(Prom the Forest Service, U-. S. Department of Agriculture, 



San Francisco Office.) 



GOVERNMENT TO SECURE 

 VANDERBILT PORES T 



The national forest reservation commission has 

 just approved the purchase of the Pisgah Forest from the 

 estate of the late George W. Vanderbilt, at an average 

 price of five dollars an acre. The tract consists of 

 86,700 acres and -foe total cost is therefore $433,50^. The 

 price paid is less than the average for other tracts air e ad. 

 acquired although the Pisgah Forest has "been developed "by 

 its former owner into one of the "best forest properties in 

 the country. 



This is the second time that the commission has 

 had the purchase of this tract under consideration. Once 

 "before during Mr. Vanderbilt 1 s lifetime the question of its 

 purchase was taken up, but the commission did not deem it 

 advisable to purchase it at that time. 



The tract includes portions of Transylvania, 

 Henderson, Bencombe , and Hayward counties, in North Caroli:"; 

 It covers the entire eastern slope and portions of the nort" 

 ern and western slopes of the Pisgah range, one of the m^st 

 prominent of the southern Appalachians. Its forests influ- 

 ence for the most part tributaries of the French Broad 

 river which unites with the Holstein river at Knoxville , 



150-F 



