The National Forests of Arizona 11 



-wish to escape the heat of the surrounding semidesert areas. These 

 persons are being encouraged to make the fullest use of the forest 

 for recreation purposes. A good road constructed some years ago 

 to the top of the Santa Catalinas has put this beautiful mountain 

 country at the very door of Tucson, whose citizens, as well as those 

 of several other towns, are using it in greater numbers each year. 

 Other localities, such as Cave Creek in the Chiricahua Mountains, 

 Madera Canyon in the Santa Ritas, and Cochise Stronghold in the 

 Dragoons, where excellent summer-home sites and camping places 

 are available, are being more Aviclely used each year by ^residents of 

 the valley towns. 



Several of the divisions of the forest offer limited deer hunting 

 in the fall. The Santa Catalina and Huachuca divisions, however, 

 have been set aside as game preserves upon w^hich no hunting of any 

 kind is allowed. 



THE CROOK NATIONAL FOREST 



(In Gila, Graham, Maricopa, and Pinal Counties.) 



The Crook National Foresf contains 912,161 gross acres, and is 

 administered from headquarters at Safford on the Gila River. The 

 forest lies in five divisions, four of which rise abruptly from the 

 southern Arizona desert and are in the Graham, Galiuro, and Santa 

 Theresa Mountains. The other division consists of the mountainous 

 country north and west of Globe. The forest is named after Gen. 

 George Crook, who was in charge of the United States Army in its 

 operations against the Arizona Indians from 1871 to 1875. 



Large portions of the forest are made up of precipitous mountain 

 country, quite difficult of access from the flat areas below. Most of 

 the saw timber is found on the Mount Graham division. There, 

 high up in the mountains, is one of the heaviest stands of western 

 3^ellow pine and Douglas fir in the entire Southwest. Its area, of 

 course, is small, and it is difficult and expensive to get the timber. 

 Several small mills, however, cut timber for use in the surrounding 

 valleys. The remainder of the forest contains little saw timber, but 

 there are large areas of woodland which supply most of the fuel 

 wood for the surrounding settlements. The total stand of timber 

 is estimated at 376,000,000 feet of saw timber and 450,000 cords of 

 Avood. The total cut of forest products from the Crook National 

 Forest was 1,085,000 board feet in 1923. The timber business, though 

 small, gives employment to a considerable number of men. This is 

 shown by the fact that in 1923, 313 separate sales were made. Most 

 of these were for cordwood. 



The forest supports a livestock industry consisting of about 25.000 

 cattle and 3,000 sheep, which are permitted to 150 persons. In addi- 

 tion, 170 ranchers and settlers graze their work and milk stock, con- 

 sisting of over 1,000 head, free of charge. For the most part the 

 stock grazed on the forest is the property of men who own small 

 ranches and carry on this business in connection with them. These 

 men are encouraged to handle their stock efficiently and to improve 

 the ranges, and at the same time they are protected in their under- 

 takings through their national-forest permits. 



