Produced by Stephen Hutcheson and the Online Distributed
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[Illustration: F-308571
ON THE COVER
Index Peak from the Red Lodge-Cooke City Highway. Few mountainous
sections are more rugged or spectacular than the Absarokas of the
Shoshone.]
SHOSHONE
_NATIONAL FOREST_
WYOMING
[Illustration: U. S. Forest Service]
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
FOREST SERVICE
Rocky Mountain Region · Denver, Colorado
UNITED STATES
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
WASHINGTON: 1941
[Illustration: F-385973
_Wapiti Ranger Station—the oldest in existence._]
MAP
_A map of the Shoshone National Forest, with details including roads and
points of interest, will be found on the inside of the back cover._
_Our First National Forest_
The Shoshone National Forest was set aside by proclamation of President
Benjamin Harrison as the Yellowstone Park Timberland Reserve on March
30, 1891. It was the first unit of its kind created after the passage of
the Act of March 3, 1891, authorizing the establishment of forest
reserves—as national forests were then called—to protect the remaining
timber on the public domain from destruction and to insure a regular
flow of water in the streams. On the fiftieth anniversary of the
establishment of the Shoshone, the national forests embrace
approximately 176,000,000 acres of forest land, located in 36 States,
Alaska, and Puerto Rico.
The Shoshone National Forest is situated in the heart of the Absaroka
Mountains, in northwestern Wyoming. It is bounded on the north by the
Montana-Wyoming State line, on the east by the Big Horn Basin, on the
south by the Washakie and Teton Forests, and on the west by the
Yellowstone National Park. It lies almost entirely within Park County;
minor portions extend into Hot Springs and Fremont Counties.
This national forest is the largest of 21 in the Central Rocky Mountain
Region, including within its boundaries 1,592,428 acres, of which all
but 26,104 are Federal land. The forest is about 75,000 acres larger
than the State of Delaware. Elevations within the forest range from
4,600 to 13,140 feet, thus providing a wide variation in climate,
vegetation, and wildlife. At the lower elevations the summers are warm
and the winters mild. The higher mountains enjoy only a brief cool
summer and are snowclad most of the year.
Few mountainous sections are more rugged or spectacular. Geologically
the formations are new, and immense areas of exposed rock are broken by
and interspersed with mountain meadows and mantles of unbroken forests.
Those who have packed into the back country, or have driven through the
North Fork of the Shoshone River Canyon, or over the Beartooth Plateau
agree that the variety of scenery and vegetative types is superlative.