History of The Willamette National Forest

INTRODUCTION

With the Act of February 1, 1905, which transferred control of the forest reserves from the Secretary of the Interior to the Secretary of Agriculture, management of the reserves entered a new phase. J.R. Bruckart used the appropriate phrase "Taming a Wild Forest" for the changes which occurred in the 40 years after 1905. The term involved professionalization in administration, science brought to the management of the forests, and in the history of the area, the transition from a land of isolated frontier habitations to a series of forest communities.

The act contained several interesting clauses. Receipts from the forest reserves for a period of five years would go to a special fund to be administered by the Secretary of Agriculture for the protection, administration, and extension of the forest reserves. This gave the forests funding independent of Congressional appropriations. It provided that rangers and supervisors be appointed when possible from the states and territories in which the forest reserve was located. This reflected both Western hostility to carpetbag rule and also the recognition that management of the forests was, to a large degree, a matter of public relations. The act also had provisions for the establishment of rights-of-way for ditches, flumes, and the like under permit by the Secretary of the Interior and subject to state laws. [1]

ADMINISTRATION

Pinchot was asked by the Secretary of Agriculture to draft a letter to be issued over the Secretary's signature expressing the administrative philosophy of the new administration. This letter of February 1, 1905, summarized the purposes and spirit of the new enterprise in the following words:

In the administration of the forest reserves it must be clearly borne in mind that all land is to be devoted to its most productive use for the permanent good of the whole people, and not for the temporary benefit of individuals or companies. All the resources of forest reserves are for use, and this use must be brought about in a thoroughly prompt and businesslike manner, under such restrictions only as will insure the permanence of these resources. The vital importance of forest reserves to the great industries of the Western States will be largely increased in the near future by the continued steady advance in settlement and development. The permanence of the resources of the reserve is therefore indispensable to continued prosperity, and the policy of this department for their protection and use will invariably be guided by this fact, always bearing in mind that the conservative use of these resources in no way conflicts with their permanent value.

You will see to it that the water, wood, and forage of the reserves are conserved and wisely used for the benefit of the home builder first of all, upon whom depends the best permanent use of lands and resources alike. The continued prosperity of the agricultural, lumbering, mining, and live stock interests is directly dependent upon a permanent and accessible supply of water, wood, and forage, as well as upon the present and future use of their resources under businesslike regulations, enforced with promptness, effectiveness, and common sense. In the management of each reserve local questions will be decided upon local grounds; the dominant industry will be considered first, but with as little restriction to minor industries as may be possible; sudden changes in industrial conditions will be avoided by gradual adjustment after due notice; and where conflicting interests must be reconciled the question will always be decided from the standpoint of the greatest good of the greatest number in the long run.

These general principles will govern in the protection and use of the water supply, in the disposal of timber and wood, in the use of the range, and in all other matters connected with the management of the reserves. They can be successfully applied only when the administration of each reserve is left very largely in the hands of the local officers, under the aye of the thoroughly trained and competent inspectors

Very respectfully,     
James Wilson
Secretary [2]

All this created a revolution in administration. The Forest Service was put under Civil Service and career men replaced political appointees. The office of Inspector for a given district was established to give oversight for a given region. By an administrative act of 1908 the Office of Inspector was changed to District (now Regional) Forester, aided by a staff of technically trained foresters in charge of various lines of work (see charts next page). From that time on forest administration was decentralized, with the bulk of the forest work handled by the District and by the various forests within the district. Only questions of large importance or on national policy were referred to the Washington Office. [3] District 6 comprised the States of Washington, Oregon, and Alaska with a small part of Idaho. (Alaska became a separate Region in 1919.) It was an ingenious arrangement which avoided both a bureaucratic, centralized administration and an inefficient, decentralized administration, and was a major source of strength in national forest administration. [4]

Edward Tyson Allen was the first District Forester. He was the son of a Yale professor who had left the academic life when his son was a small boy and homesteaded on the upper Nisqually River near Mt. Rainier National Park. Allen had no formal schooling but was tutored at home by his parents. In 1898 Pinchot met Allen, who was then working as a reporter on a Tacoma newspaper, and persuaded him to join the Division of Forestry. Allen worked in the Pacific Northwest, Idaho, Colorado, and Utah both for the Bureau of Forestry and for Division R (for reserves), and served as the first state forester of California, 1905-1906. He reentered the Forest Service in 1906 coming to the Northwest as Inspector with the transfer of the reserves to the Department of Agriculture and became District Forester in 1908. He retired from Federal employment in 1909 to work for the Western Forestry and Conservation Association. His major accomplishments in the District were to upgrade the field personnel and to work with lumbermen and state officials against the common enemy, fire. [5]

Allen was succeeded in 1909 by Charles S. Chapman. Chapman, born in Connecticut, was a member of the first class to be graduated with a masters of forestry from Yale Forest School in 1902. He worked for the Bureau of Forestry from 1902-1905, served as forester for the E.P. Burton Lumber Company in South Carolina from 1905-1907, and then returned to the Forest Service. He served as District Forester for slightly over one year. Like Allen, he contributed a great deal to good relations with the lumber industry, especially in the area of fire fighting. Chapman resigned in 1911 to become the secretary and manager of the Oregon Forest Fire Association. After WW I, Chapman worked for the Western Forestry and Conservation Association, then in 1924 he became forester and manager of the Weyerhaeuser Lumber Company in Tacoma [6]

Chapman was succeeded by George H. Cecil, a native of Massachusetts, who began working in the family shoe leather store in Baltimore. Cecil read an article on forestry by Gifford Pinchot in the Youth's Companion, and in 1902, at the age of 25, enrolled in the Biltmore Forest School. He graduated a year later and joined the Bureau of Forestry, working in Texas, Tennessee, and West Virginia, then passed his Civil Service examination in 1906 and went to work in the Yellowstone Forest Reserve. Then he spent a year in District 1 (Missoula), before transferring to Portland to work under Allen as Associate District Forester. In April 1911, he took over as District Forester, which he held for 14 years. A very warm individual with a capacity for making friendships, he did much to keep up the morale of the Forest Service in the Region. He, like Allen and Chapman, worked with industry and did much to create an efficient fire control administration. He inaugurated Forest Protection Week in Washington and Oregon in 1920. Outdoor recreation was growing fast, sparked by the ownership of private automobiles. There was a national and Regional effort to provide areas for summer homes, resorts, and campgrounds. Roads leading to and through the mountains brought crowds of summer travelers: Existing roads were improved and several important new roads were constructed, including the Columbia Gorge Highway. He left Portland on December 31, 1924, to be the Forest Supervisor on the Angeles National Forest in Region 5, which was experiencing major fire problems due to the expanding urban population. He resigned from the Forest Service in 1929. His administration had been so successful that the city offered him the position of manager of the Conservation Department for the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce and executive secretary of the Conservation Association of Southern California. [7]

Cecil was succeeded by Christopher M. Granger in early 1925. Granger was a graduate of Michigan State College in 1907. He spent most of his career in the Rocky Mountain District (Region) on the Medicine Bow and Pike National Forests, as well as in the Regional Office and Washington Office. While in the R-6 Regional Office, he was instrumental in the development of amenity values in the northwest, such as aesthetic timber cutting along roads, campgrounds and summer homes, and also in wildlife management. He served until 1930, when he was transferred to the Washington Office to develop the national timber survey (Forest Resource Survey) called for by the McSweeney-McNary Act and the Forest Service's part in the Civilian Conservation Corps program. [8]

Granger was succeeded by Clarence John Buck in 1930. C.J. Buck, born in Massachusetts, earned a B.A. degree from Williams College and was a M.F. graduate of Yale Forest School in 1905. He served first in the Trinity National Forest, then to the Klamath National Forest, and finally to the Crater (now Rogue River), before being transferred in 1908 to the District (now called Regional) Office in Portland and put in charge of lands. He served as Regional Forester until 1939 (more information about C.J. Buck in Chapter IV). [9]

Pinchot established a section of special investigations, which by 1908 had division status, with experiment stations set up in the West. In Region 6, research was a division of silvics which was under silviculture, headed by Fred Ames. Thornton T. Munger headed the silvics section. In 1915 a separate division of research was set up in the Washington Office under Earle Clapp. On the regional level there was a new division of research. New research stations resembled the agricultural experiment stations established by the Hatch Act of 1887. They were independent of the Regional Office, their directors and staff reporting directly to the Washington Office. However, much of their work was spent in study of Regional matters which were often applied to forest management, and there was a close cooperation between research and administration. [10]

Something should be said about the relationship between the staff who were graduates of forestry schools, or in the terminology of the time—"technical foresters" and the Forest Service men who had learned in the "University of Hard Knocks." During the early period the rangers and supervisors were men who had for the most part no formal training in forestry, but who applied skills learned in the out-of-doors and who lived as members of the local community. Their strength was their knowledge of the country and their ability to earn the trust of the stockmen and lumbermen. The technical men on the other hand were largely easterners who did not know the country or the people. There grew to be occasional conflict between easterners and westerners, both within and outside the Forest Service. Pinchot himself had been able to earn the trust of westerners by his ability to ride, shoot, and adapt to frontier folkways. But there were occasional technical men who did not know what side of a horse to get on, and Seth Bulloch, Supervisor of the Black Hills Forest Reserve, quit because he objected to technical foresters spouting scientific names of trees. E.T. Allen, after taking out a group of student assistants, wrote to Pinchot that his first task was to take them into the woods "to get the Harvard rubbed off." As late as 1915 the foresters had heated discussions on the relative values of technical and practical men. [11]

Within the national forests of the Oregon Cascades, meantime, the administration was decentralized for better management. To the north, the Oregon National Forest was created in 1908 consisting of Mt. Hood and its environs south to the Willamette Valley and Cascade Mountain (Santiam) Wagon Road. The Cascade National Forest was established south of the Santiam Wagon Road to the Willamette River. The Umpqua National Forest was established between the Willamette River and the Rogue-Umpqua Divide, while the Crater (now Rogue River) National Forest was established south of the Rogue-Umpqua Divide to the Oregon-California border. In 1911, major boundary shifts occurred, with the Cascade NF gaining the land from the Willamette River south to the Willamette and Calapooya Divides, while losing land east of the crest of the Cascades and the land north of the Linn-Lane County line to the new Santiam NF. The Santiam also took the area from T.8 S. to 13 S. at the expense of the Oregon (now Mt. Hood) National Forest. To the east across the Cascades, the Deschutes National Forest was established in the drainage of the Deschutes River. Finally in 1933 the Santiam and the Cascade were consolidated as the Willamette National Forest.

Boundaries on the western side were in a rectangular pattern following the conventional General Land Office survey. Boundaries among the national forests on the east and the north/south boundaries between national forests, on the other hand, followed mountain ranges or river drainages, or other natural boundaries. The internal boundaries between ranger districts also followed the logic of geography and were made on the basis of transportation, economic interests, watersheds, and the like. A series of ranger districts were established: West Boundary (near the present site of Lowell), Oakridge, McKenzie Bridge, Detroit, and Cascadia (now relocated to Sweet Home).

Smith Bartrum, whom we have already met, continued as Supervisor of the Cascade until the reorganization of 1908 when he went to the Umpqua. He was succeeded by C.R. Seitz (1878-1941) who was an engineer by training, who joined the Forest Service in 1907 on the Whitman National Forest and went to Eugene as Supervisor. He served there until 1919. His engineering training is reflected in his work on improvements, cabins, houses, trails, telephone lines, and the like. He developed the Seitz camp stove, and trained Corley B. McFarland, Smith Taylor, and B.F. Heintzleman. [13] Nelson Macduff, described by Harold Engles as "a very, very fine man, a scholar and a gentleman," served as Supervisor in the Santiam 1911-1912 and in the Cascade 1920-1930. He was born in Ohio, the son of an Episcopal priest; graduated in forestry from the University of Michigan, first served in the Siskiyou and then in the Santiam and the Cascade. He was shot in 1930 in what is still an unsolved mystery. [14]

In the Santiam after a year with F.H. Brundage as Acting Supervisor, Charles Chandler (C.C.) Hall came in serving until 1933, when the Santiam and Cascade were combined to form the Willamette. C.C. Hall was born in 1870, and he joined the Forest Service in 1906 a graduate of the "School of Hard Knocks." He served first in the Hellgate area in Montana, then became a ranger in 1907 and worked in the Big Hole area in the Deerlodge National Forest. He became Supervisor there in 1907. In 1910 he was transferred to the Southwest becoming Supervisor of the Tonto. He came to the Santiam in 1916.

He was the type of Supervisor around whom legends grow. A small, tough, well-built man, with high cheek bones, protruding eyebrows and sparkling gray-green eyes, he is the subject of many stories: How in Montana sheepmen and cattlemen allied themselves against the Forest Service and drove unpermitted stock on the range at night, and how he armed himself, called a meeting of all the permittees, and told them to shape up; how, in a timber sale, logs were put in a flume before they were scaled and stamped, and how he cut the flume and telephone line and let the logs pile up, and forced the operators to have the logs scaled and stamped.

Supervisor Hall was a field man who spent most of his summer time at Fish Lake. There he set up a sawmill to produce lumber for building Forest Service sheds and houses. it was a small affair, cutting about 1,000 board feet a day, and was manned by the protective staff. He was responsible for a great deal of road and trail building and was a strict enforcer of game laws. [15]

Among the rangers, Smith L Taylor served in the McKenzie Ranger District from 1909 to 1932. He was a veteran of the Spanish-American War who joined the Service in 1905, and came to McKenzie Bridge as a guard in 1909. A tobacco-chewing outdoorsman of the old school, he was noted for his community service. After retirement, he was one of the founders of the McKenzie River Rural Electrification Administration (REA), and served on the McKenzie River School Board. He died in 1957 at the age of 84. [16]

On the Cascade, Perry A. Thompson succeeded Macduff in 1930. Thompson came to the Cascade from the Colville NF where he had made a good reputation for his work in multiple use. His letters show him to be a witty, visionary individual. He was strongly interested in the possible use of the autogyro in forestry work. His major work was in the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) era which will be dealt with later. He continued as Supervisor of the Cascade until it was merged with the Santiam to form the Willamette in 1933, and was Supervisor of the Willamette until 1939. [17]

There were, in addition to these, a variety of visitors from the District Office or the Washington Office who came and went in the Cascade and Santiam Forests. They were research men like Thornton T. Munger, who set up in the Willamette the first experimental plots west of the Mississippi; grazing specialists like John C. Kuhns, who carried on intensive grazing studies in the forests; recreationists like Fred Cleator, looking over the possibilities of a skyline highway; and takers of timber inventory like B. Frank Heintzleman, then beginning his long and fruitful career. Another notable who began his career in the area was George Drake, who came to the McKenzie Bridge fresh out of Penn State to start his career as a public and private forester.

Women also played an increasingly important part in forest administration. The early rangers like Cy Bingham and Archie Knowles took their wives along with them to share in the work and amenities of the foresters' life. [18] Women played a professional part in Forest Service work after 1908 with the establishment of a District (now Regional) organization. From Washington came a transfer of a large number of the Washington Office staff to the new Regional headquarters. Will C. Barnes commemorated this in verse:

Oh, they're whispering in the corners
and talking in the hall
They are scheming and a-planning
Where to migrate in the fall,
They are telling one another
Of the places they like best;
Oh, the whole blamed outfit's 'locoed'
'Cause we're going out West.

"Have you ever lived in Portland?"
"Is it wet or is it dry?"
"Do you think you'd like Missoula?"
"If you do, please tell me why."
"Is the living high in Denver?"
"Are the ladies there well dressed?"
Oh, these are the burning questions,
'Cause we're going out West.

"Now I want to go to Frisco
Even though the earth does quake."
Well, I'm wild to see a Mormon
So I'd much prefer Salt Lake."
"Do you think that I'll get homesick?"
"Are the Frisco fleas a pest?"
What a turmoil has been started
'Cause we're going out West.

"Oh, they say that board's expensive
In the town of Albuquerque."
"But you needn't take a streetcar
For to reach your daily work."
"Well, I've heard the living's awful
(Now please don't think me silly)
But really, do they live out there
On only beans and chili?"
Oh, such like doubts and troubles
Daily agitate the breast
Of each one in the Service
'Cause we're going out West. [19]

Forest Service records indicate that women were mostly employed during this period as stenographers, file clerks, and in drafting, After 1913 there was occasional employment of women as lookouts and fire patrol, especially in World War I and afterward. However, they were not allowed to fight fires.

The Supervisor's Office for the Santiam National Forest was located at Albany and for the Cascade in Eugene. They had, during this period, a small permanent staff. In 1925, Supervisor Nelson Feris Macduff of the Cascade had two technical assistants, one superintendent of construction, and one clerk. One timber sale officer and one scaler also operated out of this office, although they were in the field most of the time. Supervisor C.C. Hall of the Santiam had one assistant supervisor, a woman clerk, and three timber sale officers. Staff increased in summer months as the fire season came on.

The ranger districts were established according to need and transportation lines. The five oldest districts which had existed since the beginning of the forest were the McKenzie, West Boundary (now Lowell), Oakridge, Detroit, and Cascadia (now Sweet Home). The Cascadia and Detroit Ranger Districts became part of the Santiam National Forest in 1911. With the 1940s there came other divisions as the work of the forest became more intensive.

This was the era of horse and buggy transportation with few roads and few accommodations. Ranger headquarters were usually buildings having room for the necessities of the time—an office with telephone, sometimes a telephone switchboard, typewriter, and filing cabinet. This office would be occupied by the ranger and his clerk who usually doubled as phone operator and fire dispatcher. Another room with equipment for fire control and for drafting was on the ground floor. Usually there was a loft for storage and for accommodating guests. Other accommodations included barns, equipment sheds, warehouses for fire equipment, and the like. There were pastures nearby for the stock. There were, in addition to ranger headquarters, a large variety of cabins for ranger field stations or for shelters for field forces. They varied a great deal, ranging from rather primitive accommodations, such as the still existing cabin at Independence Prairie to small, neat guard stations on main traveled routes.

LANDS

In 1918 C.J. Buck summarized the Forest Service lands policy and problems. The objectives of the Service were to protect and administer Forest Service lands, to achieve satisfactory boundaries for the forest, and to release agricultural lands from the forests. They involved the classification of all lands using, if necessary, experts from other agencies including especially the Bureau of Soils. Fraudulent claims, largely mineral and timber claims, were to be restored to the national forest jurisdiction. Some policy should be adopted for the exchange of non-forest land for private inholdings. Some special acts of this nature had already been passed in respect to the Paulina, Whitman, and Ochoco National Forests; but there was need for a general exchange act. Grazing regulations should be reviewed. In recreation, term leases should be permitted for summer hotels. Campground sites should be established as rapidly as funds permitted. Term leases should be made for summer homes, and a survey of suitable areas for summer home sites should be made. In regard to national park proposals, Buck felt that parks should be created to serve the needs of the nation as a whole rather than local groups; that they should be areas having natural wonders of national importance; that they should be suited both for scientific study and recreation; and that they should be comprised of suitable administrative units. [20]

During the period 1905 to 1913 there were many changes and adjustments made in lands located within the national forests. In the period 1905 to 1907 there were major efforts made to enlarge the area of the national forests to include suitable forest land. This initial period of acquisition came to an end in 1907 when Congress passed legislation requiring Congressional approval for new national forests. In the middle Cascade area a series of additions were made as a result of investigations by the Bureau of Forestry and Division R of the Land Office. These additions were made in the townships to the west of the forest boundaries, and were composed of those portions of townships in which a large part of the land had been alienated. They included T. 8, 9, 10, 12 and 14 S., R. 4 E. In 1907, T. 11, 12, and 13 were added. The alienated land was largely in the hands of lumber companies, homesteaders, and wagon road companies. [21]

Within the national forests, however, there was a great deal of alienated land in the form of mining claims, Timber and Stone Act of 1878 entries, squatter's claims, homestead entries, wagon road grants, and state school lands. Each type of entry deserves particular attention.

THE TIMBER AND STONE ACT

The Timber and Stone Act (1878) provided for the sale in the states of Washington, Oregon, California, and Nevada—later extended to all public land states—of 160-acre tracts of surveyed, non-mineral land chiefly valuable for timber and stone, and unfit for cultivation, which had not been previously offered at public sale. This public domain land was offered for sale at not less than $2.50 per acre. The purchaser had to swear that the land was being acquired solely for his own use and benefit, and also that he had made a personal examination of the land. The intention of the act is difficult to determine. If the primary intent was to provide settlers with a supply of wood, it could have been achieved by extending the Free Timber Act of the same date to the Pacific Coast states as well as the Rocky Mountains. On the other hand, if the act were for the benefit of the timber industry the maximum of 160 acres is on the small side. The act was not repealed until 1955. [22]

Bona fide settlers made little use of the act. They were, in the Northwest, more concerned with clearing off heavy timber already on their claims rather than acquiring more trees. The act was used chiefly by commercial timber operators to build up large holdings of valuable timber land, with fraud playing a large part in the process. A Supreme Court decision aided this fraud. It declared that a person who planned the immediate sale of his timber claim to another party was nevertheless taking it up for "his exclusive use and benefit" unless collusion to sell the tract prior to making the entry could be proved—obviously a difficult task. The original purchaser from the government did not even have to await issue of patent; he could sell immediately on receipt of a certificate of patent, and thereafter any number of transfers could be made. In Oregon, Timber and Stone entries to 1904 totalled 13,065 and 1,937,206 acres. Investigation by the Public Lands Commission of its abuse in three counties of Washington and Oregon showed 14-25 percent of the entries made by women, and 44 percent by non-residents of the area. Fifty percent were transferred to lumber companies at prices as low as a glass of beer, and as high as $3,000 per quarter section. Fraud in the Timber and Stone entries led Secretary of the Interior Ethan Hitchcock to suspend all activity on Timber and Stone entries in Washington, Oregon, and California by departmental order, November 18, 1902, pending investigation. [23]

A large number of Timber and Stone entries were made in the Middle Cascade area, most of them in the area to the east of Detroit and to the west of Cascadia. Many were made in the interests of the C.A. Smith Company, particularly in T. 13 S., R.3 and 4 E. Many of these lands were involved in the Oregon land fraud trials and were returned to the public domain. But collusion is difficult to prove. The Forest Service investigated scores of Timber and Stone claims and presented such evidence of collusion as was available to the General Land Office, which made the final decision. However, the General Land Office was noticeably more favorable to the claimants than was the Forest Service. Some of the frustration of the Forest Service is illustrated in the following letter from the Forest Supervisor:

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
FOREST SERVICE
Cascade National Forest.

Peter J. Johnson T.&.S. Entry #14355
Roseburg Land District
Cascade.

Eugene, Oregon, Aug. 17, 1908

The Forester,
     Forest Service,
          Washington, D.C.

Dear Sir:

I enclose a report on this case and have sustained the ranger's recommendations that further investigation be made.

Now, it is not possible for this office to make any further investigation because of the claimant being a nonresident and the delicate character of the work necessary to secure information. This claim lies in the vicinity of a great many claims that were mixed up in the Oregon land frauds, and I have good reason to believe that there was collusion on the part of the entryman and agents of Fred A. Kribs with reference to this entry; but I am not in a position to make a definite charge nor to secure the evidence necessary to show such collusion.

I have discussed the matter fully with the Chief of Field Division and reached the agreement that I should get all the information possible, make my report on the case, and that his office would endeavor to secure any information obtainable, showing collusion. Therefore, it is recommended that any section on the entry be suspended, pending the investigation by the office of the Chief of Field Division, to whom I am forwarding a copy of my report and such information as I have obtained.

I believe a great deal more can be accomplished in this way then to expect the rangers, whose other duties prevent them from giving a great amount of time to each individual case, to obtain information pertaining to fraudulent and unlawful agreement on the part of the entryman.

Very truly yours,
Forest Supervisor. [24]

MINING CLAIMS

Mining claims on the national forests were, and are, a continuing problem. Mineral land laws were capable of being abused as well as used legitimately. First, the background needs to be given and then its application in specific areas.

The General Mining Law of 1872 was passed to affirm to principle that gold and silver belong to the person who finds it. The miner would "stake his claim," 1,600 feet by 500 feet, or about 20 acres, with a minimum of paper work. This was for placer claims. Lode claims could measure 1,500 feet in length, with 300 feet on either side of the middle vein, all in parallel lines. An association could file on 160 acres. Then at the cost of $2.50 per acre for a placer claim, or $5.00 per acre for lode, the claimant could become the outright owner of the minerals and also of the surface of the land with no obligations to pay royalties on production. There were no limits on the number of claims on which an individual or association could file. The prospector, who might be a corporate prospector, did not need to hurry to mine or seek patent; he could hold his claim indefinitely by performing annual assessment work to the amount of $100 per year on the claim. This work was usually affirmed by affidavit, seldom by on site inspection. [25]

In the national forests, such laws were subject to abuse. Sometimes mining claims were not used for mining but for homesites, fishing/hunting camps, saloons, or houses of prostitution. At times mining claims were "blocked in," that is, located to prevent timber sales or access roads thus thwarting management plans. Sometimes mines on national forest lands were mined of valuable timber. Mines on the national forests also involved the need for close inter-agency cooperation between the General Land Office, which gave title to the land, and the Forest Service. Such cooperation was not always forthcoming.

With this background, the mining claims in the area under study may have been examined from the time the Cascade Range Forest Reserve was established until about 1940. Over the years almost every township in the area was visited by miners and a large number of claims filed. In the Blue River area there was extensive mining activity in T. 15 and 16 S., R. 4 E., and a fairly large development took place in lode claims. They played a large part in the economic development of the community, but by 1912 the mines had played out. The mining properties were deserted and became something of a tourist attraction. [26]

The major controversies over mining claims came in the northern part of the area. One was around the Breitenbush Hot Springs. The hot springs were managed as a resort area. One section had been homesteaded and was privately owned; another area was leased to Mark Skiff under a special use permit. Mining claims were filed close to these claims by J.L Hill and E. O'Hara as the El Dorado and the Ironside lodes. Examination indicated that there was no mineral on the claims, and the claims were probably made to harass Mr. Skiff and obtain possession of the hot springs. These mining claims were abandoned in 1913. [27]

A series of continuing problems dealing with mining claims revolved around mines in the Little North Fork of the Santiam area, T.8 S., R.5 E. A number of mines were located and some large scale development work occurred during the 1920s and early 1930s. R.A. Elliott, Detroit District Ranger, reported to Supervisor Perry A. Thompson in 1933 that the claims numbered from 100 to 115, mostly filed after 1929, and some bought from earlier holders. Some $300,000 had been spent. Thirty-five men were employed and half a million feet of timber used. Slash was becoming a problem and Elliott ordered the company to burn the slash. A year later Elliott reported that the slash had been burned satisfactorily but that the companies wanted a wood contract. They had cut 250 cords of timber already and wanted a sale for 700-1,000 cords. This was more than Elliott could make in a ranger sale. In addition some of the cutting had been carried on in trespass, the cutting occurring half a mile from the claims. The Forest Service law office was notified.

In the same year (1933), the owner of the Amalgamated Mining Corporation, James Hewitt, informed Elliott that he wanted land for a dam, a flume to produce hydroelectric power, a dam reservoir, and a clarifying basin. Supervisor Thompson informed him that he could get a permit from the Forest Service for the dam and flume, but production of power would have to go through the Federal Power Commission. By September, Hewitt wanted a special use permit for a stamp mill. A ruling from the Regional Office's law officer, W.F. Staley, held that Hewitt would need a special use permit for the mill and should file a millsite claim on the land desired. He added that the mill was not covered by mining laws: "Crushing or reducing of ores is in fact a separate industry from the extraction of mineral from the claim." He added that the millsite should be on non-mineral land, and that timber cutting on the site was an administrative matter.

A further round of controversy came about over roads. Hewitt had built a road into the area without first acquiring a permit, and had put up a gate. Supervisor C.C. Hall had held that to be "innocent trespass," and in 1930 offered Hewitt a special use permit for the road. Hall held that first, the road was in trespass; second, that the location was bad; third, that the road gate allowing only company use, was valid for a private road. Forest Service personnel, however, were given a key to the gate. Meantime, Hewitt had a bill introduced in Congress to compensate the company for the cost of the road.

Problems with the road continued with a new round of controversy in 1938. A right-of-way deed was offered to Hewitt in July 1938, but Hewitt held that a public road would be detrimental to mineral development, that watchmen would be needed, but that the Forest Service could use the road and be given a key to the gate. F.V. Horton, of the lands office, stated that a right-of-way would be needed to improve the road beyond the claims. C.J. Buck wrote to the Chief Forester in October 1938, stating the Forest Service views. The Forest Service wanted to extend the road to the Breitenbush watershed. The company had no objections to road construction and maintenance except for the closed section. In addition, the road location was bad. It had followed an old trail and could be relocated. The company's refusal came from the desire to be compensated for the initial work they had done in building the road; George La Roche, attorney for the Amalgamated Corporation, gave the company's side in a letter to Horton. The road was about four and a half miles long, extended over perfected claims, and was built by the company. It had not been publicly financed. Verbal permission was given to the Forest Service to use the road; but new questions were raised with the filing of new claims,

The questions boiled down, then, to the following: First, could the company be compensated for their expense in building the road? Such compensation would require Congressional action. Second, could the Forest Service secure a right-of-way that would give them access to the roadway, and the right to improve it? And third, would it be desirable for the Service to acquire the road? The Hewitt view was that the road should not be improved, since it would lead to public trespass. He suggested that a new road be built into the area with the government bearing the cost of construction and responsibility for maintenance. The legal question was submitted to law officials of the Forest Service. C.L Stewart, of the Regional law office, in an opinion dated June 15, 1939, stated that L-18 regulation subjected mining locations to United States governmental use for relocating and improving roads, provided that there was no interference with the claims. He cited a solicitor's opinion of January 4, 1915 which stated that the government could regulate occupancy, and held that the government was authorized to remove the gate. From the Washington Office of the Forest Service on the other hand, law officer Carl C. Donaugh commented that the Forest Service would need permission of the company to remove obstructions.

By 1945 an accommodation was made. The Amalgamated Company, which by this time included a large number of subsidiaries, was opposed to a right-of-way but needed a better road with some governmental responsibility for its construction and upkeep. On November 20, 1945, an agreement was made to allow the government to have right-of-way and to make improvements on the road in parts of sections 27, 28, 29, and 30, limited to a 25-foot strip. [28]

WAGON ROAD GRANTS AND SCHOOL LANDS

Historically the United States has used land as a substitute for capital in aiding agriculture and education. In the Santiam National Forest across T.13 and 14 S., the Willamette Valley and Cascade Mountain Wagon Road, usually referred to as the Santiam Wagon Road, crossing from Cascadia to Prineville, was built with the aid of alternate odd numbered sections to a distance of three miles on either side of the road. These lands were acquired by the successor companies Porter Brothers and the Oregon Western Colonization Company, and held by them for speculative purposes. The total land was about 45,000 acres. Some sections had been sold to lumber companies, and at Fish Lake the company had built a roadhouse. In the Cascade National Forest to the south, 41,311 acres were included in a grant to the Oregon Central Military Wagon Road extending from Eugene through Oakridge and across the Cascades to eastern Oregon. This was also in the form of alternate odd-numbered sections on each side of the road. These lands were acquired in 1903-1904 by the Booth-Kelly Lumber Company through a subsidiary, the Oregon and California Land Company. Some of the eastern sections were sold by the Oregon and California Land Company to the Penn Lumber Company of Warrentown, Pennsylvania, which planned to log their sections when the railroad crossed the pass. [29]

In Oregon, the 16th and 36th sections of each township were reserved as school sections. This meant only sections which had been surveyed. Lands which had not been surveyed and had plats deposited in the district Land Office remained in the hands of the Federal government. An interesting judicial decision, which involved both wagon road grant lands and school lands, involved the question as to whether a section which had been partially surveyed qualified for transfer. As every forester knows, surveyors first lay out the township and range lines dividing the area into squares six miles on each side. One township was surveyed, but the sections not laid out. Claimants argued that section 36 had been surveyed since the south and east boundaries were drawn, but the court held this was not the case. [30]

These lands gave the Forest Service a variety of administrative problems. Sheep herders might be held in trespass if they failed to examine an imaginary line that separated private or state land from Federal land. Fire on private or state land might spread to Federal land. Legislative measures were sought. In regard to mining and to the Timber and Stone Act, little was done until the 1950s. More success came with school lands. An exchange was made with the State of Oregon in 1920 in which the inaccessible school sections within the national forest boundaries were exchanged for national forest lands in the Coos Bay area. The area had been the site of a large forest fire but had now seeded into a dense stand of "third growth"—the term used for growing young unmerchantable trees. This area was named the Elliot State Forest after Frank Elliot the first Oregon State forester. More importantly, in 1922 a General Exchange Act was passed. This act authorized the Secretary of Agriculture (through the Secretary of the Interior) to exchange surveyed, non-mineral land, or timber on national forest land, for privately owned or state-owned land within the national forest. The exchange of land or timber was on a value-for-value basis. [31]

These acts were of great value in consolidating Forest Service ownership. A number of exchanges took place, largely in the Santiam, of cutover land suitable for growing trees or other Forest Service purposes, for timber lands or timber of equal value. The exchange was of value at the time since the tax system of Oregon was such that the timberland owner could not profitably hold his acreage for a second crop; the yield or severance tax was some distance in the future. Consequently, many of the transactions involved trading of cutover land for timber accessible to the company's mills. In such exchanges the value of the land was appraised and the volume and value of timber determined by cruise. Cutting was under Forest Service regulation. A large number of such exchanges occurred in the Cascadia and Detroit areas, and Booth-Kelly exchanged some of the land in the more mountainous areas for timber accessible to their mills. [32]

AGRICULTURAL LANDS, HOMESTEADERS, AND SQUATTERS

It was the policy of the forest administration both during Land Office days and with the transfer to the Department of Agriculture to eliminate agricultural land from the national forests. In the Land Office days this took the form of asking rangers to report on homesteads within the national forests. For example Addie Morris compiled a list of homesteads, most in T.21 E., R.1, 2, & 3 E. [33]

These homesteads were of various types. The better farming lands, mostly on the western borders of the forest or along the routes of wagon roads, were taken up at an early time. For the most part they were small operations, combining gardening and stock raising with some catering to tourists, some small logging operations, and some sale of shakes or chittum bark. In the Cascade National Forest a 1916 survey showed that some 10,728.52 acres had been acquired under the homestead laws, mostly for bona fide homesteads. In the Santiam National Forest there had been widespread use of the homestead laws to get title to homesteads to be sold to lumber companies. Arthur E. Wilcox wrote of T. 10 S., R. 7 E. in describing 3,835 acres alienated "almost invariably these homesteads are located in the heaviest timber." [34]

The Forest Service men located, surveyed, and described homesteads and other settlements. Among these were a large number of squatter's locations—that is, cabins and clearings made by people who had not bothered to file their claims in the Land Office. Most had abandoned their claims. In such cases the Forest Service would survey the claim, get testimony from people acquainted with the squatter as to his time of occupancy and activities, and then send him a notice that his claim would revert to the national forest unless he desired to contest the decision. Most did not. [35]

On June 11, 1906, legislation was signed that intended to help the Forest Service speed up the process of classifying agricultural land. The Forest Homestead Act provided that the Secretary of Agriculture could open for homestead entry, through the Secretary of the Interior, lands chiefly valuable for homestead purposes which might be occupied for agricultural purposes without injury to the national forest. Since most such lands were in narrow, shoestring valleys, survey was by metes and bounds rather than the customary rectangular survey. The area could not be over 160 acres; the dimensions, not more than a mile in length. Commutation—purchase of the land in lieu of residence—was not permitted. [36]

The Forest Service had hundreds of applications under the act, some by bona fide settlers, and from others who saw this as another Timber and Stone Act to be used in land grabs. The Forest Service administered the act in a very conservative manner. In a Supervisor's meeting of March 1910, R.E. Benedict, Supervisor of the Olympic, pointed out that there was still a great deal of land suited for agriculture outside the national forests. He urged examiners to bear these factors in mind: Whether the area was needed for public purposes, such as campgrounds, recreation areas, town sites or Forest Service administrative sites; whether the land was needed for forest purposes, watershed values, community forest use, or prevention of erosion; and whether the land was good agricultural land. [37]

Files on the claims indicate that the forest examiners were cautious in their interpretation of the June 11th law. Some forest homesteads passed to patent on bench lands and in river valleys, but often the original claim was reduced in size by eliminating land more suited for growing trees, or of potential use in recreation, or for logging roads. There were some efforts at fraud including attempts to use the June 11th Act to obtain hot springs or create timber claims, or to enlarge mineral claims. [38]

The classification was slow and in 1912 Congress speeded up the process. A rider to the Agricultural Appropriation Bill of April 10, 1912, ordered the Secretary of Agriculture to "select, classify, and segregate, as soon as practicable, all lands within the boundaries of the national forests that may be opened to settlement under the homestead laws applicable to the national forests." Most important, the requirement was funded to the tune of $25,000 for the first year, $10,000 for the year after, and with subsequent funding until the land classification was completed. The Service set to work on the tremendous task of identifying and segregating the agricultural lands. In the Santiam and the Cascade National Forests the task was completed in 1916. That task in the Santiam was administered by Arthur E. Wilcox, a Michigan State College graduate who had had experience in stock raising and farming, and who had already examined 15,000 acres of June 11 claims. In general he found little agricultural land in the Santiam, only about 400 acres at most more suitable for agriculture than forest growth. The Cascade classification was done by T.M. Talbot, 3,812 acres had previously been classified under the June 11th Act, and most of this was taken up by 1916. [39]

One effect of the June 11th Act was to speed up selection of administrative sites by the Forest Service as sites for ranger stations and other administrative uses. Such sites had to, of necessity, have water and land for pasture for the horses. Forest Service policy was that no agricultural land could be used for administrative purposes when it had also been applied for under terms of the June 11th Act. Therefore the Forest Service was asked to make its withdrawals in advance. [40]

LIEU LANDS AND LAND FRAUD

One problem which plagued the Forest Service was the lieu land provision of the act of 1897. It authorized the settler or owner of a tract of land within the national forest covered by an unperfected bona fide claim, or by a patent, to relinquish it to the government, and in lieu thereof to select a tract of vacant land open to settlement and not exceeding in area the tract relinquished. With unperfected claims, requirements regarding residence, settlement, improvements, and the like had to be complied with on the new claim, with credit allowed for the time spent on the old claim. [41]

The clause was an invitation to fraud, allowing claimants to exchange valueless holdings for valuable land outside the reserve. It was condemned almost immediately. GLO Commissioner Binger Hermann wrote in 1901:

Many representations made to this office in advocacy of the creation of certain reserves are prompted by the desires of interested parties in possession of valueless holdings which will become part of such reserves, thereby enabling such owners to exchange their valueless properties for valuable portions of the public domain, which under existing laws they cannot otherwise obtain. Many valueless lands belonging to the states, such as school lands and other grants, and large grants which insure to corporations which are found included within reserves are also permitted to be exchanged for large quantities of valuable lands upon the unreserved domain. Their valuable lands are not relinquished—they remain.

Both in 1901 and 1902 he recommended creating new reserves and adding to old ones only after the law was amended to "require lands selected to be of like character or equal value with the lands relinquished." His successor, W.A. Richards, acting with Secretary of the Interior Ethan Allen Hitchcock, took action to curb this activity by creating "temporary withdrawals" of projected reserves thereby preventing the speculator from making the exchange. The act was finally repealed March 3, 1905. [42]

THE OREGON LAND FRAUD CASES

Occasionally in the annals of conservation history there have been cases and controversies of a sensational nature which have had lasting effects. Examples of such affairs include the Hetch-Hetchy controversy in California, the various "states rights movements in the west," and the Teapot Dome scandal. One of the first of these episodes was the Oregon land frauds. These frauds which involved the Lieu Land Act and public school lands resulted, in the words of one historian, in "the rather serious impairment of the reputations of a number of people occupying tolerably exalted positions of public trust." The scheme involved swapping with the government worthless lands in the reserves of Oregon and California for valuable timber lands in the unreserved public domain outside the reserve area. Title to land and advance information about the creation of forest reserves was obtained through a land ring which included many public officials. The story broke in 1902 and for a decade furnished newspapers like the Oregonian and the Oregon Journal with an abundance of sensational material. The result was that a number of people were driven from public life and others jailed; it led to the repeal of the Lieu Land provision in the Act of 1897; it led to the creation of a Public Lands Commission appointed by President Roosevelt to examine the question of how best to protect the nation's natural resources; and it contributed to the creation of the Forest Service. The main setting for the drama was in the Federal Courthouse in Portland, Oregon, where the trials took place. Its roots lay in various places—in the luxurious boardrooms of Minnesota lumber barons, in the ponderosa (yellow) pine forests of the Blue Mountains, and the pumice soil of the Deschutes drainage; in the coastal forests of the Siletz Indian Reservation, the redwood forests of northern California, and in the upland forests of the Willamette National Forest. Our narrative will be limited to the Willamette National Forest.

In 1900 the survey of T. 11 S., R. 7 E., Willamette Meridian, was officially approved. Stephen A. Douglas Puter, a Californian who became the self-styled "King of the Oregon Land Fraud Ring," decided that the area would be a good one on which to make bogus homestead claims. He operated in this and in other ventures with a number of partners, the most important being Horace G. McKinley, a speculator, and Frederick Kribs, a Minnesota lumberman. The area concerned was isolated and accessible only by trail. Therefore, the chances were minimal that there would be any field examination. Ten people were recruited to file on the 12 homesteads, two filing on two claims each. Only three of the ten used their own names. Although none of the claimants lived anywhere near their "homesteads," all signed affidavits to the effect that they had lived there prior to the creation of the reserve and had lived there continually; that they had built improvements such as barns, fences, and houses, and had cleared and cultivated the land. Value of their "improvements" they estimated at several hundred dollars for each claim. The requirements that affidavits and proofs had to be witnessed was met by having the conspirators serve as witnesses for each other.

Then the plot thickened. A resident of Detroit, J.A.W. Heidecke, informed Puter's partner, McKinley, that he knew none of the "homesteaders" had been near their claims and wanted money to keep his mouth shut about it. Puter gave him $50, the first of a large number of payments of "hush money" to keep quiet. Heidecke became further involved when Puter learned that a special agent for the General Land Office, C.E. Loomis, was planning to make a field examination of the claims. Puter paid Loomis $500 for going to examine the township immediately with a promise of an additional $500 when the patents were cleared. He then paid Heidecke $110 to "guide" Loomis on the trip. Heidecke took Loomis not to the claims but to an area already settled and led him around, sometimes viewing the same cabin from the front, back, and side on the pretense that they were three separate claims. Loomis turned in a favorable report.

Some months later, Salmon B. Ormsby, Superintendent of the Cascade Forest Reserve, received instructions to make an examination of the claims and to get affidavits from disinterested people. Puter offered Ormsby's son $500 if he could get Ormsby to make a prompt examination of the claims and issue a favorable report, and he also arranged for Heidecke to guide Ormsby in the same way he had guided Loomis. Puter got word that Ormsby had sent his reports to Washington and that they were favorable. However, he felt uncertain and decided to go to Washington himself to confer with U.S. Senator John H. Mitchell of Oregon. Mitchell introduced him to the Commissioner of the General Land Office, Binger Hermann, who told him that the reports on the claims had been favorable, but that it would be several months before final patent could be issued. A day or so later Hermann called Puter to say that he had received a report that all the claims were fraudulent and suggested that Puter go to Oregon to get more affidavits. Instead, Puter saw Senator Mitchell, passed to him $2,000 in bills, and asked him for his help. The next day Mitchell reported that he had fixed things up with Hermann. A day later, patents to the claims were issued. It seemed like a happy ending.

The 11-7 Affair, as it was called, was duplicated in several other Oregon areas. However, in a fraud involving the Deschutes pine lands, Puter and McKinley fell out, and Puter determined to turn informer. Indictments were made against Puter, McKinley, and a large number of their accomplices. The case was a long one. The Federal Grand Jury was in session from December 17, 1904, to April 8, 1905, and through parts of August and September, 1905. They brought in 26 indictments. The trials themselves resulted in the conviction of a large number of people, including Senator Mitchell, Congressman John Williamson, U.S. District Attorney Franklin P. Mays, and Puter himself, who spent his jail term writing a long and interesting account of the affair.

The above represents an abridgement of the story; to tell the whole tale would take a large book—and it has. [43]

GRAZING

Regulation of grazing in the national forests was settled in the Pacific Northwest earlier than in any other region (see Chapters I and II). The period from 1905 to 1933 was marked by generally harmonious relations between the forest administration and the grazers.

Several factors led to this harmonious relationship. Grazing policy was established early on the Santiam and Cascade National Forests based on examinations and decisions of F.V. Coville, Binger Hermann, and Gifford Pinchot. The Pinchot policies were strongly endorsed by the National Woolgrowers Association in their 1904 meeting held in Portland January 11-15. Included in their statement was "Whereas the investigations of the Department of Agriculture into questions of grazing has been marked by intelligence, fairness and a thorough understanding of business requirements..." [44] There was continuity in livestock ownership, especially among sheepmen. H.C. Rooper, one of the Oregon delegates to the association meeting, grazed sheep in what is now the Willamette National Forest from 1884 to 1945. [45] Many of the problems which arose in eastern Oregon, including conflict between local stockmen and tramp sheepmen, cattle and sheep owners' wars, and conflicts between grazers and homesteaders, did not arise in the Willamette. [46] A further factor was that the large livestock associations had little influence on Oregon and Washington livestock owners. Their loyalty was primarily to the state and county livestock associations. The Forest Service, working as it did on the grass roots level, was able to settle local problems on local grounds. [47]

Forest Service grazing policy gave preference first to stockmen resident in the national forest; second, to stockmen with holdings in the forest but not themselves resident there; third, to stockmen living near the forest; and fourth, to stockmen living at some distance but with an equitable claim to range land based on prior use of the forest range. In the Cascade and Santiam National Forests, most of the users were of the third and fourth class. A few homesteaders along the Oregon Central Military Road and in the McKenzie Bridge area grazed stock but mainly on their own holdings. The vast majority of the stock coming into the forest for summer range came from central Oregon—Sisters, Bend, Madras, Shaniko, The Dalles, Prineville, and Dufur. Of 21 applications for grazing permits in the Cascade Forest Reserve in 1905 only one was from a stockman living in the forest, and of 18 applicants only one in 1906. [48]

The period 1905-1933 was marked by some administrative decisions of concern to the area. In 1906 grazing fees of so much per head were levied. From 1911-1933 a series of grazing reconnaissances were carried out to locate and evaluate available rangeland, and in the same period a series of scientific studies of the range and its uses were made. Other studies were made for predator control.

James Tertius Jardine played an important role in grazing research. From 1907 to 1910 Jardine was a special agent of the USDA Forest Service developing techniques for range reconnaissance, and in 1919 published the classic Range Management in the National Forests. His major studies were in the Wallowa National Forest where he developed standards of deferred grazing and rotation which became standard for the region. In 1911 Charles Flemming established an office of grazing studies in Region 6; he was succeeded by J.M. Peterson in 1913. Comparative studies were made of such matters as the use of specified bedgrounds for sheep versus open herding and bedding out. [49]

In the Willamette National Forest grazing reconnaissance was carried on by John C. Kuhns who issued a comprehensive report in 1916. [50] This was brought up to date in 1934. There was during this time some decline in the number of sheep grazed, from 40,810 in 1922, to 38,075 in 1932. There was also some decline in the range available. Lodgepole pine and alpine fir encroached on old burns and meadows in the high country. Lodgepole pine was encouraged by grazing since the hooves of sheep prepared a good seed bed. Sheep in the area came largely from central Oregon; some cattle and horses came from the west side. Grazing did not go above range capacity. There were few poisonous plants, and predators were not a great menace. The possibility of extending grazing to cutover land was considered. As far as watershed values were concerned, "recreational use inside the forest is more a source of pollution than grazing." There was need to study more carefully the effect of grazing on wildlife. [51]

The major use of the Cascade and Santiam National Forests was for sheep. There were relatively few cattle and horse owners who sought grazing permits. In addition most of the grazing regulations and administration related to sheep grazing rather than cattle and horse grazing. Horses and cattle are independent creatures which can be left to forage for themselves for long periods of time without supervision. Also their grazing is farther from the grass roots than that of sheep, and consequently likely to be less injurious to the range. Sheep, by contrast, are helpless creatures with foolish and sometimes suicidal habits who require close supervision. They are more vulnerable to predators than horses or cattle.

Sheep herding changed little from the 1890s to the 1940s. After shearing and lambing on the home ranch in central Oregon, sheep in bands of 1,500 to 2,500 were driven to their summer range in the mountains. Each band was accompanied by a herder or two and a packer who tended the saddle and pack horses and sheep dog or two. The herders' equipment consisted of one or more tents, camping gear—kettles, frying pan and dutch oven, and a rifle—in early days the 44-40 Winchester model 1873, later the 30-30 Winchester model 1894 or the 300 Savage model 1899, and a .22 rifle to save an occasional blue grouse from dying of old age. They usually entered the mountain area in June and left in September, traveling by specified driveways. Theirs was a solitary life entailing a great deal of responsibility for valuable property, and was thoroughly enjoyed by those with a taste for such life. Herders and packers were of all nationalities and backgrounds. Some were Irish, while German, Spanish, and English names show up among them. The herders were generally welcomed by frontier settlers, rangers, and lookouts. Their visits offered a chance for gossip and pinochle, and visiting herders usually brought with them a haunch of mutton for the larder. [52]

The Forest Service administration consisted of allotting grazing permits to individual grazers who applied. Preference was given to grazers residing in the area and to those who had used to range in previous years. This was accompanied by discussion between the grazer and the Forest Service official on the area allotted, and its relationship to neighboring permittees. The permits established the number of and type of stock, and the area to be grazed. For example the range area allotted to Herbert C. Rooper in 1905 was described as:

On the east by the McKenzie River and Clear Lake, on the north by Fish Lake and its main tributary streams, on the west by the section line one mile east of the township line dividing ranges 5 and 6 east; on the south by the township line between township 14 south, range 6 east, and township 15 south, range 6 east, with the addition of a certain old burn about one section in area, situated about two miles south of the southwest corner of the above described territory, and bounded on the south by an impassible canyon.

The permit also dealt with the time to enter and the time to leave the forest, the route to be followed by which the sheep would enter the forest and travel to their range, and the number of days to be spent in each camp. In the fall after the sheep had returned to the home ranch, the permittee would file a report for the Service including in it his satisfaction of dissatisfaction with the range, problems encountered, and the condition of the range. The range inspection included examination of how the herder had utilized available feed, condition of the range including areas of overgrazing and underutilization, locations of more feed, and best routes for trailing the sheep into the area. [53]

For their part the Forest Service located sheep driveways utilizing portions of existing roads and trails to reach the range. Here are some typical descriptions: Enter Cascade Forest via trail south of Maiden Creek. Follow old trail to Riggs Meadow; thence to Salt Creek Wagon Road to Diamond Creek Way; thence following Diamond Creek Way to Dead Camp. Or "old Willamette Road, leaving it near Windigo Pass. Thence along crest of Cascades and Calapooya Divide." Driveways were often rerouted because of erosion or overgrazing, blowdowns which closed the established route, or pressure from recreationists. The Service built foot bridges across streams, often narrow ones permitting the sheep to cross only in single file so they could serve as counting points. Counting corrals were also built, usually on the border of the forest.

Herding had been in its early stages that of driving the sheep toward evening to a satisfactory bedding ground. Grazing reconnaissance studies indicated that "bedding out," that is letting the sheep bed where they liked and having the herder stay out with them, resulted in better feed utilization and helped the sheep leave the forest in good condition. Bedding out was adopted by the herders in the Cascade and the Santiam Forests beginning about 1916. [54]

The wagon road grant lands, especially those acquired by Booth-Kelly, presented some problems because of the checkerboard pattern of ownership. As one sheep owner wrote, "It is impossible out here in the open country to herd a band of sheep up to a section line and no further, and a great deal more so in the mountains, not to mention a forty or an eighty." There was occasional trespass by one herder on land allotted to another and occasional overgrazing in driveway areas. In general, however, grazing administration had no major problems. [55]

The maximum grazing occurred in 1909 and 1910 when, for the entire Santiam and Cascade National Forests, 44,600 sheep at two cents per head were grazed and 2,809 cattle at five cents per head per month. Issuance of permits decreased in subsequent years due in part to decrease of available range through reforestation and in part by a decline in the grazing industry. [56]

Grazing competed with other uses of the high country. Indians traveling through the country used forest trails—in fact many of them followed the routes of old Indian trails—and Indians utilized the mountain meadows to harvest huckleberries. There were some clashes between sheepmen and Indians over use of the meadows. The Service finally reserved certain meadows for huckleberry harvest and camping, and driveways were routed away from them. Increasing recreation in the high country also led to relocation of driveways. Portions of the historic sheep driveways followed the Skyline Trail and these driveways were relocated. Also regulations were made that no sheep be bedded down closer than three hundred yards from streams or lakes. [57] The sheep competed for forage with deer and elk, and in the summer range around Three Sisters a game refuge was later created with grazing and hunting forbidden.

WILDLIFE

Wildlife in the national forests represented one of the most widely utilized resources. Hunting for subsistence was and still is a tradition in rural communities. From Maine to Oregon rural dwellers—farmers, loggers, miners, and government employees—geared up at the beginning of hunting season to "get their deer." Trapping fur-bearing animals for pelts and predators for bounties was also a way of life in backwoods communities. Recreational hunting and fishing was universal and each year hunters and anglers flocked to the forests—their numbers gradually increasing after 1905 with the widespread building of trails and roads, and rapidly increasing after 1910 with the use of the automobile.

Wildlife as a matter of management involved a complex interaction between Federal agencies, the state, and individuals. The Forest Service managed the land within the national forests. The USDA Biological Survey carried on research on wildlife and did some predator control. The state administered and enforced the game laws. The Forest Service worked with the state in having its employees act as deputy game wardens. Individuals varied in their cooperation with the government agencies. Market hunters and poachers were at odds with both government and state agencies and often with members of the local communities. Local trappers and predator hunters often resented the presence of government men encroaching on their livelihood. In the Crater (now Rogue River) National Forest for example a government hunter named Hammersley suffered some indignities. As George Cecil wrote, "This office is rather reluctant about sending a hunter there again because it appears that some one who has not much use for the Forest Service killed Hammersley's horse and robbed his camp of all his supplies, etc." [58]

The role of the private sector was important as well as that of state and Federal governments. America is a nation of joiners and sportsmen's associations, some national like the Boone and Crockett Club, some statewide, and some regional, carried on a variety of activities. They put pressure on legislatures to adopt sound game laws; established state or private game refuges, and carried on educational programs; George Shiras III converted the poacher's tools, the set gun, and the spotlight, into devices for wildlife photography, and his articles in the National Geographic had a profound effect in encouraging hunting with cameras. The story is told elsewhere; but it is part of our study to deal with the relationship of these groups with local officers.

Some study of habitat management had begun by this time (1905-1933), but research was in its infancy and few universities offered programs in wildlife management. Basic ideas regarding wildlife conservation during this time involved first keeping down predators; studies of predator-prey relationships, like those carried on by Durward Allen and Aldo Leopold were still in the future. Second, wildlife refuges were established which would not only protect the game within the refuge but also supply game to adjoining regions. Third, overhunting was curbed by closed seasons and bag limits. Fourth, was restocking. Under Chief Forester Henry S. Graves a great deal of restocking was done; shipping of Roosevelt elk from the Olympic National Forest for example and receiving mountain goats from the Tongass National Forest in Alaska in exchange for shipping bighorn sheep from Montana to Colorado. State and private activities paralleled those of the Federal government. [59]

The Cascade and the Santiam National Forests had an abundance of fur-bearing animals and predators. Trappers worked during the winter season and logged or cut chittum bark during the spring and summer. The reminiscences of trapper Charles Anway are instructive. He recorded several year's take on the North Fork of the Willamette above Oakridge as follows:

Bounties on coyotes were $2.50 each, cougar $30.00, wolves $32.50, bobcats $2.00, and bear $10.00; all this in addition to the value of the pelts. In 1924 he trapped ten wolves near Oakridge worth $32.50 each for bounty and $20.00 for pelts. He continued trapping until at least 1930. [59]

In regard to game animals and fish, forest officers were appointed as deputy state game wardens with authority to arrest for infraction of game laws. [60] So far as forest residents were concerned the power was exercised with discretion. Settlers did not serve wild meat out of season if a ranger dropped in for dinner; forest officers recognized that in hard times the settler would be tempted to do some poaching and did not snoop into woodsheds and outbuildings. They worked with the community and with sportsmen's associations to curb such practices as allowing stray dogs to run deer. Forestry practices such as regulated cutting, fire control, and plantations improved the big game habitat. Beginning in the 1920s the Forest Service, working with the USDA Biological Survey, took a game census every year. [61]

In regard to sport fisheries, the Forest Service worked with state and Federal hatcheries to restock streams and lakes not only with native fish but with exotics such as eastern brook trout and golden trout. Forest officers enforced the law, reported on violations such as dynamiting fishing sites or exceeding bag limits, and reported on the qualities of streams and lakes for fishing.

Forest officers varied as to their interest in wildlife and fish. Nelson Macduff, Supervisor of the Cascade from 1920 to 1930, wrote "Neither the supervisor nor rangers have time to fish: hence must rely on reports from fishermen who are notoriously unreliable." [62] So far as the rangers were concerned this would seem to represent wishful thinking on Macduff's part. C.C. Hall, Supervisor of the Santiam, and Ranger Roy Elliott were keenly interested in fish and wildlife. Hall was a charter member of the Santiam Fish and Game Association founded in 1919 in Albany and became its field secretary. The objective of the association was the propagation, protection, and conservation of fish and game in the Santiam and Calapooia watersheds. They obtained a lease for a clubhouse at Clear Lake; developed strong community relations with commercial clubs and the Kiwanis; and in general pursued an aggressive campaign of education and law enforcement. Each year they carried on stocking programs for streams and lakes, planting over 96,000 fry in 1921. [63]

In the high country as the Skyline Trail became popular the Forest Service stocked a great number of lakes between 1931 to 1933. Fish stocked included Dolly Varden, cutthroat, eastern brook, and golden trout. Some 70 lakes were restocked. A report of 1933 dealt with 138 lakes in the high country. Most had an abundant population of fish, but some were depleted. [64]

The annual reports gave an interesting picture of wildlife in the areas. In the Cascade, the antipiscatorial Macduff wanted to prohibit boat fishing on the McKenzie and Willamette Rivers and to close their larger tributaries to fishing. He reported that the Oregon State Game Commission was planting streams and lakes in the McKenzie River area using Forest Service packers to take the fry in. Fish had been planted annually since 1913, with the Oregon Fish Commission planting trout In Big, Hand, Husband, and Lost Lakes, as well as Pole Creek. From 1919 to 1921, fish were also planted in the Santiam River, West Pine Ridge Lake, and Hunts Lake; and in 1931 near Detroit and Cascadia.

Big game was holding its own and there was a large take of predators. The reports by Hall are more detailed. Hall reported on the migration of elk to their winter range and winter kill among game birds. He reported that due to trapping by the Biological Survey, predators were on the decline except for coyotes who had learned to avoid traps. Wild turkeys were planted near Detroit in 1929 but the stocking was not successful. He found violations of game laws on the decline and attributed this to the aggressiveness of the game clubs. He reported on liver fluke in deer and even on an appetite of deer for clothing. As one of his rangers Smith Taylor wrote, "It is very common for deer to chew up leather, but never before this summer has there been a case of deer chewing up clothing that we know about." [65]

From early times the Forest Service established game preserves in its national forests. There was a strong movement in 1908 to establish one on the Soda Fork on the South Santiam River. Tracy C. Becker, a Federal legal officer, recommended to Theodore Roosevelt that a reserve be established there not only because it was a beautiful area with good timber and watershed values, and an abundance of deer, elk and bear, but also because land grafters had their eyes on the area. Roosevelt forwarded the letter to Pinchot, who favored its creation, but the plan was dropped. [66] In 1915 Henry S. Graves, who was very much interested in wildlife conservation, made arrangements with William G. Hornaday, Director of the New York Zoological Park and a major figure in wildlife conservation, to work with the Forest Service in recommending wildlife refuges. [67]

No refuge was established within the Santiam or the Cascade National Forests until 1926. In that year the Salt Creek Game Refuge was established comprising 38,000 acres in a strip from two miles east of Oakridge to Salt Creek Falls, and from two to six sections wide covering both sides of the road and Southern Pacific Railroad. it was established because of a large influx of people into the area for railroad building and at the request of the local sportsmen's club to the Oregon State Game Commission. Macduff, on its creation, commented that some 10,000 acres of the refuge were used by sheep and cattle men who had been given no prior information by the game commission. In the late 1920s a game refuge was established near Three Sisters, largely at the request of recreationists who objected to random shooting. Perry A. Thompson, who succeeded Macduff as Supervisor, was critical of both refuges. The Salt Creek refuge was in a poor location and a better one would be the Hills Creek area or along the South Fork of the McKenzie. The one at the Sisters was too high and did not include enough winter range. He felt that the proposed elk refuges on Portland Creek or Frissel Creek would be desirable. [68]

DEVELOPMENTS

The period 1905-1933 saw profound changes in the social environment of the national forests. Most of the forests in 1905 were frontier communities with few roads and a small but growing number of trails. Travel was on foot, on horseback, or by wagon on the few roads. Automobile travel was in its infancy. Automobiles reached Government Camp from Portland in 1903 and crossed the Cascades in 1905 over the Santiam Wagon Road, but such travel was adventurous and risky. Communication was slow; rangers in the field were on their own. They were out of touch with Supervisors or other officials for months at a time. "An automobile gets you there faster, but a horse, oftener" was an aphorism of the time. Road building was largely a local responsibility depending on county funds or community effort. [69] The telephone, radio, and automobile broke down isolation, converted frontier settlements into forest communities, and transformed both economic and recreational life.

The automobile brought about a demand for good roads. An important part of the road building was increased state and Federal aid and here a brief chronology would be in order. In 1907 roads and trails were built with county funds, some government appropriations, and some voluntary help from settlers. In the Cascade (North) NF in 1907, which then included most of the present Mt. Hood and and some of the present Willamette National Forests, there had been built since creation of the forest, 55 miles of county road and 180 miles of private road, as well as eight miles of railroad near Detroit. Twenty-six miles of private trail had been built and the government had built 300. In addition, 11-1/2 miles of private phone lines were in the forest. In the Cascade (South) NF, which included some of the present Willamette, Umpqua, and Deschutes National Forests, four miles of county and 24 miles of private and five miles of government road had been built since 1907. Two miles of narrow gauge railroad had been built; 42 miles of private trails, and 258 miles of government trails. Also, eight miles of telegraph lines had been built and 46 miles of private telephone line. [70]

The demand for roads in the national forests was implemented by legislation and here some of the major pieces of Federal legislation may be listed. Counties in which national forests were located had long complained about the loss of tax base for public schools and roads. Recognizing this, the Agriculture Appropriations Act of 1906 provided that ten percent of the gross receipts from national forests during any fiscal year be turned over to the state in which the forest was located for the benefit of public schools or roads in the counties in which the Federal forests were located. In 1908 this was raised to 25 percent. In 1912, the Agricultural Appropriations Act made ten percent of all receipts from national forests available for construction of roads and trails in the forests from which the receipts were derived. In this, cooperation with the states was authorized in furtherance of any system of highways in which such roads were a part. On July 11, 1916, an act was passed appropriating $10,000,000 over a ten-year period for construction of roads and trails partly or wholly within national forests. In 1919 the Post Office Appropriations Act gave $3,000,000 for each of the fiscal years 1919, 1920, and 1921 for cooperation with the states in construction and maintenance of roads and trails needed for the use and protection of resources or desirable for the proper administration, protection, and improvement of the national forests. The Federal Highway Act of 1921 appropriated $4,400,000 for construction of forest development roads. [71] The period was one of transition from toll roads and private roads to state and county highways.

In the Cascade National Forest railroad construction also was important. The Oregon and Eastern Railroad Company, a subsidiary of the Southern Pacific, had projected a line between Eugene and Klamath Falls by way of Oakridge. Surveys were made, and in the period 1909-1911 the line was built as far as Salmon Creek just east of Oakridge. Construction was halted due partly to litigation and then the war. However, between 1923 and 1926 an all-out effort was made to complete the line across the forest and the divide. The influx of transient workers there was a major factor in the creation of the Salt Creek Game Refuge. The Ranger, C.B. McFarland, sent out cruisers to estimate the amount of timber on the right-of-way. He had a reputation for insisting on fair scale for all timber. On one occasion an axeman found a three-inch diameter pole across a survey line. "Shall we throw this in the river?" asked the axeman. "Hell, no," replied the construction engineer, "Let it lay so McFarland can scale it." [72]

The legislation between 1912 and 1921 led to a great impetus of road building. Between 1908 and 1919 the Forest Service built 466.10 miles of trail, a ferry to cross the North Fork of the Willamette, and 22.82 miles of road, and made grade improvement on existing roads. Costs were $34,855.68. Settlers contributed $600 of this providing $150 of the $250 cost of half a mile of road in the Cain Road area, and $450 of the $629 cost of the mile-long Dunning Road. The proprietor of McCredie Springs contributed $148.05 of the cost of improving the road between Oakridge and McCredie Springs. In addition a construction road for the railroad was built, partly by the county, which connected McCredie Springs to Odell Lake. From there transportation was possible from Odell to Crescent Lake and thence across the mountains. The county contributed $612.53 and settlers $329 of the $4,894 cost of a road between Oakridge and High Prairie; the county also contributed $1,313.50 to the cost of the Foley Springs Road, and $186.43 to the cost of the Oakridge-McCredie Springs project [73]

During this time both the state and the national government became interested in scenic highways. The initial cooperation between Oregon and the Forest Service came about in 1915 with the building of the Columbia River Highway and the Forest Service's dedication of over 14,000 acres bordering the highway for scenic and recreational use. [74] Other scenic highways were projected. In 1915 Robert S. Wallace, forest examiner, gave a detailed analysis of road needs in Lane County. He stressed both scenic and economic values of forest roads and their use in fire control. He recommended that first priority be given to making a forest highway of the Eugene-Prineville (McKenzie) wagon road going across McKenzie Pass and making a vital link between the coast and eastern Oregon. The Forest Service gave this high priority, and in 1919 planned to spend $355,000 on the 53.8 miles within the forest in fiscal years 1919-1921. Only the recreational roads just south of Mt. Hood had as high a priority. [75] To the north on the South Santiam River, the old Santiam toll road became a county road in 1898, and a state highway in 1925. (Final work to make this an integral part of the Oregon State highway system was completed in 1939.) [76]

Specifications for trails were laid out early by Supervisor Seitz at a ranger meeting on March 21, 1910. The Forest Supervisor should act as a general manager in determining the location of trails and other improvements. The national forests should be considered as a whole, with the Cascade, Umpqua, Deschutes, and Mt. Hood having a network of connecting trails. There should be both central and branch trails with junctions of central trails not more than 20 miles apart. No grade should be over 10 percent The trail should be 12 inches wide, the tread of a horse. Ranger stations should have a house, barn, and not less than 100 acres of pasture. [77]

Telephone lines also were built rapidly, particularly after the 1910 fires in the Northwest, when their value in fire control was strongly proven. [78] In the West Boundary-Oakridge area the lines were hung on the telegraph poles of the railroad company; elsewhere insulators were hung on trees or poles. The West Boundary personnel maintained the line by means of a three-wheeled hand powered velocipede to travel on the rails with tools and wire; it was afterward replaced by a gas speeder. The Forest Service maintained the line from Oakridge to Eugene until 1940 so the Supervisor had a direct link with the ranger stations. After 1940 the line was managed by the commercial telephone company. Settlers were connected with the Forest Service lines through what were known as farmer's lines. The Forest Service had a switchboard to connect parties or put through long distance calls for the settlers. The telephone system was valuable to the Service and to settlers alike. It broke down isolation and permitted quick action in case of persons being injured or lost. On the other hand, it enabled the Service to call for help in case of fires. [79]

The telephone wires were laid by hand, usually with pack mules carrying in the wire and insulators, and men wearing climbers putting up the insulators. There were many ingenious devices to lighten the load or labor. C.B. McFarland developed a device to permit the laying of the lines with horse power. A reel of wire was placed on a sled runner with plow handles on the aft end. A horse would pull the runner. By bearing down on the handles, the runner could be made to jump an 18-inch log. Maintenance of the line consisted of repairing breaks and pruning the limbs that might touch the wire. Some used firearms for breaking off limbs; use of a .38 revolver and a 30-06 with light hand loads are recorded. Usually however, axes, hatchets, or pruning saws were used. McFarland developed a limb hook consisting of a 14-inch file put into a round shovel shank and attached to a 14-foot pole. The file was given a sharp edge and could break off limbs nicely. [80]

There were experiments with other methods of communication. Heliographs had been used in the Apache wars of the Southwest to signal the movement of the enemy and there was some experimentation with them in the Northwest. They were based on two mirrors to reflect sunlight and a shutter which could be flipped to give a dot-dash Morse code. They were generally disliked; the sun would move and get out of focus or clouds would obscure the message. [81] Carrier pigeons were also utilized. Their use in the war had attracted attention and at least two pigeon cotes were established, one at West Boundary and the other at McKenzie Bridge. They were primarily for fire control work and Mrs. McFarland records receiving a pigeon message from her husband from an isolated fire. [82]

Trail, road, and telephone construction were accompanied by other developments which contributed to "taming a wild forest" and transformed a pioneer settlement area into a forest community. A convenient taxonomy for these activities is one that divides them into three categories: Facilities for state or Federal agencies; those designed for the Forest Service to carry out its management responsibilities; and those related to the private sector, largely for recreation.

State activities within the forest and activities involving other Federal agencies have already been mentioned. In fish management, state fish hatcheries were established on Forest Service land along some major streams. Ranger stations and lookouts established cooperative weather stations for recording data for the U.S. Weather Bureau, and Forest Service officials collected data on snowfall in the high mountains. In road construction, the Forest Service made available construction sites and borrow pits for building roads.

With this increasing activity, the Forest Service built up its own facilities in the form of ranger stations, guard stations, shelters, lookout stations, and campgrounds. One can determine two major periods of activity in these developments: One, from 1906-1911 based on what Jenks Cameron called "alarums and excursions," and the other on need.

The first period deserves some explanation: Researchers will find in the files a tremendous number of withdrawals for ranger stations and "administrative sites" 1906-1911. There were two reasons for this. One was the passage of the Forest Homestead Act, mentioned in an earlier section. Since the conditions needed for homesteads—level land, water, pasture—were also those needed for ranger stations there was some concerted effort on the part of the Forest Service to get in ahead of potential applicants for forest homesteads. A large number of forest homestead applications were denied because of the Forest Service's prior claim.

The second activity was politically motivated and originated in the Washington Office. It was related to hydroelectric power. Much of the potential water power in the United States was located in the national forests. Hydroelectric power is a natural monopoly, and there was at this time, a great deal of fear of a national hydroelectric monopoly. Studies by the Bureau of Corporations seemed to give credence to this belief. Statutes governing water power in the twentieth century authorized the Secretary of the Interior to permit the granting of public lands for the generation and distribution of electric power and establishing regulations for its use. Acts of 1898 and 1901 clarified this act. The Transfer Act of 1905 shifted jurisdiction to the Secretary of Agriculture. Pinchot feared water power rights would be abused, and between 1907 and 1909 called on the Service to set aside potential water power sites within the national forests as "administrative sites." These withdrawals continued until 1910 when Congress passed legislation authorizing the President to withdraw from sale or entry sites on the national forests valuable for water power.

The policy of the Forest Service under both Pinchot and Graves was that of allowing a water power site to be established on a lease basis, the lease to expire within a given time. The agency made a series of studies within the Santiam and the Cascade National Forests on the water power potential. In December 1910, the Service enabled permits to be granted by the District Forester for small, non-commercial installations. Commercial permits were to be granted by the Secretary of Agriculture; they were to run for 50 years and could be renewed. After 1920 the Federal Power Commission was established, and the Forest Service worked with the agency. [83] Meantime most of the "administrative sites" withdrawn for power purposes were cancelled.

Living and working conditions for the Forest Service staff underwent remarkable changes. The automobile replaced buckboards and saddle horses for travel on major roads. Telephones and radios broke down isolation, and electric lights began to replace kerosene lamps and Coleman lanterns. Smith L Taylor, who worked in the McKenzie District from 1909 to 1932, wrote of these changes:

After taking the Rangers examination in the spring of 1908, the man was sent as a Guard to McKenzie Bridge, which was about the center of about 500,000 acres of land that was all his to look after.

It took two days of hard riding with saddle and pack horse from Eugene to the Station. Now one can go down over the same route in an hour in perfect safety.

The [Paradise Ranger] Station consisted of a low log hut with a T, made out of 1x12, built across the end and the squirrels ran in and out of the cracks. A low squatty, log barn with the door you couldn't get anything through but a very small pony and there was only room for two small ponies and a thousand pounds of hay inside. The saddles were hung outside.

The house had one cook stove, very small, and one heating stove and a table, homemade, and some benches to sit on. And a toilet with no door. Water was carried from the river up a 30 foot bank.

This is being written in a modern office with a swivel chair, a glass topped desk, electric lights made by their own hydroelectric plant, a modern switch board, and a typewriter with some one to run it.

Looking out of the window one can see a well kept lawn with shrubbery along a concrete walk, and just beyond modern homes for the ranger and his assistants. And a spacious barn with a neat saddle room, concrete watering trough with an automatic feed.

If this advance had been made by a private individual in any kind of business in the same length of time, one would say, "Well, sir, you have done well, yes, damned well!" [84]

RECREATION

In recreational development, Forest Service activity can be divided into two categories—one dealing with the high country, the peaks, passes, glaciers, and alpine meadows near the crest of the range, attractive to the hardy and accessible only by foot or horse—and the other with the lower elevations, more readily accessible by road.

Mountain climbing was an old Oregon recreation activity. Men like John Breckenridge Waldo, William Gladstone Steel, John Minto, Malcolm Moody, and a host of others spent their spare time in the high country, botanizing, fishing, hunting, photographing, and often carving their names on trees. The first western mountaineering club, the Oregon Alpine Club, was organized in 1887. Concerned over the fact that the membership rules were not tight enough, since many hikers and non-climbers had become members, the founders of the club organized a new one as a "climbing" club, and emphasizing its alpine character. "Mazama"—Chinook for mountain goat—was chosen as the club's name, with the motto Nesika Klatawa Sahale — We Climb High.

John D. Scott wrote entertainingly of the early days of the club:

In the early days mountaineering was another breed of goats. Their clothing and gear were different. Parkas were something Arctic explorers used. Many climbers merely wore their old clothes; it wouldn't matter if they got dirty, torn, or soaking wet. Sleeping bags were expensive, so people improvised with two thick blankets and half a dozen big five inch safety pins.

Dehydrated foodstuffs were not available; mountain climbers relied on oatmeal, prunes, beans, ham, bacon, toast, canned soups, jams, fruits, milk, and coffee. These supplies were supplemented by huckleberries and fish. Climbing ropes were "75 or 100 feet of clothesline or rope of uncertain age and strength." Crampons and pitons were unheard of and the club had just four Swiss ice axes. Alpenstocks were homemade, manufactured by driving a large nail vertically into the end of an old hoe handle and then filing the head off. [85]

The Mazamas were extremely interested in the peaks now in the Willamette National Forest. In 1895 a Mazama, T.O. Hutchinson, climbed Mt. Jefferson with a party. They tried to exchange heliograph signals with parties on Mt. Hood but were unsuccessful. In 1897 a copper register box was carried to the crest of Mt. Jefferson. In 1900, Mazamas, after 25 miles of trail location through the wilderness from Detroit to Hunts Cove near Mt. Jefferson, reached the base of the mountain. In 1903 two groups hiked in 24 miles from the end of the McKenzie River Highway to Three Sisters. In 1907 a party climbed Mt. Jefferson, hiking this time some 40 miles from Breitenbush Hot Springs. 1910 saw more assaults on the Three Sisters and the first recorded climb of the North Sister. 1916 saw more climbing in the Sisters area; by this time extension of the unpaved McKenzie Highway permitted the party to get by road to within six miles of their base camp, near the site of the old Sunshine Shelter. In 1917 there was an assault on Mt. Jefferson this time from the Detroit area. A proposed extension of the Oregon Pacific Railroad to the west side of the mountain had petered out in 1890, but several miles of road bed had been graded and a Forest Service trail built, so that their base camp at Pamelia Lake was easily achieved.

During the 1920s other outdoor groups took an increased part in climbs. These groups included the Bend Skyliners, established about 1925, and the Eugene-based Obsidians, established about 1927. [86]

Forest Service relations with the mountaineering and hiking clubs were cordial. Forest Service personnel joined the organizations, helped to plan trips, and took part in climbs and festivities. Cabin sites were leased for field club headquarters. The clubs, in their turn, aided the Forest Service in many ways particularly giving aid in mountain rescue work, and serving as advisory groups for recreational planning.

During the period 1907-1915 Forest Service attention had been focused on the use of the high country for grazing and problems of reconciling grazing with recreation were few; solutions were arrived at early as a result of the Coville report. Increasingly between 1915 and 1930 there came about a stronger emphasis on using the high country for recreation; and by 1930 a general recognition within the Region that recreational use of the peaks, passes, glaciers, alpine meadows, lakes and tarns should be dominant, with grazing a secondary use. This decision coincided with a falling off in the use of the alpine area for grazing, so a minimum of friction was created. The processes which brought this change about—it occurred in other Regions as well as in Region 6—were complex and historical scholarship on the subject is not entirely satisfactory. They involved national leadership of Chief Foresters Henry S. Graves and William B. Greeley, and of others within the Regional Offices and the Washington Office; men such as Robert Marshall, Aldo Leopold, Arthur Carhart, and Smith Riley who brought recreational planning to a high level with their recognition of the recreational use of wild lands. In Region 6, George Cecil, C.M. Granger, and C.J. Buck were leaders in the desire to develop wilderness management and to preserve amenity values; in the Santiam and Cascade National Forests, C.C. Hall and Smith Taylor took the lead. However, the most important individual in this work was Fred W. Cleator, who served with the title of forest examiner for 20 years, with regional responsibilities for the planning and development of recreational areas. Cleator's contributions were widespread, ranging from the rain forest of the Olympic National Forest and the alpine peaks of Goat Rocks to the rivers and mountain valleys of the Willamette and the Rogue River National Forests. [87]

Cleator's policies for the Region overall deserve scholarly attention. They are comparable with and equal in importance to the contributions made by Arthur Carhart in the Quetico-Superior area, and of Aldo Leopold in the Rocky Mountain Region. They were well adapted to the relaxed pattern of outdoor enjoyment typical of the Pacific Northwest from 1900 to 1945. As it will be seen, they were somewhat at odds with the recreational pattern which developed in the period after 1945.

The high Cascades were traversed by a network of trails, some of them made by Indians crossing from the east side of the mountains to the west; some built by pioneers or prospectors; some pioneered by early Forest Service men like Cyrus Bingham or Archie Knowles; and some of more recent construction. Both west and east of the crest of the Cascades a network of roads had been built south of Mt. Hood making the peaks of the middle Cascades more accessible. In 1919 the Forest Service began to consider plans to build a Forest Service trail from the Columbia River to Crater Lake and thence to the California border, in part using existing trails and in part, pioneering new ones. Similar plans were made for a connecting trail built across the river from the vicinity of Underwood, Washington, to the Canadian border.

Cleator made his first over-all examination of the Oregon area on a pack trip from Crater Lake to Minto Pass during the summer of 1920. He took a pack string of nine horses, E.R. Johnson, and engineer F.B. Lenzie, a grazing expert, and a cook. Communications with the Forest Service were by carrier pigeon. Cleator took with him a large number of trail markers and signs and the Oregon Skyline Trail was officially born. His recommendations included suggestions that Jefferson Meadows be closed to grazing and that some policy decisions be made on the use of all alpine meadows to reconcile grazing and recreational interests. There was need to relocate trails with steep gradients and to mark clearly and designate all camp sites.

Cleator's plans for the trail, some of which were put into effect with relief help during the 1930s, included building shelters about every ten miles in order to promote greater use of the trail. His idea was that hikers could break camp at shelter locations, walk ten miles to the next shelter, have camp set up by mid-afternoon, enjoy themselves by fishing, berry picking, or picture taking during the remainder of the day, and then travel on to the next shelter. At intervals, at places like Marion and Pamelia Lakes, and Fish Lake, on or near roads, he planned to have larger campgrounds with more facilities so campers could rest from their foot travel, replenish supplies, and talk to other recreationists about their experiences.

This was an era in which scenic mountain highways were becoming popular. The Columbia River Highway and highways to Mount Rainier were the first in the Northwest. Cleator planned a Skyline Highway taking off from existing roads south of Mt. Hood and connecting with existing roads near Crater Lake. A series of surveys were made by the Forest Service with assistance from the Bureau of Public Roads. Cleator estimated that 99 percent of the road could be built with a grade of five percent or less with the rest on a gradient of not over six percent. The highway would run to the west of the Skyline Trail. The largest engineering problems would be to the northwest of Mt. Jefferson and northwest of North Sister. The project attracted a great deal of public attention in newspapers like the Oregonian but the hard times of the 1930s put an end to the project. [88]

As has been mentioned in Chapter I, the government began to protect areas of value for city watersheds and huckleberry patches in 1897. A number of huckleberry patches were afforded such protection particularly in the Rainier (now Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie) and Columbia (now Gifford Pinchot) National Forests, and in the Cascade and Santiam. As time went on, some managerial problems developed, this time mainly involving Indians rather than sheep.

Indians were among the main harvesters of huckleberries and had access to the patches by tradition and by treaty rights. However the privilege was subject to abuse. Indians traveled by horse and took with them an inordinate number of pack and saddle animals. Between 1908 and 1921 protests grew over the fact that the Indians got free grazing for their stock while stockmen had to pay a fee. The problem was most acute to the north in the Columbia National Forest where Indians rented grazing land on the Yakima Indian Reservation and drove all their saddle stock to the Columbia National Forest, and where a comic opera affair developed when Raymond Duncan (brother of Isadora, the dancer) carried on a vigorous campaign to protect the rights of the Indians to unlimited grazing. In the Santiam, C.C. Hall raised the question in 1922 over the influx of horses from the Warm Springs Reservation. From the Washington Office, C.H. Rachford from the grazing section, wrote back to say first that it was a matter for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and second, no restrictions were placed on saddle and pack horses for other recreationists. The problem died a natural death, for as roads were built both Indians and whites relied on the automobile for transportation to the berry fields. [89]

In the late 1920s the Forest Service began to set aside primitive areas. Such areas were reserved as roadless areas with no residential construction, though grazing was not considered incompatible with their existence. Under these regulations in October 1930, 52,300 acres were set aside near Mt. Jefferson, and 47,500 acres around Diamond Peak. Acreage near the Three Sisters was added later. [90]

The period 1907-1915 was marked by major adaptations in Forest Service policy to meet changing public needs and demands in the recreational use of the forests. The automobile led to development of roads; forest roads led to increased use of the forests by visitors, campers, anglers, and hunters. The effect of this on fish and game has already been noted. The Forest Service response to the changes and increased use of the forest involved building of campgrounds and other public facilities; preservation of roadside beauty; and leasing of land for resorts, group recreational facilities, and summer cabins.

In an early period when there were few visitors, the building of campgrounds had not been of great importance. Sheepherders and hunters and campers had favorite sites which they occupied year after year. Organized groups like the Mazamas kept their favorite camping places clean. With the increase of transient visitors however there came the need to establish campgrounds in specified areas. Sanitation became a problem. Many favorite camping grounds became, in the words of one official "an affront to common decency." In the Northwest the first posted Forest Service campground was established at Eagle Creek along the Columbia River Highway about 1916. Funds for improved campgrounds were not appropriated until 1923, though there is some evidence that other monies were diverted for this purpose. After 1923 the Forest Service began its program of building posted campgrounds.

Lease of sites for recreational use on public lands began in 1899 with the authorization of leases for hot springs. Special use permits for recreational purposes were made before 1915 but they were revocable, and this practice discouraged permitees from making permanent developments. In 1915 Congress authorized the Secretary of Agriculture to lease land for hotels, resorts, stores, summer homes, or other structures needed for public convenience or recreation. The size of the lease could not be over five acres nor the lease extend for more than thirty years.

A third development was protection of amenity values, that is, the attempt to make the forest a pleasant place to visit from a scenic point of view. This involved preservation of scenic strips along lakes and streams and roads, developed at an early stage by Gifford Pinchot as a private forester, and applied in Minnesota. It was probably first refined in the Rocky Mountain area in the years 1906-1915. As time went on unit planning was developed. Establishment of summer homes, campgrounds, and resorts had been in the past provided according to demand. The Service saw the need for planning areas as whole units—that is, a stretch of highway, a resort complex, or a summer home colony—to make it a harmonious whole. [91]

In regard to resorts, the years from about 1900 to 1940 were the heyday of summer resort hotels in the United States. It was an era when the pace of recreation was more leisured than it is today. Visitors would arrive at a summer hotel with their trunks, fishing gear, and hiking boots to stay for a week or a month at a time. The hotels, usually large frame structures with wide verandas, were noted for good cooking and pleasant living. Visitors hiked, picked huckleberries and fished; and to balance this, many resorts had croquet lawns or tennis courts for social games. The automobile made the resorts accessible but in the end, ruined them. People become interested in covering miles rather than in seeing the scenery and motels grew up to cater to transients. The summer hotel era has a common history, all the way from the resorts on Grand Island and Isle Royale, Michigan, to the popular resorts at Welches, Oregon. [92]

Hot and mineral springs were among the earliest places in Oregon in which summer resorts were established and made special problems for the Forest Service. In general, they had a common history—establishment of the resort, a period of prosperity and growth, and a period of decline. But each resort had its own history.

Most of the hot springs resorts were established between 1870 and 1900, along main roads and trails before the foundation of the national forests. They were usually acquired by use of the Homestead Act. The early history of each of these resorts is of interest, but predates the history of the national forest. For our purposes we will examine the history of the resorts after the forests were created.

Breitenbush Hot Springs were a series of springs on the Breitenbush River. They were discovered in the 1840s and were frequently visited by travelers in the mountains. In 1887 Claud Mansfield, after whom Mansfield Creek is named, homesteaded a quarter section for Dr. J.L. Hill of Albany. This area included most of the springs. In 1913 a tract of land was leased to Mark Skiff of Salem to build a hotel. This area included one spring. Hill built a number of buildings, mostly of shakes, and Skiff built a number of cottages. There were other attempts to get the land. W.F. White in 1914 filed on a tract just to the west of Skiff's lease but his claim was rejected because of timber on his tract, the need of the land for a right-of-way for logging, and the need of the land for public use. F.W. Ross also made an attempt to get land to the west of the Skiff claim but it was rejected. The Forest Service by this time recognized the need to keep most of the land in public hands and to prevent the private preemption of water rights. In 1911, J.L. Hill and E. O'Harra filed on two mine claims, the Ironside and the El Dorado. Hill was the owner of the Breitenbush homestead. The Forest Service mineral examiner, Walter M. Stephens, found no mineral on the proposed claims, and little assessment work. Since the claims abutted on, and in part overlapped, the Ross and Skiff claims, he concluded that "It is apparent that the claims were located to control the only hot spring on public land and cause F.W. Ross and M. Skiff trouble." The claim was invalidated in 1913. Development in the Breitenbush area was slow until after 1920 because the only access was by trail. However, with the 1920s, roads were built and by the mid-twenties the resort was a favorite one, with a large recreational complex composed of a lodge, cottages, public camping sites, and summer homes. [93]

Foley Hot Springs and Belknap Springs in the McKenzie River Valley were located early. Both had the advantage of being accessible by road. Dr. Abram N. Foley discovered the springs in the 1850s. The area was squatted "homesteaded" in 1865 by a Mr. Alexander. He sold the site in 1870 to Peter Roney. Roney constructed a lodge, a bath house, and guest cabins. Whole families traveled to the lodge in the 1920s. Nearby, Belknap Springs was discovered in 1859 and taken up by Roland Simeon Belknap in 1870. They underwent several changes of hands and a post office was established there in 1874. Like Foley, it was a favored resort particularly among the University of Oregon staff. Terwilliger Hot Springs was discovered in the late 1800s by Hiram Terwilliger, who filed on and then abandoned a cinnabar claim on the site. Terwilliger Hot Springs, Inc., was formed in 1927 by a group of Oregonians from the Eugene area, and five-acre lots filed on with plans to develop a resort. The Forest Service approved a permit. However, the Federal Power Commission had plans for a reservoir and classified the area as a power site under the act of February 26, 1899. The hot springs lease was terminated in May 1930. Nearly 40 years later, however, the site became the scene of a controversy which will be dealt with in a later chapter. [94]

There are numerous hot springs in the Willamette Valley especially near the upper reaches of the Willamette River. Kitson Hot Springs was the earliest to be located. David Kitson homesteaded the area about three miles east of the Oregon Central Wagon Road and set up a resort. The site was much used by travelers going over the mountains and had been long used by Indians for taking baths and curing fish. [95]

There were a number of attempts to establish resorts on Salt Creek. One of these near Salt Creek Falls was given a lease in 1908, but then was taken over by the Forest Service as an administrative site. McCredie Springs was the only resort to be developed, and it had an interesting history.

In 1911 placer claims on the springs were filed by J.D. Hardin on the grounds that they were salt springs and could be taken up under the act of January 11, 1901, which opened salt springs or salt deposits to placer laws. The claims were contested. In 1913 Hardin applied for a 30-year lease to build a resort. There was a contest over the area since Frank C. Young had also applied for a lease there in 1910. In 1915, Forest Service Chief William B. Greeley offered a lease to Hardin but with the proviso that there be free public access to some of the springs. Hardin was slow in paying bills for his proposed development and in 1916 the lease was transferred to Judge Walter McCredie who became Hardin's partner. The place was given the name "Winino Mineral Spring." Between 1914 and 1916 some buildings were put up—a hotel housing 60 guests, several cottages, and the like, as well as a swimming tank. Development was slow initially; the permittees had thought that the Southern Pacific Railroad would be built promptly through the area, but until 1923 the only access was by a poor road. However, railroad construction began in 1923 and railroad camps made their headquarters at McCredie Springs. Ownership and leasees changed hands a number of times between 1930 and 1942. [96]

AMENITY VALUES

With the establishment of summer homes, resorts, clubhouses, and stores, the Forest Service developed plans for working the various projects into a harmonious whole. Development of guidelines originated from 1915-1932, with a series of meetings, conferences, and experiments, many of them carried on within a single region. The story of this development is an interesting one but beyond the scope of this study. It involved locating summer homes on lots large enough to ensure privacy, but small enough to permit convenience in laying water lines and the like, and secluded from the flow of traffic. Those lots located on streams or lakes were set back from the water's edge to permit fishing trails along the banks. Access to summer home colonies would be by a single road entering the main road at right angles for safety. Construction of homes, lodges, and stores would be, as far as possible, of rustic design to fit in with the environment. Plans for logging or other commercial activity should be worked out in cooperation with recreational planning.

In preserving the beauty of a summer home colony, resort area, or road, the natural appearance should be maintained. This involved concealing "undesirable, unnatural views" such as buildings, camps, borrow pits, machinery, and the like. The policy adopted was that of the roadside screen. Its development antedated the creation of the Forest Service. Pinchot had used roadside screens both in his work as a private forester and under the Morris Act in management of forests in the Chippewa Indian Reservation of Minnesota. In its essentials, this involved leaving a strip of uncut timber 200 feet wide along the borders of forest roads and bordering streams or lakes in order to preserve a natural appearance. Borrow pits, camps, or buildings were to be concealed behind the strip. The intent was to present an appearance of natural beauty to visitors, unmarred by signs of man's encroachments. The system developed by 1915 was one applied in time to all national forests, and adopted by states and other Federal agencies. In general, it worked well until the 1940 when an increase in alpine roads and air travel, as well as high elevation logging, lessened the value of these measures.

The roadside screen idea had to be adapted to the various forest regions. On the east side of the Cascades where the ponderosa pine forests are open the 200-foot limit had to be widened. On the west side the problem was windthrow. Isolated large Douglas-fir trees tend to blow over, and so in some areas ten-acre reservations of old-growth were preserved as groups, the roadside strip was logged of individual old-growth fir, and the screen consisted of second growth fir and hemlock. Shrubbery was preserved on the roadside between the road and the trees. Diseased trees, snags, and leaners which might be hazardous were removed; spike tops and sound mature trees were preserved. If timber sales were planned, the unit plan was developed in advance of cutting. Trees were felled away from the right-of-way and logging roads entered the main road at right angles. [97]

As noted before, timber sale planning for areas took place with overall planning and direction from the Regional Office, and construction and local planning from the office of the Supervisor or Ranger. Region 6 was fortunate to have Frederick W. Cleator as recreational manager. Robert Marshall, head of recreation in the Washington Office, commented in 1938 that Cleator's work had put Region 6 ahead of all other Regions in recreational planning. [98]

During the period 1907-1933 there was a tremendous amount of recreational development. A large part of this involved the private sector of the economy, particularly in the areas where tourism was increasing and private land available. The hot springs resorts were only a few of the facilities developed. Lodges, dude ranches, and private cabins were developed particularly in the McKenzie Bridge area and near Blue River. These present an interesting bypath, but our concern here is with Federal planning.

In the Santiam, the first area considered for summer homes in 1917 was Pamelia Lake. The lake was a favorite fishing spot, and both Supervisor C.C. Hall and the Santiam Fish and Game Association were interested in its development. At that time the lake was accessible only by trail from Detroit, some 18 miles away. It was expected that the rail line to Detroit would be extended, and indeed, part of the proposed right-of-way had been cleared and graded. The blue print prepared for this site is typical of many proposed for lakeside summer homes embodying as it did large lots clustered in one area, together with a public campground. The lots adjoining one another averaged 66 feet by 132 feet. They were located on the north end of the lake with 50 feet between the lot boundaries and the lake shore to allow for high water and to allow anglers free access. Lots would be leased for 30 years at a cost of $10 per year for most of them, and $15 for two somewhat larger lots. Cabins would be built of local materials, from logs and shakes cut and prepared on the site. A public campground would be built near the lake outlets and a water system and privies installed. [99]

Marion Lake, like Pamelia Lake, was located off the road. F.W. Cleator and Supervisor Hall made plans for this area in 1925. Their planning reflected the view that a Cascade Crest (Skyline) Highway was to be built. One summer home permit, probably the first made in the Santiam, had already been issued and there was also a squatter's cabin on the site dating from 1913. Their elaborate plans called for the following: [100]

In 1923 Fish Lake was also investigated by Cleator and Hall for recreation potential. It had about 3-3/4 miles of shore line, over half of which was on private land. Of the government frontage, about half was lava rock, unfit for recreation. The lake, as has been mentioned before, was accessible by the old Willamette Valley and Cascade Mountain Wagon Road. Cleator and Hall thought the lake would have tremendous possibilities for recreation when existing roads were improved, and when the proposed Skyline Highway was built. It would also in time be connected with the McKenzie River Highway. The Forest Service had a ranger station there which Supervisor Hall used as summer headquarters and had also built a small campground. Plans were made for extensive campgrounds, a resort and clubhouse sites, and for improving the ranger station. [101]

Other alpine lakes for which recreational planning was carried on during this era included Big Lake, Gold Lake, Linton Lake, and Lake Melakwa. Linton Lake was included in the Three Sisters Primitive Area and was not improved. All these lakes were near the Skyline Trail and later Lake Melakwa and Scott Lake became accessible by road. Standard minimal developments for these lakes included posted camping places, stone fireplaces, pit toilets, garbage pits, and sometimes Adirondack shelters. [102]

Breitenbush was one of the oldest recreation areas. Plans for a highway up the Breitenbush River from Detroit to Breitenbush Springs made it necessary to coordinate logging plans with scenic roads. In 1920 Fred Ames and Fred Cleator made such plans for the projected sale on Canyon Creek entering the Breitenbush area from the north about two miles above Detroit. Plans were made for a scenic strip between the highway and the river, of 100 to 250 feet in width, with a fringe on the south side toward the river. Three years later Cleator made more extensive studies on the lower Breitenbush to protect scenic values adjacent to the projected Humbug Creek sale. This involved maintaining a scenic strip between the railroad track and the river so logging trains would run behind a scenic corridor. At the springs themselves the major efforts were toward establishing public campgrounds and a water system. By 1929, in the springs area, 60 homesites were surveyed and 275 more planned in addition to sites for clubs and development of the hot springs. In 1930, on the upper Breitenbush, plans were made by Hall and Cleator which reflected the growing use of automobiles. Plans were made to build a road up the North Fork of the Breitenbush to Olallie Lake to connect with the Mt. Hood Loop Road. This would unite the northern Santiam and the Mt. Hood National Forests into an integrated recreation complex. The South Fork of the Breitenbush would remain trail country to give access to Mt. Jefferson. Resort sites of up to 20 acres should be planned as well as having sites reserved for clubs and organizations. There was need for auto camps and summer home sites as well. [103]

On the upper McKenzie River area, from Belknap Springs to Clear Lake, the objectives were to keep the river banks free for anglers, leaving 50-75 feet between projected summer homes and the stream. Flexibility was desirable in locating residences with planning for isolated cabins as well as for colonies of summer homes. Clear Lake was to be designated as a scenic area, with trails and roads kept to the minimum needed for access. On the lower McKenzie there was a rapid increase in use. Deputy Supervisor H.E. Vincent in 1920 suggested the need for a large campground at McKenzie Bridge. F.W. Cleator reporting in 1928, stated that the McKenzie River area had been visited in 1925 by 40,300 people. Of these, 8,000 were resort or hotel guests; 1,300 campers; 3,900 picnickers; 100 summer home people on government land; and the rest transients. While there were many private homes in the area, and some large resorts, he recommended more campgrounds. He pointed out that the area was already heavily committed to recreation. Since heavy logging was some time in the future—40 to 50 years, Cleator estimated—recreational values would have become thoroughly entrenched and reconciling the two values would be difficult. On the McKenzie Highway from Lost Creek Ranch across the summit, it was felt that additional recreational sites should be offered. Lost Creek Ranch had a store, lodging, and served meals, but was considered an "inadequate and not particularly desirable resort." Plans for the area included public campgrounds and building shelters for road crews who would need protection from the weather in the winter months. An airstrip nearby was also thought desirable. [104]

When a section of the McKenzie Highway above Blue River was improved the aim was to leave as much shrubbery and good timber as possible, preserving all trees outside the slope stakes. Cleator prepared 500 tags "Do not cut this tree" as guides to the highway engineers, and large trees were preserved if possible. Scenic signs were prepared for tourist information and brush was cut along the highway for scenic outlooks. However, C.J. Buck, in a memorandum to Cleator, urged that the Forest Service go slow in making recreation plans for the South Fork of the McKenzie River. A road along the South Fork had already been built from Belknap Bridge to three miles south of Cougar Creek, near Terwilliger Hot Springs, and the route had been surveyed to connect with roads in the Oakridge area. Buck felt that a timber management plan to utilize the huge commercial resources of the area should take priority over recreation, and that for the time being recreational development should focus along the main McKenzie River. [105]

Studies were made in 1920 of the Salmon Creek delta and regulations regarding scenic values of roads were considered, and cooperation with the Bureau of Public Roads was assured. Preliminary plans were made by Ranger Harlane "Huck" C. Hiatt for a Willamette highway recreation unit from West Boundary to Oakridge by 1929. The plan was not implemented and was restudied in 1939. [106]

The years from 1915 to 1933 were a period of planning and some progress in developing improvements and planning for recreation. One effect of this was the change in the nature of the local officers'—rangers and supervisors—work. At an earlier time the winter had been the dead season for local officials. With the need to maintain roads and telephone lines, to survey lots for summer homes, and to plan timber sales, the work on the forest became more of a year round affair. There developed more specialization; the "jack of all trades" employee was replaced by the specialist as new skills were needed. There came to be a change in seasonal personnel, too, as the forestry schools in the West began to produce graduates.

RESEARCH

Research was the oldest function of the Division of Forestry and the Bureau of Forestry, out of which grew the Forest Service. The Bureau used student assistants to study growth, reproduction, and cutting practices in western Oregon and Washington starting in 1898. Much of the field work referred to by George B. Sudworth when writing his classic Forest Trees of the Pacific Slope (1908) was carried on by the Bureau of Forestry. As it has been noted, the U.S. Geological Survey in its examination of the forest reserves at the turn of the century, collected data on forest cover and historic fires. Frederick Coville's classic study of grazing dealt with forest as well as grazing problems. The Forest Service, while created primarily to administer the forest, carried on the research function.

With decentralization of the Forest Service and the establishment of a District (Regional) organization, two research sections were set up in the Portland office. One was a forest products division under Joseph B. Knapp. This dealt essentially with wood technology, collecting and disseminating data on wood qualities, statistics, and technical notes. The other was a section on silvics, set up as a one man section under silviculture which was headed by Fred Ames. Silvics was headed by Thornton T. Munger, a Yale graduate who had also studied forestry in Germany. Munger's initial studies were on the encroachment of lodgepole on ponderosa pine sites in the Deschutes National Forest. However, in 1910-1911, he began studies on growth and yield in Douglas-fir. The aim here was not only to inform the Forest Service, but to provide information for private owners, to encourage conservative cutting practices, and the practice of forestry on private lands. Thus, the results of these and other studies were published not only in the Forest Service publications, but also presented at logging congresses, meetings of the "Concatenated Order of Hoo Hoo," and sessions of the Western Forestry and Conservation Association.

Munger, beginning in 1910, set up a series of Region-wide sample plots in second growth Douglas-fir, the first in a 50-year old stand near Oakridge. The stand was remeasured every five years until at least 1967. A number of plantations were set up by the section on planting, under the direction of Julius Kummel. Some were experimental plantations, set up between 1910 and 1914 "planned to test the adaptability of eastern hardwoods in various areas." These included a three-quarter-acre tract behind McKenzie Bridge Ranger Station, planted to black walnut, hickory, and red oak; a tract near West Boundary Ranger Station, planted to pig nut, hickory, and red oak; and several strips near Dead Mountain. A notation on the file reads "apparently all were failures." A number of large plantations were also set up, mainly in old burns. These included the Battle Ax tract on the border between the Mt. Hood and the Santiam National Forests in 1913-1915; Breitenbush, near the springs in 1915; Dead Mountain, 1915-1917; and Seven Mile Hill in the same period. Trees planted, with the aid of Oregon State College forestry students, were Douglas-fir and western white pine, with some tracts of noble fir. [107]

In 1912, an experiment station and nursery were set up in the Wind River Valley, Columbia (now the Gifford Pinchot) National Forest, which became the center for planting research. Research itself underwent administrative changes in 1915 when a separate branch of research was established in the Washington Office, under Earle H. Clapp. The objective was to put all research under a single administrative head, and to give research personnel and their work full recognition as a separate branch of the Forest Service with the same organizational status as that of management of the national forest system. Research staff reported to, and were responsible to, the Washington Office rather than the Regional one—a fact that led, at times, to friction. The Pacific Northwest Experiment Station was formally established in 1924 with Munger as the head.

As time went on, research was carried out in new areas. Some of this was done in connection with universities, such as forest taxation studies carried on in cooperation with the University of Washington forestry department. Research into fire behavior was extended into development of new equipment for fire research. These included development of a hazemeter, a fan psychrometer, and a fire danger rating board. Tests were made of yellow and dark glasses for lookouts to find the ones that would best show smoke and not be fatiguing to the eyes; and tests were made for the causes of smokers' fires, whether from the matches, cigarette butts, or discarded pipe heels, and in what kinds of material fires would most readily start. Studies to determine how far the wind would carry seed were made by means of flying seed containers on kites, tripping them with a line and measuring seed dissemination on snow-covered ground. The McNary-Woodruff Act of 1928 authorized a ten-year program of research, including a timber survey. In Region 6 this survey was begun in 1929.

Other research areas were established. Experimental forests, large areas set aside for research purposes, were set up in representative areas of the region. In the Willamette National Forest, the H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest, a 14,990-acre tract to the northeast of Blue River in the drainage of Lookout Creek, was established in 1948 to study old-growth Douglas-fir. Also a number of natural areas were set aside. These were small areas to protect vegetational types for research purposes. They were generally of less than 5,000 acres, since most of them were in lowland valleys where the value of timber did not warrant setting aside large areas. [108]

FIRE CONTROL

The major problem that plagued timberland owners, Federal, state, and private, was fire control. Between 1900 and 1933 the Pacific Northwest took the lead in this field. The story is a complex one, involving Federal legislation, notably the Weeks Act of 1911 and the Clarke-McNary Act of 1924, aimed at Federal and state cooperation for fire control. On the state level a series of acts were passed compelling private timberland owners to take action in the prevention and suppression of fire. Private industry cooperated with the state and Federal agencies in fire suppression and detection, and a major educational movement alerted the general public to the dangers of forest fires. [109]

These legislative, administrative, and voluntary activities were paralleled by a revolution in fire fighting equipment and new means of detecting fires. The role of the telephone in establishing communication has already been mentioned. By the mid-twenties, telephones were supplemented by radio communication. Initially, rangers would climb mountains and look out to locate fires; then shelters were built on strategic high mountains and visited occasionally; then permanent structures replaced them. The lookouts were of a variety of types, ranging from cabins built of the materials on hand to the portable 12'x12' prefabricated "Alladins," to the lookout houses of the Region 5 type, 14'x14', with a "doghouse" (cupola) on top to house the firefinder. They were located to cover all sections of the forest. These were supplemented by road patrols, primarily to catch fires caused by smokers or campers; by posted guards in major recreational camps; and by air patrols. The Osborne firefinder was developed in 1917, after a great deal of experimentation. The Forest Service made a contract with Leopold & Voelpel, a Portland firm, to have the firefinders manufactured at a cost of $25 to $36 each. After extensive field trials they were accepted by the Forest Service as standard equipment in 1918. The science of photogrammetry, pioneered by Lage Wernstedt, was used to produce panoramic photographs taken from lookouts, and aerial photos were used to aid contour maps for determining the lay of the land and fuel types. For the person on the fire line, the Pulaski tool and backpack pump cans supplemented the crosscut saw, the axe, and the shovel. Portable pumps, the first one designed by Smith Bartrum, were developed during this period. [110]

The fire season in Oregon lasts from late June to October; by 1933, fire control activities had a standard plan and organization in each national forest. Each year a fire control plan was prepared by the District Ranger for his district, and approved by the Forest Supervisor. A completed fire control plan recognized three aspects of control. First was a program of prevention to reduce the number of human-caused fires. Most of these fires were caused by smokers or careless campers, and such prevention included the posting of notices, placing recreation guards at heavily used sites, and using the help of businessmen, residents, concessionaires, and school children in educating the public. Another aspect of this phase was the identifying of high hazard areas, such as unburned slash or snag patches.

Second was presuppression. This involved an inventory of personnel including regular Forest Service employees and their locations; the strength and location of short-term personnel; public officials, such as sheriffs and state fire wardens; and individual local cooperators and their skills (such as bull dozer operator, cook, packer, truck driver, clerk). It included also an inventory of equipment available, and a list of each man who might fill a key position—camp boss, cook, dispatcher—if a fire should get loose. Each District Ranger also had a set of maps, including one-half-inch base map of the forest, showing zones of hazard; disks on each map showed five-, seven-, and 15-mile visibility coverage; and other maps showing logical fire line locations, fire breaks, camp sites, and roads and trails.

Paralleling this was a fire organization in the Regional Office to help on large fires. This involved collecting and transporting men to assist, and a listing of those in each national forest who were particularly skilled in fighting large fires and who could serve as overhead. [111]

In those years, the basic fire suppression policy of the Forest Service was to dispatch sufficient force to extinguish any fire by ten o'clock in the morning following its discovery. This involved a speedy analysis of fire danger, and an estimate of the manpower and equipment needed. It involved night fire fighting and work in the early morning, before the humidity declined. Higher initial costs in men and equipment were balanced by less acreage lost to fire. The system evolved during the 1920s, in the direction of having specialized crews for fire fighting. It became fully developed in the 1930s when the CCC and other relief organizations provided a readily available pool of manpower.

The work of fire fighting fell, to a large degree, on the short-term personnel. Increasingly, as forestry schools were established in the west, college undergraduates in forestry supplemented local men in this job, usually working on trail and road crews when there were no fires to fight. These were the people who occupied the lookouts, carried on patrols, or worked trail, and when fire broke out, chased smokes and fought fires. Beginning in 1920 at Hemlock Ranger Station, Columbia National Forest, training schools were established for the short-term personnel. These schools lasted for a week to ten days and were carried on in each Ranger District There, the short-term personnel were given lectures on map reading, operation of the firefinder, fire detection, smoke chasing, fire fighting techniques, photogrammetry, and radio and telephone use and maintenance. Then they practiced these skills in the field, under supervision. The general purpose and spirit of the schools was analogous to the old ranger examinations, mentioned before, as designed by F.E. Olmsted. The Ranger, the fire control chief, and the supervisor generally ran the show, and often some of the "brass" from the Regional Office attended. This in-service training was carried on after the employee was on the job. Regularly, early in the season, a smoke bomb would be set off and a smudge fire set to test the alertness of the lookout. [112]

The value of this planning and training is dramatically described in an account by Supervisor P.A. Thompson. The Oakridge area was hard hit, August 10-14, 1930, by a series of lightening storms which set 50 fires. Ranger C.B. McFarland and his dispatcher, Foster Steele, had done the advance planning for emergencies of this type. The planning included communications, equipment, cooperators, transportation, and pack stock. Trained men, some Forest Service men, and some local cooperators, got to the fires early and kept them small. Only one fire reached the size of 15 acres; most were less than an acre in extent. [113]

Private cooperation with the Forest Service began at an early period. Fires are no respecters of boundaries, and are a danger to both Federal and private timber where tracts adjoin. The Western Forestry and Conservation Association promoted such cooperation, and it was financed by passage of the Weeks Act, which provided money to states for fire control on a dollar-matching basis. The State of Oregon, in turn, gave some of the money to fire control agencies established on a county level. The Linn County Fire Control Association was organized shortly after the passage of the Weeks Act in December, 1911. By 1913 it had established four main lookouts, some of them, like High Deck, in areas adjoining the Willamette National Forest. They had eight patrolmen in the Santiam area, and ten in the Sweet Home area. A patrolman driving a speeder (a small motorized, railroad wheel mounted vehicle) followed trains on the Corvallis and Eastern Railroad, searching for fires caused by wheel/track friction. By 1914 the system was expanded to eight lookouts, one manned by Porter Brothers. As in the Forest Service, there was a shift to trucks and automobiles in 1918 and 1919, and by 1924 portable pumps were used. [114]

Railroads, also, developed cooperative agreements for fighting fire on or near the railroad right-of-way. At Oakridge the Southern Pacific Railroad kept three tank cars with pumps, hose, and fire caches available for use either by its employees or by the Forest Service. Tool caches were located in all section houses. The railroad maintained three one-man motor car patrols, three patrols by velocipede, and four foot patrols during the fire season. In addition the railroad's overhead personnel in Eugene and Oakridge attended the Forest Service's fire school. [115]

Timber sales had provisions regarding fire precautions. In 1906 Fred Ames noted that the first timber sale in the District, for two million board feet, was two pages long, with two lines concerning fire precaution and slash disposal. By 1928 the lines relating to these matters covered many pages. In 1908 regulations were made regarding the use of oil rather than wood as fuel during the fire season. Spark arresters were required and track walkers checked for fire when logging railroads were used. In 1909 regulations were lengthened to include snag falling and the keeping of fire hoses at the donkey. In 1910 regulations were extended to keeping on hand steam pumps and hose, having watchmen day and night, and donkey setting cleared for 50 feet. By 1932 sales regulations routinely included keeping fire fighting equipment on hand, snag falling, slash burning, and closure or hoot-owl shifts in times of high hazard. [116]

Aircraft were used for fire control beginning in 1920. Various foresters and forestry groups, including Forester Henry S. Graves, William T. Cox of Minnesota, Coert duBois of California, and the Western Forestry and Conservation Association recommended that the airplane be used in fire control as well as in mapping. In 1919 the idea bore fruit. Harold H. Arnold, District Supervisor of the Western Division of the Air Service (U.S. Army Air Corps), decided that fire patrol could be coupled with the training of pilots. The first flights took place in California. However, the Western Forestry and Conservation Association, the Governors of Oregon and Washington, Senator Charles McNary of Oregon, and Chief Forester Graves asked that the program be extended in Washington and Oregon. Staff of the Forest Service from Districts 1, 5, and 6, and the state foresters of Washington, Oregon, and California, met in April, 1920, with Army Air Corps officials in San Francisco. Flight routes were plotted, and locations of lookouts, guard stations, and emergency landing fields mapped out. Forest Service men were trained to work in liaison with the pilots. In May, 1920, an initial appropriation of $50,000 was approved for a joint patrol in California and southern Oregon, to begin on July 1.

The cooperative agreement lasted until 1922, when the program was terminated because of a reduced budget for the peace-time military forces. During this time, however, the Forest Service was given training in aerial observation and had data on which to gauge the value of planes in fire detection. The way was set up for experiments in radio communication. Increasingly, the Forest Service and lumber companies chartered civilian planes for observation, and the stage was set for increased use of planes in the decade ahead.

The Army Air Corps played a part in a short-lived experiment in using carrier pigeons for communication. In 1919 the Western Air Department was ordered to dispose of all its carrier pigeons. The Forest Service took 25 pigeons to Eugene for breeding purposes, and pigeon cotes were established at the West Boundary and McKenzie Bridge Ranger Stations. Other pigeons were sent to the Deschutes National Forest where they were used with success in the Portland Creek fire. As has been previously mentioned, Fred Cleator used them for communication while making his Skyline Trail reconnaissance in 1920. Franklin D. Roosevelt, then Assistant Secretary of the Navy, suggested that with the phasing out of air patrols, pigeons might be useful for communication. However, District 6 found them more trouble for upkeep than their benefits were worth, and the pigeon project was phased out in 1922, though it was continued beyond that period in California [117]

TIMBER SALES

Logging practices of the period 1901-1933 were largely those of an earlier period. For transporting logs these involved river drives and the use of railroads for large operations. Use of trucks, tractors, and road transportation did not begin until the late 1920s. Animal power was widely used for small operations; donkey engines for large ones. Logging was largely carried on in the lowland areas and in stream valleys, although the Shay and Lima geared locomotives made some upland areas accessible. Clearcutting (removal of the entire standing crop) was the common practice in the westside forests. Early studies by E.T. Allen and Thornton T. Munger showed this to be the best system, from a silvicultural point of view, for regeneration of Douglas-fir. It was ideal from the standpoint of railroad logging since a line could be built into an area, the timber harvested, and the tracks taken up and moved to another area It also simplified the task of slash disposal. Fire prevention, slash disposal, and the elimination of waste caused by high stumps and merchantable wood left in the woods were the main concerns of the Forest Service. [118]

There were relatively few large sales in the Santiam and the Cascade National Forests during most of this period, until 1924. For that matter, there were relatively few during the 1930s; the depression, and a weak lumber market prevented many large sales from developing. Until 1933, there was still an abundance of privately owned timber land available near the borders of the national forests, and in enclaves within the forests. Second, transportation was limited. The majority of sales were small ones made by rangers for local industries, specialities such as chittum bark, and a few specialty sales of incense cedar for pencil stock, and sales to settlers or small mills for fence posts or building material. Only in the Detroit and Oakridge areas, which had rail transportation, were there sales of any size. [119]

Forest Service sales involved an estimate of the volume of timber in a given sales area, based on cruise. Sales documents were lengthy ones. They included a legal description of the sales area, usually using the customary township, range, section, and section subdivision; but sometimes using metes and bounds, such as ridge tops and stream beds, and sometimes a combination of both methods. Provisions were made to ensure low stumps—usually 24 inches as maximum height, and utilization of tops, calling for cutting to a ten-inch top. Scaling was done either in the woods or at the mill. Slash disposal and fire protection were included in the sales contract; prices were usually set by competitive bidding. This is a general description; as it will be told later, sales provisions became gradually more elaborate as time went on. [120]

Railroad logging in the Detroit area antedated creation of the national forest. The Hammond Lumber Company, by questionable use of the Homestead and the Timber and Stone Acts, had acquired a sizeable holding both within the Santiam National Forest and just outside its boundaries. Other lumber companies, including the Hoover Lumber Company and the Curtis Lumber Company, had also acquired lands. The Corvallis and Eastern Railroad—later acquired by the Southern Pacific— built a rail line to Hoover and Idanha, just to the east of Detroit, and had graded a roadbed some distance beyond. Some small sales were made to these companies before 1916, at which time the Hoover Company, with its mill at Idanha, closed operations.

William B. Osborne, Jr., of the Regional Office, made a reconnaissance of the Detroit area in 1910. He found 20 townships with large timber values, much of it in old-growth Douglas-fir which was deteriorating. The Breitenbush River offered a good route to tap this timber. River drives would be possible through the use of splash dams and sluices, and a logging railroad could be built up the Breitenbush, branching off the main line at the junction of the Breitenbush and Santiam Rivers. In the future, Osborne judged, private owners would turn increasingly to government timber as private holdings became depleted.

Beginning in 1924, a series of large sales were made in the area on tributaries to the Breitenbush near its junction with the Santiam. The largest one was on Humbug Creek, calling for 77,500,000 board feet. This was a railroad logging show. As it has been noted, steps were taken to preserve scenic beauty for travelers along the road then being built to Breitenbush Springs. [121]

Increased activity near Oakridge came about in the mid-twenties. Some early sales had been made in the Lowell and the Oakridge areas, using a river drive to get out the logs. [122] The prospective building of the Southern Pacific Railroad from Oakridge to Klamath Falls caused a flurry of excitement in 1915 when the Forest Service prepared large sales in the Winberry and the Salt Creek areas. However, these sales did not materialize because the railroad postponed its construction. The commencement of construction some eight years later from Oakridge to Klamath Falls, however, caused new interest in the area. In 1923, B.F. Hoffman prepared a sales prospectus for timber on 13,300 acres on the North Fork of the Willamette River, an area with natural boundaries; the river bounded the sale to the west, prairies and old burns to the east. The area was benchland, accessible by a spur line from the main Southern Pacific line at Westfir and contained a solid block of old-growth Douglas-fir. The sale was made to the Westfir Lumber Company of Oakridge. It was the largest sale to that date, in the Douglas-fir area, for 685,000,000-board feet of timber, 90 percent Douglas-fir, the remainder hemlock, white pine, red cedar, and piling. The timber was to be cut at the rate of 50,000,000 feet per year. About a year later another large sale was made, this time to the Booth-Kelly interests nearby on Salmon Creek. The railroad had brought the Oakridge lumber industry to life. A company mill town, Westfir, was established. [123]

NOTES—CHAPTER III

1 Dana, Forest and Range Policy, 142-144 gives a good account.

2 Pinchot, Breaking New Ground, 261-262.

3 Dana, Forest and Range Policy, 151.

4 Charles McKinley, Uncle Sam in the Pacific Northwest: Federal Management of Natural Resources in the Columbia River Valley (Berkeley, 1952), 318-319, gives a good picture of regional administration.

5 Rakestraw, Forest Conservation, 214-225; Shirley W. Allen, "E.T. Allen," Journal of Forestry, 23:3 (March, 1945), 222-223.

6 Biographical Record of the Graduates and Former Students at the Yale Forest School (New Haven, 1913), 36.

7 Alwin Schenck (ed.) The Biltmore Immortals (Darmstadt, Germany, 1953), 71-75; Walter I. Hutchinson, "We Present: George H. Cecil," Journal of Forestry, 46:5 (May, 1948), 362-363.

8 The Ranger, 1:360 (1925), 1-2.

9 Biographical Record, 96-97.

10 Thornton T. Munger, Forest Research in the Northwest; an Interview Conducted by Amelia F. Fry (Berkeley, 1967); Munger, "Recollections of my Thirty-Eight Years in the Forest Service 1908-1946," Timberlines, Supplement to 16 (December, 1962), 1-30.

11 Rakestraw, Forest Conservation, 230-236; Leon Kneipp, "The Technical Forester in National Forest Administration," Journal of Forestry 16:2 (February, 1918), 155-166.

12 Data from maps, and files on separate ranger districts, WNF/H.

13 Timberlines, 10 (August, 1962), 77; C.P. Cronk, "The Siuslaw National Forest in 1910 as I Remember It," Timberlines, 19 (1967), 62-69.

14 Interview by Margorie Sansone with Harold Engles, March 9, 1979, WNF/H. Somewhat uncomplimentary evaluation of Macduff is found in Margie Young Knowles, Honeymoon on Horseback (New York, 1970), 88-89. Most local residents consider his shooting to be a suicide. See 1979 interviews by Gerald Williams of Martha Belknap, Manena Schwering, James Drury, and Cliff Lewis, WNF/H.

15 Timberlines, 19 (June, 1967), 101-104; Roy Elliott, "A Biographical Sketch of C.C. Hall" (n.d.), WNF/H.

16 Eugene Register-Guard, August 5, 1957.

17 Bill Parke, "Supervisor Perry Thompson" (Mss., n.d.), WNF/H.

18 Cyrus Bingham file, WNF/H; Bingham papers, University of Oregon Special Collections; Margie Young Knowles, Honeymoon on Horseback (New York, 1970).

19 Citation in The Ranger, 1:3 (April, 1929), 44.

20 C.J. Buck, "Land Problems," Journal of Forestry, 16:11 (November, 1918), 807-813.

21 T.M. Talbot, Land Classification of the Cascade National Forest, August 11, 1916; and Arthur E. Wilcox, Land Classification of the Santiam National Forest, August 13, 1916, gives details of annexations. Research Compilation File, Region 6, RG 95, N.A., contains reports by E.A. Braniff and W.H.B. Kent on the basis of which the withdrawals were made.

22 Dana, Forest and Range Policy, 14-15, 384-385.

23 Paul W. Gates, History of Public Land Law Development (Washington, 1968), 459-490, 493. Decisions of the Department of the Interior Vol. 33, 10-13.

24 Box 40891, WNF/H.

25 Charles H. Callison, "Mining Claims in National Parks and Forests," in Richard C. Davis (ed.) Encyclopedia of American Forest and Conservation History (New York, 1983), Vol. II, 431-432; Marion Clawson and Burnell Held, The Federal Lands (Baltimore, 1957), 79-80, 225-228.

26 Blue River Historical File, WNF/H.

27 Breitenbush File, WNF/H.

28 Amalgamated Mining Company file, WNF/H; Detroit Historical File.

29 T.M. Talbot, Land Classification of the Cascade National Forest and Arthur E. Wilcox, Land Classification of the Santiam National Forest, give acreages and areas. See also Charles A. Sprague, "Willamette Highway—the Seventh Across the High Cascades," Oregon Historical Quarterly, 41:3 (September, 1940), 243-249, and Stephen Dow Beckham, The Oregon Central Military Wagon Road: A History and Reconnaissance, Heritage Research Associates, Report 6, Vol. 1 (1981).

30 C.J. Buck to Forest Supervisor, March 3, 1913; U.S. v. E.J. Collinshaw, W.J. Morrison, and the Sligh Furniture Company, #3866, District Court for the District of Oregon, January 13, 1913. Box 40892, WNF/H.

31 Dana, Forest and Range Policy, 406.

32 H.D. Langille, a former Forest Service employee, wrote eloquently: "[The offer] is made that I may escape the persecutions of the tax gatherers of Linn County, who, over the period of private ownership, have collected in taxes much the greater part of the realization." H.D.L to Supervisor, October 31, 1939. Voluminous files on land exchange are found in boxes 40889, 40890, and 40891, WNF/H.

33 Addie Morris, Homestead Settlement Records, WNF/H.

34 Talbot, Land Classification of the Cascade National Forest; Wilcox, Land Classification of the Santiam National Forest. See also Alford L Thayer, "The Fraudulent Homesteader," Conservation, 14:11 (November, 1908), 579-584.

35 Boxes 40891, 40892, 40893, 40894, and 40895, WNF/H contain many examples of squatter claim investigation.

36 Dana, Forest and Range Policy, 147-148, 392. George W. Woodruff, "Agricultural Settlement in the Forest Reserves," Forestry and Irrigation, 12:6 (June, 1906), 267-270.

37 Rakestraw, Forest Conservation, 259-260.

38 Boxes 40891, 40892, 40893, 40894, and 40895, WNF/H have numerous records of examinations. In June 11th claim work, the General Land Office commissioner would not approve claims until they were reported on by the Forest Service. Hundreds of applications were made, but in the Cascade National Forest only 44 claims totalling 3,941.87 acres passed to patent.

39 Dana, Forest and Range Policy, 148-149, 396; Talbot, Land Classification of the Cascade National Forest; Wilcox, Land Classification of the Santiam National Forest.

40 Lectures delivered at the University of Washington by Clarence John Buck. Feb. 1910, Forest Service Pacific Northwest Region Warehouse, Portland.

41 Dana, Forest and Range Policy, 108-109.

42 Dana, Forest and Range Policy, 113-114.

43 Dana, Forest and Range Policy, 126-130. Boxes 40891, 40892, 40893, 40894, and 40895, WNF/H contain interesting material that supplements the standard accounts. Stephen A. Douglas Puter, in collaboration with Horace Stevens, Looters of the Public Domain (Portland, 1908), is a fascinating account of the land ring's operations.

44 Forestry and Irrigation, 10:2 (February, 1904), 51-53.

45 Rooper File, WNF/H, Grazing; T.H. Sherrard, "The Days of Musk and Insolence," The Ranger, 6:3 (April, 1929), 9. T.H. Sherrard wrote, "It is an interesting commentary on the stock business that the sheep permittees are still largely the same persons and families while the old cattle permittees' names have largely disappeared."

46 Rakestraw, Forest Conservation, 195-208.

47 McKinley, Uncle Sam, p. 264, 266; Rakestraw, Forest Conservation, 238.

48 D.D. Bronson, Forest Inspector to H.W. Rooper, April 1, 1906, WNF/H Grazing File.

49 W.R. Chapline, "First 10 Years of the Office of Grazing Studies," Rangelands, 2:6 (December, 1908), 223-227; Rodgers, Fernow, 408.

50 John C. Kuhns diaries, 1915-1916, Portland F.S. Warehouse.

51 Grazing Forest Plan, Willamette National Forest (n.d., ca 1934) Oakridge Ranger Station Historical File.

52 Gilfillan, Sheep gives the best account of the herders daily round; Davis, Kettle of Fire, has some good personal reminiscences.

53 WNF/H, Grazing Permit Files.

54 Ibid.; Grazing Forest Plan, Oakridge.

55 H.W. Rooper correspondence, esp. May 11, 1906, WNF/H.

56 Blue River File, WNF/H, Grazing. In 1939 C.B. McFarland reported 385 cattle and 24,651 sheep.

57 Blue River File, Sweet Home, WNF/H.

58 U.S.F.S. Grazing-Supervision-R6 1908-1921, box 238, RG 95, National Archives.

59 Overall surveys include James Trefethen, An American Crusade for Wildlife (New York, 1975), and John F. Reiger, American Sportsmen and the Origins of Conservation (New York, 1975). A survey of Forest Service work is found in Mary Elizabeth Johnson, "Wildlife Conservation," in Richard C. Davis (ed.) Encyclopedia of American Forest and Conservation History (New York and London, 1983), Vol. II, 702-709.

60 Charles Anway, "Life of Charles Anway," Lane County Historian, 26:7 (Fall, 1981), 51-59.

61 An early cooperative agreement was made in 1916, a later one in 1922. They provide that forest officers would serve as deputy state game wardens, and that the game wardens cooperate with the Service in case of fire. Arrest would be by the warden, if a warden was present; if not, by the forest officer. George Cecil to Forest Officers, Sept. 23, 1922, WNF/H, Wildlife file; Six-Twenty Six, 6:4 (April, 1922), 13. Blue River Historical File, and Wildlife File, WNF/H.

62 Annual Report, Wildlife, Cascade National Forest 1926, Wildlife file, WNF/H. This extraordinary statement is repeated in the 1926 report.

63 Helen M. Meyers, "History of the Santiam Fish and Game Association," (n.d.) Wildlife File, WNF/H; Six-Twenty Six, 5:2 (February, 1921), 13 and 8:9 (1924), 15.

64 L.H. Smith, "Lake Data," ca. 1934, Wildlife File, WNF/H.

65 Fish and Game Annual Reports, Cascade National Forest, 1925, 1926; Fish and Game Reports, Santiam National Forest, 1924, 1925, 1929, 1930, 1931; C.C. Hall, "A Working Plan for the Game Resources, 1926"; S.L Taylor, Fish and Game Report, Supp. Report, October 21, 1932, all in Wildlife File, WNF/H. Also, Glen Johnson's "Stocking Cascade Mountain Lakes," The Oregon Sportsman, 2:8 (August, 1914), 11-15 and 2:9 (September, 1914), 14-20.

66 Pinchot Records, RG 95, National Archives.

67 H.S. Graves to District Forester, July 3, 1915; District Forester to Forester, July 8, 1915, in F.S. Wildlife Corr. 1915-1936, Region 5, Region 6, Box 23, RG 95, National Archives.

68 Annual Report on Wildlife, Cascade National Forest, 1926, 1932, Wildlife File, WNF/H.

69 On early automobile travel, see Ivan M. Wooley, Off to Mount Hood (Portland, 1959), which deals with early travel from Portland to Government Camp, and A.L Westgard, "Transcontinental Automobile Trips," The Pacific Monthly, 17:3 (March, 1907), 347-355. Another good account is Stewart Edward White, Speaking for Myself (New York, 1943), 196-222. Dwight B. Huss and Milford Wigle drove the first automobile westward across the Cascades in the early summer of 1905 in an eight horsepower, one cylinder, 1904 Oldsmobile named "Old Scout." They were in a race against Percy F. Megargel and Barton Stanchfield, driving a similar car named "Old Steady," from New York City to Portland, Oregon, for the opening of the Lewis and Clark Exposition. The two teams were the fifth and sixth cars to cross the continent. Old Scout took 44 days, while Old Steady took 51 days, to make the arduous journey. Huss later recounted that when they reached the summit of Sand Mountain, they cut down a good sized fir tree and chained it to the rear axle. With Wigle riding the drag "brake," they made it down the wagon road "without difficulty or danger." Dwight B. Huss, "Adventures of 'Old Scout' in Oregon, 1905," The Oregon Motorist, 11:12 (September, 1931), 3-5.

70 Forest Service Atlas, 1907 (Washington, 1908), 8.

71 Summarized in Dana, Forest and Range Policy, 185, 187.

72 Files of C.B. McFarland, 1909-1946, File Trans 7700-7, WNF/H.

73 7700 file, WNF/H.

74 H.S. Graves 1915 Diaries, Sterling Memorial Library, Yale University, are valuable for this activity.

75 Robert S. Wallace, "A Report on the Need for Forest Road Construction in Lane County, Oregon," August 25, 1915, File 7700-5, WNF/H.

76 File 7700-4, WNF/H.

77 Research Compilation Files, R6, R695, N.A.

78 C.J. Buck, "How Telephones Saved Lives," American Forestry, 16:11 (November, 1910), 649.

79 Bowerman, History of the West Boundary District, WNF/H.

80 McFarland Files, WNF/H.

81 Gary Craven Gray, Radio for the Firelines: A History of Electronic Communication in the Forest Service (Washington, 1972), 12-13.

82 Gray, Radio, 11-12; Ruth Hyland McFarland, The Ranger's Wife (mss., n.d.) C.B. McFarland File, WNF/H.

83 The accounts of the electric trust given by Gifford Pinchot, Breaking New Ground, 333-339; and Jenks Cameron, The Development of Governmental Forest Control in the United States, 300-307, are greatly at variance with each other. This is an area that needs more research. The Waldo Lake project was the major one embarked on during this period, but it will be studied as a separate unit, in Chapter V. Administrative Sites File, WNF/H.

84 Historical File, McKenzie Bridge Ranger Station.

85 John D. Scott, We Climb High: A Chronology of the Mazamas 1894-1964 (Portland, 1969), 1-6.

86 Scott, We Climb High, 6-40.

87 Box 14684, Portland Forest Service Warehouse, has a large file on the trail and projected highway, including Cleator's trail diaries. WNF/H also has some files, which for the most part duplicate the Portland holdings. Cleator was a major architect of Region 6 recreational plans. See also articles on wilderness management and wilderness preservation in Richard C. Davis (ed.) Encyclopedia of American Forest and Conservation History (New York, 1983), II, 682-699; David Nicholas Baldwin, The Quiet Revolution: Grass Roots of Today's Wilderness Preservation Movement (Boulder, Colorado, 1972); and Susan Flader, Thinking Like a Mountain: Aldo Leopold and the Evolution of an Ecological Attitude Toward Deer, Wolves, and Forests (Columbia, Missouri, 1974).

88 Scholarship on this development is not satisfactory. The decentralized nature of the Forest Service, and lack of satisfactory regional studies, make for difficulties in making good overall studies. The cooperation of state and private foresters has also been largely overlooked. A convenient summary of policy is found in C. Frank Brockman, Recreational Use of Wild Lands (New York, 1959). For a good contemporary account, by a leader in policy making, see Robert Marshall, "The Forest For Recreation," National Plan for American Forestry (73d Cong. 1st Sess., Doc. 12:1, 463-487).

89 C.H. Rachford to C.C. Hall, September 1, 1922, F.S.-Grazing-R6, RG 95, National Archives. The grazing files have many other instances noted. Blue River File, WNF/H has an account of one such incident, as does Knowles, Honeymoon on Horseback.

90 The Ranger, 6:9 (1931), 3; 6:3, 27; John D. Scott, "The Three Sisters Primitive Area," Mazama, 33 (1951), 53-54.

91 Brockman, Recreational Use of Wild Lands, and Marshall, "Forest Recreation" give national views. For regional views see C.M. Granger, "Harmonizing Lumber and Aesthetics," American Forestry, 23 (1917), 299-302; C.J. Buck, "The Place of Recreation in the Forest Program," Journal of Forestry, 31 (1933), 191-198; Buck, "A Forester's Work in Recreation," Oregon Agricultural College Forest Club Annual Cruise, 10 (1929), 13-17, 70-72; F.W. Cleator, "Recreational Objectives in National Forest Administration," University of Washington Forest Club Quarterly, 3:2 (1924), 13-17, and Cleator, "Recreational Objectives: Forest Service Plans for Public's Pleasure," Parks and Recreation, 7:5 (1924), 467-475. Two excellent studies of Oregon State activities are Thomas R. Cox, "The Crusade to Save Oregon's Scenery," Pacific Historical Review, 37 (May, 1968), 179-199, and Cox, "Robert W. Sawyer and the Birth of Oregon State Parks," Pacific Northwest Quarterly, 64 (January, 1973), 21-29.

92 Wooley, Going to Mt. Hood; Scott, We Climb High; Howard Horowitz, "The Landscape of Hot Springs and Mineral Springs in Western Oregon," Geography M.S. Thesis, University of Oregon, September, 1973; Lawrence Rakestraw, Fred Stormer, and Christopher R. Eder, "A Second Yellowstone: William G. Mather and the Grand Island Game Preserve," Journal of Forest History, 21:3 (July, 1972), 156-163.

93 Breitenbush Hot Springs File, WNF/H.

94 Foley Springs, Belknap Springs, and Terwilliger Hot Springs Files, WNF/H.

95 Horowitz, "Hot Springs," 71.

96 McCredie Springs File, WNF/H.

97 C.M. Granger, "Harmonizing Lumber and Aesthetics," American Forestry, 23:5 (May, 1917), p. 299-302; Six Twenty-Six, 4:5 (March, 1920), 1-2; T.T. Munger, "Scenic Strip," Six Twenty-Six, 7:12 (December, 1923), 20; E.A. Sherman, "Use of the National Forests of the West for Public Recreation," Society of American Foresters Proceedings 11:3 (July, 1916), 292-296; USDA Forest Service Pacific Northwest Region Lands Handbook (Washington, 1932), 69-71.

98 Robert Marshall to C.J. Buck, November 11, 1938, Box 14683, Portland Warehouse.

99 Pamelia Lake Group Blueprint, WNF/H.

100 C.C. Hall, Report of Marion Lake Unit Recreation Plan, June 3, 1925, WNF/H.

101 Fish Lake Recreation Plan, May 8, 1923, WNF/H; Fish Lake File WNF/H.

102 "Linton Lake Recreational Plan" by E.H. Hall, 1932; "Gold Lake Recreation Area," April 1934; "Lake Melakwa Recreational Plan," by E.H. Hall, all in Recreational Atlas, WNF/H.

103 C.C. Hall, Breitenbush River Recreation Unit, April 22, 1930, WNF/H; F.W. Cleator, Breitenbush River Scenic Strip, October 31, 1923. Six Twenty-Six, 4:11 (June, 1920), 24-25; Oregon Journal, March 14, 1929; Rec. file 2300, WNF/H.

104 F.W. Cleator, "Upper McKenzie Recreation Area," 1929; H.E. Vincent, "McKenzie Bridge Campground," June 4, 1920; F.W. Cleator, "McKenzie Highway Recreation Unit," April 20, 1928, all in WNF/H. R.F. Grefe, "McKenzie Highway Recreational Unit," May 25, 1929, Recreational Atlas, WNF/H.

105 C.H. Purcell, District Engineer to J.M. Meyers, Highway Engineer, Portland, January 9, 1920; F.W. Cleator, Memorandum, Recreation File 2300, WNF/H. C.J. Buck to F.W. Cleator, March 20, 1928, McKenzie Highway Unit, Recreational Atlas, WNF/H.

106 McCredie Springs File, WNF/H. Willamette Highway Recreation Unit, 1939, Recreational Atlas, WNF/H.

107 Thornton T. Munger, Forest Research in the Pacific Northwest, an interview conducted by Amelia R. Fry (Berkeley, California, University of California Oral History Office, 1967), 40-44; Munger, "Fifty Years of Forest Research in the Pacific Northwest," Oregon Historical Quarterly, LVI:3 (September, 1955), 226-247; Munger, "My Connection with the Early Days of Forestry," letter dated October 1, 1940, to Gifford Pinchot, located in Container 988, in the Pinchot Collection, Library of Congress, Washington DC, 15 pages; Reforestation File, 2400d-6, WNF/H; Administrative Sites File, Experiment Stations, WNF/H.

108 Munger, "Fifty Years"; C. Frank Brockman, Recreational Use of Wild Lands (New York, 1959), 168-169; Ivan Doig, Early Forestry Research: A History of the Pacific Northwest Forest and Range Experiment Station, 1926-1975 (Portland, 1976), 5-13.

109 The literature is voluminous on the development of the cooperative fire control in the Northwest. Two convenient accounts are George T. Morgan, "The Fight Against Fire: Development of Cooperative Forestry in the Pacific Northwest, 1900-1950," Ph.D. Thesis, Department of History, University of Oregon, 1964, 125-165; Rakestraw, Forest Conservation, 319-325.

110 Development of these technological devices can be followed best in the Six Twenty-Six and The Ranger. On the Osborne firefinder see Fire Control, Equipment, A-6, Box 19, RG 95, National Archives. Published material includes Florisa Hamilton, Forty Years of Western Forestry: A History of the Effort to Conserve Forest Resources by Cooperative Effort (Portland, 1949).

111 Charles McKinley, Uncle Sam in the Pacific Northwest (Berkeley, 1952), 287-296, gives an excellent account of fire control activities.

112 Six Twenty-Six, 14:5 (May, 1932) Supplement, 1-5.

113 The Ranger, 14:9 (September, 1930), 5-6.

114 Linn County Fire Patrol Association, 50th Annual Report (Sweet Home, 1961), Sweet Home Historical File.

115 Six Twenty-Six, 11:5 (May, 1927), 6; 11:6 (June, 1927), 8-9; 12:8 (August, 1928), 3-5.

116 Fred E. Ames, "Fire Prevention in National Forest Timber Sales in the Douglas Fir Region," Journal of Forestry, 21:1 (January, 1933), 59-62.

117 The story is admirably summarized in Henry Clepper, Professional Forestry in the United States (Baltimore, 1971), 166-177. Regional correspondence on the Army Air Corps patrol is found in Fires Control Corr., 09-17, Air Patrol reports, Box 9, RG 95, National Archives. On carrier pigeons, see FS Fire Control 1905-1937, Fire Control-Air Patrol, Box 6, RG 95, National Archives.

118 E.T. Allen, Practical Forestry in the Pacific Northwest (Portland, 1911) gives a good view of timber harvest as it was then. Stewart H. Holbrook, Holy Old Mackinaw: A Natural History of the American Lumberjack (New York, 1938) is the classic popular history of the lumber industry.

119 Historic Files in Eugene, Sweet Home, Oakridge, and Detroit carry information on small sales.

120 George Cecil, "Forest Service Lumber Sale Contracts," The Timberman, 15:11 (September, 1914), 69-72.

121 Detroit Ranger Station Historical File; Logging Methods File, WNF/H; Six Twenty-Six, 8:3 (January, 1924), 2; 8:17 (July, 1924), 9; The Ranger, 1:2 (April, 1924).

122 Harold S. Bowerman, "West Boundary Ranger Station Notes," Timberlines, 20 (June, 1971), 26-28; C.B. McFarland, "Early History of the Upper Willamette Valley," McFarland File, WNF/H; Lane Reporter, 1:12 (1959); Lane County Historian, 18:3 (September, 1973), 24.

123 B.F. Hoffman, "Report on an Appraisal Covering the Proposed Timber Sale on the North Fork of the Middle Fork of the Willamette River," (January, 1923) WNF/H; John F. Preston to District Forester, July 17, 1923; W.B. Greeley, Sales Prospects, July 5, 1923, North Fork Middle Fork, Willamette River Unit, in Sales Folder, Western Lumber Company Folder II, 2400b-3 WNF/H.

CHRONOLOGICAL SUMMARY, 1905-1933

1905

The Transfer Act of February 1 (33 Stat. 628) (1) transferred the administration of the forest reserves from the Secretary of the Interior to the Secretary of Agriculture; (2) covered all receipts from the forest reserves for a period of five years into a special fund to be available, until expended, as the Secretary of Agriculture might direct, for the protection, administration, improvement, and extension of the reserves; (3) provided that forest supervisors and rangers should be selected, when practicable, from the states or territories in which the reserves were located; (4) authorized the export of pulpwood and wood pulp from Alaska; and (5) granted rights-of-way for dams, ditches, and flumes across the reserves for various purposes under regulations prescribed by the Secretary of the Interior and subject to state laws.

The "Law Enforcement Authority" Act of February 6 (33 Stat. 700) authorized the arrest by any officer of the United States, without process, of any person taken in the act of violating the regulations relating to forest reserves and national parks.

The Agricultural Appropriations Act of March 3 (33 Stat. 861, 873) permitted timber on forest reserves to be exported from the state or territory (including Alaska) in which cut except in the Black Hills (South Dakota) and Idaho. This provision was made general in 1913. The Act also changed the name of the Bureau of Forestry to Forest Service, effective July 1. Another portion of the act also repeated the provisions of the Act of February 6th authorizing forest and park officers to arrest without process any person taken in the act of violating the laws and regulations relating to forest reserves and national parks.

The Act of March 3 (33 Stat. 1264) repealed the lieu-land provision of the act of 1897 but permitted the perfecting of valid selections already made.

1906

Beginning January 1, a charge was made for the first time for grazing on the forest reserves.

The American Antiquities Act of June 8 (34 Stat. 225) forbade anyone, without proper authority, to appropriate, excavate, injure, or destroy any historic or prehistoric ruin or monument or any object of antiquity on lands owned or controlled by the government of the United States. It also authorized the President to establish by proclamation national monuments for the preservation of features of historic, prehistoric, and scientific interest, under administration of the Department already having jurisdiction over the land in question. The area reserved must be as small as compatible with the proper care and management of the objects to be preserved.

The Forest Homestead Act of June 11 (34 Stat. 233) authorized the Secretary of Agriculture to open for entry, through the Secretary of the Interior, forest reserve lands chiefly valuable for agriculture which were not needed for public purposes and which in his judgement might be occupied without injury to the forest. Each tract was to be surveyed by metes and bounds and must not exceed 160 acres in area or one-mile in length. Commutation was not allowed.

The Agricultural Appropriations Act of June 30 (34 Stat. 669, 684) provided that 10 percent of all money received from the forest reserves during any fiscal year, including 1906, was to be turned over to the states or territories for the benefit of the public schools and public roads of the counties in which the reserves were located, but not be the extent of more than 40 percent of their income from other sources. It also forbade unrestricted spending after June 30, 1908, from the special fund set up in 1905.

1906-1907

The Senate and House of Representatives passed separate but similar resolutions requesting the Bureau of Corporations to investigate the lumber industry.

1907

The "Disposition of Receipts from National Forest Revenues" Act of March 4, 1907 (34 Stat. 1269) provided that money received by the Forest Service (timber, permits, etc) shall be deposited in the U.S. Treasury. Another provision of the Act changed the name of the forest reserves to national forests.

The Act of March 4 (34 Stat. 1271) stated: "Hereafter no national forest shall be created, nor shall any additions be made to one heretofore created within the limits of the States of California, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Colorado, Wyoming, Arizona, or New Mexico, except by Act of Congress." This provision removed the authority of the President to establish national forests by proclamation, without Congressional consent. However, just before the Act was signed into law, Gifford Pinchot and President Roosevelt established millions of acres of new national forests (afterwards referred to as the midnight reserves) in these states.

1908

The Act of May 23 (35 Stat. 251, 260) increased the payment of the states for the benefit of county schools and roads to 25 percent of the gross receipts from national forests, eliminated the 40 percent limitation, and made the legislation permanent.

Present Regional Office (then called District Office) organization of the Forest Service was put into effect on December 1. Edward T. Allen served as the first District (Regional) Forester starting in December 1908.

1909

The Western Forestry and Conservation Association was organized and E.T. Allen resigned from the Forest Service to take charge of the new organization in November 1909. Charles S. Chapman took over as District (Regional) Forester in December.

1910

Gifford Pinchot fired as chief of the Forest Service by President Taft after Pinchot and Interior Secretary Richard A. Ballinger were in public disagreement over the management of Alaska lands. Henry Solon Graves, a long-time friend of Pinchot's as well as his second in command, was appointed as the second Chief of the Forest Service.

1911

The Weeks Act of March 1 (36 Stat. 961): (1) authorized the enactment of interstate compacts for the conservation of forests and the water supply; (2) appropriated $200,000 to enable the Secretary of Agriculture to cooperate with any state which had provided by law for a system of forest-fire protection; and (3) appropriated one million dollars for the fiscal year 1910 and two million dollars for each succeeding fiscal year until June 30, 1915, for use in the examination, survey, and acquisition by the government of lands located on the headwaters of navigable streams, it also created a National Forest Reservation Commission to pass upon lands approved for purchase and to fix the price at which purchases shall be made and provided for the protection and administration of acquired lands.

The Act of March 4 (36 Stat. 1235, 1253) authorized the head of the Department having jurisdiction over public lands, national forests, and reservations of the United States to grant rights-of-way for transmission, telephone, and telegraph lines for a period not exceeding fifty years.

The Bureau of Corporations submitted a comprehensive report on the lumber industry in four parts.

C.S. Chapman, District (Regional) Forester, resigned in March to work with the Weyerhaeuser Lumber Company. George H. Cecil appointed new Forester in April.

1912

The Agricultural Appropriations Act of August 10 (37 Stat. 269, 287): (1) directed the Secretary of Agriculture to select, classify, and segregate all lands that may be opened to settlement and entry under the homestead laws applicable to national forests; (2) authorized and directed the Secretary to sell timber at actual cost to homestead settlers and farmers for their domestic use; and (3) made 10 percent of the gross receipts from national forests available for expenditure by the Secretary of Agriculture for the construction of roads and trails within national forests. The latter provision was made permanent by the act of March 4, 1913 (37 Stat. 828, 843).

1913

The "Expenditures From Receipts" Act of March 4 (37 Stat. 828) provided that 10 percent of all moneys received from the national forests would be returned to the states for use roads and schools.

1915

The Branch of Research was established in the USDA Forest Service, with Earle H. Clapp in charge.

The Agricultural Appropriations Act of March 4 (38 Stat. 1086, 1101) authorized the Secretary of Agriculture to grant permits for summer homes, hotels, stores, or other structures needed for recreation or public convenience in national forests in tracts of not more than five acres and for periods of not more than thirty years.

1916

The Act of July 11 (39 Stat. 355, 358) appropriated one million dollars a year for ten years for the construction of roads and trails within or partly within national forests when necessary for the use and development of their resources. Additional appropriations of three million dollars a year for the same purpose were made for the fiscal years 1919, 1920, and 1921.

The Agricultural Appropriations Act of August 11 (39 Stat. 446, 462) authorized the Secretary of Agriculture to require purchases of national forest stumpage to make deposits adequate to cover the cost of disposing of brush and other debris resulting from cutting operations. The proviso authorizing return to the purchaser of any deposit in excess of the amount actually required for the work was repealed by act of April 24, 1950 (64 Stat. 82). The 1916 act also authorized the Secretary, under prescribed general regulations, to permit the prospecting, development, and utilization of the mineral resources of lands acquired under the Weeks Act of 1911.

The Act of August 11 (39 Stat. 446, 476) authorized the President to establish refuges for the protection of game animals, birds, or fish on any lands purchased under the Weeks Act of 1911.

1920

Henry S. Graves resigned as Forester and Alfred F. Potter as Associate Forester. They were succeeded by William B. Greeley and Edward A. Sherman.

1920

The Act of June 10 (41 Stat. 1063) created the Federal Power Commission consisting of the Secretary of War, Secretary of the Interior, and Secretary of Agriculture, with authority to issue licenses for a period not exceeding fifty years "for the development and improvement of navigation, and for the development, transmission, and utilization of power across, along, from or in any part of the navigable waters of the United States, or upon any part of the public lands and reservations of the United States (including the Territories), or for the purpose of utilizing the surplus water of water power from any Government dam."

1921

The Federal Highway Act of November 9 (42 Stat. 212, 218) started the practice of appropriating funds specifically for the construction of "forest-development roads" and "forest highways." Cooperation with states was authorized but not required.

1922

The General Exchange Act of March 20 (42 Stat. 465) authorized the Secretary of Agriculture (through the Secretary of the Interior) to exchange surveyed, nonmineral land or timber in national forests established from the public domain for privately owned or state land of equal value within national forests in the same state.

The Agricultural Appropriations Act of May 11 (42 Stat. 507, 520) made the first appropriation ($10,000) for the improvement of public campgrounds in national forests, with special reference to protection of the public health and prevention of forest fires.

1923

The Act of March 4 (42 Stat. 1445) extended the provisions of the Enlarged Homestead Act of 1909 to homestead entries in national forests under certain conditions.

1924

The Clarke-McNary Act of June 7 (43 Stat. 653) authorized appropriations to enable the Secretary of Agriculture to cooperate in forest-fire control with states meeting prescribed standards, in the growing and distribution of planting stock to farmers, and in promoting the efficient management of farm wood lots and shelterbelts; authorized the purchase of lands anywhere on the watersheds of navigable streams and for timber production as well as streamflow protection; authorized acceptance of gifts to be added to the national forests; authorized the Secretary of Agriculture to report to Congress such unreserved public timberlands as in his judgment should be added to the national forests; and authorized the creation of military and naval reserves as national forests, without interference with their use for military and naval purposes.

1925

A system of ten-year permits for grazing on western national forests was put into effect by the Forest Service on January 1.

The Act of February 28 (43 Stat. 1090) amended the General Exchange Act of 1922 to permit either party to an exchange to make reservations of timber, minerals, or easements, the values of which shall be considered in determining the values of the exchanged lands, provided that such reservations shall be subject to the tax laws of the states concerned.

George H. Cecil, District Forester, was gone by February and replaced by Chris M. Granger.

The "Land Acquisition" Act of March 3 (43 Stat. 1132) authorized the exchange of land or timber for land within the exterior boundaries of national forests acquired under the Weeks Act of 1911 or the Clarke-McNary Act of 1924, on an equal-value basis.

1928

The McNary-Woodruff Act of April 30 (45 Stat. 468) authorized appropriation of two million dollars in 1928-1929, of three million dollars in 1929-1930, and of three million dollars in 1930-1931 for the purchase of land under the Weeks Act of 1911 and the Clarke-McNary Act of 1924. Not more than one million acres of land was to be purchased in any one state primarily for timber production.

William B. Greeley resigned as Forester on May 1 and was succeeded by Robert Y. Stuart.

The McSweeney-McNary Act of May 22 (45 Stat. 699) authorized a comprehensive ten-year program of research in all phases of forestry and range management, including a timber survey, with an annual appropriation amounting to $3,625,000 by the end of the period, and thereafter such amounts as needed to carry out the provisions of the act.

1929

The Stock Market crash on October 29, 1929 (afterward known as "Black Tuesday"), started a 12-year period called the "Great Depression."

1930

The Knutson-Vandenberg Act of June 9 (46 Stat. 527) authorized appropriation of not to exceed $400,000 a year by the fiscal year 1934 for reforestation activities on the national forests and provided that additional charges could be made in timber sales to provide a special fund for reforestation or silvicultural improvement of the cutover area included in the timber sale.

District Forester Chris M. Granger transferred to the Washington Office and was replaced by Clarence J. Buck.

1933

Franklin Delano Roosevelt took office as President on March 20, 1933. The "New Deal" era began.