A History of the Daniel Boone National Forest 1770 - 1970

The author of this History of the Daniel Boone National Forest was born and grew up in southern Michigan.

Bob Collins' professional forestry education was acquired at Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, and at the Yale Forest School of Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. His professional service began with the Michigan Department of Conservation followed by 40 years of service as a member of the U.S. Forest Service.

The author's initial Forest Service assignment was in Research at the Lake States Forest Experiment Station. With the advent of the C.C.C. program he shifted to Administration, serving on the Medicine Bow National Forest in Wyoming, the Black Hills National Forest in South Dakota, and the Mark Twain National Forest in Missouri where he assisted in the initial purchase program and establishment of administration.

Following six years service in the armed forces during WW II, largely in the South Pacific, he served three years in the Branch of State and Private Forestry in the states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New York.

In 1953, the author was appointed Forest Supervisor of the Cumberland National Forest in Kentucky where he served for the next 17 years. During that time he was instrumental in changing the forest's name to the Daniel Boone National Forest.

Retiring from the Forest Service in 1970, he served as visiting professor at the University of Kentucky, teaching Forest Policy in the Department of Forestry for the next four years.

During this period he researched and wrote this History of the Daniel Boone National Forest, completing the manuscript in 1973. During the next two years he completed a text book, The Forest Policy of the United States, published by the University of Kentucky in 1975.

Bob Collins continues to maintain a deep interest in natural resource conservation at both the national and local levels, alert for more opportunities to serve in this field.

Jack Hatfield
Administrative Officer
Daniel Boone National Forest
Winchester, Kentucky