History of The Willamette National Forest

INTRODUCTION

There are four approaches to examining the history of the national forests in the United States. One may analyze their history as part of the development of world forestry. Forestry practices, developed in European countries, principally Germany and France, spread to other European countries and to the United States. Modified there to fit New World conditions, forestry from the United States spread to Canada, the Philippines, China, and Latin America. Bernhard Eduard Fernow used this approach in A Brief History of Forestry in Europe, the United States and Other Countries (1907, 1911), as did Robert K. Winter in The Forest and Man (1974). A second approach is to study the history of the national forests from the standpoint of the Washington Office of the Forest Service. This approach was used by a number of authors, including John Ise, The United States Forest Policy (1920); Jenks Cameron, The Development of Governmental Forest Control in the United States (1928); and Harold K Steen, The United States Forest Service: A History (1976).

The national forests, however, are part of larger administrative Regions, and each Region has its own history. The Region is the place where policies, developed in the Washington Office, are put into effect for a given area, and where regional foresters have some leeway in adapting national policies to the Region's needs and characteristics. Regions also serve as social and scientific laboratories, helping to develop policies later adopted by the nation as a whole. Charles McKinley, Uncle Sam in the Pacific Northwest (1952) gives our best study of this decentralization from the standpoint of the political scientist. Relatively few studies of individual Regions have been made, although several Regional histories are under contract through the Forest Service, Washington Office, History Section. This writer's A History of Forest Conservation in the Pacific Northwest, 1891-1913 (1979) and A History of the U.S. Forest Service in Alaska (1981) are to date the only systematic histories for the Pacific Northwest Region. Several regional studies, such as the four volume Early Days in the Forest Service (1944-76) and Edwin A. Tucker and George Fitzpatrick Men Who Matched the Mountains: The Forest Service in the Southwest (1972) are the raw materials of history rather than history itself.

The present approach is from the standpoint of an individual national forest—the Willamette. Use of an individual national forest as a unit for study is common, with studies ranging from articles in regional or local history journals and studies of individual ranger districts to full scale studies like Carroll E. Brown's History of the Rogue River National Forest (1960, 1971). As a unit for the historian to study, national forests offer some attractions and some pitfalls. Such studies examine forest history at its grassroots, where the Forest Supervisor and the District Ranger come into direct contact with the lumberman, the grazer, or the hiker in determining land use. It is the place where local history—the impact of forest regulation on the frontiersman, the rise or fall of forest communities, the day to day relationships of the forest official with stockmen, hikers, or loggers, are best studied. In the present era of frequent transfer of national forest officers, such histories are the best way for a new person to get the "feel" of a national forest and ranger district.

For the historian, the history of the individual national forests has some special problems. The historian needs to seek a balance between emphasis on local history and forest administration. If the err is on one side, the history becomes anecdotal and antiquarian; if the err is on the other, it is too far removed from the community life of the forest. The relationship of the Forest Supervisor or District Ranger to the Regional Office, the Washington Office, or the Research Station needs to be pointed out clearly. Many national forest activities are, in reality, facets of regional history. In this book, for example, much attention is given to Fred Cleator's role in preserving amenity values in the Willamette National Forest; it is actually part of work carried on in the entire Pacific Northwest Region. Policies on timber cutting practices, wilderness, grazing, or management of hot and mineral springs were all aspects of Regional Office activities, and histories of individual national forests need to make this clear.

In this book, the point of view is that of the Supervisor's Office and the Ranger District. An important part of the history is tracing the development of the forest settlements from frontier outposts and forest communities to areas of increasing rural-urban tension. The forest's current cultural resource management (CRM) program suggests that much of the work in this evolution can best be handled by Forest Service staff, who are on the scene, know the areas, and can logically place it in its proper context with existing scholarly work in local history. References to the Regional Office have been cut to the minimum, since a history of the Pacific Northwest Region is projected and can best depict its role. It is to be hoped that this book will stir interest in a variety of specialized studies, described briefly herein, but not covered in a comprehensive manner—histories of individual mining districts, resorts, livestock companies like the Rooper interests, Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) work, and biographies of individuals who played a part in "taming a wild forest."

We are particularly indebted to David R. Gibney, retired Supervisor of the Willamette National Forest. Our work with him continues a forty-year-old association, beginning in the Trout Lake Ranger District with "Casey" Langfield as District Ranger. Michael A. Kerrick, present Forest Supervisor of the Willamette, got the project under way, and encouraged us in our work. David and Gale Burwell played an important part in acquainting us with the forest and with its historical records. Gerald W. Williams, historian for the Umpqua and Willamette, has been of great assistance in digging up sources, evaluating the work, making editorial changes to the manuscript, revising Chapters V and VI, as well as creating most of the Appendices, Photograph Section, and Index. A host of others have helped in the work; they include Paul Hansen, former public affairs specialist in the Regional Office; Lorette Laferriere and Janet Paul, who helped on the clerical side; and Jerry Mason, former public affairs officer on the Willamette, who gave us freely of his time and knowledge.

In the history of the Willamette National Forest, as in the history of any national forest, there has been a great deal of disagreement and controversy among officials, and between officials and the public, as to the wisdom of past policies and actions and the advisability of present ones. Where experts disagree, the scholar is at liberty to form his or her own conclusions. Where we have found it necessary, we have done so. The scholar, like the turtle, gets nowhere unless he or she is willing to stick out his or her neck. Views expressed herein, therefore, do not necessarily express the views of the Forest Service or the Willamette National Forest, but are independent judgments, based on examination of available evidence. If any of the judgment prove to be wrong, they are our mistakes, rather than those of the Forest Service.

Lawrence and Mary Rakestraw
Portland, Oregon