146 OUR FEDERAL LANDS 



cessity to segregate tourist campers so as to gather 

 their camp-fires under observation led to the desig- 

 nation of fixed areas for camp grounds. This was 

 done first in the Sierra somewhat previous to 1915, 

 and the practice spread through the Pacific forests. 

 In the Rocky Mountain region the first such camps, 

 purely protective against forest fire and water con- 

 tamination, were undertaken in 1915 in Cotton wood 

 Canyon which held the sources of Salt Lake City's 

 water-supply, and the Canyon where originated the 

 water-supply of Logan, Utah. In the Wood River 

 country of Idaho, local enterprise added comforts 

 to necessities, and the foresters opened registration 

 books and displayed maps for reference. 



Between 1915 and 1920, the field force, follow- 

 ing their chief's exhortations to this new duty, 

 spread development of this kind throughout all the 

 national forest, adding to their already strenuous 

 duties the education of tourists and intensive watch- 

 fulness of their camp-fires. Nevertheless, many dan- 

 gerous fires followed in the motor's wake during 

 these early years. At this writing the National For- 

 ests contain 1,500 simple camp grounds in addition to 

 the considerable hotel and resort developments which 

 private initiative and capital have inaugurated under 

 official permits. Some of the camp grounds will ac- 

 commodate up to five thousand motorists in the 

 course of the season, but the great majority are much 

 smaller. To equip all for simple comfort would 

 cost, it was estimated in 1928, $515,000. 



