upstream. Eventually, the Anaconda Company entered the 

 lumber industry directly to satisfy its timber needs. Most 

 of the Anaconda Company's logging took place in the Bitter- 

 root, Blackfoot, Little Blackfoot, and Mill Creek drainages 

 (Horstman 1984) . 



Since the early lumbering days, the forest and wood 

 products industry has expanded to become the economic 

 backbone of western Montana. Major lumber companies, such as 

 Champion International and Plum Creek Timber, have extensive 

 private land holdings in the Clark Fork Basin and also 

 utilize timber from state and national forest lands. Plywood 

 manufacturing plants, pole plants, and the pulp and paper 

 mill are important employers in the basin. 



The wood products industry has experienced extremes in 

 market conditions during the past decade. Major fluctuations 

 have occurred due to changes in the housing and construction 

 industries, foreign market prices, mechanization, and timber 

 supplies (Keegan and Polzin 1987) . Despite the changes, the 

 forest and wood products industry remains strong with near- 

 record production and sales in 1986. 



AGRICULTURE AND RANCHING 



The first permanent white settlement in Montana was in 

 the Bitterroot Valley in 1840 (United States Department of 

 Agriculture [USDA] 1977) . In the upper Clark Fork region, 

 the gold boom days of the early 1860s created a market for 

 agricultural products. By 1879, hay and grain crops were 

 well established in the Deer Lodge and Flint Creek valleys. 

 The potatoes and other vegetables that grew there supple- 

 mented produce from the Bitterroot Valley. Although farmers 

 in the 1870s and early 1880s were geared toward local 

 markets, commercial agriculture arrived in the Deer Lodge 

 Valley in the later 1880s. By the 1890s, this area was quite 

 progressive in its farming practices. Irrigation played an 

 important role in agriculture beginning in the late 19th 

 century, and mechanized farming appeared in the 1930s 

 (Horstman 1984) . 



The U.S. Dept. of Commerce (1982) reported 1,828,350 

 acres of rangeland and pastureland (excluding pastured 

 woodland) for Silver Bow, Deer Lodge, Powell, Granite, 

 Missoula, Sanders, Mineral, Lake, and Ravalli counties in 

 1982. Precise figures for current irrigated acreage in the 

 Clark Fork Basin are not available. The Montana Department 

 of Agriculture (1987) reported that agricultural land use in 

 those same counties in 1986 consisted of 226,910 acres of 

 irrigated cropland and 52,800 acres of nonirrigated cropland. 

 However, the irrigated cropland figure does not include 



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