Mountaineers and Rangers: A History of Federal Forest Management in the Southern Appalachians, 1900-81

In 1978 the former Head of the Forest Service's History Section, David A. Clary, conceived the idea of doing a history of the impact of Federal natural resource management on the peoples of the Southern Appalachians. The contract was awarded July 25 that year under competitive bidding to Maximus, Inc., in McLean, Va.

We believe this study to be an important addition to the literature on the Forest Service and the Southern Appalachians. It is only the second scholarly publication to take a regional approach to Forest Service history, and it is the first to explicitly examine how Forest Service programs have affected local populations. We hope that it will stimulate other individuals, both in and outside the Forest Service, to write similarly significant histories.

Photographs and maps, mostly from official Forest Service sources, have been included to illustrate points covered in the text. Readers may order those from the National Archives collection by number from the Still Pictures Branch, Audiovisual Archives Division, National Archives, General Services Administration (GSA), Washington, DC 20408. Ask for GSA From 6797 with the latest valid price list; prices change each year on October 1. An advance payment made out to the Cashier, National Archives, GSA, must accompany each order. Requests for prints of photographs still held by the Forest Service, other photos, and for map photos should be sent to the History Section, Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, P.O. Box 2417, Washington, DC 20013; notification of the appropriate charge will be made, and the advance payment made out to Forest Service, USDA, must then be sent to us.

The source of each print is given in the description beneath each photograph, where it appears in the text. The designation "NA:95G" means it is an official Forest Service photograph, and the negative is held in the National Archives collection; the number following is the number of that photo. The designation "Forest Service photo" means the negative with the number following is still retained by the Forest Service in Washington, DC.

Sources of data for this study, including tables, are fully provided in the reference notes following each chapter and in the 11 lists in the Bibliography. The authors wish to thank personnel of the National Archives, Washington, DC; the Washington National Records Center, Suitland, Md.; the Lands and the Recreation Staffs of the Forest Service in Washington, DC, and Atlanta, Ga.; the various National Forests in the Appalachians; the Southeast Regional Office and the Supervisor of Great Smoky Mountains National Park, National Park Service; and the Appalachian Regional Commission, as well as the many other persons interviewed personally and by telephone, for their cooperation and special assistance which added greatly to the completeness of this report.

Dennis M. Roth, Head
History Section
Forest Service