Mount Rainier National Park in the State of Washington was established in 1899. The peak is covered with snow year round.
Because of increased responsibilities for direct road construction activity, a Division of National Park and Forest Roads was created in 1914 in the Office of Public Roads to give advice and to supervise major construction projects in national parks and forests in cooperation with the Department of the Interior and the Forest Service. At that time, improved roads were practically nonexistent throughout the vast areas of the West where the principal national parks and forests were located.
Forest Highways and Development Roads
By the end of fiscal year 1916, the direct Federal highway construction program was well established. The annual report for that year states that approximately 127 miles of reconnaissance surveys and 350 miles of location surveys were made. Maintenance work had been done on approximately 160 miles. Construction work was in progress on about 170 miles, of which approximately 70 miles were completed during the fiscal year. Of great significance was the construction of the road across Rabbit Ear Pass in the Routt National Forest in Colorado—which opened large sections of country, and the initiation of construction of the Trinity River Road in Trinity County, California, which would eventually provide a year-round highway connection from the upper Sacramento Valley with the coast of Humboldt Bay. Another significant survey that year was on the Mt. Hood Road in Oregon. This road was essential for the comprehensive development of the Oregon National Forest and in providing a southern outlet for Columbia River highway traffic.[1]
By section 8 of the Federal Aid Road Act of 1916, the sum of $1 million was appropriated for each of the fiscal years 1917 through 1926 for a total of $10 million to be available until expended under the supervision of the Secretary of Agriculture for the survey, construction and maintenance of roads, trails and bridges within the national forests. The Act provided that the work would be carried on under cooperative agreements with the State, territory or county authorities on a basis equitable to both parties. The subsequent rules and regulations provided that the cooperating agency would contribute at least 50 percent of the cost of the work and also the entire cost of maintenance. There was thus made available for the construction of so-called “section 8 national forest roads” slightly more than $2 million annually.
The Federal Aid Road Act necessitated the establishment of a complete Federal highway engineering organization throughout the country, and in 1917, 10 Districts were established to carry out the responsibilities mandated in the Act.
. . . The Secretary of Agriculture placed with the Bureau of Public Roads the responsibility for all engineering and construction work on the national forest roads and cooperative forest roads to be built under section 8 of the Act. At the same time he placed with the Forest Service the responsibility for the general administrative work necessary in selecting the roads to be constructed, securing cooperation and cooperative funds, arranging the allotment of funds and financing of projects and, in general, harmonizing the scheme of road construction with the requirements of the national forests.[2]
Independent of the section 8 funds, the so-called “10 percent fund” was still available to the Forest Service annually for road and trail construction located entirely within the national forest areas. Part of this fund was allotted by the Forest Service for expenditure by the Bureau of Public Roads on survey and road construction work on major projects which usually were also financed with matching funds. The
487
