2 Miscellaneous Circular 47, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture 



the upbuilding of the region are tlue high major masses, those which 

 have enough rainfall to produce forests. 



Out of the region's 35,000.000 acres, approximately, of mountain 

 land valuable for timber and as the source of irrigation water, more 

 than 29,000.000 acres are now included within the national forests. 

 The close relationship that exists between the national forests and 

 the adjacent valleys, and the dependence of these valleys on the 

 resources furnished by the timbered mountains, is indicated on the 

 map (pp. 12 and 13) . which shows that by far the greater part of the 

 population of the intermountain region is crowded close to the moun- 

 tain ranges covered by national-forest lands. In central Idaho, 

 where there is a considerable population somewhat remote from 

 national forests, the two are nevertheless closely linked by the Snake 

 River, which receives from the mountains within national forests 

 the water needed by this population. 



FORESTS AND INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT 



In tracing the history of the function of mountain lands in the 

 development of this region, it must be remembered that the areas 

 which were only " mountain lands " for so many years are now 

 national forests, and that the problems of these lands are now first 

 and foremost national-forest problems. National-forest administra- 

 tion now deals with virtually all the resources which the mountains 

 and mountain lands have furnished all through the years since white 

 men came into this region and began its development. 



FUR TRADING 



EARLY HISTORY 



After the explorers — Father Escalante and his party, who came 

 up from what is now Arizona in 1776-77, and Lewis and Clark, who 

 in 1804 entered a corner of this region in passing from what is now 

 Montana into Idaho on their way westward — the first white men to 

 invade the region were the fur traders. Andrew Henry, the first 

 American to push the fur trade across the Continental Divide, built 

 Henry's Fort in the fall of 1809, near what is now the Targhee 

 Xational Forest, in eastern Idaho. He found the traffic unsatisfac- 

 tory in that region, however, and retreated from his outpost the 

 following spring. In 1811 the overland party of Astorians on their 

 way to the Pacific northwest left detachments at this fort with 

 instructions to trap in the upper Snake Kiver region. In 1819 Hud- 

 son Bay trappers from the north worked down through much of 

 southern Idaho, and in 1824 large expeditions representing both the 

 Hudson Bay Fur Co., from the north and Americans from the east 

 came into the intermountain country. Gen. TTilliam H. Ashley, 

 Jedediah Smith, Jim Bridger, and other famous frontiersmen were 

 connected with the American party. After this year the whole 

 intermountain region was well covered by trappers, both American 

 and British. 



In those days the trappers chiefly sought beaA'er fur, which brought 

 the highest price, and worked mainly in the mountains. To them 

 the valleys meant primarily easy avenues of travel or favorable 

 spots in which to rendezvous and spend the winter. In the moun- 

 tain forests the beaver swarmed on the creeks. The aspen tree, the 



