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ON THE COVER
Index Peak from the RedLodge-Cooke City Highway.Few mountainous sectionsare more rugged orspectacular than the Absarokasof the Shoshone.
SHOSHONE
NATIONAL FOREST
WYOMING
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
FOREST SERVICE
Rocky Mountain Region · Denver, Colorado
UNITED STATES
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
WASHINGTON: 1941
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Wapiti Ranger Station—the oldest in existence.
MAP
A map of the Shoshone NationalForest, with details including roadsand points of interest, will be foundon the inside of the back cover.
Our First National Forest
The Shoshone National Forest was set aside by proclamationof President Benjamin Harrison as the Yellowstone Park TimberlandReserve on March 30, 1891. It was the first unit of its kind created afterthe passage of the Act of March 3, 1891, authorizing the establishment offorest reserves—as national forests were then called—to protect the remainingtimber on the public domain from destruction and to insure a regularflow of water in the streams. On the fiftieth anniversary of the establishmentof the Shoshone, the national forests embrace approximately176,000,000 acres of forest land, located in 36 States, Alaska, and PuertoRico.
The Shoshone National Forest is situated in the heart of the AbsarokaMountains, in northwestern Wyoming. It is bounded on the north bythe 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 theYellowstone 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 MountainRegion, including within its boundaries 1,592,428 acres, of which all but26,104 are Federal land. The forest is about 75,000 acres larger than theState of Delaware. Elevations within the forest range from 4,600 to13,140 feet, thus providing a wide variation in climate, vegetation, andwildlife. At the lower elevations the summers are warm and the wintersmild. The higher mountains enjoy only a brief cool summer and aresnowclad most of the year.
Few mountainous sections are more rugged or spectacular. Geologicallythe formations are new, and immense areas of exposed rock are broken byand interspersed with mountain meadows and mantles of unbroken forests.Those who have packed into the back country, or have driven throughthe North Fork of the Shoshone River Canyon, or over the BeartoothPlateau agree that the variety of scenery and vegetative types is superlative.
ADMINISTRATION FOR PUBLIC USE
In the administration of national forests the aim is to manage them insuch a way as to make their resources of largest service to the local communities,the State, an