NAMES, BOUNDARIES, AND MAPS: A RESOURCE FOR THE HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE NATIONAL FOREST SYSTEM OF THE UNITED STATES THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN REGION (Region Two) By Peter L. Stark Brief excerpts of copyright material found herein may, under certain circumstances, be quoted verbatim for purposes such as criticism, news reporting, education, and research, without the need for permission from or payment to the copyright holder under 17 U.S.C § 107 of the United States copyright law. Copyright holder does ask that you reference the title of the essay and my name as the author in the event others may need to reach me for clarifi- cation, with questions, or to use more extensive portions of my reference work. Also, please contact me if you find any errors or have a map that has not been included in the cartobibliography ACKNOWLEDGMENTS In the process of compiling this work, I have met many dedicated cartographers, Forest Service staff, academic and public librarians, archivists, and entrepreneurs. I first would like to acknowledge the gracious assistance of Bob Malcolm Super- visory Cartographer of Region 2 in Golden, Colorado who opened up the Region’s archive of maps and atlases to me in November of 2005. Also, I am indebted to long-time map librarians Christopher Thiry, Janet Collins, Donna Koepp, and Stanley Stevens for their early encouragement and consistent support of this project. In the fall of 2013, I was awarded a fellowship by The Pinchot Institute for Conservation and the Grey Towers National Historic Site. The Scholar in Resi- dence program of the Grey Towers Heritage Association allowed me time to write and edit my research on the mapping of the National Forest System in an office in Gifford Pinchot’s ancestral home. I remain deeply grateful for this oppor- tunity and must thank Lincoln Bramwell, Forest Service historian, for encouraging me to apply. These acknowledgments would not be complete if I did mention my indebtedness to the Library of Congress, my employer from 1999 to 2017 and the gracious support of this project by my supervisor, Beacher Wiggins. The creation of reference works can take many hands or many years or both. In this case, it has been both. The librarians and professional staff of the following institutions have lent their time and patience in the furtherance of this project. Ultimately, however, I alone am responsible for any errors or omissions. Library of Congress Oregon State University National Archives University of Washington National Agriculture Library University of Wisconsin, Univ. of Wiscon- University of Arizona sin Libraries, American Geo- University of California, Berkeley graphical Society Library University of California, Irvine Grey Towers Heritage Association Stanford University, Branner Earth U.S. Forest Service, Grey Towers National Sciences Library, California Historic Site University of Chicago Library U.S. Forest Service, Washington Office, Colorado School of Mines Lands Staff University of Idaho U.S. Forest Service, Region One, Missoula, University of Maryland, College Park Montana University of Michigan U.S. Geological Survey Library, Reston, University of Montana Virginia Montana Historical Society U.S. Geological Survey Library, Denver, University of New Mexico Colorado University of Oregon This volume is dedicated to map librarian extraordinaire, Donna P. Koepp It is the author’s hope that this work on the historic geography of the National Forest System will broaden the user’s un- derstanding of the slow but deliberate ways in which the System came into being and was enlarged and modified over the decades to meet changing circumstances, policies, and needs of the American people. It is also hoped that this work will deepen the user’s appreciation of the System as it exists today by seeing that its growth and development has been far from arbitrary and accidental, but instead the product of many careful hands and thoughtful minds over many decades. Finally, the hope is that it will encourage the user of these pages to investigate more thoroughly the unanswered questions that arise from consulting this work, thereby enlarging the body of research and scholarship of this remarkable legacy of American conservation. December 2019 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgments………………………………………………………………………………….……………….2 I. Rocky Mountain Region as an Administrative Area of the U.S. Forest Service in Maps…………..……….. 5 II. Administrative History of the Rocky Mountain Region……………………………………………………… 11 A. Initial Establishment of the Forest Reserves, 1891 to 1907, the Rocky Mountain Region…………….. 12 B. The Remarkable Reorganization of 1907/1909………………………………………………………... 13 C. Forest Consolidations, “…for the Economy of Administration”…………………………………….… 14 D. Wilderness Areas in the Rocky Mountain Region……………………………………………………… 15 E. National Grasslands in the Rocky Mountain Region………………………………………………........18 F. Purchase Units and the Land and Water Conservation Fund Acquisitions under the National Forest Reservation Commission in the Rocky Mountain Region………………………………………. 19 G. Modern Administrative Combinations………………………………………………………………….. 21 III. Chronological Listing of Laws and Regulations Affecting the Administrative History of the National Forest System……………………………………………………………………………………... 23 IV. The Mapping of the Rocky Mountain Region…………….………………………...……..………………..... 31 A. Folios and administrative maps, the early years………………………………………………………… 32 B. Forest Visitor Maps………………………………………………………………………………..…….. 33 C. Aerial Photography……………………………………………………………………………………… 41 D. Post-War Mapping…………………………………………………………………………………......... 43 E. The Cartobibliography, Citation Key, and Index to Cartographers……………………………………... 47 V. Maps of the Region Part A. Maps of the Region as a Whole……………..……...….…………………………………………... 52 Part B. Sub-Regional Maps Including State Maps….……………...……..….……………………………. 55 VI. U. S. General Land Office State Maps, 1891-1944 – Rocky Mountain Region..…......................................... 58 VII. Administrative History and Mapping of Individual Forests Arapaho National Forest, Colorado, 1908-Present……….…………………………………………......... 63 Battlement Mesa Forest Reserve & National Forest, Colorado, 1892-1980…….…………….…………….. 71 Battlement National Forest, Colorado, 1908-1924………….……………………………………………….. 72 Bear Lodge Forest Reserve & National Forest, Wyoming, 1907-1908…………………………………........ 75 Big Horn Forest Reserve & National Forest, Wyoming, 1897-1908…………………………....................... 75 Bighorn National Forest, Wyoming, 1908-Present……………..……………………………………........ 78 Black Hills Forest Reserve & National Forest, South Dakota-Wyoming, 1897-Present……………….. 83 Bonneville National Forest, Wyoming, 1908-1916………………………………………………………….. 94 Cheyenne National Forest, Wyoming, 1908-1910…………………………………………………………... 96 Cochetopah Forest Reserve & National Forest, Colorado, 1905-1908……………………..……………….. 98 Cochetopa National Forest, Colorado, 1908-1944…………………………………………………………... 98 Colorado National Forest, Colorado, 1910-1932…………………………………………………………….. 104 Crow Creek Forest Reserve & National Forest, Wyoming, 1900-1908…….……………………………….. 107 Dismal River Forest Reserve & National Forest, Nebraska, 1902-1908…………………………………….. 108 Durango National Forest, Colorado, 1911-1920……………………………………………….……………. 108 Fruita Forest Reserve & National Forest, Colorado, 1906-1908…………………………………………….. 109 Garden City Forest Reserve & National Forest, Kansas, 1905-1908…………………………………………110 Grand Mesa National Forest, Colorado, 1924-Present…………………………………………………... 111 Gunnison Forest Reserve & National Forest, Colorado, 1905-Present…..……………………………... 115 Harney National Forest, South Dakota, 1911-1954………………………….…………………………......... 124 Hayden National Forest, Wyoming-Colorado, 1908-1929…………..……………………………………… 129 Holy Cross Forest Reserve & National Forest, Colorado, 1905-1945………………………………………. 132 3 VII. Administrative History and the Mapping of Individual Forests, continued Kansas National Forest, Kansas, 1908-1915……………………………………………………………........ 137 Las Animas Forest Reserve & National Forest, Colorado, 1907-1910……………………………………… 139 Leadville Forest Reserve & National Forest, Colorado, 1905-1930…….…………………………………... 142 Medicine Bow Forest Reserve & National Forest, Colorado-Wyoming (First), 1902-1910…….................... 144 Medicine Bow National Forest, Wyoming (Second), 1910-Present………………………………............ 146 Montezuma Forest Reserve & National Forest, Colorado, 1905-1947……………………………………… 155 Nebraska National Forest, Nebraska, 1908-Present………………………………..……………….......... 160 Niobrara Forest Reserve & National Forest, Nebraska, 1902-1908……….………………………………… 167 North Platte Forest Reserve & National Forest, Nebraska, 1906-1908……………………………………… 167 Ouray Forest Reserve & National Forest, Colorado, 1907-1908…………………………………………….. 168 Park Range Forest Reserve & National Forest, Colorado, 1905-1908………………….…………………… 169 Pikes Peak Timber Land Reserve, Colorado, 1892-1905………………………….………………………… 170 Pikes Peak Forest Reserve & National Forest, Colorado, 1905-1908………..……………………………… 171 Pike National Forest, Colorado, 1908-Present………………………………...………………………….. 172 Plum Creek Timber Land Reserve, Colorado, 1892-1905…………...……………………………………… 180 Rio Grande National Forest, Colorado, 1908-Present………...................…………………...................... 181 Roosevelt National Forest, Colorado, 1932-Present……………………….……………………………... 188 Routt National Forest, Colorado, 1908-Present………………………………………………….……….. 195 Samuel R. McKelvie National Forest, Nebraska, 1971-Present…………………………………………. 202 San Isabel