A History of the Daniel Boone National Forest 1770 - 1970

The previous summary of the National Forest situation in Kentucky by W. E. Hedges, brings the situation down to early 1933, and the beginning of the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration, so important to the history of national forests everywhere.

In December of 1933, Mr. Hedges, Chief Land Examiner, submitted a report on a proposed extension to the Cumberland Purchase Unit comprised of 378,759 acres situated in Laurel, McCreary, Pulaski, Rockcastle and Whitley counties. After discussing the usual factors, Mr. Hedges published his report with the following recommendations, "It is recommended that this area be approved as an extension to the Cumberland Purchase Unit and that purchase work be instituted immediately after approval." On March 26, 1934, the National Forest Reservation Commission approved the addition to the Cumberland Purchase Unit located in Laurel, McCreary, Pulaski, Rockcastle and Whitley counties.

As pointed out in Mr. Hedges' report, the advent of the Roosevelt administration in 1933, to which programs of conservation, employment, expansion of national forests and social welfare, opened up a new field of operation on the Cumberland Purchase Unit. Funds became available for acquisition and an extensive program of land examination, negotiations and purchase was initiated. The establishment of a national forest in Kentucky was most favorably received by the people and by most public officials, evidenced by attempts to induce the expansion of the Cumberland Purchase Unit into other counties.

One of the most earnest and sincere appeals was made by Mrs. Mary Breckinridge, who had established, and for many years had administered, the Frontier Nursing Service in the mountains of eastern Kentucky, largely in Clay and Leslie counties. Mrs. Breckinridge was a forceful and remarkable woman who had earned the respect of the people of the mountains and the public officials who knew her.

Early in 1933, Mrs. Breckinridge wrote the Chief of the Forest Service and proposed that the Cumberland Purchase Unit be extended to include the headwaters of the Kentucky and the Cumberland rivers. Over the next three years she maintained an active correspondence with both the Regional Forester and the Chief, pressing for action to include the country she knew so well in the Cumberland Purchase Unit. Most of the country she was talking about she knew first hand having ridden over it horseback many times in the course of administering the Frontier Nursing Service.

On July 6, 1933, she made a personal call on Secretary of War George H. Dern, then chairman of the National Forest Reservation Commission, whom she knew personally. She gave him an oral report on the proposed area including reasons for the extension. On the same trip she made two visits to the Office of the Chief of the Forest Service on July 5 and July 7, 1933, where she pressed for action on her proposal. On her return to Kentucky, she prepared the information she had presented in the form of a report, copies of which she sent to Secretary Dern and to Major R. Y. Stuart of the Forest Service. The report, which is of a professional quality, is included in the appendix.

In replying to Mrs. Breckinridge's letter on July 25, 1933, R. Y. Stuart of the Forest Service writes, "Many thanks for your letter of July 21, and the accompanying report on a project for the conservation of the forest on the watersheds of the Kentucky and Cumberland rivers. The report is admirably prepared, rich in information, and apparently sound in its conception of the relationship of forests to the social welfare and economic progress of the residents of the Kentucky mountains. It therefore will be of great value to the Forest Service in its further consideration of the project."

As a part of her report under the heading Yardstick, Mrs. Breckinridge wrote, "Forest land owned and operated by the Government can be made a 'yardstick' by which to measure a fair income for private enterprise. True, the government pays no taxes, and state tax systems often work for the advantage of wasteful lumbering and to the disadvantage of scientific forestry. Inequitable taxes, however, can be adjusted by legislation designed to encourage the employment of private funds in forestry instead of in lumbering. A yardstick for purposes of measurement is first necessary, for in all the years in which the forests have been ruthlessly destroyed in America, private enterprise has never found a way out. An example, under government control, of scientific forestry, began in this generation on an existing stand of virgin timber and developed as the admirable U.S. Forest Service will develop it, is essential to teach the lesson to this generation of Americans."

Although Mrs. Breckinridge was visited by the Regional Forester and by representatives of the Chiefs office, who examined the area in question, unfortunately for us today they did not see fit to include in the Cumberland Purchase Unit the headwaters of the Kentucky and the Cumberland rivers. The logical reasoning of Mrs. Breckinridge still applies today and, had the Forest Service acquired large areas of the counties in question at that time, it is possible that the watersheds of the headwaters of the Kentucky and of the Cumberland would not be ravaged by strip mining to the extent they are today. Whatever the reason of the Forest Service for not including the headwaters of these river systems in the Cumberland Purchase Unit in the early 1930's, we know that we, as a people here in Kentucky, are poorer today because of their failure to do so.

Another attempt to secure the expansion of the Cumberland Purchase Unit was made in January and February of 1935, by Albin J. Stein of the Lewis County Democratic Campaign Committee, Vanceburg, Kentucky. Mr. Stein wrote Chief Silcox of the Forest Service on January 30, 1935, and urged that the Cumberland Purchase Unit be extended to include Lewis County which would have extended it to the Ohio River. The Forest Service replied that they were then engaged in consolidating ownership within the already established purchase unit and until such time as this had been accomplished, they were not in a position to expand, however they would keep this request in mind should such expansion be considered.

At the time, the U.S. Forest Service had been making its investigation of the possibility of establishing a national forest in Kentucky in 1914, the Legislature had passed an Enabling Act to make this legally possible. This Enabling Act read as follows, "March 17, 1914, This Act gives the consent of the State of Kentucky to acquisition by the United States by purchase or gift, or by condemnation of such land in the mountain region of Kentucky as in the opinion of the Federal Government may be needed for the establishment of a National Forest Reserve in the high mountain region of Kentucky.

Acquisition on the Cumberland Purchase Unit had started in 1933, based on this Act. However, in January of 1936, a bill had been introduced in the Kentucky legislature which would have repealed the existing Enabling Act and have substituted a much more restricted authorization. A review of the correspondence indicated that action on the part of the then Kentucky State Forester Mr. McConnel, was able to kill this bill in committee before it came up for vote in the legislature. In that same legislature an extended Enabling Act was passed which reads:

"February 18, 1936, This Act gives the same authority as to acquisition as the March 17, 1914 Act, but extends to 'prescribed areas within the boundaries of the Commonwealth'; provides that the area of land so acquired, which approval shall be evidence of record in his office before such establishment."

In compliance with this amended Enabling Act, it was necessary to obtain the written consent of the governor. This was accomplished by Supervisor R. F. Hemingway of the Cumberland Purchase Unit on July 15, 1936, when he finally obtained an audience with the governor and such a letter of consent was drawn up, signed by Governor A. B. Chandler and furnished to him. The letter of consent follows.

OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR
COMMONWEALTH OF KENTUCKY
FRANKFORT, KENTUCKY

Consent of the COMMONWEALTH OF KENTUCKY is hereby given to the acquisition by the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA by purchase, by gift, or by condemnation, according to law, of any or all the land or lands within the boundary of the Cumberland Purchase Unit, for the purpose of the establishment of a National Forest, as outlined and shown on the attached map, the area so outlined and shown having been approved and consented to in accordance with an Act of the 1936 General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, which became effective on May 18, 1936.

By The Honorable Albert B. Chandler, Governor of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, this 15th day of July, 1936.

(s) ALBERT B. CHANDLER
Governor, Commonwealth of Kentucky

With these preliminaries out of the way, on February 9, 1937, the Secretary of Agriculture, H. A. Wallace, submitted to President Roosevelt the draft of a proclamation to establish the Cumberland National Forest in the State of Kentucky. In his letter he told the President, "The approximate gross area of the Cumberland National Forest is 1,338,214 acres, of which it is proposed to ultimately acquire 1,215,142 acres. A total of 409,567 acres has now been or is in the process of being acquired."

On February 23, 1937, the President of the United States signed the proclamation establishing the Cumberland National Forest. A copy of this proclamation, which appears in the Federal Register for February 26, 1937.

See appendix F for the full text of this proclamation.

Cumberland National Forest Proclaimed February 23, 1937 (click on image for a PDF version)