NATIONAL FORESTS OF WYOMING 



Prepared by the Rocky Mountain and Intermountain Districts of the Forest Service 



CONTENTS 



Page 

 Map showing the national forests of 



Wyoming n 



Southern Wyoming 1 



Medicine Bow National Forest- 1 



Hayden National Forest 5 



Western Wyoming 8 



Washakie National Forest 8 



Teton National Forest 13 



Map showing the State, game pre- 

 serves of Wyoming 14 



Page 

 Western Wyoming : 



Wyoming National Forest 16 



Shoshone National Forest 19 



Northern Wyoming 23 



Bighorn National Forest 23 



Eastern Wvoming 26 



Black Hills National Forest 2G 



Area, timber stand, grazing capacity, 

 and headquarters of Wyoming na- 

 tional forests I 26 



Wyoming's national forests cover, altogether, more than 13 per 

 cent of the entire State. They are all high up, in the back country — 

 rugged and remote. Nevertheless, far from being merely wilder- 

 nesses, they are productive units of land where practical use is being 

 made of nature's ceaseless, silent building of wood. 



North, east, south, and west — there are national forests on all 

 sides of Wyoming. They contrast sharply with the treeless plains 

 below. In the forests grass and weeds grow luxuriantly, wild flow- 

 ers abound, the air is moist, streams are numerous, rains are fre- 

 quent, and snow and ice linger at the higher elevations from one 

 winter to the next. Here are "wood and water" which are both 

 used and perpetuated. 



SOUTHERN WYOMING 



MEDICINE BOW NATIONAL FOREST 



In the extreme south, about midway between Nebraska and Utah, 

 is the Medicine Bow National Forest. Long before the Oregon 

 Trail was blazed through Wyoming, "Medicine Bow" was the 

 scene of the red man's annual bow-making festival. From this 

 gathering, according to one legend, comes the name which has 

 attached itself to landmarks for miles around. Here the braves 

 from many quarters came together to cut mountain mahogany, 

 which grows in great abundance along the streams in these hills 

 and was highly prized throughout the region for bowwood. Here 

 the Indian found also a species of pine tree growing in even, dense 

 stands, and growing straight and tall and very trim. Where it 

 Avas overcrowded it was small — just right for tepee poles. So he 

 called it lodgepole pine. It filled an important place in his domestic 

 economy. To-clay the white man cuts from the same forests saw 

 logs and railroad ties — less romantic perhaps but no less important 

 than bows and lodge poles. 



