operations and sought to acquire working holdings. In 

 one ot the most interesting periods in the history ot northern 

 Idaho, large areas of forest land changed hands as timber 

 took on speculative values. Between 1895 and 1907 or 

 1908, the bulk of the forest land now privately owned 

 was patented from the public domain. Except tor the 

 Northern Pacific grant most of this forest land was 

 acquired under the Timber and Stone and the Homestead 

 Acts. A considerable part of the area, including a portion 

 of the Northern Pacific lands, was subsequently sold to the 

 large timber companies. During this period the State of 

 Idaho sold the timber rights on a large area to these 

 companies. 



-About the same time, the first move was made to with- 

 hold northern Idaho lands from private acquisition. The 

 Bitterroot and Priest River Forest Reserves, forerunners 

 of the present national forests, were created in 1897. 

 The former, though covering a gross area ot several million 

 acres, had no great commercial significance inasmuch as 

 the territory involved was largely mountainous back 

 country which had been ravaged by many fires. The 

 Priest River Forest Reserve contained more valuable 

 timber. Growing public alarm over the rapidly shrinking 

 public heritage resulted in the withdrawal ot additional 

 national-torest area between 1906 and 1908 (fig. 16). Since 

 then the changes in national-torest acreage have been 

 nimor. 



These withdrawals lett very little unappropriated public 

 domain and brought the period ot large-scale private 

 acquisition to a forced halt. Ot the 10-million-or-so 

 acres of forest land in northern Idaho, approximately 

 6 million were retained by the Federal Government as 

 national forests. As these lands were withdrawn after 

 the other agencies and individuals had enjoyed the privi- 

 lege of first choice, the national forests do not contain a 

 proportionate share of the commercial timber values. 



Figures published by the Bureau ot Corporations of the 

 Department of Commerce* for the year 1909 show how 

 successful the eastern lumbermen and speculators were in 

 acquiring large holdings. According to this report, 10 

 concerns owned the timber on 1.1 million acres of forest 

 land, nearly all of it merchantable stands. This area 

 included some of the finest forest land in northern Idaho. 



TME 

 nPTIOnPL PORESTS 



" I NIIKl) SlATKS Hi RF.Al' Ol CORPORATIONS. THK 11 M B K. R INDISTRV. 



Pts. II and III, I.'h pp., illus. 1914. 



Figure 16. — T/ie holdings of prhate otcnen art scattfred throughout the 

 national J ore sts. Hovcezer, sii-tenthi of the total forest area is national 

 forest land. 



In addition, there were several other large private owners 

 of land. 



The forest picture in 1910 was more or less like this: The 

 Federal Government still retained the bulk ot the forest 

 area, but the commercial foreground was dominateti by the 

 large timber operators who held the best ot the western 

 white pine and ponderosa pine and controlled still more 

 in the smaller holdings encompassed by their extensive 

 domains. Apparently the first all-inclusive record of 

 timber volumes and ownership in northern Idaho was 

 prepared about 1915. These data, adjusted somewhat, are 

 shown below. Thev arc unrealistic from an economic 



17 



