Gifford Pinchot National Forest

Heritage Program

Forest Centennial - 2008

Forest History

1908 - Columbia National Forest

The origins of the Gifford Pinchot National Forest are firmly rooted in the great national conservation movement that swept this country at the beginning of the 20th century. The story of its creation involves two men who were among the foremost leaders of that movement: Gifford Pinchot and Theodore Roosevelt. Working together, Pinchot, Chief of the Forest Service, and Roosevelt, as President, had set aside millions of acres of new national forest lands in 1907. By proclamation, Roosevelt established the vast Rainier National Forest along half the length of the Cascade Range in Washington. To better administer these lands, the southern portion of the Rainier became a new national Forest in 1908. With the stroke of a pen, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 820, creating the Columbia National Forest on July 1, 1908. Encompassing 941,000 acres, the boundaries extended along the crest of the Cascade Range from Mt. Adams to the Columbia River, and west to Mount St. Helens.

A strong leader was needed to manage the Columbia National Forest: someone with formal training in forestry, a relatively new field of study. Forest Service Chief Pinchot looked among the ranks of his Washington Office staff and found H.O. “Hoss” Stabler. A Pinchot student from the Yale School of Forestry, Stabler was working in the Forest Service Division of Lands and had spent much of the previous year traveling the American West establishing boundaries for new national forests. In the late summer of 1908 Stabler again headed west, this time to set up the new headquarters for the Columbia National Forest in a downtown Portland, Oregon office building.

During its first year, the headquarters had a staff of three: Forest Supervisor H. O. Stabler, Forest Assistant Arthur Wilcox, and Julia Boardman, Clerk. Wilcox later recalled that, “Only a small amount of improvement work had been done on this Forest before its separation from the Rainier. There were only one or two Ranger Station cabins, no pastures and no improved trails.” For administrative purposes, the Forest was initially divided into nine districts, each the responsibility of a seasonal Forest Ranger or Forest Guard:

District 1 – Glenwood (Homer Ross, Ranger; C.W. Combs, Guard)

District 2 – Guler (O.W. Pierce, Guard)

District 3 – Peterson Prairie Ranger Station (Harry DeVoe, Guard)

District 4 – Oklahoma Ranger Station (Frank Miller and Donald Campbell, Guards)

District 5 – Hemlock Ranger Station (Elias Wigal, Ranger; W.F. Jebe, Scaler)

District 6 – Dole (Charles Freudenburg, Guard)

District 7 – Upper Lewis River (Mac Wright, Guard)

District 8 – Cougar (Fritz Sethe, Guard)

District 9 – Spirit Lake (Erasmus Robertson, Guard)

A 1909 inspection report characterized the workforce as “an energetic, enthusiastic lot of men who are willing at all times to perform their duties under the most severe and trying conditions.”

And their duties? While protection of forest resources was a primary responsibility, most of the work in 1908 was oriented toward construction of improvements that would make the job of the rangers and guards a little easier. The men built new ranger stations, trails, and wagon roads. Fire protection was the priority and horseback fire patrols an almost daily routine. The Forest Homestead Act had recently opened many national forest lands to new settlement. Across the Forest, rangers and guards made inspections of homesteads to assess the validity of claims. Job duties for Ranger Wigal, in Wind River valley, included the administration of a large commercial timber sale, one of the first on the national forest. The duties of Homer Ross, on the east side, emphasized grazing regulation.

The nature of transportation in America changed dramatically in 1908, the year that Henry Ford began mass production of the Model T automobile and the Wright Brothers built an airplane that could stay aloft more than two hours. While New Yorkers sped to work on the subway, most of America traveled by horse. The letters of H.O. Stabler describe the difficulties of travel to the Columbia National Forest in an era before interstate highways and automobiles. From his office on Broadway Avenue in Portland, Stabler would walk to the steamer landing at the foot of Oak Street. From there, a sternwheeler would take him up the Columbia River to Ashe, a landing near Carson. A ranger or guard would be waiting with an extra horse, and together they would ride the twelve miles to Hemlock Ranger Station. Another trip might involve a journey downriver to Castle Rock, then up the Toutle River by horse to Spirit Lake. For Stabler, a trip to the Columbia National Forest nearly always meant three or more days away from the office. It would be more than a decade before the Forest acquired their first motorized vehicle.

Despite proximity to the urban centers of Portland and Vancouver, public use of the Columbia National Forest in 1908 was very limited. Indian people continued the traditional use of their summer camps in the extensive berryfields west of Mt. Adams. Prospectors worked their mining claims in the Spirit Lake region, East Fork Lewis River basin and upper Washougal River with little success. Sheepherders from Klickitat County and the Yakima Valley brought thousands of sheep to the high mountain meadows for summer forage. Loggers from the Midwest, living in camps along the Wind River, cut timber that would be milled into lumber for houses being built in Des Moines, Iowa, and points east. Within a few years, as the access improved, others would find the Forest as place to get away, rest, relax and enjoy the clear mountain air.

Documents

An Early History of the Gifford Pinchot National Forest - (Adobe Acrobat PDF format - 160 kb)

The Gifford Pinchot National Forest: 100 Years Ago - (Adobe Acrobat PDF format - 67 kb)

The Columbia National Burn - A history of fires and firefighting on the Gifford Pinchot National Forest - (Adobe Acrobat PDF format - 259 kb)

Driving Through Washington's Largest Record Wildfire.  A self-guided tour of the Yacolt Burn.   Note: Parts of this route may not be accessible until late June or early July, 2008 because of record low elevation snowpack.  Check the Road Report for updates. (Adobe Acrobat PDF format - 557 kb)

Forest Facts - Columbia National Forest 1938.  (Adobe Acrobat PDF format - 1,525 kb)

Wind River Nursery Summary 1939. (Adobe Acrobat PDF format - 242 kb)

Report on the Peterson Prairie Administrative Site, 1917. (Adobe Acrobat PDF format - 262 kb)

Letter to The Forester, Washington DC (Gifford Pinchot) July 1908. (Adobe Acrobat PDF format - 61 kb)

On the Mountain's Brink - A Forest Service History of the 1980 Mount St. Helens Volcanic Emergency (Adobe Acrobat PDF format - 4,391 kb)

Centennial Proclamation :

A Commemorative Poster of the Proclamation of the Columbia and Gifford Pinchot National Forest - A Century of Service - 1908 to 2008 - (.jpg format 1,109 kb)

A Commemorative Poster of the Proclamation of the Columbia and Gifford Pinchot National Forest - A Century of Service - 1908 to 2008 - (.pdf format 1,134 kb)

Maps & Brochures:

Gifford Pinchot National Forest Vicinity Map - 2008 Centennial Edition (includes historic sites to visit on the Forest)

• Web graphic (.jpg, 1,050 kb) - Back with historic sites (.jpg, 67 kb)
• Printable Map (gpnf_vicinity.pdf, 1,108 kb, requires Adobe Acrobat Reader) - Back side with historic sites (.pdf file 229 kb, requires Adobe Acrobat Reader)

Forest Leadership

Gifford Pinchot National Forest Supervisors

Listed below are the Forest Supervisors of the Gifford Pinchot National Forest:

• Granville F. Allen 1905-1908
  (Mount Rainier Forest Reserve, with headquarters in Orting, WA)
• Herbert O. Stabler - 1908-1913
  (Columbia National Forest, with headquarters in Portland, OR)
• Anson E. Cahoon - 1913-1916
• Fred H. Brundage - 1916-1922
  (Shirley Buck served as Assistant Supervisor between 1920 and 1922, and Harry White served as Assistant Supervisor between 1920 and 1927)
• Adam H. Wright - 1922-1924
• Kirk P. Cecil - 1924-1927
• Floyd V. Horton - 1927-1929
• John R. Bruckart - 1930-1935
  (Lester Moncrief served as Assistant Supervisor from 1931 to 1934)
• Kirk P. Cecil - 1935-1950
  (Changed to Gifford Pinchot National Forest in 1949)
• Lawrence O. Barrett - 1950-1953
• Homer J. Hixon - 1953-1957
• C. Glenn Jorgenson - 1957-1961
• Ross W. Williams - 1961-1973
• Spencer T. Moore - 1973-1976
• Robert D. Tokarczyk - 1976-1983
• Robert W. Williams - 1983-1991
• Ted Stubblefield - 1991-1999
• Claire Lavendel - 1999-Present

L-R: Robert Tokarczyk, Ted Stubblefield,

Monument Manager Tom Mulder, Robert Williams,

current Forest Supervisor Claire Lavendel.

Forest Leadership District Rangers and Forest Supervisors over the past 100 years.  (.pdf format 20kb)

History highlights on the Forest.

• 1894 Pacific Forest Reserve established
• 1896 Gifford Pinchot visits (soon to be the first Chief of the Forest Service)
• 1897 Rainier Forest Reserve established
• 1898 First Ranger hired on the Rainier Forest Reserve
• 1902 Yacolt and Cispus fires
• 1905 Forest Service created
• 1906 First District Office at Hemlock in the Wind River area
• 1907 First Spirit Lake Guard Station built
• 1907 Rainier National Forest established
• 1908 On July 1, 1908 Columbia National Forest established (containing area of the Gifford Pinchot National Forest)
• 1908 First District Office at Trout Lake
• 1910 Wind River Nursery created
• 1912 Wind River Arboretum planted
• 1913 Wind River Experimental Forest established
• 1918 Second Cispus Fire
• 1927 Columbia National Forest headquarters moves from Portland to Vancouver
• 1932 Handshake Treaty with Yakama Nation
• 1933 Cowlitz Valley joins Columbia National Forest
• 1933 Civilian Conservation Corps Camps established on forest - 2008 is the 75th Anniversary of the CCCs. The following is a list of national CCC projects. 
• 1937 Hemlock Training Center completed
• 1949 Gifford Pinchot National Forest renamed to honor first Chief of the Forest Service - Address by Mrs. Pinchot at the dedication of the Forest in 1949.
• 1964 The Wilderness Act signed into law.  Mt. Adams and Goat Rocks Wildernesses designated
• 1980 May 18th Mount St. Helens erupts
• 1982 National Volcanic Monument
• 1984 Glacier View, Indian Heaven, Tatoosh, Trapper Creek and William O. Douglas Wildernesses designated under the Wilderness Act of 1984

• 1986 Mount St. Helens Visitor center at Silver Lake opens
• 1986 Columbia Gorge National Scenic Recreation Area established
• 1993 Coldwater Ridge Visitor Center opens
• 1997 Johnston Ridge Observatory opens
• 2004 Mount St. Helens reawakens ( eruption continues today )
• 2008 July 1st Gifford Pinchot National Forest Centennial

US Forest Service
Gifford Pinchot National Forest - Vancouver, WA
Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument - Amboy, WA
Last Modified: Tuesday, 08 July 2008 at 16:49:58 EDT