A History of the Daniel Boone National Forest 1770 - 1970

On February 23, 1937, President Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaimed the Cumberland Purchase Unit in Kentucky as the Cumberland National Forest. It is well at this point to pause and take stock of the area and conditions which faced the Forest Service in completing the acquisition and putting the land under administration as of that date.

A report written in 1937, outlined some of the conditions which existed at that time. The Cumberland National Forest is located in one of the most densely settled sections of the Southern Appalachian Highlands. It had been established as a purchase unit in 1930, and created as a National Forest in 1937. As constituted at that time, it extended over 200 miles along the western border of what is popularly known as the Cumberland Mountains. At that time the area within the proclamation boundary was 1,338,214 acres, and extended into 16 Kentucky counties. It is significant that at that time over 48,000 people lived within the boundaries of the newly proclaimed forest — 8,000 families.

As of June 30, 1937, 336,692 acres had been acquired and approved for purchase in a total of 649 acquisition cases. The establishment of the purchase unit in early 1930, had been dependent on the acquisition of a number of key tracts which were largely extensive single ownership. Most of these key tracts had been acquired and around them the Cumberland National Forest was being built. The principal large ownerships which formed the basis of the Cumberland National Forest were: The Stearns Coal and Lumber Company Tract of 48,000 acres; the Castle Craig Coal Company Tract of 27,000 acres, and the Warfork Land Company Tract of 22,000 acres.

The first tracts purchased were comparatively isolated and thinly populated; but as the purchase program continued and the tracks acquired became smaller and smaller, more owner-operated tracts, chiefly poor farms, were acquired. Eliminating the larger tracts from consideration, the small cases of acquired lands varied from a few acres up to 200 and 300 acres, and averaged a little over 100 acres in size. They were mostly poor farms, and the owner usually received from $250 to $500 per farm, usually not a sufficient amount to establish himself elsewhere in a better farming area. The occupancy of the larger tracts acquired was characterized by squatters and tenant settlers, who had never paid cash rental to the former owners. In a few instances tenants on these larger tracts were given permission to occupy and cultivate a small portion of the land in return for protecting the property. In a very few cases the cash rental had been paid, usually a few dollars a year.

As the Forest Service acquired 176,851 acres, which had actually been paid for up to June 30, 1937, it attempted to place all of the occupants of its land under a form of permit, a special use permit for cultivation or for residence. This was attempted whether the occupants on the land were squatters, tenants or owners.

To provide a general picture of the background of the situation within which the Forest Service operated, a few facts concerning the general Southern Appalachian region are appropriate. For example — 67 percent of the land area was in forest or wild land; 67 percent of the farms were non-commercial or part-time; the average farm was 87 acres of which only 17 acres was harvested cropland; the average farm was valued at $2957; the value per farm of all farm products annually was $759.00 and almost one-half of this value of the products was consumed by the family; 85 percent of population was rural; 7.5 percent of the farms had telephones, 3 percent had radios, 4 percent had electric lights in the dwelling, 6 percent had running water, 3 percent had bathrooms — at that time this was 75 percent lower than the average farm in the United States; 20 percent of all families were on relief as of June 1934, 60 percent were farm families, 44 percent being farm owners, 16 percent tenants and 40 percent sharecroppers — at that time local relief workers estimated that only one-sixth of the relief families were qualified to operate a full-time farm.

The problem of placing the residents on land acquired by the Government was monumental. After three years of administration, out of 284 cases which should have been placed under some type of special use, only 41 cases were operated under paid permits, both farming and resident types. There were 10 resident permittees, two barn permittees, 28 cultivation permittees and one free permitee for cultivation. The residence usually included some farmland for cultivation use.

The permits varied from one-acre cultivation permits with a $2 minimum annual fee to a 13-acre resident permit with a charge of $27 annually. Almost half of the paid permits were issued at the minimum fee of $2 for cultivation and $5 for residence, as set up by National Forest regulations. Four cultivation and two resident permits issued in 1936, were still not paid for in 1937. Four paid residency permits, and one paid cultivation permit had been closed as of 1937. A comment made in a report prepared as of 1937 states, "It is safe to say that only one-half of the families occupying National Forest land are bonafied permittees."

As of 1937, it was estimated that there were over 500 encroachments or unauthorized uses on the 176,850 acres which had been bought and paid for up to that date. The Forest Service considered the adjustment of these encroachments as one of the first jobs that should be approached. Such action necessitated dealing individually with the person or persons using National Forest land. Although the actual acreage involved was not of major consequence to the Government, the encroachments were most important to the individual farmers who cultivated but a small amount of land. If these encroachments were not adjusted, it would tend to break down the entire purpose for which the land was acquired — to put it to its proper use and to give it proper administration. Encroachments varied from a fraction of an acre to five acres in size and adjustments made it necessary for the Forest Officer to work out on the ground, a satisfactory arrangement with the farmer by agreement on the exact boundary. Many times this involved moving a fence or building by mutual agreement. Needless to say it was time consuming.

However, these problems which already faced the Forest Service appeared to be relatively small compared to the problem which lay ahead in the acquisition of many smaller tracts, with a family living on each tract. It was estimated at that time that on the 203,841 acres, which had been approved for purchase but had not yet been paid for, it would be necessary to issue 100 resident permits and 100 cultivation permits, the acreage of which would be in the smaller tracts. It was also estimated that there would be over 100 encroachments to adjust on this acreage.

A summary of the problem included in the report pointed out that the size of the problem facing the Forest Service was quite evident when it was comprehended that some 6,000 families, over 36,000 people, were at that time occupying land that the government expected to acquire as a part of the Cumberland National Forest. The large tracts with relatively few people occupying them, chiefly tenants and squatters, had already been acquired. From that time forward the purchase program would be one of buying up owner-operated poor farms, each tract of small size averaging 100 acres or less and with one or more families living on them. Most of these families would have no place to go. The money which they would receive from the sale of their land would not be sufficient to enable them to buy land outside the National Forest and reestablish themselves. Furthermore most families were not mentally and physically equipped to adapt themselves to farming or industrial conditions elsewhere. Most of these families had an inherent love of the mountains and would prefer to remain where they were, if farming and forestry opportunities could be provided.

A brief summary of living conditions on the area within which the Cumberland National Forest had recently been established may well set the stage for the monumental task faced by the relatively few Forest Service personnel manning the newly established Cumberland National Forest.

The people of this area of Kentucky were classified as: the average family consists of 5.6 members, varying from two to 12 persons; 75 percent of the families have received relief within the past three years; the average family diet consisted of fried potatoes, beans, fat salt pork, onions at all meals, strong black coffee, an occasional fried pie, and very occasionally some sweet dough cake, invaribly cornbread or hot biscuits, water gravy, and whatever other meat they could acquire such as rabbits, squirrels and fish; it was estimated that 75 percent of the families were undernourished and were chronic cases of malnutrition, with pellagra widespread; very few families would call a doctor in case of illness, relying primarily on home remedies; 75 percent of all births were handled by midwives whose normal charge was $5.00; 75 percent of the women had some chronic disorder, due principally to overwork and poor care at childbirth; 50 percent of the families were Baptist — 50 percent belonged to the Church of God; 30 percent of the children attended school regularly up to the sixth grade; 90 percent of the family heads were illiterate; 80 percent of the families owned their farms and called themselves farmers; male workers in the family have usually had experience in coal mining and in work in the woods; the annual cash income per family varied from $40 to $280 per year, with an average of $200 to $1400 over the past five years; there was very little recreation of a community type, with the exception of an occasional apple cutting, bean stringing, quilting bee, and log rolling — young people generally traipsed around and many got into trouble because of lack of sufficient interesting and wholesome diversion, and the women folk in the family usually made from one to three trips to town in a year, while the male members of the family usually got into town about once every two weeks.

The homes these people lived in were measured thusly: 98 percent of the dwellings were of log and pole construction; a one to three-room house with outbuildings consisting of a pole barn and crib; only 25 percent of the dwellings were ceiled, the ceiling when used being a rough board or paper or both; all dwellings had fireplaces of mud and stone construction and a small, cheap, iron cookstove of the two to four-lid variety; 50 percent of the dwelling roofs leaked badly; 10 percent of the dwellings had no windows; only 2 percent of the dwellings had screens; only one out of every 10 farmsteads had a toilet of any description, and those were extremely poorly constructed and were usually built over an open creek or drain; only 10 percent of the farmsteads had wells — the balance were served by springs where water for the home use must be carried from 200 feet to a mile; the washings were usually done at the spring or near a stream, sometimes in cold water, other times boiled in an open kettle over a wood fire; household furnishings usually consisted of two or three iron or rough-hewn wooden beds with straw or shuck matresses and perhaps a feather bed; a few straight chairs made at home, a small washstand, a kitchen table with oil cloth, board shelves on the kitchen walls; and perhaps an old organ; kitchenware normally consisted of a cast iron tea kettle, cast iron skillet, one or two sauce pans, a large kettle, a well worn and blackened coffee pot and the cheapest kind of cutlery; practically all of the dwellings are encircled by a picket or stake fence; livestock on the average farmstead usually consisted of one very poor cow, one heifer and a few chickens; only 10 percent of the families had a mule; 85 percent of the families had at least one pig; the usual garden truck raised consisted of both Irish and sweet potatoes, cabbage, beans, cucumbers, red beets, carrots, lettuce, radishes and perhaps rhubarb; the principal field crop was corn; food purchased at the store usually consisted of lard, flour, salt, sugar and a very cheap grade of coffee; 15 to 20 percent of the families could not be reached by roads; 75 percent of the families lived in overcrowded conditions; 30 percent of the houses had lice or bed bugs, or both; most dwellings averaged 20 to 30 years old; vegetables such as potatoes, carrots and turnips were usually stored by burying them in the ground during the winter; home canned foods were usually kept under the beds, and meat was usually preserved by salting down.

In Laurel County, the work of the county agent and the home demonstration agent did not reach the majority of these people. Out of 170 rehabilitation clients of the Resettlement Administration in Laural and Rockcastle counties, none were located within the National Forest.