History of the Rogue River National Forest Volume 1 — 1893-1932

1918

Personnel

Forest Rangers:

*During the fire season Districts 4 and 5 were combined to form the Klamath (No. 4) District. District 6 then became District 5.

Scalers at Pelican Bay:

Fred A. Matz, officer in charge.
Scalers: John D. Holst, Robert I. Peachey, Royal U. "Doc" Cambers, Bert A. Nason, George H. West

PERSONNEL CHANGES

Martin L. Erickson, forest supervisor, resigned on March 24, 1918, to take charge of the Port Orford Lumber Company's logging operation in British Columbia.

Deputy Supervisor Harold D. Foster served as acting forest supervisor until June when Hugh B. Rankin, supervisor of the Siuslaw, was transferred to the Crater.

Bert A. Nason was transferred from forest ranger on the Prospect District to scaler on the Pelican Bay sales.

Frank L. Carlson resigned during the fire season. He later was reported working on the Klamath Indian Reservation.

Ranger J. L. Mackechnie, who had been in charge of the Applegate District, was transferred to the Tongass National Forest in Alaska, and left for his new assignment on April 9.

Stephen A. Moore went to Portland in January to doctor his sick wife. While there, he worked in the District office and in February scaled logs at the Wind River Logging Company sale near Carson, Wash. on the Columbia National Forest. Later on in the spring he transferred to the Siskiyou National Forest at Powers, Ore.

Robert I. Peachey passed the last ranger examination, was appointed in May and assigned to scaling on the Pelican Bay sales.

ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGES

Due to the war in Europe, qualified rangers were scarce. To alleviate this situation the following changes were made:

The Prospect (No. 1) and Trail (No. 8) ranger districts were combined to form the Rogue River (No. 1) district. Ranger Poole was in charge, continuing his headquarters at Trail Ranger Station.

The Pelican Bay (No. 4) and Fort Klamath (No. 5) districts were combined to form the Klamath (No. 4) district, when Ranger Carlson resigned during the fire season. Ranger Kerby took charge of the new district with his headquarters at Pelican Ranger Station.

The Ashland (No. 6) and Big Applegate (No. 7) districts were combined to form the Applegate (No. 5) district. Ranger Port assumed charge of the new district, headquartered at Star Ranger Station.

Crater News in "Six Twenty-Six", 1918

The Crater has flung to the breeze (figuratively speaking) its Service Flag of red and white - with one blue star, representing E. C. Peachey, recently promoted to Corporal of Company B. Tenth Engineers (Forest).

Mrs. M. L. Erickson recently returned to Medford after about three months spent in California, and at once took up with the members of the Crater the matter of purchasing yarn for sweaters and wristlets for the Forest Regiments. There has been subscribed to this fund so far, by officers of the Crater, $23,000. Mrs. J. E. Gribble has charge of the knitting auxiliaries, and reports that 48 Medford ladies have undertaken this work.

March: E. C. Peachey, formerly of the Crater, but now with Co. B, 10th Engineers, writes acknowledging receipt of Christmas remembrances from District 6. He says his Company is getting along fine but is very busy operating a sawmill day and night.

Crater has collected a total of $196.20 for the yarn fund for sweaters and wristlets for the soldiers. Office force and rangers contributed $37.50. Scalers on Lamm Sale at Pelican Bay contributed $13.50. Food sale netted $42.70, and miscellaneous contributors gave $7.50. Mrs. H. D. Foster was responsible for organizing and putting on a patriotic program at the Rialto Theatre. Movies were shown, war songs were sung, and a noted speaker, A. C. Bevan, a Canadian with a disability discharge from the famous Princess Pat Regiment, told of his battle experiences. Admission charge was 25 cents. Total receipts were 1161.50 of which $66.50 was turned over to the Rialto Theatre to cover their actual expenses, netting $95 for the yarn fund.

Mrs. Gribble recently received from Washington, D. C., sufficient yarn for 20 sweaters. This yarn was purchased with money sent in some time ago.

The Crater force has recently been augmented by two new members. Homer Frederick Matz arrived at the home of Fred Matz, and a new daughter came to the home of R. I. Peachey, one of our short-term rangers.

Rangers Kerby and Carlson are both kept busy in the Pelican Bay District. Carlson is scaling for the Lamm Lumber Company and reports the Company working night and day.

There have been several interesting stock meetings on the Forest recently. One was held at Trail, Jan. 26, when a new Association was formed; one was held at Brownsboro, Feb. 9; and another at Medford, Feb. 16.

April: E. C. Peachey, formerly a guard on the Crater Forest and now a corporal in the 10th Engineers, writes the following letter to the District Forester:

"I have been receiving the Six Twenty-Six pretty regularly since the October number arrived, and it is read with much interest over here. Would get it much sooner if you would kindly put my Company letter on it, as it is taken to Regimental Headquarters and then sent to my Company from there.

"We have had some radical changes in our censor rules, which permits my going into details about our organization. We have as yet only one mill running, but hope to have our large mill running within the next six weeks. Our small mill has been doing fine. It is rated as a 10,000-foot mill, and in two nine-hour shifts we cut 38,000 feet B.M. We made a record for this Company.

"C Company, which is located close to our small mill camp, expects to start its large mill sometime next week. The southern detachment of A Company has had one small mill running for almost a month.

"We have one large logging camp running one combined camp and one mill camp. I am now working on the big mill. Have had charge of most all the camp construction. Have been raised to Corporal since I have been working here, and am now out to get another stripe; don't know whether I will get it or not, but am trying for it.

"The weather here has been excellent for the last month, but it has the appearance of rain today.

"Have not had any chance to learn much of anything about the French methods of logging or milling, as there are only small mills here, run by old men and women mostly; band mills with hand feed, and they edge on the opposite side and just follow the back edge without regard to the edge. So you can imagine how nice this French lumber is to work. I have had quite a bit of that kind of stuff to work. We have about two miles of river to drive our logs; then raft them across the lake to our mill. Have about thirteen million feet of logs for this one setting."

Planting operations are in progress on the Tallowbox area, where approximately 96,000 yellow pine and 4,000 sugar pine seedlings are to be planted. The work is in charge of Ranger Mackechnie. Mr. Julius Kummel came in March 19, and with Deputy Supervisor Foster visited the Tallowbox planting area. Planting on the Rustler Peak area will begin about April 1. About 47,000 2—1 trees grown from Northern California seed are to be shipped from Wind River Nursery for this work. Operations will be in charge of Ranger Jones.

Mrs. Gribble reports that a total of 29 sweaters has been forwarded from the Crater for the Engineers. On March 21 thirty pounds of yarn was received for socks. All the knitters, including about fifty ladies, will concentrate on socks from now on. There will be about sixteen additional sweaters to forward, which will bring the total up to 45.

Warren Tison, one of our summer guards, was on the Tuscania when it was torpedoed. He had the measles at the time and is now in a hospital "somewhere" in Ireland.

Other Items: Forest Examiner Matz and Ranger Cambers went over to Pelican Bay on April 1, where logging operations are opening up. Ranger Nason, who has been in charge of the Prospect District during the summer season heretofore, has been assigned to work on the Lamm Lumber Company sale, and he and Ranger West went over April 8. They drove Nason's Ford, and were one of the "pathfinders" of the season.

On April 6, Liberty Day, Medford did herself proud by turning out in a parade that would have been a credit to any city. It happened that several of our rangers were in town with their cars, so we proceeded to deck them out (five in all) with flags and joined the parade. The Forest Service made quite a showing.

The first fire of the season occurred April 29. Acting Supervisor Foster and Ranger Gribble picked up a few men, and left for the fire about seven p.m. The fire was found to be near Chamberlain Mill, a small sawmill up Wagner Creek, and had escaped from a slashing fire started by Mr. Chamberlain.

On May 4 the Big Butte Stock Association held its annual meeting at Brownsboro, and both Mr. Foster and Ranger Jones attended. Mr. Foster and Ranger Gribble went to Applegate Post Office to attend a meeting of the Greyback Association on May 6.

On May 22 the Jackson County Fire Patrol Association held its annual meeting in the Federal Building in Medford. Mr. Chapler and Mr. Foster represented the Forest Service Mr. F. A. Elliott, State Forester of Oregon, and Mr. Hugh Henry, of the Oregon Forest Fire Association, were also present. A. B. Myers, of Rogue River, was appointed Supervising Fire Warden. A new secretary will be appointed.......The Association agreed to the exchange of land with the Forest Service. The National Forest land in the Trail Creek District and in the vicinity of Butte Falls will be protected by the Association, while the Forest Service will take over an equal acreage in the Applegate District. It is expected we will secure closer cooperation with the Association next season.

Western Fire Fighters' Manual - Printed copies of chapters one to four of the Western Fire Fighters' Manual have been received in the District Office. These make up part of the Proceedings of the Standardization Committee of the Western Forestry and Conservation Association. Chapters one and two were written by E. T. Allen, secretary of the Association, and cover "The Fire Fighter's Profession" and "Fire Laws and Their Enforcement". Chapters three and four cover "Trail Building" by Supervisor R. S. Shelley of the Siuslaw, and "Telephone Construction and Maintenance" by Telephone Engineer Clay M. Allen of the District Office. Each chapter is complete in itself. The chapter on telephone construction has been bound up in oilcloth for field use. Additional chapters, which have not yet been received, cover Lookouts, Tools and Equipment, and Fire Fighting.

Forest Supervisor Hugh B. Rankin Crater Lake National Forest (Medford) June 1, 1918 - July 8, 1932

The rangers again assembled at Dead Indian Soda Springs to work on the road into that area. Those who participated in this work from January through March, 1918, were:

Andrew T. Poole, cook; William L. Jones; Albert L. Peachey; Frank Carlson (went back to Odessa in February); J. L. MacKechnie (went to planting crew on Tallowbox); John E. Gribble; George W. West; John D. Holst; and Lee C. Port.

Comment on this work in "Six Twenty-Six" for February:

"The Crater has been utilizing the services of scalers and yearlong District Rangers during the winter months building a road into Dead Indian Soda Springs. The men are sure that after they have graduated from this school of experience a trench in Flanders could have no horrors for them, so far as mud is concerned. They are camped in tents, and do their own cooking. They all give thanks, however, for a very mild winter. An allotment of $421 of 10% money was secured for the purchase of powder, etc., for this project."

Five and one-half miles of surveys were completed on the Tiller-Trail Road. This was done by the Bureau of Public Roads crew under direction of District Engineer L. I. Hewes.

FIRE SUMMARY

The forest had a total of 87 fires in 1918, of which 28 were Class A; 17 Class B, and 42 Class C. Lightning caused 44 of these fires, 9 were of incendiary origin, 17 caused by campers, 7 from brush burning, 4 from sawmills, one from a railroad and 5 from unknown causes.

A total of 31,437 acres burned over causing a total damage of $24,764 in timber destroyed or damaged.

Total firefighting cost was $20,014 with a value of $772 of cooperation.

GRAZING

Losses: Blackleg, 11 cattle; poisonous plants, 22 cattle, 87 sheep; predatory animals, 12 cattle, 10 sheep. Coyotes very bad in foothills, requested assistance from Biological Survey.

"Associations have been very helpful by adopting special rules for handling stock, particularly salting."

Secretary of Agriculture authorized the grazing of 15,100 cattle and horses, and 14,400 sheep and goats on the Crater National Forest during the season of 1918.

General Range Conditions: Rainfall from Dec. 1, 1916, to Dec. 1, 1917 — 15.86 inches. Approximately same as in 1915 and 1916. Forage was good on the spring range and most of the cattle had gained their weight by the time they entered the National Forest.

"Stock Associations are slowly working for better range management but results are spotty. Some stockmen complain that more frequent salting scatters the stock and causes more riding. Usually they are too busy at the home ranch to ride as they should. Several areas reported overgrazed — Silver Fork, Bigelow Creek, Conde Glades and others."

1919

Personnel:

Forest Rangers:

Scalers at Pelican Bay:

Royal U. Cambers (Puckett Bros. Sale)
John D. Holst
George H. West
Bert A. Nason

Forest Guards (incomplete list):

Improvement Crews:

PERSONNEL AND ORGANIZATION CHANGES

Harold D. Foster, deputy supervisor, was transferred in March, destination unknown. He was not replaced and the position of Deputy Supervisor was abolished.

Herman M. Johnson, forest examiner, was assigned to the Crater Forest in July.

Ernest C. Peachey, forest ranger, returned from France where he served with the 10th Engineers (Forestry) Regiment as a corporal. He was assigned to the Butte Falls District in July, replacing William L. Jones.

Albert L. Peachey, forest ranger, in charge of the Dead Indian District, resigned in June, 1919. William L. Jones was transferred from the Butte Falls District in July to take over the Dead Indian District. He made his headquarters at Dead Indian Soda Springs Ranger Station.

Edward S. Kerby, forest ranger, in charge of the Klamath District, was transferred in February, 1919, to the Mapleton District, Siuslaw Forest. John E. Gribble, forest ranger, was transferred to Seven Mile Ranger Station to replace Kerby as district ranger of the Klamath District. The Ashland District was absorbed by the Applegate District. There were now only five ranger districts on the Crater as contrasted to eleven in 1909. The workload had increased but qualified men were not available to fill the ranger positions. Due to World War I, money was scarce for forest work in the government service. To meet the situation districts were consolidated, and some positions were abolished.

SILVICULTURAL WORK

Scalers Royal U. Cambers, George H. West, John D. Holst, and Bert A. Nason of the Crater were cited by the District Office for having a good record of accuracy in their scaling work. Forty scalers were employed by the Forest Service during the 1918 season. These four Crater men were among 24 who were recognized for their accurate scaling work. Bert Nason was also cited as having scaled 10,000 logs during the season. Andy Poole and Bill Jones cruised the timber on Crater Lake Highway in May.

IMPROVEMENT WORK

The following road projects on the Crater were scheduled for work during Calendar Year 1919 from Forest Road funds.

These two projects were included with others under cooperative agreement between the Secretary of Agriculture and the State of Oregon.

The Lake of the Woods road was also scheduled for construction during the year.

Bert Nason and William L. Jones built a house at Lodgepole Ranger Station.

During the winter the rangers worked at Star Ranger Station on fence and telephone line construction. Those who made up this crew were: Bert Peachey, John Holst, John Gribble, Royal U. Cambers, Ernest Ingram, Bert McKee, Culey, Lewis, R. Phillips and Masters Varney. Holst, Peachey and Poole worked in January on a bridge at Trail Ranger Station. A trail crew worked all summer on the Umpqua Divide Trail. Those in the crew were William Lee, Victor Patton, Charles Hayes, Ed Cushman, Wallace Cushman, Jack Vaughn, Lennie Cook and Jess Storm. During the summer Ernest Ingram was foreman of a road crew on the Diamond Lake Highway.

On November 17 Supervisor Rankin left for the Siuslaw with Rangers John D. Holst, George W. West, Royal U. Cambers, William L. Jones, Ernest Feachey and Andy Poole. They set up a camp on the Siuslaw River through December 23 and cut telephone poles and fence posts from red cedar stands.

MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS

Train service between Medford and Butte Falls was discontinued on January 30.

Lee Port checked over property on the Ashland District with John Gribble in May preparatory to Port taking over supervision of the Ashland District in addition to the Applegate District.

LANDS

Charles and William Lindsey of Ashland, indicted for maintaining an unlawful inclosure of national forest land near Lilyglen, plead guilty on June 7 in the Federal Court, and were fined $329.55 each, making a total of $659.10 in settlement of both civil and criminal liability.

FIRE SUMMARY

The Forest had a total of 118 fires in 1919 of which 38 were Class A, 46 Class B, and 34 Class C.

Lightning caused 59, incendiarism accounted for 23, campers caused 20, railroads caused 2, brush burning 6, and unknown causes accounted for 8 of these fires.

A total of 1797 acres were burned over causing a total damage of $2410 to timber destroyed or damaged.

Total firefighting costs were $6549 with $938 worth of cooperative work on the fires.

GRAZING WORK

General Range Conditions: Condition of the range was normal. Lack of rain from April 14 to September 3 made the forage below normal at the end of the grazing season, although the water flow in the springs was not as low as for the season of 1918. At the close of the season the range had been grazed very sporadically, parts of it overgrazed, and parts not at all. This was due to improper management in salting on the part of the owners.

A total of 13,229 cattle and 248 horses by 220 permittees, and 13,574 sheep by 18 permittees grazed on the Forest in 1919. Average number of cattle and horses per permittee was 61, sheep 754.

Range Divisions: The supervisor recommended a reduction of the grazing districts to conform to the ranger districts. This was necessary due to the reduction in number of yearlong ranges. This resulted in five grazing districts instead of eight. Areas closed to grazing included the Ashland Watershed, Huckleberry City, and Blue Canyon.

Grazing Capacity:

Grazing periods were as follows:

Yearlong, beginning March 15
March 15 to December 15
May 1 to October 31
June 1 to October 31
June 15 to October 31
October 31 to December 31
For sheep and goats: July 1 to October 15

Protective and Maximum Limits:

"Associations: Eight recognized associations being of little assistance as they are only partially in accord with the Service. Improvement is expected next season. These associations are: Big Butte Cattle and Horse Raisers Assn.; Dead Indian Stockmen's Assn.; Greyback Stock Assn.; Keene Creek Cattle and Horse Assn.; Lower Applegate Stockmen's Assn.; South Butte Stock Assn.; Trail Stock Assn.; Upper Rogue River Stock Assn."

General: Supervisor Rankin recommended a grazing assistant be added to his staff to properly handle the range business. "Grazing capacity is not accurately known and study needs to be made of this phase of grazing. Large acreage of O & C lands within the Forest should be properly grazed. The rangers spend so much time on fire matters they cannot devote much time for grazing."

Recommendations for 1920 season:

1920

Personnel

Forest Rangers:

Scalers:

Fred A. Matz, officer in charge.
John D. Holst, George H. West, Royal U. (Doc) Cambers,
John E. Gribble, Bert A. Nason, L. D. Peachey

Forest Guards (incomplete list):

PERSONNEL CHANGES

Miss Ivy I. Boeck transferred to the Santiam office at Albany on February 8. Miss Janie V. Smith entered on duty on February 4 on a temporary appointment as Clerk (Forest) at a salary of $900 per year. Her probationary appointment was effective on Sept. 21, 1920.

John E. Gribble, forest ranger at Seven Mile Ranger Station, was assigned to scaling at Pelican Bay on June 12. Albert L. Peachey, former ranger on Dead Indian District was assigned to the Klamath District as acting ranger. He entered on duty July 1 and served in this capacity until he was furloughed on November 30.

L. D. Peachey entered on duty on July 8 and reported to Fred Matz at Pelican Bay as a scaler. In August he worked for Albert Peachey around Seven Mile Ranger Station on fires and telephone line maintenance with Irwin Frey.

MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS

A very successful rangers meeting was held on January 27, 28 and 29. Mr. F. F. Ames of the District office attended the entire meeting and Messrs. Waha, Buck, Merritt, Osborne and Talbot attended the last two days and helped make it a success. "Ranger Gribble came over from Ft. Klamath and reports no snow in this vicinity."

Crater personnel in attendance were: Hugh B. Rankin, Supervisor; Herman N. Johnson, Forest Examiner; John D. Holst, George H. West, Royal U. Cambers, Bert A. Nason, Ernest C. Peachey, Lee C. Port, John E. Gribble, Andrew T. Poole, and William L. Jones, rangers.

Supervisor S. C. Bartrum has resigned to become the Pacific representative for a life insurance company, after more than twenty years of continuous service. He entered the Forest Service as a ranger in 1899 under the jurisdiction of the Interior Department. After serving as a forest ranger for three years, Mr. Bartrum was promoted to Supervisor. His many friends in District 6 are sorry to see him leave the service and wish him success in his new venture.

R. H. Chapler will succeed Mr. Bartrum as Supervisor of the Umpqua National Forest.

Six Twenty-Six, February, 1920

Mr. Rankin spent February 6 and 7 in the District office where he learned that he is to have charge of the Umpqua as well as the Crater Forest. He went to Roseburg on Feb. 11 to say "howdy" to the Umpqua force.

On Feb. 11, 800 acres were added to the Crater Forest by an Act of Congress. These lands, in the Ashland Watershed, formerly in the O & C railroad grant, were added to the forest for protection of Ashland's water supply. The Act provided that receipts from these lands be deposited to the credit of the O & C fund.

On Feb. 27 the forest finished sending out letters of transmittal to 161 grazing permittees for a total of 9384 cattle and horses.

A directive from the district forester required all supervisors to plan for a trail system on the forests that will open up the greatest possible amount of inaccessible country in the lightning zone. Another guiding principle in the selection of trail construction crews was the strengthening of the fire protection organization. Maximum grades on even the poorest trail was 25%.

The Civil Service Retirement Act was approved on August 1, 1920. It provided that those who have reached the age of 70 years and have rendered at least 15 years service are beneficiaries under the law. The classification and rates established are as follows:

Major Kelly of Washington, D. C. made an inspection of the Crater National Forest in June.

The forester established, as a service-wide policy, that fifty cents per meal would be the maximum sum to be paid for meals at the ranger stations. "It would be well to make it clear to all concerned, including the Rangers, that the banquets which are sometimes set by the hospitable wife of the Ranger are not expected or encouraged."

The Agricultural Appropriation Bill of May 31, 1920 included the followings "That the cost of any building erected or as improved shall not exceed $1000."

TIMBER SALES

The Lamm Lumber Co. subleased to Puckett Bros. the north portion of the Lamm sale unit. Puckett Bros. built a pole road over which to haul logs on motor trucks.

Scalers on the Crater who were cited for their accurate work during 1919: Fred Matz scaled 1800 logs with no errors. John D. Holst made less than one mistake in each book or in 4000 logs. Others who made less than one error per thousand logs scaled were: B. E. Nason, J. E. Gribble, R. U. Cambers, George W. West. Those who scaled over 10,000 logs were:

In March and April a planting camp was set up on Rustler Peak where 40,000 Jeffrey pine trees, from the Page Creek Nursery on the Siskiyou, were planted, under difficult weather conditions.

On April 2 a severe windstorm occurred on the east side of the Crater Forest. About two million board feet of timber was windthrown.

FIRE NOTES

Forest Protection Week was from May 23 to 29. This movement originated in District 6 and spread to several of the other Western States. Its aim was to bring before every man, woman and child, the damage and loss from forest fires and the necessity of protecting the forests of the Pacific Northwest. Forest officers conducted a spirited campaign talking to schools, groups of adults, etc. about care of fire in the woods. This movement has now become Forest Fire Prevention Week.

The first fire of the season occurred on May 7, on the Applegate District, covering about 15 acres, caused by a careless hunter. On May 12 a lightning storm started three fires on the Butte Falls District. On May 14 Supervisor Rankin, Johnson, Matz and Ranger Jones helped the Ashland City Park Superintendent extinguish a fire in Ashland Canyon above Lithia Park.

This year was the initiation of air patrol to detect fires. On June 22 two Army airplanes arrived in Medford from March Field. Mr. Rankin spent the day with Captain Smith locating quarters for the airmen.

GRAZING

No annual report was found for this year. The Secretary of Agriculture in 1919 authorized by regulation the issuance of term permits, with no increase in grazing fees for the five year period ending with the 1923 grazing season. The purpose was to help stabilize the livestock business during the after-the-war reconstruction period. Most permittees were just barely getting by and any increase in costs would cause a direct and definite loss to them. An increase in fees would also cause an advantage to the speculators. The Agricultural Appropriations Bill for Fiscal Year 1921 provided $35,000 to carry on Range Appraisal Work as provided in the House Committee Report.

(click on image for a PDF version)

IMPROVEMENT WORK

Again this year the rangers and scalers reconstructed about four miles of the Medford-Butte Falls telephone line due to the county's reconstruction of the Butte Falls Road. In December the rangers cut telephone poles in Poorman's Creek between Jacksonville and Ruch for use the following spring on the reconstruction work.

Road camps were located at Big Elk Ranger Station, William C. Fruit, foreman, and on the Diamond Lake Road at Hamaker Ranger Station, Ernest Ingram in charge. Mrs. William I. Jones was cook at Fruit's camp at Big Elk. In September this camp was moved to Dead Indian Soda Springs. Fruit worked on extending the Big Elk Road towards Fish Lake and Ingram worked on the Upper Rogue River Road from Hamaker.

It was also noted that the Crater now has two trucks, a Pierce-Arrow and a Reo. These were used by the road crews.

H. M. Johnson and Ernest Ingram surveyed the route for the Diamond Lake Highway.

A new cabin was built in September and October at Ferches Cabin on the Applegate.

During this period the road from Shady Cove to Trail was on the east side of Rogue River. The county operated a ferry at Trail to give access to the residents of Trail and the surrounding area.

LANDS ACTIVITIES

The Union Creek and Lake of the Woods Campgrounds were surveyed by Forest Examiner H. M. Johnson during the summer.

The first recreation visitors report of record was for this year. The forest reported a total of 36,594 recreation visitors for the year distributed as follow: Miscellaneous, 28,315; Soda Springs Recreation Unit, 800; Lake of the Woods Recreation Unit, 1850; Odessa Recreation Unit 104; Recreation Creek Unit, 2000; and Union Creek Recreation Unit, 3025.

U.S. Forest Service truck loaded with supplies for a field trip.

U.S. Forest Service truck near the summit on Dead Indian Road, looking westward over Bear Creek Valley. - Photo by F. W. Cleator

1921

Personnel:

Forest Rangers:

Scalers:

Fred Matz, officer in charge.
John D. Holst, George H. West, Royal U. "Doc" Cambers, John E. Gribble.

Forest Guards:

PERSONNEL CHANGES

William L. Jones was loaned to the State of Oregon and served as Forest Warden of Jackson County.

Walter Sackman arrived on the Crater Forest May 17. He was assigned to the Butte Falls District as Ranger and served in this capacity until December 15 when he was transferred to the Umpqua National Forest.

Ernest C. Peachey was transferred from the Butte Falls District to the Dead Indian District.

Eugene J. Rogers transferred to the Crater on June 8 from Montana and was assigned to the Klamath District as Forest Ranger.

MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS

Forest Supervisors in District 6 held their meeting in Portland February 14 to 21. This was the first such meeting since 1917.

In the spring of 1920 the Crater received a new Dodge Commercial Car which was No. 20 (Forest Service license number).

The winter study course for the rangers was delayed in the spring due to work on the telephone lines.

The chief clerks on three National Forests (Wenatchee, Colville, and Wallowa) were designated as Executive Assistants on June 1.

The Budget and Accounting Act became effective July 1.

The Jackson County Game Protective Association was organized at Medford on November 17.

SILVICULTURAL WORK

A large timber sale of 87,500,000 board feet of timber (71 M. M board feet of pine) was advertised in the spring for $3.75 per M board feet of pine and $0.70 per M board feet for other species. It included Yellow pine, Sugar pine, Douglas fir, White fir and Incense cedar, located in the Four Bit Creek area on the Butte Falls District.

The scaling record for 1920 was announced. It included the following scalers on the Crater:

Fred Matz scaled 2060 logs with no errors.

Those who made less than one error per thousand logs scaled were:

About 54000 trees were planted on about 52 acres on Rustler Peak in the spring of the year.

The total timber in Jackson County was estimated at 20,000 M M board feet with about 5,500 M M within the National Forests and the remainder, 14,500 M M, located outside. There were about 7,500 acres cutover in the county. Within the county were located about 25 sawmills, some steam and some water-powered. Fred Matz conducted a scalers examination in October at Klamath Falls.

IMPROVEMENTS

The rangers accomplished the following jobs during the winter months:

Constructed 60 rods of second grade road.
Constructed 100 rods of woven wire fence with yewwood posts.
Constructed one acre of pole corral.
Constructed 20 miles of pole telephone line.
Constructed 14 miles of tree and pole telephone line.
Cut 1700 red cedar posts on Siuslaw Forest.
Cut 400 telephone poles.

The old John Day road from Crater Lake Highway to Diamond Lake has been under construction the past three summers. During the summer of 1921 it was opened to high class travel. The road from the Forest Boundary to Dead Indian Soda Springs was opened in the winter.

FIRE NOTES

On March 7, State Forester Elliott and Mr. Chapler talked fire cooperation with Supervisor Rankin. As a result Ranger William L. Jones accepted an appointment as District State Fire Warden for Jackson County in a cooperative effort to help the state in controlling the fire situation.

Forest Protection Week was from May 22 to 28 in 1921.

The Oregon Air Patrol was started on June 15. Cyrus M. Parsons served as aerial observer at Medford. he did this same job in 1920, at Medford. E. Thayer Todd (Air Reserve Corps) was another observer. Fred M. Gruver again served as Liasion Officer at Medford.

GRAZING ITEMS

The grazing fees were deferred until December 1 by Congressional action due to the hard times in the livestock industry.

The Range Appraisal work was authorized to try to stabilize the livestock industry by a uniform system of grazing fees. An organization was set up for this work as follows:

C. E. Ratchford was in charge of the work in the Washington office. Peterson was in charge of the work in District 6 assisted by Adam Wright. Douglas C. Ingram was in charge in Western Oregon and F. V. Horton in charge of the work in Eastern Oregon. The latter two persons were Grazing Examiners.

"The grazing season opened with a heavy rain which continued until about June 3, after which there was no appreciable rain until September 23. It remained dry thereafter until the first of December. The forage was good compared with the three previous years.

"Number of stock grazed without permit under Reg. G—48 was 626 cattle and horses by 270 owners.

"There were a total of 12,054 cattle and horses and 17,085 sheep grazed on the forest during the year.

"The estimated grazing capacity of the forest is the same as last year, as follows:

	Cattle & Horses	Sheep
Rogue River Dist. No. 1	2,500	6,000
Butte Falls Dist. No. 2	3,000	3,000
Dead Indian Dist. No. 3	5,000	2,000
Klamath Dist. No. 4	1,200	7,150
Applegate Dist. No. 5	3,500	2,400
Forest Total	15,200	20,550

"No change recommended in the number of stock grazed nor in the grazing season which has been from May 15 to October 31."

From Annual Grazing Report by
Supervisor H. B. Rankin

RECREATION WORK

E. M. Johnson completed field survey in June of Union Creek Recreational Area. Provision was made for a large auto camp ground, another large area for campers with houses, a community house and playground including a baseball diamond, and area for Boy Scouts and about 35 summer homes. Johnson also made a survey for Dead Indian Soda Springs Area.

Lake of the Woods summer home owners were seeking to organize an association. A boating privilege has been granted at Lake of the Woods.

A Special Use permit is being issued for a hotel, restaurant, store and filling station at Union Creek. This area is heavily used by campers and being on the highway from Medford to Crater Lake this should be a profitable enterprise.

From "Six Twenty-Six"

Devil's Peak Lookout Station. Iron Mine telephone and a crude temporary alidade whittled from shakes. - E. W. Smith, 1915.

1922

Personnel:

Forest Rangers:

Scalers:

Fred A. Matz, officer in charge.
John D. Holst, George H. West, John E. Gribble, Royal U. "Doc" Cambers, Bert A. Nason.

Forest Guards (incomplete list):

PERSONNEL CHANGES

William L. Jones served as warehouseman at Medford during the year.

Earnest C. Peachey served as Ranger in charge of the combined Butte Falls-Dead Indian Ranger District.

Herman M. Johnson transferred from the Crater on December 6, to the District Office in the Division of Products.

F. V. "Jack" Horton, Range Technician, spent the summer on the Crater, working on the range appraisal. Doug Ingram from the District Office supervised Horton's work and made several trips to the Crater in connection with this work.

Floyd F. Murray started to work about July as equipment operator. He worked on the Diamond Lake and Huckleberry Mountain road jobs, running a tractor pulling a grader on these jobs.

Bert A. Nason, was detailed to the Deschutes Forest from June through November where he scaled logs on the Brooks-Scanlon Sale.

Fred Matz and John Gribble were detailed to the Malheur Forest in April, May and June to cruise timber under the supervision of George L. Drake from the District Office.

George H. West was detailed to the Whitman National Forest on June 15. He helped Claude Waterbury scale logs on the Eccles Sale at Bates. West returned to Medford on August 17.

MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS

A rangers meeting was held at Roseburg from February 10-13 for forest officers from Crater, Siskiyou and Umpqua Forests. Those from the Crater who attended were: Hugh B. Rankin, forest supervisor; Herman N. Johnson, forest examiner; and the following rangers: William L. Jones, Eugene J. Rogers, E. C. Peachey, Andrew T. Poole, and Lee C. Port. F. H. Brundage, assistant district forester represented the District Forester.

The winter study course for rangers consisted of questions on General Administration, Range Management, Law Enforcement, Grazing Administration, Forest Management, Lands, Public Relations, Accounts, and Improvements.

Winter work for the rangers consisted of repairs and painting the vehicles which consisted of the Reo and Pierce-Arrow trucks and the Dodge Commercial. They also did carpenter work, painted road and fire prevention signs. They also made up exhibit material to be used at the County Fair.

FIRE NOTES

The forest had a total of 67 fires which burned 3721 acres and cost $7046 to suppress. Nineteen were caused by lightning, eleven from campfires, 15 from smokers, 19 from incendiarism and three from miscellaneous causes.

ENGINEERING

The California-Oregon Power Company (COPCO) plant at Copco, Calif., was dedicated on November 5. Copco is located on the Klamath River fifteen miles upstream from Thrall on the Southern Pacific Railroad. Work on the plant started about 12 years ago. The Klamath River is impounded by a dam 132 feet above the stream bed and extends 125 feet below. The company recently completed a transmission line 123 miles long from Prospect to Springfield, Ore. The line crosses the Crater and Umpqua National Forests and is under permit from the Federal Power Commission. The line is designed for 110,000 volts but is being operated at 60,000. With two very short gaps, this new line completes a super-power line from Southern California to Northern Washington, the longest transmission line in the world.

(Six Twenty-Six, Dec. 1922, p. 13)

The Forest received a new 10-foot grader in February which was the latest in road construction equipment.

Road construction crews were located as follows.

The new garage was completed in Medford to serve as a warehouse, storage for equipment, carpenter and repair shop. The garage was located on East Jackson Street at the Northeast corner of the intersection with Hawthorne Street. When built the garage was located in a field, accessible from Crater Lake Avenue by a dirt road.

The Reo truck was exchanged for a GMC truck from the Siskiyou Forest in June. Another Pierce-Arrow truck (U.S.F.S. No. 18) was received in July.

William L. Jones was kept busy as warehouseman, hauling supplies to the road camps with "Chick" Hawk, the truck driver.

Ranger Eugene J. Rogers scouted a location for the Skyline Trail in August around Heavenly Twin Lakes.

FOREST MANAGEMENT

The Yellow Pine Beetle Control Project was started in Southern Oregon and Northern California. The pine beetle had destroyed about one billion board feet of yellow pine in the decade from 1911 - 1920. Congress had appropriated $150,000 in December, 1921 for the federal share of this project.

The control project included about 1,300,000 acres in the Fremont, Crater and Modoc National Forests, the Klamath Indian Reservation, public domain and private lands. Control work consisted of felling the infested trees, peeling the bark from the logs, then burning the bark and log.

Ranger William L. Jones of the Crater worked on the Pine Beetle Control Project at Robertson Springs (Fremont) in May and part of June.

Pelican Bay Lumber Company sale operated again during the year, starting operations about June 1 and closing December 7, cutting 21,140.93 M board feet of timber.

In the fall, brush burning kept the forest officers busy disposing of the piled brush from the Pelican Bay Lumber Company sale operation.

GRAZING

No annual report was found for 1922.

F. V. "Jack" Horton spent the summer on the Crater working on the range appraisal. All of the rangers assisted Horton on the field work. Doug Ingram from the district office assisted Horton on the work, spending most of the summer and fall on the forests.

LANDS ACTIVITIES

The General Land Exchange Act was approved on March 20, 1922. This act provided that private land within national forest boundaries could be exchanged for an equal value of national forest land or timber located within the same state. The offered lands must be chiefly valuable for administration as parts of national forests.

(Six Twenty-Six, April, 1922)

By October the Crater had submitted three exchange cases to the district office for approval.

The Crater Forest was reported as having 102 summer home permits producing a total of $671 per year or an average fee per lot of $6.58.

Already people were using the national forest for outdoor recreation. As fast as roads were built people used them to recreate in the forests. The following special use permits issued during the year indicates that the travelling public needed some services to accomodate them on their trips.

A special use permit was issued on January 23 to Mrs. L. A. Wilkinson, Lake Creek, for a store and lunch room at Dead Indian Soda Springs. The fee was $15 per year.

Another permit was issued on March 14 to Robert Gillispie, Medford, for a restaurant and store at Huckleberry City. The fee for this use was $25 per year.

Many people visited the area each year to pick huckleberries and the above use was decided necessary to make these services available to the public.

Another special use permit was issued on January 11 to James E. Grieve, Prospect, for a resort at Union Creek. The fee was $50 per year. This was to give some service to the travelling public on their way to Crater Lake Park.

The following is an excerpt from "Service Buttetin", U. S. Forest Service for August 21, 1922.

PLAYING SQUARE WITH THE FISCAL REGULATIONS
By: W. B. Greeley

The most distressing duty which has fallen to my lot in the Service has been dealing with men, sometimes old associates on the trail, who have not played square with the fiscal regulations. I do not mean grafters; to the honor of the Service, they have been few and wide apart. I mean honest men, zealous men who put their names to vouchers or certifications that are not true. I call these men honest and zealous advisedly. Their false returns are not made for personal gain. Almost invariably they seek by this means to accomplish some cherished plan for advancing the interests of the Service in their charge, to put through some common-sense betterment or economy on a National Forest, or to pay for something which the Government in all fairness should pay for but which the auditor cannot pass under its right name.

Two things hurt particularly in these cases. The first is that the starting point is often a desire to get results of benefit to the Service and the public. For years we have preached resourcefulness, initiative, that results are what count. The very zeal to get results that count has led some men to justify wrong ways of getting them, when square compliance with the fiscal rules stood in the way. The second sting in these cases is the plea that lots of other Service men are doing the same sort of thing. Can it be that we have developed a hardened fiscal regulations "conscience," like the old public land conscience, which leads men who never knowingly tell untruths in other affairs of life to sign their names on a certain lot of office forms to things that are not so? We call them "fiscal irregularities," but every one of them gets down in the end to a lie, a lie with a name written under it.

I do not believe for a moment that this thing is common in the Service, but I do want to say, whether it hits many or few, that we must nail the lie in accounts with the Government just as we would nail it in dealings with private citizens. We must nail the fiscal lie, black, white or gray, a hundred dollars in a supply voucher or thirty cents padded in a subsistence account. The standing of the Forest Service depends upon public confidence in our integrity, and integrity must be just as clean toward the Government as toward the public whom we serve. Besides, lies are lies and Satan is the father of them all. We can take no chances with the good name of the Forest Service. Men who do not play square with the fiscal regulations, however laudable or disinterested their motives, however fine their records in other respects, cannot be retained.

The rules which govern us are not perfect by any means. They are not always fair to the employee. But the way to meet a bad rule is not to find a devious and untruthful way around it. We will get it changed if we can; but if we cannot we must accept it with such cheer as we can muster as one of the rules of the game. It must be one of our traditions, a part of the fine honor of the Forest Service, to play square with the Fiscal Regulations.

1923

Personnel:

Forest Rangers:

Scalers: (Pelican Bay Lumber Company sale)

John D. Holst, Bert A. Nason, George H. West, Stephen A. Moore
Rangers on scaling work: John E. Gribble, Royal U. "Doc" Cambers, Lloyd G. Lyman

Forest Guards:

PERSONNEL AND ORGANIZATION CHANGES

Fred A. Matz, lumberman, transferred to the District Office on January 31.

Lee P. Brown, forest examiner, transferred from Colorado National Forest to the Crater, effective March 1. He arrived in Medford on March 7.

William L. Jones started the year as Superintendent of Construction. He was in charge of all construction work on the Forest. Ernest C. Peachey, district forest ranger on the Butte Falls-Dead Indian District, resigned effective July 31. Bill Jones took over administration of this district on July 18. He still tried to keep up with the road construction work by locating roads, etc.

Jones mentions in his diary for October 10, "Ranger Barnes arrived. (At Mosquito Ranger Station) Talked to him about district. He went on to Big Elk to look it over." No other mention is made of Barnes. Janie V. Smith says he (Barnes) stayed on the job a few months, then resigned. Jones also mentions in his diary for February, 1924, that Barnes was in the supervisor's office. Janie Smith believes he resigned early in 1924.

Stephen A. Moore, scaler, transferred from the Siskiyou National Forest, Powers, Ore., to the Crater, arriving in Medford on July 31, and reported to Supervisor Rankin on August 1. He was to be assigned to scaling with George E. West on the proposed Owen Oregon Lumber Company sale in the Four-Bit area. He and West built some houses near Four-Bit Creek, then scaled at the Pelican Bay Lumber Company sale for the rest of the summer. On December 17 Moore was transferred to the Cascade Forest at Westfir, Ore.

Bert A. Nason, scaler on the Pelican Bay Lumber Company sale, was transferred to the Deschutes National Forest on June 7. He worked in Medford in the winter and spring until date of his transfer.

Floyd F. Murray served as warehouseman, equipment operator, and sometimes as truck driver at Medford during the year. He also repaired the Forest fleet of trucks (Reo, Dodge, Pierce-Arrow, White, and GMC) and tractors (5-ton and 10-ton).

Lloyd G. Lyman, forest ranger, reported to Supervisor Rankin on April 9. He is listed in the Service Directory as ranger in charge of the Rogue River District. According to his diary he reported to the Trail Ranger Station on April 10 and proceeded to learn the district. However, on July 8 he was sent to the Pelican Bay Lumber Company sale, and scaled logs the rest of the season, and Poole remained in charge of the Trail District.

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES

Forest Protection Week was observed April 22 - 28, in 1925.

The first district meeting of technical assistants was held in Portland April 2 — 5. Lee P. Brown of Crater was among the 22 technical assistants in District 6 to attend. Topics included planting, tree diseases, insect epidemics, timber surveys, management plans, appraisals, yellow pine and Douglas fir silviculture, record of cut over areas, and land exchhanges.

Rangers meeting was held in Medford from April 21 to 23. All rangers, George West and Bert Nason, scalers, attended the three day session.

The Pelican Bay Lumber Company sale of Nov. 4, 1914, Four Mile Creek Sale, operated from March through November. Total cut for the year amounted to 35,026.26 M board feet. Total receipts for the forest amounted to $86,080.70.

A sale of 2.5 M M was made to D. J. Puckett, Klamath Falls, on November 30. Gribble marked timber on this sale in December.

With the addition of Lee P. Brown as Forest Examiner (actually called a Technical Assistant) and due to the increased use of the forest, more work was done on survey and construction of public camp grounds at Lake of the Woods and Union Creek. Brown also worked on land exchange work, boundary posting, as well as work on timber sales.

Pelican Bay Lumber Company established new Camp 1 near Cottonwood Camp on Four Mile Creek and closed out old Camp 1 on Bear Creek.

Poole mentions that Ed Beckelhymer had a service station at Union Creek.

The forest observed a one-half-day holiday on August 10 because of the death of President Harding.

The forest continued its practice of wintering all of the horses and mules at Star Ranger Station. Ranger Port, as part of his winter work, fed and took care of the stock.

New Salary Scale

In the original reclassification scheme which was sent to the forests, Supervisors were grouped in two classes: (1) $2400 to $3000, (2) $3000 to $3600, and Deputies in two classes: (1) $1860 to $2400, (2) $2400 to $3000.

As these grades now stand in the recommendations from this office, Supervisors fall in three classes: (1) $2700 to $3300, (2) $3000 to $3600 and (3) $3300 to $3900. Nine forests in District 6 are tentatively in Class 1, nine in Class 2 and four in Class 3. This is of course tentative.

Deputies are in two classes: (1) $2100 to $2700, (2) $2400 to $3000, with six in Class 1 and three in Class 2. It is believed that this is a far more equitable arrangement and puts the Supervisor and Deputy positions in a fairer position with the balance of the roll.

Rangers are in three classes: (1) $1860 to $2400, (2) $1680 to $2040 and (3) $1500 to $1860. The tentative alignment is 33 in Class 1, 80 in Class 2 and 15 in Class 3.

(Six Twenty-Six, Nov. 1923, p. 18)

RECREATION VISITORS

The forest reported a total of 48,885 recreation visitors for the year, distributed as follows: Rogue River District, 38,233 with over 25,000 at Union Creek; Butte Falls-Dead Indian District, 4,665; Klamath District 4,712; and Applegate 1,275.

FIRE ACTIVITY

There were seventy-seven fires during the year, burning 205 acres and costing $1400. They had 30 man-caused fires, 17 of which were caused by smokers.

IMPROVEMENTS

The Anna Creek Forest highway extending from Ft. Klamath to the boundary of Crater Lake National Park was completed October 17, the project to be maintained by the Secretary (of Agriculture) for two years.

Road camps were located at Tiller Trail Road; Big Elk Road, William Hughes, foreman; and Crater Creek on Diamond Lake Highway, Ernest Ingram, foreman.

The annual work party made up of rangers assembled in Medford during the winter and reconstructed a portion of the Medford-Trail telephone line from Reese Creek northward.

As mentioned above, William L. Jones, acting ranger on the Butte Falls-Dead Indian District, also supervised the road construction crews. He located the Mosquito, Lake of the Woods-Fish Lake Roads and the Carberry Roads.

A lookout house was built on Tallowbox Lookout by McDaniels. The lumber was cut for the building at the Medford warehouse by Floyd Murray, Bert Nason and others. Lumber was packed in by horse by Clyde Smith, packer at Star Ranger Station.

Ranger Poole built a new toolhouse at Trail Ranger Station. He also had a crew of seven working on a new telephone line up Elk Creek.

Bert Peachey, forest fireman at Ashland, also built a lookout house on Wagner Butte. On October 23 Ranger Port and J. J. Deadmond went to Wagner Butte and finished the building. (This house was torn down and replaced with a new one in 1961. C.E.B.)

GRAZING

The season was very favorable with a normal precipitation lasting until the middle of July, which was later than it had lasted for several previous years.

The stock entered the forest in excellent condition and were in good condition when they came from it at the end of the season. Very little overgrazing was noticed while going over the forest.

Number of stock grazed under permit was 9,930 cattle and horses by 168 permittees and 8,683 sheep by nine permittees. Campers and settlers grazed without permit 250 cattle and 275 horses by 105 owners.

Losses of stock were: 20 from tall larkspur and water hemlock poisoning, 11 cattle from eating too much salt, five cattle and ten sheep from predatory animals.

Forest Supervisor Rankin noted in his annual grazing report:

"The Fort Klamath country on the east side of the Cascade Mountains, a farming community of several thousand acres, is being turned into a pasture for beef cattle, and this shift of stock acts to the advantage of the stockmen on the west side of the Cascade Mountains as well as to the National Forest ranges. This pasture produces first quality beef in the pasture class. Beef value is from one-half to one cent more per pound on the east side than on the west, which is a good margin. The stock make a decided gain and the farmers handle them on a percentage of gain basis - five-ninths to the farmer who owns the pasture and four-ninths to the owner of the stock. This has been carried on for three years and has caused a shift of from 1500 to 3000 head from the west to the east side each spring."

The carrying capacity by districts was estimated as follows:

	Cattle & Horses	Sheep
Rogue River Dist.	2000	5000
Butte Falls Dist.	3000	3000
Dead Indian Dist.	5000	2200
Klamath Dist.	1200	5000
Applegate Dist.	3500	2400
	14700	17600

The supervisor advised that the established grazing periods should be the same as in the past season:

For cattle and horses:

     April 1 to October 31.
     April 16 to October 31.
     May 1 to October 31.
     May 16 to October 31.
     June 1 to October 31.
     June 16 to October 31.
     July 1 to October 31.
     November 1 to December 15.

For sheep and goats:

     April 1 to December 15.
     July 1 to October 16.
     July 1 to August 31.

On the subject of "Game Protection" the report of Supervisor Rankin commented:

"The estimated number of deer on the Forest is 3,000, of elk from ten to twenty.

"There has been cooperation between the State and Forest officers in handling the enforcement of the game laws. In all cases of violation of these laws the state officers made the arrests and the cases were handled to the satisfaction of both. Our real trouble is with the automobile hunters, the number of which is growing so far out of proportion to the number of State and Forest officers that many of them violate the law and get away. However, the public sentiment has improved so greatly that we are receiving lots of assistance in the prevention of poaching.

"The Superintendent of the Crater Lake National Park recently informed me that he has been trying to get a game law to protect the bear within a radius of twenty miles on each side of the Park boundary, and that the State Game Warden advises him that this would not be fair to the stockmen because bear kill their stock. In a way the Superintendent is right, for their pet bear cannot winter in the Park and drift back onto the Forest, where they are very easily killed by hunters."

LANDS ACTIVITIES

A special use permit was issued on February 6 to Ed P. Beckelhymer for a repair shop at Union Creek. The fee was $10 per year. This service was needed for the travelling public to help them on their way to Crater Lake.

Store at Union Creek in connection with resort permit. (U.S.F.S. truck No. 48 parked in front of building) - Photo by Fred W. Cleator, June, 1923

Ed Beckelhymer's garage and delicatessen on west side of the Crater Lake Highway at Union Creek. - Photo by L. P. Brown, June, 1927

1924

Personnel:

District Forest Rangers:

Scalers:

Pelican Bay Lumber Company Sale: John D. Holst, Royal U. "Doc" Cambers, Lloyd G. Lyman (ranger).

Owen Oregon Lumber Company Sale (Sept. 24, 1924): George H. West, Stephen A. Moore.

Annie Creek Lumber Company Sale: John E. Gribble, ranger (worked as scaler).

Forest Guards and Other Temporary Crews:

PERSONNEL AND ORGANIZATION CHANGES

Forest Examiner William J. Sproat arrived in Medford July 1 from Baker, Ore. He previously was assigned on the Colville Forest at Republic, Wash.

Technical Assistant F.V. "Jack" Horton spent the year on the Crater working on the Range Appraisal Study.

William L. Jones again served as Superintendent of Construction and District Ranger of the Butte Falls-Dead Indian District. He served in the latter capacity from March 15 until the latter part of September.

D. A. Christiansen, Junior Forester, reported for work July 1 and on July 5 arrived on the Pelican Bay Lumber Company Sale to help hoist mark and scale timber. Christiansen left on August 15 for an Eastern Washington Forest.

MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS

New Junior Foresters Added: Twelve new forestry school graduates have been added to the Forest Service force in this district. Six of these are assigned to National Forests in Oregon, three in the state of Washington, two to timber cruising work throughout the District and one has already been assigned to the new Forest Experiment Station staff. The men are: -

These junior foresters were the first new forest school graduates that had been taken on by D-6 in several years. This was made possible by a special Congressional Appropriation to provide for more technically trained men for scientific forestry work in the Northwest.

- Six Twenty-Six, August 1924, p. 17

George H. Cecil resigned as District Forester in November and was replaced by Christopher M. Granger from District 2 in Colorado.

Mention should also be made of a common practice during these times. When the supervisor was absent the chief clerk was usually acting supervisor. Miss E. V. Cook served in this capacity and was a very versatile woman as exemplified by Lee C. Port's diary of March 24: "Called Miss Cook in regard to mule (leg swollen). She said Rankin was away and that I had better try some hot applications on the mule's leg until she could talk to Rankin in regard to getting a veternarian."

Most of the rangers worked on a farm census in December to determine farm population for the Department of Agriculture.

CLARKE-McNARY LAW

The Clarke-McNary Law, enacted June 7, 1924, laid down a policy of national aid to States in the advancement of forestry along broader lines than those previously pursued by the Forest Service under earlier acts, and provided a legislative basis for appropriations in furtherance of this policy. The first appropriation will be available in fiscal year 1926. A program was approved by the Secretary of Agriculture consisting of:

(1) Cooperative study of the protective requirements necessary to keep the forest lands in each state productive.

(2) Financial cooperation looking to the establishment and maintenance of state-wide protective systems on all classes of forest land needing protection, whether publicly or privately owned and whether timbered, cut over or burned.

(3) Cooperative study of forest taxation with a view to formulating recommendations that will better adjust tax laws to timber growing.

(4) Cooperative production of forest planting stock for distribution to encourage the growing of timber crops, wind breaks and shelterbelts on farms.

(5) Cooperate with the State agricultural extension services and department of forestry to make better known and bring into wider use good forestry practices by farmers.

FOREST MANAGEMENT

A new limitation in the amount of timber which may be cut each year was prepared. More information was available on the timber stand, acreage of productive forest land, and rate of growth. The Forester (Chief) requested this revision and the new limitation of cuts were approved by the Secretary of Agriculture, Henry C. Wallace.

The method adopted was to calculate the potential annual growth by using the Austrian formula with the normal increment as the basis. The limitation of cut is then the normal annual increment plus (or minus) the surplus (or deficit) growing stock distributed uniformily through a 60 year period. The normal growing stock for the Douglas fir region is taken to be from 150 to 350 board feet per acre per year, and in the yellow pine region an average normal increment of 80 board feet is used. The productive acreage and the present merchantable stand are taken from the revised extensive timber reconnaissance estimates.

The recent reconnaissance indicated a much larger productive area than before, and the surplus growing stock was found to be distributed over a shorter cutting period. The limitation of cut on the Crater was calculated to be 154,000,000 board feet per year.

- Six Twenty-Six, August 1924, p. 21-22

Owen-Oregon Lumber Company laid steel on the Four Bit Creek sale area preparatory to starting cutting next season. A sale of 17,900,000 feet of yellow pine and other species was made to the Wheeler-Olmstead Company, at a stumpage rate of $5.50 per M for the pine.

A sale of 84,000,000 board feet of timber valued at $267,000 was made on Sept. 10, 1924 to the Owen Oregon Lumber Company on Four Bit Creek in the Butte Falls District.

The Pacific Northwest Forest Experiment Station was established in Portland. Thornton T. Munger was the first director, having transferred from the Division of Forest Management in the District 6 office.

Timber cut on the forest amounted to 36,000,000 board feet from the Pelican Bay Lumber Company sale (35.1 M M) and D. J. Puckett sale (.9 M M).

IMPROVEMENTS

The winter work and spring work for the rangers consisted of construction of the Carberry Road. Ernest Ingram was foreman in charge. They camped at Hutton in January and moved the camp to Ezra Arnold's place on Carberry Road later that month. Some of the rangers cut telephone pole stubs near Hutton, then worked on the road job and a few of them painted signs at the Medford warehouse. William L. Jones located for the new road and kept the crew supplied with tools and grub.

Road camps were located on the Carberry Road, Lee Goodman, foreman; Mosquito (Butte Falls), William Hughes, foreman; Lake of the Woods (West Side road), Daley, foreman; Middle Fork of Rogue River, Bill Rankin, foreman.

Jones walked over his district much of the summer to keep road location ahead of the road crews and to administer the large - Butte Falls-Dead Indian District.

Lookout houses were built on Whiskey Peak, Old Baldy and Bald Mountain. The lumber was cut for these houses at the Medford warehouse by Floyd Murray and others. Murray erected the house on Whiskey Peak in April. Charles Cook and Howard Ash built the Bald Mountain house in September on the Rogue River District. Andy Poole and Jack Plymale built a new addition to the house at Trail Ranger Station in February and March.

Motor vehicles on the forest consisted of a White truck, two Dodge trucks, Pierce-Arrow truck, Dodge Screen Body truck, and a Dodge roadster. They also had a grader, a ten-ton and a five-tone tractor.

Trail construction crews were located on all districts to make more areas accessible for fire protection.

Roads were accessible by cars but the forest people as well as the travelling public had many trials and tribulations travelling them as evidenced by the following excerpt from Andy Poole's diary for February 7: "Plymale and I left Union Creek. Drove in my car to Trail R. S. We found some bad road one place on the Flounce Rock grade we ran into a landslide about 1000 feet long. We were 1-1/2 hours getting through it. The grade was full of loose rock rolled in from the new grade. Some of the rocks we could roll out. One big one had to back up the second time to get around it. There were several places between Payton and McLeod Bridge that was almost impassable. One place most every car had to be helped through with a team or tractor. Well we got through somehow, don't know just how. Just as we got home the timer slipped. That was luck for once. If it would happened up in the snow?"

(click on image for a PDF version)

FIRE CONTROL

The Ashland Watershed was closed under Regulation T—1 because of the extreme fire hazard.

Pelican Bay Lumber Company prohibited the use of tailormade cigarettes on their operations, on both government and private lands during the fire season. These cigarettes were not sold at the commissary during the fire season.

The fire hazard was checked on August 17, 18 and 19 when between 1.25 and 1.5 inches of rain fell, wetting the ground down to about six inches. Below that the ground was dry as dust.

The forest had 112 fires this year, 39 of which were man caused. Total area burned was 1,728 acres with a cost of $7237 for fire suppression.

LANDS ACTIVITIES

The forest reported a total of 81,427 visits to the forest during the year. Distribution by districts was: Klamath 25,472; Rogue River 50,945; Butte Falls-Dead Indian 3,610; and Applegate 1,400.

1925

Personnel:

Forest Rangers:

Scalers:

Pelican Bay Lumber Company Sale: John D. Holst, Royal U. "Doc" Cambers; E. S. Holderman, Walter Sackman, Lumbermen.

Annie Creek Lumber Company Sale: John E. Gribble, Forest Ranger.

Owen Oregon Lumber Company Sale: George H. West, Stephen A. Moore, lumbermen.

Forest Guards (Incomplete)

PERSONNEL CHANGES

Eugene J. Rogers, District Forest Ranger, was transferred on July 1 from the Klamath District to the Butte Falls-Dead Indian District.

Floyd F. Murray, warehouseman and equipment operator, passed the Civil Service examination for Forest Ranger and succeeded Rogers on July 1 as District Forest Ranger, Klamath District.

E. S. Holderman and Walter Sackman, Lumbermen, transferred on April 1 from the Siuslaw to the Crater and were assigned as scalers on the Pelican Bay Lumber Company sale.

William L. Jones, turned over the Butte Falls-Dead Indian District to Eugene J. Rogers on July 1 and organized the "Flying Squadron" on the Crater Forest. (See Fire Activity for additional details.)

Lowell Ash worked a short time on the Rogue River District on fire suppression and trail work.

Andy Poole's wife died in October.

ORGANIZATION

George H. Cecil, District Forester at Portland, resigned in December to work for the Los Angeles County Fire Department. He started working for the Government in 1903 and in 1908, when the National Forest Districts were established, he became Associate District Forester to E. T. Allen. Later when Allen resigned, Cecil served under C. S. Chapman who succeeded Allen. In 1911 Cecil was made District Forester of Oregon, Washington and Alaska.

Christopher M. Granger, the new District Forester of District 6, came from District 2 at Denver, Colorado where he was Assitant District Forester of Forest Management and later in the Operation Division. He started with the Forest Service on July 1, 1907, as a Forest Assistant on the Sequoia National Forest, then transferred to District 2 where he served as Deputy Supervisor, Supervisor and Assistant District Forester.

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES

A Forest Supervisor's meeting was held in Portland from January 26 to 29. It was the first such meeting since 1923. It was largely a round table discussion on Operation, Forest Management, Grazing, Lands and Public Relations.

A District Ranger's meeting was held at Medford from March 6 to 11 with rangers and supervisors from the Crater, Fremont and Siskiyou Forests. Fire Chief W. B. "Bush" Osborne from the district office lead the discussion on Fire Prevention and Suppression. (See accompanying picture.)

The first recorded district meeting of the Superintendents of Construction was held in July at Wind River, Columbia National Forest. They received training in construction and maintenance. Those in attendance were: C. M. Granger, district forester; Phil Dater, district engineer; Ted Flynn; F. H. Brundage; K. P. Cecil; Pierpont, Jess Mann, Ira E. Jones; R. A. Bottcher; Lloyd Hougland, Johnson; R. E. Grefe; George Bonebrake; Mitchell, Mel Lewis and William L. Jones.

District Forester C. M. Granger made an inspection and get acquainted trip to the Crater Forest in May.

Left to right, front row: 1. Porter King (State); 2. Hugh B. "Bert" Rankin; 3. Floyd V. "Jack" Horton; 4. Lee C. Port; 5. Norman C. White; 6. William L. Jones; 7. Jesse G. C. Elgan; 8. Pearl Ingram; 9. K. C. "Karl" Langfield. Second row: 1. W. B. "Bush" Osborne; 2. Mel Lewis; 3. Janie V. Smith; 4. A. H. Wright; 5. E. Violet Cook; 6. Jess P. DeWitt; 7. Bill LaSater; 8. John E. Gribble; 9. ______. Third row: 1. Lawrence Frizzell; 2. Delbert D. Brown; 3. Eugene J. "Gene" Rogers; 4. Andrew T. Poole; 5. John D. Holst; 6. George Case; 7. Art A. Moore; 4. John Scharff; 5. George West; 6. Lee P. Brown.

ROAD AND TRAIL FUNDS

Federal funds for national forest roads and trails have been made available under four separate legislative measures. The oldest of them first appeared in the agricultural appropriation act of August 10, 1912, and was made continuing legislation the following year. It created what is commonly designated the "10 per cent fund," consisting of 10 per cent of the annual receipts from the national forests.

The second measure was enacted July 11, 1916. Section 8 of the Federal road act of that date appropriated $1,000,000 annually for 10 years beginning with the fiscal year 1917. This appropriation created what is known as the "section 8 fund."

The "Federal forest road construction fund" was created by the Post Office appropriation act of February 28, 1919, making available $3,000,000 annually for three years. Finally, the Federal highway act of November 9, 1921, created two distinct funds, the "Forest highway fund" and the "Forest development fund."

The purpose for the forest development fund is primarily to build and maintain roads and trails needed for the protection and use of the forest resources. The purpose of the forest highway fund is primarily to construct roads which, while serving the national forests, form part of the public highway system of the States in which the national forests are located and which in consequence have a proportionately diminished area of taxable lands.

The law creating the section 8 fund, while based in part at least on recognition of a responsibility of the federal Government, created by land ownership, to aid local highway development, and while making local cooperation in the work obligatory, had definitely in view both forest development and community service, going hand in hand.

(Report of The Forester — 1925)

IMPROVEMENTS

Telephone line from Jacksonville to Star Ranger Station was metallicized during the winter with the help of the rangers and lumbermen. The entire fifteen miles was done with some restubbing and guying of most of the poles.

Each year Jackson County built about four miles of the Butte Falls Highway, forcing the forest to move its metallic phone line for the same distance. A heavy windfall last winter caused more damage to the telephone lines in the forest than in any previous year.

Road camps were located at the following places: Mosquito, Bill Rankin, foreman; Dead Indian-Soda Springs, Bill Hughes, foreman; Big Elk, Chester Jones, foreman; Tiller-Trail, Ed Pence, foreman; Applegate, J. J. Deadmond, foreman.

The cupola on the lookout house at Wagner Butte blew off during the winter. This was repaired during the spring months.

The Odessa Ranger Station buildings were torn down during December by Ranger Floyd Murray.

The first record of a trail inventory was found for this year, appearing as follows:

A new house was built at Union Creek Ranger Station; the lookout house on Herschberger Mountain was constructed.

FIRE ACTIVITY

The first recorded fire-guard training school was held on the forest this year. A one-day training session was held at Trail Ranger Station on June 19 for the Rogue River District personnel, at Big Elk Ranger Station on June 22 for the Butte Falls-Dead Indian personnel and at Big Elk on June 23 for the Klamath personnel and at Star Ranger Station on June 23 for the Applegate personnel. F. V. "Jack" Horton was the instructor assisted by the respective district rangers.

Also initiated this year was the "Flying Squadron," an expert crew on fire suppression to take charge of large and potentially dangerous fires.

William L. Jones was foreman in charge of the "Flying Squadron" on the Crater. He was stationed at Dead Indian-Soda Springs where he worked on road construction. Crew members were Bill Hughes, Charles Thurston, Byron DeFord, and Bill Peck who was the cook.

They were sent to the following fires: July — Big Camas Fire, Umpqua; August — Imnaha Fire, Crater.

This organization proved effective as they were activated for several years thereafter.

The Crater "Flying Squadron" broke up on September 15.

The forest had 76 fires during the year of which 54 were caused by lightning. Total area burned was 1956 acres, costing a total of $9387.

LANDS ACTIVITIES

Lee Brown, forest examiner, surveyed an area at Union Creek for a special use permit for a delicatessen shop, applied for by Ed P. Beckelhymer. A permit for this shop was issued on April 3 for .28 acres with an annual fee of $10.

The Crater Forest reported a total of 80,295 visitors to the forest during the year. The Rogue River District reported 50,850; Butte Falls-Dead Indian District reported 4,665; Klamath District 23,255; and the Applegate District 1,525.

Another special use permit was issued this year to Mrs. Grace Rambo, of Weed, Calif., for a restaurant at Huckleberry City. The annual fee was $10.

TIMBER PRODUCTS

A sale of 20,000 hewn railroad ties of lodgepole pine was made to the Pelican Bay Lumber Company to be cut from the Sun Creek Hill area. The ties were sold at three cents each and cutting is to be completed by Dec. 31, 1927.

Another movement was started by Jackson County Judge Gardner to get the O & C lands within the national forests made a part of the forest and administered by the Forest Service.

The control work for Western Pine beetle was not done this year in Southern Oregon and Northern California on the Crater, Fremont, Modoc, Klamath Indian Reservation, O & C lands and public domain lands.

Control operations were conducted in 1922, 1923 and 1924 on private and government lands on a cooperative basis. During the ten year period prior to the control operations, the Western Pine beetle killed over one billion board feet of yellow pine or about ten percent of the estimated present stand on the million acres within the control area.

Control work consisted of felling, peeling the bark and burning the bark of felled trees. About 40,000 M board feet of beetle infested pine was cut. Because of the large and inaccessible area over which the treated timber was spread and because of the prevalence of sap stain, it was not possible to salvage this beetle infested dead timber.

Ranger Andy Poole looked over Woodruff Meadows area for possibility of blister rust control work. The first experimental work on eradication of ribes plants to control white pine blister rust was started this year at Woodruff Meadows on the Rogue River District. The Bureau of Plant Industry (U.S.D.A.) supervised the work from its office at Corvallis, Oregon. Various methods of eradication were tried out as well as crew sizes that would make the best working unit for specific conditions and specialized grubbing tools. Other objectives of the initial work were the kinds of maps and other records that might be needed to develop control costs and production analysis.

GRAZING

About 8000 cattle and 5700 sheep grazed on the forest this year.

Supervisor Rankin reported that the intermingled O & C lands were a serious problem in administering the national forest range. He recommended the Forest Service acquire these lands to block up national forest ownership which would make possible better range management.

He also reported the stock associations were not as cooperative during the past few years as they were previously.

The following is quoted from Rankin's annual report:

"It is of interest to note that the suit between the cattlemen and sheepmen in this locality has been decided in favor of the sheepmen. In brief, this suit was brought by cattlemen to prevent sheepmen from bringing their flocks into the cattle region. It seems there is a law which, in effect, states that sheep may not be run on open range which is recognized by past usage as cattle range. In this particular case the sheepmen succeeded in proving that sheep had been run on this range in past years. It is not thought that this decision will affect administration on the Crater at once, but should the sheep and cattle markets remain in the same relative position for any length of time there will doubtless be some demand for sheep range on the west slope of the Cascades."

ROADS AND TRAILS
1920's

"Jack" Horton and his horse at the watering trough on Moon Prairie, Brush Mountain Trail. The trail had been in use for over six years when the photo was taken in October, 1925. - I. P. Brown

Forest Service trail and trail bridge across the Middle Fork of the Applegate River. Used by stockmen and miners in their use of the forest, and by scouts, fishermen and hunters for their recreation in the forest. In the photo a group of Boy Scouts had stopped on the bridge during a hike. - I. P. Brown

Mazama Creek Road Camp, September, 1920.

Fish Lake - Lake of the Woods Road Camp, October, 1928. - Lee P. Brown Photo

—Applegate Road—

These photos taken by Norcross in July, 1926 show major road construction in a section of the Applegate Road. left: a section looking "approximately" south; below: the same cut looking "approximately" north.

—Imnaha-Lodgepole Road—
(Constructed 1927)

Truck #120 with a test load on 8% grade out of south fork of Rogue River.

20% grade at start of road test (not improved forest road, but only one to be traveled direct from Butte Falls to Lodgepole Ranger Station.)

—Fish Lake-Lake of the Woods Road—

Photos by Lee P. Brown show a view west on a loose lava flow before actual construction of the road began, and then, a year later, after its completion. Picture on the top was taken November 10, 1928. Centerline stakes may be seen in rock. Picture below was taken December 26, 1929 from the same station as the one above.

Umpqua-Crater forest boundary on the Diamond Lake Road. August, 1926. - C. B. Neal

Road maintenance unit constructed in the Forest Service shop from a John Deere tractor and an old grader frame. (Exact date unknown)

Forest Service Warehouse and Shop, Medford, Oregon built in 1925 and '26 near Jackson and Hawthorne Streets. - Lee P. Brown, May 13, 1927

Union Creek Ranger Station with Mrs. Elgan standing at the door. June 15, 1927

SUMMER RECREATION IN THE NATIONAL FOREST IN "THE GOOD OLD DAYS"

A camper established at Crater Creek in 1924. - L. P. Brown

Rocky Point summer resort on Pelican Bay in February, 1912. - J. E. Gribble

Store at Lake of the Woods resort, July, 1927. - F. W. Cleator

Mouth of Recreation Creek, Klamath Lake. Houseboat shown in center propped up on piling and used for summer home. - F. W. Cleator

FISH LAKE
1928

View southwest from road camp at northeast end of Fish Lake looking toward Robinson Butte "to show dead timber due to flooding and fire around lake." - Quotations and Photos - L. P. Brown

View east from the southeast end of Fish Lake Dam looking toward the north shore of narrows "which in summer shrinks to size of a creek exposing mud flats and debris. Picture shows north shore line suitable for summer homes." - Quotations and Photos - L. P. Brown

1926

Personnel:

Forest Rangers:

Scalers:

Pelican Bay Lumber Company sale: J. D. Holst, Herschel Obye, E. S. Holderman, Royal U. Cambers, Andrew T. Poole.

Owen Oregon Lumber Company sale: S. A. Moore, George H. West.

Anna Creek Lumber Company sale: John E. Gribble.

Forest Guards (Incomplete):

PERSONNEL AND ORGANIZATION CHANGES

Andrew T. Poole, ranger at Trail for 17 years, turned his district over to Jesse G. C. Elgan in April and went to work on the Pelican Bay Lumber Company Pot Hole sale scaling logs and marking timber on April 26.

Headquarters for the Rogue River District was moved from Trail to Union Creek in May. Elgan's reaction to the physical condition of his new headquarters was to note that trash was "eye deep" all around the station. After a general clean-up, he planted flowers and a lawn.

C. W. Welty, first fire dispatcher on the Crater, reported for duty to Medford in April, set up caches, checked tools and subsistence supplies, and then outfitted camps with tools and equipment for the fire season.

Royal U. Cambers returned to the Crater in May after five months on the Deschutes Forest and in July, after miscellaneous work and hauling jobs, returned to Pelican Bay Lumber Company timber sale work.

LANDS ACTIVITIES

Lake of the Woods Recreation Company, represented by F. E. Wahl of Ashland, Ore., was issued a special use permit to build a resort at the lake in July. The fee for the 3.8 acre tract amounted to $25 for the first year, $50 per year thereafter.

IMPROVEMENTS

Many of the regular scalers, the maintenance crew, and in at least one instance, a district ranger, worked on the remodeling of the Forest Service garage in Medford during the first four months of the year.

William L. Jones spent most of the month of October at South Fork camp locating a road upriver to Wickiup Creek following the old Prospect-Fourmile Lake road. In November he relocated the Thompson Creek road from near the summit and conducted a conditional survey of the Dead Indian-Soda Springs road with C. R. Moore.

Floyd Murray began the dismantling of Odessa Ranger Station in January and continued the work into April. He was joined by Lee P. Brown on the project in March.

Lack of funds halted the road building project to Lodgepole Ranger Station in November.

Lee Port located Seven Mile Ridge Trail in July.

Two-ton Holt tractors were adopted as standard motive power equipment for road maintenance and light construction work in District 6. One of the 13 tractors which were purchased for use on the district forests was allotted to the Crater.

In December John E. Gribble, C. W. Welty, Jesse Elgan, Eugene Rogers and "Doc" Cambers moved supplies to the basement of the Post Office building in Medford.

FIRE ACTIVITY

Fire season opened from four to six weeks ahead of normal on March 21 when a small fire was discovered in the timber between Prospect and Butte Falls.

During the months of June and July, William L. Jones was constantly on the move fighting fires until late in July when he took sick leave because of "sore feet." He was under a doctor's care until July 26 when he returned to work, this time on road location.

The annual fire report showed a total of 70 fires caused by lightning, three started from camp fires, 18 caused by smokers, one each by brush burning and lumbering, and eight incendiary fires were started. Thirty-three were man caused. A total of 5861 acres was burned, 4344 on national forest lands. More money was spent in 1925 to fight fire than had been spent in any previous year, with $24,093 listed as the total cost of fire fighting.

MISCELLANEOUS ACTIVITIES

The annual game census report listed 16 elk on the Crater, 3645 blacktail deer, 320 bear, and no mule deer.

During August, men working on timber sales noticed large numbers of small seedlings cut and partly peeled by chipmunks, ground squirrels and gophers. Normally rodent damage to seedlings was light, but after two years of drought and lack of dew at night, the rodents were desperate for the moisture they could get from the fresh stems.

There was some talk of changing the name of the Crater National Forest in order to avoid the resultant confusion in the local press and the mind of the general public because of the similarity of names with Crater Lake National Park.

Douglas Ingram spent some time in June on the Butte Falls District cruising timber and doing miscellaneous work.

FOREST MANAGEMENT

The Pelican Bay Lumber Company completed its fourteenth year of logging on the Crater, its payments to the Government amounting to a little over one million dollars. Cutting had been in progress every year since 1911, and at the close of the 1925 season, the cut was over 279 million board feet of pine and 19 million board feet of other species.

Total annual cut on the forest was 64,286.99 M board feet valued at $253,807.18.

RECREATION

An estimated 94,770 individuals took advantage of the recreation facilities in the forest in 1926. They included 1045 special uses, 10,825 campers, 7500 picnickers, 74,150 motorists, and 1250 hotel guests.

GRAZING

Due to the unusually early season, causing the Forest range to be ready for use about a month earlier than usual, and also due to the extreme shortage of feed on the low range outside the Forest, over half of the stock was allowed to enter the Forest fifteen days before the regular opening date. In the Butte Falls and Dead Indian districts all stock left the Forest from two to six weeks before the close of the season on account of lack of feed. A decrease in the number of livestock associations was noted. No information on the total number of stock grazed by permittees was available in the records.

1927

Personnel:

Forest Rangers:

Scalers:

Pelican Bay Lumber Company sale: John D. Holst, George H. West, Collis H. Huntington, Royal U. Cambers, Herschel C. Obye.

Anna Creek Lumber Company sale: John E. Gribble.

Owen Oregon Lumber Company sale: S. A. Moore, George H. West (April).

P. L. Beck Lumber Company sale: Andrew T. Poole.

Forest Guards (Incomplete):

PERSONNEL AND ORGANIZATION CHANGES

Miss E. Violet Cook, chief clerk on the Crater Forest since September, 1912, and Jess P. DeWitt, a veteran Forest Service man on the Siskiyou Forest, were married in August. Both had entered the Forest Service in 1907, DeWitt serving continuously on the Siskiyou. Mrs. DeWitt, nee Cook, resigned her position in the Medford office following her marriage.

Norman C. White was transferred from Lakeview to the Crater as Assistant Supervisor in July.

Royal U. Cambers spent several days in May scaling in Westfir on the Santiam Forest, returning to the Crater and the Pelican Bay Lumber Company camp where he also scaled logs with Holst. He marked timber later in the summer and was working on a survey crew running the Crater Lake National Park boundary at the time he was transferred to the Mt. Hood Forest on August 8.

Andrew Poole scaled on the Wallowa Forest in February and March. In May he went to Pelican Ranger Station on the P. L. Beck timber sale (Moss Creek unit) where the "big wheels" were used in logging, as, it was noted, they were also being used on the Owen Oregon Company operation.

Jesse Elgan had a full season of what apparently were frustrating experiences. He was repeatedly involved in vehicle repair, including trucks, cars and a motorcycle, for everything from "taking up con rods on Ford #58 for the third time this year" to (while on a fire, no less) having "more tire trouble than 6 cars should have" in addition to carrying out inspections, construction and maintenance work and fighting fire during the summer. Finally in September, he entered the following statement in his diary suggesting still another problem:

"When a few more of these 'would be Foresters' get off the job I'll probably get something done. They are a poor excuse at anything except at the table where they are 100%!!"

MISCELLANEOUS ACTIVITIES

A Forest Guard School was held at Union Creek from June 20-23. It was the first forest-wide school to be held on the Crater. Fifty men attended. They were assigned to eight-man, one-half day classes with the following instructors teaching the following subjects:

Eugene Rogers — Packing
Jesse G. C. Elgan — Fire Reports
C. W. Welty — Dispatching
William L. Jones — Firefighting
William J. Sproat — Compass and Pacing
Floyd F. Murray — Telephone construction and repair

In April Lee Port presented talks on fire prevention to pupils at Uniontown, Crump, Sterling, Ruch, Applegate, Thompson Creek, Provolt, Forest Creek, Anderson Creek, Wagner Creek and Neil Creek schools.

Douglas Ingram spent the latter part of the month of May on the Crater and Siskiyou forests securing plant specimens.

Ranger examinations were given by William J. Sproat on October 25 to four men: Harvey J. Spiegelberg and George C. Hepworth, both of the Klamath Agency; Homer T. Wakefield, Prospect, a guard with Elgan; and Albert Young, Jacksonville, a guard with Port.

July 20 the survey party which ran the national park boundary, established camp on Whiskey Creek near the Crater Lake road, later moved to Wildcat Springs on the Anna Creek side of the area. In addition to "Doc" Cambers, the party included Stephen Moore, who cooked for the outfit, George West, Herschel Obye and William Sproat. Cambers left the group early in August when he was transferred to Mt. Hood, and eight days later, the survey party broke camp.

Late in February heavy rains caused a general flood in southern Oregon and flood waters soaked supplies and damaged records in the Medford Post Office Building basement.

The Applegate District was especially hard hit. Star Gulch bridge, the Elliott Creek bridge at Joe Bar, the Middle Fork bridge and the Carberry bridge were all washed out. The road was washed badly at Squaw Creek, Manzanita and Seattle Bar.

Two bridges near Trail were washed out by high water. In March, following an inspection of flood damage on the Applegate District, Superintendent of Construction Jones hired Fred Warner as road foreman for repair work on the Carberry Road bridge across the Applegate River.

With Jones, Ranger Lee Port helped Warner and Dan Middlebusher, foreman on the Middle Fork bridge project, establish their road camps.

An all-day picnic was held for families and personnel of the Klamath, Siskiyou and Crater Forests in Lithia Park in Ashland on April 17. Part of the Klamath group was prevented from attending by flood damage and road conditions.

Inspection of flood damage on the Applegate was made in April by Jones, Supervisor Rankin and Ted Flynn from the Port land office.

FOREST MANAGEMENT AND PRODUCTS

An experiment in transplanting Western yellow pine seedlings from overstocked areas was carried out in May by John Holst, "Doc" Cambers and Herschel Obye. They transplanted from an overstocked area 180 three- to seven-year seedlings to a plot 100 by 180 feet along the Diamond Lake road. A sign was erected to call the attention of passing motorists to the area.

More than 30 different tree species with growth expectancy of at least 12 inches diameter breast high were growing within the Crater National Forest boundaries at that time. They included eight pines, one of which, syvestis, an exotic, occurred scattered over a square mile or more in the snowshoe region. Its occurrence was due to broadcast seeding in the winter of 1912-13, and had reached a height of nine feet by 1925. Other species were four true firs, four oaks, two spruces, two maples, two hemlocks, two cedars and an ash in addition to both chinquapin and madrona reaching merchantable size.

Timber sale records indicate 31,790.06 M board feet of timber valued at $144,439.77 was cut, and 6,089.92 M board feet, valued at $26,010.76, was sold during the year.

GAME CENSUS

The annual game census report for 1927 listed 340 black bear and 23 elk on the Crater. Deer census was illegible. All of the elk were counted on the Klamath District and the Applegate District accounted for 200 of the total bear population.

FIRE ACTIVITIES

1927 was a bad lightning-fire year. According to the summary of the ten-day fire reports, 72 percent of the total number of District 6 fires were chargeable to lightning. Sixty-seven lightning storms were reported on the Crater.

According to the annual fire report 72 fires of the 101 total were caused by lightning, seven by camp fires, 19 by smokers, two were of incendiary origin with one caused by a "miscellaneous" cause. Three hundred acres of national forest land was destroyed by fire. The cost of fire fighting for the season was $5,929.

All fire help was laid off on October 10.

GRAZING

The condition of the range over the entire Forest was very much better than it had been for several years. There was some decrease in the number of stock grazed, and the range was left in good shape in the fall.

There was a decided increase in cattle losses from black-leg in the Dead Indian District, with losses on the other districts about normal. All indications were that less loss than usual occurred from poisonous plants.

1928

Personnel:

District Rangers:

Lumbermen:

John D. Holst, chief lumberman, Pelican Bay sale; George H. West, senior lumberman, Owen Oregon sale; Stephen A. Moore, Pelican Bay sale.

Rangers on Sales:

John E. Gribble
A. H. Cochran
Andrew T. Poole
Collis H. Huntington

PERSONNEL AND ORGANIZATION CHANGES

E. S. Holderman, on timber sale work for several years was permanently transferred to Mount Hood.

Ranger Floyd F. Murray, for three years in charge of the Klamath District, was promoted to Superintendent of Construction on Mt. Hood. Ranger Herschel C. Obye, on scaling and cut-over work on the Pelican Bay Lumber Company sale, took over as district ranger of the Klamath District.

Andy Poole and Collis Huntington, the oldest and the youngest men on the Crater in length of service, were both transferred to the Fremont National Forest, Poole in May and Huntington in June.

Dispatcher C. W. Welty also scaled, on both the Pelican Bay timber sale and the P. L. Beck Company sale.

Headquarters for the Klamath District was moved from Pelican Bay to Fort Klamath in May.

Colonel William B. Greeley, Chief Forester of the Forest Service since May 1, 1920, resigned on May 1, 1928 to accept the job as general manager of the West Coast Lumber Manufacturers Association in Seattle, Washington. Greeley was succeeded by Major Robert Y. Stuart, Assistant Forester in Charge of Public Relations.

MISCELLANEOUS ACTIVITIES

The Medford Chamber of Commerce agreed to stamp all of their tourist or road maps with the Forest Service fire prevention shield.

No total figures for game animals on the Forest in 1923 are available. A special porcupine census estimated 6600 porcupine on the four districts of the Crater: Applegate, 2500; Rogue River, 1350; Butte Falls-Dead Indian, 1250; and Klamath, 1500.

Norman C. White spent a great deal of time on public relations work before the fire season began, showing slides in schools and movies in theatres, and setting up window displays.

IMPROVEMENTS

W. L. Jones located the Fish Lake-Lake of the Woods Road and work started in July.

Ranger Elgan selected the lookout site on Huckleberry Mountain.

FOREST PRODUCTS

Two fallers of the Pelican Bay Lumber Company turned their hands to the Christmas tree business in November at the end of the logging season. They purchased 2500 Douglas fir trees at varying rates and realized net revenue amounting to $1,130.50 after expenses "for labor and traveling expenses."

A total of 73,084,680 board feet of timber valued at $310,563.32, was cut on Crater Forest lands and 18,108,070 board feet, valued at $56,757.93, was sold during the year.

McSweeney-McNary Forest Research Bill became law. President Coolidge signed on May 22 the McNary Bill marking another step forward in the building of a federal forest policy. It was an organic act for all branches of forest research, giving legislative authority to the eleven regional forest experiment stations — and setting up a program for financing all branches of research having to do with forestry.

MANAGEMENT PLANS

The first management plan of record for the Crater National Forest was written and approved by C. M. Granger, District Forester, and L. F. Kneipp, Acting Forester, in 1928.

The Forest was divided into five working circles. Only the first three are now within the boundaries of the present Rogue River National Forest. The five working circles were:

1. Applegate, including the Bear Creek Block of the present Ashland District.

2. Rogue River, being the present Union Creek and Prospect Districts.

3. Butte Falls, which included the Dead Indian Block.

4. Klamath River, which was only a portion of the Klamath District.

5. Klamath, which included a portion of the Deschutes tributary to the Klamath Falls sawmills.

The following breakdown of the Crater National Forest acreage was made:

It is not apparent as to the type of cruise or sample that was used to arrive at this volume, however General Land Office cruises on adjacent lands were used for comparison of volumes per acre.

To arrive at the estimated allowable cut, the Austrian formula was used with comparisons with the Von Mantel and Heyer adaptation of the Austrian formula. A 110 year rotation was recommended for fir stands and a 180 year rotation for pine stands with a 60 year cutting cycle.

Shasta red fir and white fir were considered to be inferior species and future markets were doubtful. Railroad logging of large sale blocks was recommended for the Rogue River and Butte Falls Working Circles. An 84 million foot sale had been made to Owen Oregon, the predecessor of the Medford Corporation.

Multiple use considerations were emphasized. Any planned logging in the Ashland Watershed must provide for the protection of Ashland's water supply against contamination through human agencies or soil erosion. Recreation considerations in the upper Rogue demanded that stream-side and road-side timber removal will usually follow some form of conservative shelterwood or selective cutting.

FIRE ACTIVITIES

In September, forest fire conditions throughout the state had become so critical that all national forest lands in Oregon were closed to public use and travel effective September 10. Exceptions were along regularly used roads and camping at regularly established campgrounds and travel to established campgrounds and travel to established resorts located along such roads. No campfire permits were issued on any national forests in Oregon except for established campgrounds along roads and all campfire permits previously issued were canceled. It was estimated that 13,216,000 acres of government lands were involved in the closing order.

On the Crater, the Spencer Creek-Bishop Creek fires were reported on August 18. They were located on steep brushy hillsides of scattering fir, pine, oak and madrona. Low humidity and high temperature prevailed. By nightfall the areas were approximately 400 and 700 acres, respectively. Four road crews totaling 50 men, from points varying from 18 to 75 miles away were rushed to the fires. By noon the next day all critical points were controlled on both fires, while at 5 P.M. all lines were finished and complete control definitely established. Total acreage burned was 1,150 acres. Total number of men engaged on the two fires was 65.

The annual fire report indicated that 44 of the 115 fires reported were of incendiary origin, 39 were lightning-caused, seven were started by campers, 22 by smokers, one started from brush burning and two were from miscellaneous causes. Total expenditure of fire fighting was $5,289. Five of the total fires were on Crater Forest land located in California.

Airplane patrol for forest fire detection was again used this year but on a commercial basis instead of the cooperative patrol with the Army planes formerly used. The contract for Oregon was awarded to the Mackenzie-Morrow Aviation Company of Portland, with Lieutenant Arthur MacKenzie (Air Reserve) as pilot. This company furnished an American Eagle two-passenger bi-plane, equipped with 180 h.p. Hispano-Suiza motor.

Following is an excerpt from the January, 1929 Six Twenty-Six concerning the fire season for 1928, as compiled by the U. S. Weather Bureau:

"The season from the standpoint of fire weather was a bad one over the entire state, with the days with low relative humidity being considerably above the average in number. The five month period ending with September was the driest of record in Oregon, and the six month period ending with October was the driest in Oregon since 1917. The three month period, July to September which are the months coincident with the height of each annual fire-weather season, was the next to the driest of record in Oregon, the driest on record being in 1910 for the entire state, in 1910 for Western Oregon and in 1892 for eastern Oregon.

The low relative humidity period from September 20 to 22nd was one of the worst fire-weather periods that have ever occurred west of the Cascades; relative humidities were extremely low end easterly winds blew with high velocities."

GRAZING

The winter of 1927 was mild and grass grew almost all winter all over the Rogue River Valley. The favorable conditions continued into 1928 until about the tenth of June, after which it was very hot and dry, with no moisture of any value until September. Supervisor Rankin mentioned in his grazing report that the season between July 1 and October 1 was the driest he had experienced since 1908.

Norman White noted in his diary that the hottest day of the season was July 22 when the temperature went to 106.3 degrees.

Rankin's annual report continued, "The forage fully matured over the entire Forest, but when it became so dry the feed was not relished and while it was fully consumed stock did not do nearly so well at the end of the season as they would have under normal conditions. Most of them were in good shape at the end of the season, however."

Grazing season remained unchanged.

LANDS ACTIVITIES

Special use permits were issued on two acres to Ed F. Beckelhymer for a service station and restaurant at Union Creek. Charge for the first year was $20, $50 per year thereafter.

A permit, relinquished from James E. Grieve, was issued to Henry T. Campbell for the resort at Union Creek, at $50 per year.

Mrs. Ed Cushman applied for and was issued a special use permit for a store at Huckleberry City, the fee being $10 per year for 1928 only.

BUTTE FALLS EXTENSION

The Act of April 23, 1928 (45 Stat: 450) provided for an extension of the National Forest Boundary to include a portion of Townships 35 and 36 South, Range 3 East, W. M. Purpose of this extension was for improved forest management and protection of the Medford Municipal Watershed area. This extension added about 27,800 acres to the Crater Forest, of which 8,161 acres were formerly O & C lands. The act also provided that the value of these public lands would be determined jointly by the Secretaries of Agriculture and Interior and an amount equal to this value would be transferred from the National Forest receipts to the credit of the O & C Land Grant fund. Thereafter, receipts from these lands would be credited to the Forest Reserve Fund.

Exchange Authority

The same Act of April 23, 1928 (45 Stat: 450) provided that the provision of the General Exchange Act of March 20, 1922 would be applicable to all lands within six miles of the boundaries of the Crater National Forest.

RECREATION

163,869 recreationists used the facilities on the Crater during the season. Special use permittees and guests numbered 1,505; hotel and resort guests, 3,010; campers, 8,757; picnickers, 10,280; and motorists, 140,317.

Big Elk Ranger Station - L. P. Brown, Oct. 1928

1929

Personnel:

District Rangers:

Lumbermen:

John D. Holst (Pelican Bay sale), George H. West (Owen Oregon sale), Stephen A. Moore (Pelican Bay)

Ranger on Sales: John E. Gribble.

PERSONNEL

The entire District personnel were saddened by the tragic news in August that Douglas C. Ingram of the District Office and Ernani St. Luise of Chelan were killed on the Camas Creek fire on the Chelan Forest. The following is an excerpt from the September Six Twenty-Six:

"The disturbing news came into the Portland office on the night of August 13 that Douglas C. Ingram and Ernani St. Luise were missing on the Camas Creek Fire on the Chelan. From then until the morning of August 24, every member of the Service who knew Doug Ingram was hoping, although toward the last but vainly, that by some miracle he would yet be found alive. Then, after ten days of anxiety, about 11 on Saturday morning, August 24, word came to us here from Chelan that their bodies had been found on a steep slope — about 2-1/2 miles from where they were last seen on the afternoon of August 13.

"Although most of their clothing had been burned, the position of the bodies showed plainly that there had been no struggle and that in all probability they had been overcome by gas before the flames reached them. They were lying very near together, faces down, in a peaceful attitude."

Doug Ingram spent much time on the Crater Forest in 1923, 24 and 25 while the range appraisal was being made. Everyone liked Doug for his thorough knowledge of range plant life and range conditions, as well as his friendly and cooperative attitude. At the time of his death Ingram was grazing assistant to E. N. Kavanaugh, assistant district forester in Portland.

Senior Forest Ranger, Andrew T. "Andy" Poole, 61 years of age, died in Reno, Nevada on October 11. His death was caused by mastoid trouble which finally caused paralysis a few days before his death.

Andy had transferred to the Fremont Forest in June, 1928. He started his Forest Service career on May 1, 1909 as a Forest Guard on the Crater. He served as District Ranger on the Trail District from 1909 to 1926 when he was transferred to timber sale work. He was buried at Central Point on October 15. Supervisors Gilbert D. Brown and Hugh B. Rankin and Rangers S. A. Moore, G. H. West, J. E. Gribble and W. L. Jones acted as pall bearers.

IMPROVEMENTS

Big Elk Ranger Station was built in 1929 and a new ranger station was built at Lake of the Woods in September.

MISCELLANEOUS ACTIVITIES

Ranger Herschel Obey's diary noted on February 2, "Helped put on Forest Rangers packing contest at ski race grounds. We had 4 teams of 2 men and 3 horses each. Messrs. Frizzell and Langfield of Fremont won. Crowd estimated at 3,000 people."

The game census estimated 70 elk, 25 mule deer, 290 bear and 5330 blacktail deer to be on forest lands.

FOREST MANAGEMENT

Logging occurred on five widely separated portions of the Crater during the season. The total area cut over during the year was approximately 3000 acres, where cutting amounted to 54 million board feet of pine, practically all of which was Western yellow, about eight million feet of Douglas fir, one million of white fir and about 14 thousand in number of "snags".

An area of 740 acres was cut over by the Owen Oregon Lumber Company during 1929. The logs taken from that portion of the sale area scaled 16 million board feet Western yellow pine and sugar pine and five million of Douglas fir and white fir. The area originally supported an average of more than one million board feet of pine to each 40 acres. The 1926 cut over area on the Pelican Bay Lumber Company's sale area on the Crater consisted of 1260 acres, from which approximately 28 million board feet of Western yellow pine had been removed. Here, again, a large area averaged close to a million board feet to each 40 acres. No other areas of like sizes on the Forest supported amounts of Western yellow pine to equal the two. The Owen Oregon operation was on the west slope of the Cascade Range at an elevation between 3500 and 4000 and produced the larger percentage of the better lumber grades. The 1926 cut occurred on the east slope of the Cascades at an elevation of 5000 feet.

During the summer, S. A. Moore reported he scaled on the Owen Oregon sale the equivalent of "74,984 16-foot logs which if placed end to end would reach 246.6 miles, or from Medford almost to Salem." He estimated the stumpage value at approximately $64,653.47.

Examination during the field season of the Western yellow pine cutover lands disclosed noteworthy data in relation to the germination and survival of seedlings that resulted from the heavy seed crop of the fall of 1928. A hundred acres or more of the 1928 tractor-logged Owen Oregon sale area on the west side of the Cascade Mountains, were covered with many hundreds of new Western yellow pine seedlings to each acre when an examination was made in September. The timber on the area had been logged at a time seed were falling and when the soil was moist. Rains occurred just prior and during some of the time logging had been in progress. The stirring and packing of the soil by the tractor was thought to have had the same effect that might occur after over-grazing by sheep. Further systematic examinations were made on those portions of the 1928 cutover areas of the sale where the logging had occurred prior to the fall rains. Few new seedlings were found. The 1927 and previous year cutting areas showed practically no new seedling growth. (On a 1909 cutover area, where tractor logging had not taken place, and where an exceptionally large percentage of the original Western yellow pine stand had been left in reserve, a fairly even but scattered distribution of sturdy and thrifty seedlings were growing, the result of the 1923 natural seeding.) No seedlings were found growing on mineral soil but were all growing in Squaw Carpet.

A new record for the Pacific Coast for loading out short yellow pine logs was established by the Pelican Bay Lumber Company on their Bear Creek sale on the Crater Forest.

On April 8, with three inches of new snow on the ground and many drifts of old snow to a depth of 18 inches, and a very disagreeable day on account of adverse weather conditions, Pete Baker, woods foreman loaded out 61 cars in 7 hours, 34 minutes. Net scale was 620,890 feet board measure.

The logs were wheeled with five Best-60 cats, one Monarch-75 cat and six sliptongue highwheels. A McGifford quarter swing loader was used which also spotted its own cars, and only four men were used in addition to the regular crew.

During the year 62,203,100 board feet of timber, valued at $245,867.29, was cut; 23,996,430 board feet, valued at $84,620.73 was sold. Four hundred Christmas trees, valued at $80, were also sold during 1929.

FIRE ACTIVITIES

Smokers caused 37 of the 92 forest fires in 1929, debris burning accounted for 19, 17 were of incendiary origin, lightning caused 15 of the total, campers caused two, one each were from lumbering and miscellaneous causes. Nine of the total were reported on California land on the Applegate District. Fire fighting expenses amounted to $14,374.21 for the season.

Although not used on the Crater Forest, this was the year that the Forest Service started to develop use of radio in its fire activity. D. L. Beatty of District 1 (Montana) spent some time in District 6 testing a semi-portable transmitter-receiver. Beatty and Gael Simson worked amateur stations W7GC and W7AGC at Underwood and White Salmon with good results.

GRZAING

One hundred twenty-six permits were issued for 4,741 cattle and horses. Fourteen permits for 8,265 sheep and goats were issued. Losses of stock during the season were heavy. Water hemlock and larkspur caused the biggest loss, and in the Dead Indian District there was also heavy loss from blackleg.

The season was the driest on record. There was no rain after June 15 (and during June only 1-3/4 inches fell) until October 6 to 9 when it measured 2-1/4 inches, then there was none until December 8.

In his annual report, the supervisor recommended dividing the Butte Falls-Dead Indian District into two, with one ranger at Butte Falls or Medford and another at Ashland.

The annual recreation report for 1929 was incomplete.

LANDS ACTIVITIES

Mrs. Vida Rankin, Lake Creek, was issued a special use permit for a resort at Fish Lake at $25 per year.

1930

Personnel:

District Rangers:

Lumbermen:

John D. Holst, chief lumberman; George H. West, senior lumberman; Stephen A. Moore.

Ranger on Sales: John E. Gribble

PERSONNEL AND ORGANIZATION CHANGES

Chris M. Granger, District Forester of District 6, Portland, was transferred to the Washington office in January. He became Head Forest Economist in charge of the nation-wide Forest Survey. This survey was authorized by the McSweeney-McNary Act of May 22, 1928.

C. J. Buck, Assistant District Forester, Division of Lands, and former supervisor of the Crater Forest, was later named District Forester of D—6, effective March 1.

Effective May 1, on the recommendation of the Forester, the name "District" as applied to North Pacific headquarters became "Region". Several reasons led to the change, one being the confusion existing between ranger units of administration and groups of National Forests, also because the term "Region" was considered more appropriate and distinctive. Thereafter this region was known as the Pacific Northwest Region.

Forest Examiner Lee P. Brown transferred from the Crater to the Olympic Forest in Washington in April.

Jesse P. DeWitt transferred from the Siskiyou to the Crater Forest in March to take charge of the Rogue River District with headquarters at Union Creek, Elgan transferring to Ft. Klamath as ranger of the Klamath District.

Herschel Obye transferred in February to the Malheur Forest at John Day, Ore., as Central Fire Dispatcher.

Stephen Moore completed a detail to the Santiam, Ranger Stahlman returning to duty there, and returned to the Crater to assist in forest resource survey work.

On November 15, Ranger E. J. Rogers of the Crater exchanged positions with Ranger H. A. Ritter of the Umpqua.

C. W. Welty of the Crater and Ben Smith of the Deschutes were assigned to the Big Camas Ranger Station, Umpqua Forest, effective November 1 until approximately April 15, an assignment in connection with the squatter situation on the Fish Creek Desert.

MISCELLANEOUS ACTIVITIES

Chief Ranger William Clair Godfrey of the Crater Lake National Park lost his life on November 17 battling a blizzard on the Crater Lake-Fort Klamath Highway. Following three days of heavy snow storms, Godfrey left Fort Klamath on November 16 for Anna Springs where men were at work clearing the road of four to ten feet of snow with snow plows. He spent the night in his stalled car at the Park entrance and the next day made eight of the 10-1/2 miles to Anna Springs. Park rangers found him lying in the snow exhausted. He died without speaking. He had been appointed chief ranger early in 1929.

This incident in combination with the knowledge that each winter people became lost or stranded, frequently resulting in death in the country around Ft. Klamath, prompted Jesse Elgan to prepare two one-man packs for rescue work which, his diary stated, "will be at my office in Ft. Klamath ready for immediate use day or nite."

During the meeting of the Regional Foresters in the spring, a special "Forest Guard" badge was designed and its use made optional. It was the same size and shape as the standard badge, of nickeled silver, bearing the words "Forest Guard," the letters "U.S.F.S.", the pine tree design and the words "Department of Agriculture". They were available after June 1, 1930 from the Supply Depot at a price of fifteen cents each.

Retirement Act

The Retirement Act of 1920 was amended by Act of Congress, effective July 1, 1930. Some of the new provisions in brief provided for:

1. Optional retirement after 30 years service at age 68, 63 and 60 in lieu of the present 70, 65 and 62 year classes.

2. Increased existing $1000 maximum to $1200.

3. Incorporated a new principle, i.e., a credit of $30 a year for each year of service not exceeding 30 years.

4. Annuities were payable monthly during the life of the annuitant, but in case an annuitant dies without haying received in annuities an amount equal to the total amount to his credit at the time of retirement, the balance shall be paid in one sum to his legal representative.

Doug Ingram Memorial Tree

As suggested by Lee P. Brown, a young Western yellow pine sapling at Four Bit Ford that was particularly admired by and that Doug Ingram suggested should be protected to keep a record of its possible growth, was fenced by Lumberman George H. West with yew wood posts and woven wire with a heavy pole placed on top. The plot was 16 feet square.

It was known as the D. C. Ingram Memorial Tree on the Crater Forest.

GRAZING

The season began with cold weather and rains until June, but the middle and latter part of the season was very dry, the forage completely drying up except for the browse. Condition of the stock when entering was satisfactory and the extra feed on the intermediate ranges gave them a good start.

Digger squirrels appeared to be increasing over the entire forest and adjoining areas, the annual grazing report noted.

FIRE ACTIVITIES

Comparisons of the number of fires in each elevation zone on the Forest to the acreage burned over during each year from 1924 to 1929, inclusive, were made from the following table:

All portions of the three elevation divisions were generally heavily timbered. A large part of the area above 6000 feet, which had a total area of more than one hundred thousand acres, had been cruised intensively and it was estimated that this division supported approximately 450 million board feet of saw timber. Only one fire of the total 27 occurring above 6000 feet elevation, spread earlier in any year than the eighteenth of August, and that particular fire recorded eight acres on July 24, 1926. U. S. Weather Bureau records indicate that 1926 was an exceptional year with relation to the amounts of rainfall that occurred.

Fifty-eight of the 100 fires in 1930 were caused by lightning (one in that part of the Forest in California); 17 were caused by smokers; 14 by campers and 10 were of incendiary origin. Fire fighting expenditures were $9,548.32.

LANDS ACTIVITIES

A special use permit was issued in September to the Crater Lake Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America for a 20-acre club site at Lake of the Woods. Fee was $25 per year.

The following excerpts are quoted from an article in the April issue of Six Twenty-Six:

"Some five years ago, the Crater Forest decided to use Dutchman's Peak as a lookout station. The county (Jackson), which was the owner of the tax title, donated the land, furnishing a quit claim deed, and funds were allotted to construct a lookout house. It looked like a simple transaction — land really worthless — nobody would even pay taxes on it — but that was five years ago.

"Meanwhile, the record has gained the proportions of a book of federal statutes. The assistant to the Solicitor passed five times on the title, and then did not pass it — the Solicitor of the Department and the Attorney General also took a turn at looking the gift horse in the mouth and when they all got through, we had swapped horses on the road about four times. The only part left of the original transaction was the land, and the county had recorded two deeds conveying it and still owned it; at least the Solicitor thought so.... On March 27 Judge Sparrow wrote the supervisor; 'Will say this is the toughest Dutchman to let go of that I ever met. We are now readvertising it. This will require about thirty days; after that we hope to deliver this Dutchman signed and sealed forever."

"We hope so too, but the Dutchman still has the whole blockade to run again, and there is still room for a lot of things to happen before the Secretary of the Treasury will write him down in his little black book as belonging. . ."

(In a letter dated October 29, the Attorney General accepted title to the 80 acre tract which Jackson County had agreed to donate five years previously.)

Primitive Areas

The Pacific Northwest Region had the first primitive areas approved by Chief Forester Robert Y. Stuart. Among these was the Mountain Lakes Primitive Area on the Crater Forest. It received formal approval on October 30 along with the Mt. Jefferson Primitive Area on the Mt. Hood, Deschutes and Santiam Forests, and the Eagle Gap Primitive Area on the Wallowa and Whitman Forests.

Primitive or Wilderness areas were something new in the Forest Service policy. A primitive area is a tract of federally-owned land set aside to be kept in as near its natural and primitive condition as is physically and economically possible, in the interest of public education, research, and public recreation. No roads will ever be built into the areas, and only such trails as are necessary for its protection, and only rude shelters of native or local materials needed for human protection from storms or the elements.

— Six Twenty-Six, Dec., 1930

FOREST MANAGEMENT

Total timber cut during the year was valued at $6,650.84, amounting to 4,124,200 board feet. Timber sold was 6,660,520 board feet valued at $13,357.50. Just 100 Christmas trees were sold that year; their value, $15.

RECREATION

Recreational visitors to the Forest increased by over one hundred thousand people during the two years between 1928 and 1930, totaling 275,331. They included 1,110 special use permittees and guests; 15,365 hotel and resort guests; 12,100 campers; 10,750 picnickers, and 236,006 motorists.

GAME CENSUS

Game animals showed a decrease in population during the year with the exception of the bear whose numbers increased to 355. The annual census estimated 60 elk, 5,030 blacktail and 20 mule deer were on the Forest.

(click on image for a PDF version)

1931

Personnel:

District Rangers:

PERSONNEL CHANGES

Karl L. Janouch became Assistant Supervisor on the Crater Forest effective May 15. A graduate forester of the University of Nebraska, he transferred to Region 6 from the White River National Forest in Colorado. He was first appointed to the Forest Service in 1917 and had experience in seeding and planting on the Nebraska Forest and in timber sales, management plans and ranger analyses on the White River and several other Colorado forests. He spent 20 months in the A. E. F. with the 20th Engineers during World War I.

Senior Lumberman George H. West was placed on the retirement rolls April 1 at the age of 62. An old cloth boundary sign was found along the Forest boundary on the north line of Sec. 5, T. 37 S., R. 3 E. with partly legible writing stating, "This marks the north boundary of the Cascade National Forest." It was understood that George West posted the sign when he was a young man in 1912 and because it was located in an inconspicuous place, was left to serve as a memorial of West's many years of work in the Service. West and a Mr. Knight went into partnership in the real estate business in Medford.

Ranger Ben Smith was transferred to the Crater from the Umpqua effective May 25. He supervised the clearing work on the Union Creek road job. He was transferred to the Fremont Forest on October 16 where he was assigned to timber sale work.

MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS

Regional Forester C. J. Buck was sent the following wire in the early part of 1931:

REGRET TO INFORM YOU WE ARE REQUIRED TO SAVE FIFTY FOUR THOUSAND DOLLARS FROM MAJOR SALARY AND EXPENSE APPROPRIATION CURRENT FISCAL YEAR STOP YOUR SHARE SIX THOUSAND TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS STOP ANY SALARY AND EXPENSE SUB APPROPRIATION APPEARING IN NINETEEN THIRTY ONE APPROPRIATION ACT IS AVAILABLE FOR MEETING THIS DEMAND EXCEPT ROADS AND TRAILS AND F F STOP EVERY POSSIBLE EFFORT HAS BEEN MADE TO AVOID THIS SITUATION WITHOUT AVAIL

(S) STUART

Following are excerpts from the subsequent statement made by the Forester appearing in the June issue of Six Twenty-Six:

"There is in this then an additional reason for close planning.....and to restrain any tendencies toward over-expansion or over-alloting. Our savings will be valuable to carry on needed work under the regular standards of the Service and to meet the required curtailments in expenditures."

Fire control cooperation of the California-Oregon Power Company was expressed in the following letter of June 20 by COPCO vice-president and general manager, C. M. Brewer, to all local managers of his company:

"In the past our organization has tried to help the Forest Service in its efforts to reduce the tremendous losses and destruction of our natural forests by fire. We have assisted the Forest Service in every way possible to help conserve the valuable timber and recreational resources.

"In view of the fact that we are going to be faced this summer with an extremely hazardous fire condition, brought about by lack of rainfall and winter snows, I am going to ask you and your employees to again assist the Forest Service in your communities in every way possible in reducing this hazard during the coming summer."

The first forest ranger training camp for the National Forests of Oregon and Washington opened at Hemlock Ranger Station (Columbia National Forest) in the Wind River Valley, Washington on October 5.

"This first R—6 training camp is attended by 32 forest rangers from 19 different National Forests of the two states, and will run from October 5 to November 3. The men selected are the younger, newer men in the ranger force, who are in greatest need and who will profit most from such a course. The purpose of the camp is to train rangers in the proper way to do their jobs, and the keynote of the camp will be 'doing the job' rather than being told how to do it. How to estimate timber, scale logs, prepare government sale papers, how to lay out trails and build them, as well as telephone lines and lookout towers, how to prepare and organize for a large forest fire, and how to fight it, are some of the many thing these young rangers will be taught by having to do them on the ground. In fact, more than 120 subjects are to be covered during the camp. The men are quartered in tents, have a good cook and lecture hall, though the primeval forest will be used mostly as a classroom......."

— Six Twenty-Six, October, 1931

No one from the Crater Forest attended this training school. Since this was the first of several subsequent schools, it is noted in this writeup as it is a "first" in this type of training.

The first Forest Supervisors meeting to be held in R—6 and in Portland since 1922 was held from November 30 to December 10 in Portland.

This year also marked the start of the use of radio in Forest Service work. Although none of these first radio sets were tried out on the Crater Forest, they were used on the Columbia Forest during the year. They were a cumbersome set but the dits and dahs were sent out over an antenna, set at a precise height, with a counterpoise antenna located about four feet above the ground. The transmitter and receiver plus the batteries required one mule to carry the outfit from camp to camp. These sets were developed by the Forest Service Radio Laboratory, 3201 Drummond Street, Vancouver, Washington. Radio Technicians in charge were A. Gael Simson, Harold K. Lawson and W. F. Squibb.

IMPROVEMENTS

Considerable work was done in the spring and summer on the Butte Falls-Dead Indian District toward standardizing telephone installations and putting choke coils where the lightning previously had caused some damage to instruments as well as worry to station attendants.

Headquarters of the Klamath District were moved from Ft. Klamath to the new Federal Building in Klamath Falls.

Work started on Table Mountain Lookout and the site for Stella Mountain Lookout was selected and work started there. Plans were also formulated for a lookout house at Bessie Rock.

GRAZING

Allowances of the forest were reduced to comply with the estimated capacity of the ranges. Need for further reduction was not foreseen in the immediate future. Stock entered the Forest in good condition and left with added weight as a general rule. No changes in grazing seasons were recommended.

GAME CENSUS

An increase in elk and blacktail deer was indicated on the annual game census report although mule deer and bear decreased in numbers. The estimated census listed 80 elk, 7550 blacktail deer, 15 mule deer and 350 bear on the Forest in 1931.

FIRE ACTIVITIES

C. W. Welty returned to the Crater for a period between August 18 and September 8 to work on incendiary fires in the Applegate country with Norman White. Lee Port reported several incidents of arson but was unable to apprehend anyone in connection with them.

FOREST MANAGEMENT

Timber cut and sold figures were up from the lows of 1930 to 11,514,200 board feet cut and 11,950,040 sold. Timber cut was valued at $41,052.99 and timber sold was valued at $55,958.80.

The Crater Forest advertised in October the sale of 13,000 Shasta fir Christmas trees at a minimum price of 3-1/2 cents per linear foot. The trees were located on the north slopes of Huckleberry Mountain in the Rogue River District. The sale was awarded to Jack Friedman of San Francisco at the advertised rate. He cut only 538 trees or 2606 linear feet and was presumably snowed out of the area as indications are there was an early heavy snowfall that winter.

The field work of the forest survey under the direction of William J. Sproat, Forest Examiner, was completed during the year. This forest survey was conducted throughout the nation in accordance with the provisions of the McSweeney-McNary Forest Research Act of May 28, 1928.

RECREATION ACTIVITIES

Recreationists continued to increase: special use permittees and guests numbering 1,145; hotel and resort guests 17,800; campers 12,875; picnickers 9,320; and motorists numbered 261,675 for a total of 302,815.

LANDS ACTIVITIES

A special use permit for a store at Huckleberry City was issued to Rollie Freeman of Ashland in 1931, then was closed out the following year.

1932

Personnel:

District Rangers:

PERSONNEL AND ORGANIZATION CHANGES

By presidential order the Crater National Forest became the Rogue River National Forest on July 9. The August issue of "Six Twenty-Six" reported the event in this manner:

"No longer should the Medford papers report that 'Supervisor Rankin has just returned from an inspection over the Crater Lake National Park.' There is no longer a Crater National Forest, and there is only one public reservation in southern Oregon with the name Crater to it and that is the Crater Lake National Park. By recent Presidential Order, the forest is now the Rogue River, and probably the Forest personnel will come to be known as the 'Rogues.'"

In March, Assistant Superintendent Janouch met with all rangers for a discussion of employment procedures to be followed in adopting the policy of employing all married men and letting the single men go, an economic concession to the depression of the times.

February 1 the Butte Falls-Dead Indian District was split into two districts, the Butte Falls and Dead Indian Districts. Hugh Ritter became ranger on the Dead Indian District and John D. Holst, Chief Lumberman on the Pelican Bay Lumber Company sales for several years, became ranger on the Butte Falls District.

RECREATION

A total of 199,486 visitors used the national forest lands during 1932. Special use permittees and guests numbered 625; hotel and resort guests, 7075; campers, 13,487; picnickers, 6840; and motorists, 171,459.

GRAZING

The range on the Forest as a whole was considerably improved by favorable winter weather conditions over the preceding few years.

Cases involving the illegal butchering of stock were reported to stem from the need for food rather than for financial gain.

At the suggestion of Butte Falls District Ranger Holst in a supplement to his grazing report, Supervisor Rankin recommended to the Regional Forester that 3,000 acres located at the head of the Middle Fork Rogue River in the Seven Lakes Basin be set aside for recreational purposes.

Following a description of the area, Holst's report continued:

"....... The area within these boundaries is of great value for scenic and recreation purposes, much more so from year to year. Many people pack in there for recreation, hunting and fishing, and in all probability there will be recreation special use applications for these lakes, and I wish to suggest that this area be closed to all grazing. I do not believe that this area has been grazed in the past, although it is included within the Halifax Sheep Range."

The supervisor's recommendation concluded: "The closure of the area to grazing and reserving it for recreational purposes will not result in a reduction of the number of stock permitted, in the past, to graze in the vicinity. The forage within the area is more valuable for subsistence of pack and saddle stock used by recreationists than for general grazing purposes. Under these conditions it is indicative that the principal value is clearly recreational and, therefore, I recommend it be closed to grazing for the proper protection of dominant values."

FIRE ACTIVITIES

No fire records for 1932 were available although it was noted in the annual grazing report that progress was being made in securing fire control cooperation by stockmen. No fires that could be blamed on stockmen occurred during the fire season. In fact, two fires on the Butte Falls District were discovered, suppressed and reported by stockmen.

MISCELLANEOUS ACTIVITIES

The game census for this year was interesting in that the numbers of game animals showed a sharp decrease while predatory animals increased decidedly.

Two factors were involved in the decrease in deer numbers by 1500, from 7550 in 1931, to 6050. It was known that several hundred deer were killed in the California-Oregon Power Company conduit on the South Fork of the Rogue River and that game poaching contributed to the decrease in deer population. Several violators were brought in, but poaching was more or less tolerated during the winter on account of the destitute condition of violators and their families.

The decrease in elk population, which dropped from 80 to 51, was reported to be "in all probability" due to weather conditions, the elk migrating over the Umpqua-Rogue River divide into the Tiller country and inside the Crater Lake National Park boundaries.

Unemployed men who had turned to trapping for a living were discouraged by the small bounty for furs and most killings of predators were reported to be a result of accidental contact rather than from actual hunting and trapping.

Some 180,000 Eastern brook trout were planted in Fish Lake, 60,000 silver-sides were planted in Fourmile Lake and over 100,000 silver-side and rainbow trout were planted in Lake of the Woods. The Game Commission was approached on the possibility of stocking Lake Harriette and Lake Como to provide fish food and later stocking them.

A new office at the Union Creek Ranger Station was built in November.

In February, the Crater Lake ski jump was completed and a special use permit was issued to the Crater Lake Ski Club.

TIMBER AND TIMBER PRODUCTS

Another large commercial Christmas tree sale in 1932 was reported in the October 5 edition of the Medford Mail Tribune:

"Contract with the Rogue River National Forest has been signed by Jack Friedman of San Francisco for the purchase of 22,000 linear feet of Christmas trees from the National Forest, according to Karl Janouch, assistant supervisor. Shasta fir will be cut and will be taken from Huckleberry City, above Union Creek, Mr. Janouch said."

Timber cut and sold on the Forest during the year dropped drastically in both volume and value. A total of 1,260,560 board feet, valued at $2,253.17 was cut, just 687,820 board feet valued at $1,215.17 was sold during 1932.