey and the sun looked like the moon. He found many small animals with their feet burned off.2 Firefighting was hampered by insufficient means of communication, access trails, and men to guard the forests. Over three million acres were burned in the 1910 fire, and 85 lives lost.3 None of the known dead were on the Salmon Forest.
2Interview with Fred Chase, Boise, Idaho, June 1, 1970.
3George T. Morgan, "The Fight Against Fire," Idaho Yesterdays, Vol. 6, No. 4, (Winter, 1962), 21-30.
Lightning was the main cause of the many fires. Other causes included careless campers, sparks from train engines, loggers clearing private lands, fires of settlers and miners. It was a dry summer. On August 20 a hurricane-like wind swept through, and little fires grew big, big ones spread and merged, defying supervisors, rangers, guards, temporary employees and United States troops. The fire disrupted the economy of three states, upset the ecological balance of an area two-thirds the size of New Jersey, and crystallized public opinion in support of the Weeks Law, passed in 1911. This law provided for cooperation of the Federal Government and the States in protection and restoration of watersheds and forest resources.
In earlier days people did little to fight fire because there was little they could do. Fred Chase remembers when Baldy Mountain (then called Salmon City Mountain) was covered with dead timber, and lightning would hit there every summer, starting fires. People in town watched the fires, especially at night, enjoying the spectacle. Fire was accepted and no one went to fight it.
Fire control has always been of prime importance to the Forest Service and today on the Salmon Forest the prevention and control of fires requires more manpower and energy than any other activity.1 The mountainous regions of Idaho and western Montana are particularly vulnerable because of weather patterns and high incidence of fire-setting lightning strikes. The Salmon is among several National Forests referred to as "fire forests" for this reason.
1"Long Term Objectives," Salmon National Forest, April 18, 1971, p. 1.
Through the years, methods have improved, and new tools have been devised. Lookout points were established and men were stationed in them during the dry season to watch for fires. More trails, roads, and telephone lines were built, and some of the new tools developed include the Pulaski, chain saw, bulldozer, two-way radio, and fire retardant bombers.
In 1910 Fred Carl and Charles Truscott went to all the lookout points in the Salmon Forest to do visibility mapping: they mapped what they could see from each lookout point.2 Visibility mapping was repeated in the 1930's by Henry Shank of the Regional Office. Stimulated by the bad fires of 1931, the Chief of the Forest Service in 1935 established a policy on the "fire forests" of the Region (including the Salmon), to get 80 percent coverage of the fire area by the lookouts.3
2Fred Carl.
3F. E. Powers
Lee Bradley was one of the first to man a lookout on the Salmon Forest. The year was 1911. His point was Baldy Mountain, at the site of the present radio repeater station. When he went there the telephone line had not been completed and he had to ride to Salmon to report his first fires. His son Steve Bradley manned the Stormy Peak Lookout in the fall of 1957, and was on Ulysses Lookout in 1958.
In 1916, Salmon City Peak (Baldy Mountain) and Blue Nose, were considered the main lookout points of the Salmon Forest, Inspector Woods stating that from them nearly all the country where there is much fire danger can be seen. Fire guards were kept on them through each fire season, and Cathedral Mountain was to be visited now and then, as some of the Middle Fork country could be seen from there that was not visible from the other two peaks. Telephone lines were built or planned to these three points.4 The fire guards camped at the lookout spots in tents. At some lookouts the guard would climb a handy tree for his lookout perch. At some points, metal towers were built for the guard to climb for his watch.
4C. N. Woods, "Inspection Report O," 1916, pp. 22-24.
Fire fighting equipment recommended for each district in 1916 consisted of shovels, axes, cross-cut saws, water bags and buckets, canteens, mattocks or grub hoes, files and whetstones, and Government cooking and eating utensils for 10 to 12 men.1
1C. N. Woods, p. 21.
Report of Lookouts on Salmon Forest in 1924:
Two Point: (west of the Middle Fork) two men.
Baldy Mountain: 9 foot by 9 foot lookout building. Not manned this season, since most of the country visible is also covered by other lookouts.
Lake Mountain: No improvements, but telephone line to Salmon. The lookout camps just under the top of the mountain.
Taylor Mountain: Has a 9 foot by 9 foot house; is a primary lookout.
Blackbird Mountain: Has a 14 foot by 14 foot house; a primary lookout.
Red Rock Mountain: The lookout camps a mile from the top of the mountain.
McEleny Mountain: The lookout-patrolman-smokechaser camps a half-mile under the mountain. No improvements.
Middle Fork Peak: Has a lookout-smokechaser camped under the Middle Fork Peak saddle.
Ulysses Mountain: No improvements. Lookout climbs trees to see the country.
Grizzly Springs: One man.
Allan Mountain: At Axe Park is visited daily during the fire season.
Granite Mountain: No horses are kept here; the only case where a smokechaser does not use horses, due to terrain and water and pasture conditions. This man has to get over the country on foot.
Stein Mountain: A primary lookout; has a building, and a man and wife are stationed here.
Sagebrush Springs: Two men here this year; one is an emergency man.
Haystack Mountain: No improvements, except a small horse pasture under the mountain. The lookout climbs trees to get the best view of the country. Need a tower built here.
Long Tom Mountain: A primary lookout, with a 10 foot by 10 foot building. Two men are stationed here.
Skunk Camp: One lookout is stationed here, with no telephone.
Blue Nose: Two men stationed here; a lookout and a smokechaser.
Horsefly Gulch: One lookout.
The Salmon Forest had no overall visibility map in 1924, which made it difficult to decide which lookouts should be considered primary lookouts, and have shelters and other improvements made. All the lookout houses on the Salmon were unpainted.1
1C. N. Woods, "Inspection Report O," 1924, pp. 4-8.
In 1927 a four-day fire training camp was held at California Bar Ranger Station. Thirty-nine men attended. Instruction included use of the D-4 firefinder, map reading, telephone line and instrument maintenance, care of camp fires, care of equipment, making up fire-packs, methods of fire fighting, how to determine areas of fires, "mopping up." A Syracuse two-way plow was tried out in a dry meadow with fair success.2
2J. O. Stewart, "Inspection Report," 1927.
The Wilson Creek fire of 1929 is remembered by several Forest Service personnel. A lightning caused fire which burned nearly 13,000 acres, it was the largest fire recorded on the Salmon Forest until the Corn Creek fire of 1961. The lookout on Middle Fork Peak had the only telephone. Lester Gutzman was ranger at Yellowjacket, and Glenn Bradley at Copper Creek. Fire fighters were trucked in and had to walk the last 18 miles to the fire. Earl Nichols, recently retired (1969), started his work for the Salmon Forest as a runner on the Wilson Creek fire. There were no radios. He recalls that he ran for the first two weeks. He did not use a horse because of rough terrain and lack of trails. A runner could go where a horse could not. Approximately 200 men were on the fire with about 25 men to a camp. Nichols would be sent with instructions for a crew. Several times when he got to a camp with a message, the camp would be burned and the crew had moved on. Nichols worked on the fire for sixty days. Henry Curry and Earl Poynor packed supplies and food for the firefighters.3
3Earl Nichols.
Wayne O'Connor was working with a road crew on the Yellowjacket road in 1929 when they were sent to the Wilson Creek fire. Wayne fought the fire for nine weeks. Once his fire crew had to make a fast run to keep from being caught by the fire.
O'Connor and Ranger Lester Gutzman both remember a near tragedy on the Wilson Creek fire. Supervisor Kinney, Herb Coles and Wendell Wilson were caught as the fire crowned up the hill around them. They clung to the side of a large bare rock as the fire swept up the other side. The fire then shifted to their side, so they moved to the other side of the rock. Water in their canteens was helpful. The heat swelled their eyes shut. After the fire swept through, Kinney, Gales and Wilson were missed by Gutzman, who knew they were in the vicinity. When the ashes and debris had cooled sufficiently, a search was made by Gutzman, Johnny O'Connor and Wayne O'Connor. Fearing the missing men to be dead, they were surprised to find tracks in the ashes. To quote Lester Gutzman: "Man, were we glad to see those tracks!" They followed the tracks and found the men who were badly blistered and had their clothes burned badly. They had to be led back to camp.1
1Interview with Wayne O'Connor, Salmon, Idaho, October 23, 1969. Interview with Lester Gutzman, Salmon, Idaho, October 23, 1969.
The fire broke loose several times. Wayne O'Connor described it in heavy timber: the flames were like a big corkscrew into the sky, and the sound was a roar like a big waterfall. Deer, bear and smaller animals fled before it.
The Wilson Creek fire was a large fire, in steep country. It burned all the trees on the steep slopes. Since then snow slides have at times filled the canyon, perhaps 200 feet deep. The slides carried dead trees down, damming the stream and changing the stream bed to where it washed the soil and bank away. The hills have now grown a vegetative cover, but not enough trees to control these big slides. The stream is now practically impassable.
Several lookouts were built in the 1930's. Murdoch McNicoll built seven: Napoleon, Long Tom, Butts Point, Stoddard, Oreana, West Horse and Skunk Camp. McNicoll cut the materials to size during the winters and built the Lookouts in the summers. Earl Poynor packed the lumber to the various points. For a lookout building 14 by 14 feet, it was advantageious to pack pre-cut material in rather long sections. Some remarkable packing was done by Earl Poynor in packing loads of this type. We packed all the material for a lookout building, including lumber, windows and a stove on ten mules. The mules had to maneuver carefully between trees to carry the long lumber without bumping. The first lookout McNicoll built was Napoleon. There were seven switchbacks to the top. One mule, carrying the stove, bucked on the trail and rolled from the top down all seven switchbacks. The stove had to be replaced. Merle Hoffman was the lookout on Napoleon that summer, and he worked with McNicoll in building the lookout.1
1Interview with Mrs. M. M. (Claire) McNicoll, Salmon, Idaho, February 19, 1969.
There was a serious drought in Idaho in 1934. At the same time many thousands of people from the dust bowl moved to the Northwest, including many to Idaho, swelling the relief rolls. Lemhi County was among several counties declared in insurrection by Governor C. Ben Ross during the depression because of the number of arson-caused fires in the forests. These fires were set deliberately by unemployed people hoping to gain employment as firefighters.2
2Leonard Arrington, "The New Deal in Idaho," paper presented to Pacific Northwest History Conference, Boise, Idaho, April 10, 1969.
Airplanes were first used about 1931 for dropping materials (tools and food) to firefighters.
Radio was used in fire protection on the Salmon Forest by 1934. Radio in the National Forests at this time was to some degree a novelty. Forest Service telephone lines were still considered as the primary means of communication, with the radio as supplemental.
Twenty-six lookouts were occupied during the fire season of 1939, with eight additional points available for emergency. Four trail crews were in radio communication with the Supervisor's Office.3
3A. L. Anderson, "Inspection Report," September 28, 1939.
During the manpower shortage of World War II, women manned two of the lookouts on the Salmon Forest. They were placed where smokechaser support was reasonably close by. Mrs. Cloe Bradley was at Granite Mountain and Miss Horn was at Anderson Mountain.4 Because of the manpower shortage, the Forest Service enlisted the help of city and county highway crews in emergencies, and the cooperation of local business men. The Salmon Forest office figured they could gather 75 to 100 men for fire fighting regardless of where the fire was located, with a lot more ranchers and businessmen lined up who would be available for short times close in. The Forest Service worked hard on publicity for fire prevention.
4F. W. Godden, "Inspection Report," August 28, 1943.
In spite of the cooperation of the local communities, bad fires sometimes made it necessary to gather men and boys off the streets. There was no local radio in Salmon at that time, and a familiar sight was a forest car driving through the streets with the sound of a bullhorn calling for anyone who would fight fire to report to Forest Service headquarters immediately. Ranger Neale Poynor noted that because of the manpower shortage, his fire fighting group in 1943 was composed mainly of 17 and 18 year olds, and those who had passed the prime of life. Another Ranger commented, "They're either too young or too old."
In 1944 several lookouts were manned by 16 and 17 year old boys. They had to be replaced about August 25 so they could return to school.
In addition to the manpower shortage, fire control problems were increased by the Japanese incendiary balloon attack. The purpose of the balloons was to start fires, especially in the heavily forested northwest, to cause destruction, distract U. S. manpower from the war effort, and undermine the morale of the people. The long-range balloons were made of several layers of rice paper, were usually gray, white or greenish blue, and about 33 feet in diameter. They were unmanned, but contained incendiary devices, and some were very explosive. They floated across the Pacific Ocean on a natural air stream at about 45,000 feet elevation.
To counteract the Japanese balloon effort, the Army, the Army Air Force, Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service and the U. S. Forest Service each sent a representative to work out plans to resist this attack and to keep any news of Japanese balloon landings from reaching the newspapers or other news media. In this way they hoped to keep the Japanese from learning the exact time the balloons arrived, their locality, and their effect. This information would have enabled the Japanese to evaluate the results, and possibly to correct their methods. F. E. Powers of the Salmon Forest represented the Forest Service on this task force. They had 270 ground troops, 32 scout aviators, and an agreement with Gowen field for planes if needed, plus 30 or 40 paratroopers.
Our counter-effort against this balloon attack was one of the best kept secrets of World War II. Citizens and newsmen cooperated in keeping reports of balloon sightings from reaching the news. During the spring of 1945, over 1,100 balloons landed in western North America, most of them in Oregon and Idaho. Eight people were killed. 288 balloons came into the Boise area. Few started fires, partly because they arrived too early in the spring, before the dry season.
The wartime manpower shortage hastened the widespread use of smokejumpers in fire control. As a result of successful experimental jumps made near Winthrop, Washington in 1939 the Northern and Northwestern Regions each organized a small squad of smokejumpers for the 1940 fire season. The program grew, but by 1942, wartime manpower and equipment shortages reached a critical stage for the smokejumper program. The equipment shortage led to experimentation and development of better chutes. The manpower shortage was eased by volunteer conscientious objectors from C.P.S. Camps. By 1945 bases were maintained at Missoula, Montana; McCall, Idaho; Twisp, Washington and Cave Junction, Oregon. Jumps were made to fires on the Salmon Forest from both McCall and Missoula, depending on the location of the fire and the number of jumpers available.
Observers for the United States Army visited the parachute training camp at Missoula in 1940 and later employed Forest Service techniques and ideas in organizing the first army paratroop training. In 1945 the 555th Battalion of Negro paratroops was trained in timber jumping and firefighting to combat the Japanese balloon fires. Since the balloon menace did not materialize, the 300 paratroopers were used as auxiliary suppression crews on large fires in Regions 1, 4, 5 and 6.1 The 1945 fire season was a severe fire year. During that season, paratroopers were dropped on two Salmon Forest fires: Pasture Mountain on the Lemhi, and the Horse Heaven fire.
1"History of Smokejumping," U. S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Northern Region, Missoula, Montana.
Ford tri-motors and Curtis Travelairs were favorite planes for carrying smokejumpers and Forest Service cargo. The Ford tri-motor's high lift airfoil enabled it to fly at low speeds among high mountain peaks, and its stout landing gear allowed it to land on wilderness airstrips too rough for more modern planes. The Johnson Flying Service of Missoula is a name synonymous with the development of smokejumping in the northern intermountain area. Bob Johnson's contract with the Forest Service dates back to 1926.2 The last two old Ford tri-motor planes of the Johnson Flying Service were retired in May, 1969, and sold to Museums. The Curtis Travelairs were also retired and replaced by the Twin Otter and Beechcraft E-18's.
2Handle M. Hurst, The Smokejumpers (Caldwell, Idaho: Caxton Printers, Lts., 1966), pp. 27-34.
A helicopter was used on the Salmon Forest in 1950 on the Butts Creek fire and in 1951 on the Blackbird fire. Helicopters were used on the Hat Creek fire in 1959. Since that time two helicopters have been placed annually under contract on the Salmon Forest. On large fires additional helicopters have been used. Twelve helicopters were used at the peak of the Corn Creek fire in 1961.
1961 was the first season air tankers were under contract on the Salmon Forest. Bentonite was the first type of retardant used. The last few years phoscheck has been the retardant. The most tankers working on a fire at one time was 15 during the Corn Creek fire.
Major changes have been made over the years in methods of suppressing fires. Pick and shovel work by ground crews is still the basic method of controlling fires. Fires are now being partially controlled and/or slowed up by retardant delivered by air tankers, helicopters or through ground tankers. Water pumps and ground water pumper units also help in checking a fire and putting it out. The newest method of water delivery on a fire is through use of the helicopter and a water-carrying sling bucket. These buckets can be filled from rivers or lakes while in flight.
Methods of delivery service to fires has been expanded. Until development of air transport, on inaccessible fires the pack string was the main transportation source. During the 1930's, cargo planes started parachuting supplies to fires. In use now is the cargo-carrying helicopter which can deliver items on the fire line or into the fire camp. The smokejumper program has facilitated getting people onto a fire quickly. This has been especially valuable in controlling small fires before they become large fires. At times the use of smokejumpers is limited by weather conditions. With the use of helicopters, personnel can now be moved rapidly onto a fire line from a road-based helicopter spot. The last several years the Salmon Forest has based a six-man helitack crew with a helicopter for rapid transit to a fire.1
1Joe Ladle.
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