10 



snowy country, a tremendous change for me from 

 Southern California. Then, under the leadership 

 of David Mason, who enjoyed the grander title of 

 forest assistant while I was only a technical assis 

 tant, I participated in timber reconnaissance work 

 on snowshoes preparatory to timber sales. 



Meanwhile Mason had, during the preceding summer, 

 made a stump estimate of a large volume of timber 

 cut in trespass. Later I v/as assigned the job of 

 scaling a large quantity of logs, also cut in 

 trespass, elsewhere on the national forest. This 

 was an example of the need in those early days to 

 give jobs to young fellows who had very little or 

 no experience in the assigned tasks because almost 

 everyone was, in the general sense, a beginner in 

 the work of the Forest Service.. At that time the 

 Forest Service had had custody of the national 

 forests for only two and one -half years. 



On July 1, 1908, the Montezuma was divided and 

 the western part, carrying its name, was established 

 as a new national forest with headquarters at Mancos, 

 Colorado. I went along with it, to serve under Super 

 visor Ress Philips. Then, on August 1908, on the 



