remainder of the 10 percent fund was expended directly by the Forest Service on the construction of trails and other minor road construction and maintenance projects needed for the administration of the forests. Within BPE, the field responsibility for the forest road work was such that each district forester would deal with only one district engineer.
Breaking the Mountain Barrier
In 1918 the national forests in the West comprised 274,000 square miles, equivalent to the area of the States of California, Oregon, and one-fourth of Washington.[1] They were, in general, located on the slopes of the Rocky, Cascade, and Sierra Nevada Mountains between Canada and Mexico. They comprised rough and rugged terrain which was an imposing barrier to transcontinental travel. Of greater State and local interest was the fact that the intensive development of agricultural and other resources of the valleys required the improvement of roads adjacent to and through the national forests. It was imperative that mountain barriers within the national forests be conquered if the Great Plains were to be connected to the Pacific by trunk highways and north and south travel provided in the intermountain States. Dr. L. I. Hewes, then General Inspector of BPR, described the importance of forest road work in 1920 as follows:
. . . Except to the westerner and the traveler, the idea of altitude may not carry great significance. But the effect of altitude may be realized when it is stated that from the Canadian boundary to Helena, Mont., there has never yet been built a road crossing the Rocky Mountains. Automobilists who visit Glacier National Park cannot drive from Glacier to Bolton, 30 miles away, until the road partly within the Blackfeet Forest along the southern boundary of the park is completed. There is no road in the State of Washington that can be traveled the entire year across the Cascade Mountains between the Inland Empire and Puget Sound and western Washington populations. The same is true in Oregon. The only all-the-year passable road from the Columbia basin to the coast is down the gorge of the Columbia River; and at the point where the Cascade Range would cross the river a national forest road has just been constructed on the north bank from Stevenson to White Salmon. There are now in process of construction in the 11 Western States more than 20 projects, all of which run over mountain passes at elevations of from 3,000 to 10,000 feet. These particular roads involve some of the most difficult pieces of construction in the entire western road program, and many are connecting links in State highways. The McKenzie Pass Road across the Cascade Mountains between Eugene and Bend in Oregon runs for 3 miles on a mountain top over a fresh lava flow in which not a single plant grows.
Second, every national park in the western one-third of the continent is practically surrounded by national forests, and motorists can not reach the roads already constructed in the national parks unless the roads through the forests leading to the parks are first constructed.
Glacier National Park in Montana is bordered by the Blackfeet National Forest; the Yellowstone is completely surrounded by six forests, except for a narrow strip along the railroad branch from Livingston. Mount Rainier is completely surrounded; Crater Lake can be approached only through the National forest, although a narrow strip of patented land exists on the southeast; Yosemite is completely surrounded, except for the road to El Porto; and Sequoia lies in the heart of the Sequoia Forest.[2]
In addition to the importance of forest highways to through travel and to community development, they were essential to the conservation and resource development of the national forests themselves. Annually, there was a tremendous loss of timber due to fires since there was no way to fight forest fires in remote areas without access roads. In 1920, heavy timber operations in the national forests were still some years away; however, the need for a forest highway system was evident if both timber and other forest resources, including recreation, were to be developed.
Early Administration
The Federal Highway Act of 1921 provided a number of elements needed for the administration of the cooperative Federal-aid highway program. Section 23 of this Act substantially increased the funds available for the forest highways and recognized that there were two distinct classes of roads needed in the national forests. The “forest highways,” which were in many instances extensions within the forest of the State and local road system, were needed for community use and resource development; in addition, “forest development roads” were needed for the protection, administration and resource development of the national forests themselves. The forest development roads have been a direct responsibility of the Forest Service, and their location, design, and construction supervision has generally been by Forest Service engineers, sometimes with assistance from the Bureau of Public Roads.
The rules and regulations for administration of forest roads and trails, approved by the Secretary of Agriculture on March 11, 1922, provided for the development of a forest highway system through the cooperative effort of the State highway departments, the Bureau of Public Roads and the Forest Service. These regulations also provided for the development by the three agencies of an annual work program defining those projects selected for improvement with forest highway funds. These procedures have worked so well that they have been followed for over 50 years with little change.
By 1921 the importance of forest highways to interstate and regional travel, as well as to the full development of State and local road systems, was fully recognized. At that time, there were approximately 14,000 miles of main State and county roads within the forests still to be constructed, and in addition, it was estimated there were approximately 13,000 miles of forest development roads or service roads needed in the administration of the forests.[3]
To facilitate the construction work in the western States, BPR established the Western Regional Office at San Francisco, California, under the direction of Dr. L. I. Hewes, Deputy Chief Engineer in Charge. The six western districts (with headquarters at Portland, San Francisco, Denver, Missoula, Ogden, and Albuquerque) were placed under the Western Regional Headquarters. These locations were also the headquarters of the corresponding forest districts.
By 1929 there were 14,166 miles on the forest highway system of which 12,015 miles were in the 11 western States, South Dakota and Alaska. Some improvement had been made on 4,091 miles since the beginning of the program.[4] Total expenditure through fiscal year 1929 was $77 million.
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