The Flathead Forest Reserve was established in

Montana Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbi ...

by the

General Land Office The General Land Office (GLO) was an independent agency of the United States government responsible for public domain lands in the United States. It was created in 1812 to take over functions previously conducted by the United States Department o ...

on February 22, 1897, with . On June 9, 1903, it was combined with the Lewis and Clarke Forest Reserve and its name was discontinued. The reserve area is approximately 2,160 square miles including the reserve and a tract of country extending to the west as far as Tobacco Plains. The area which lies entirely north of the Great Northern Railway consists in general terms of two mountain ranges, one in the eastern the other in the western part of the reserve separated by a broad valley. The easternmost of the two ranges is the eastern range of the

Rocky Mountain The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in straight-line distance from the northernmost part of western Canada, to New Mexico in ...

system in this latitude facing the plains. Its peaks have an

altitude Altitude or height (also sometimes known as depth) is a distance measurement, usually in the vertical or "up" direction, between a reference datum and a point or object. The exact definition and reference datum varies according to the context ...

in the neighborhood of the railroad of from 7,000 to 9,000 feet rising northward so that at the northern boundary of the country they reach an altitude of 11,000 feet. All the gorges leading out of this range are of

glacial A glacial period (alternatively glacial or glaciation) is an interval of time (thousands of years) within an ice age that is marked by colder temperatures and glacier advances. Interglacials, on the other hand, are periods of warmer climate betw ...

origin and in the upper parts of these gorges

glaciers A glacier (; ) is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires distinguishing features, such as ...

still remain covering a large part of the region with snow and ice. It is an extremely rugged range abounding in points of great scenic interest. East of this range is the valley of

Flathead River The Flathead River ( fla, label=Salish, člq̓etkʷ ntx̣ʷetkʷ, , kut, kananmituk), in the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Montana, originates in the Canadian Rockies to the north of Glacier National Park and flows southwest into Flath ...

above the

Flathead Lake Flathead Lake ( fla, člq̓etkʷ, label=Salish, kut, yawuʔnik̓ ʔa·kuq̓nuk) is a large natural lake in northwest Montana. The lake is a remnant of the ancient, massive glacial dammed lake, Lake Missoula of the era of the last interglacial. ...

which in the south has a width of about 15 miles narrowing northward toward the boundary. Succeeding the

Flathead Valley The Flathead Valley is a region of the U.S. state located in the Northwestern Montana. It includes parts of Flathead County and Lake County. Notable communities include Kalispell, Bigfork, Whitefish, Columbia Falls, Polson, Ronan, and St. ...

on the west is a broken irregular mountain range not as high nor as rugged as the eastern range. Most of this region is drained southward by the Flathead River into Flathead Lake. Smaller portions are drained by the

Kootenai The Kutenai ( ), also known as the Ktunaxa ( ; ), Ksanka ( ), Kootenay (in Canada) and Kootenai (in the United States), are an indigenous people of Canada and the United States. Kutenai bands live in southeastern British Columbia, northern ...

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada, western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on t ...

and

Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...

rivers. Taken as a whole the region is one of fairly abundant rainfall although as it has a wide range in altitude; the rainfall differs greatly in different parts. In the valleys irrigation is probably advisable if not necessary while upon the mountains the rainfall is ample for tree growth. Owing to the

latitude In geography, latitude is a coordinate that specifies the north– south position of a point on the surface of the Earth or another celestial body. Latitude is given as an angle that ranges from –90° at the south pole to 90° at the north pol ...

and the

elevation The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum § Vert ...

the temperature is low rendering it doubtful whether agriculture can ever be made profitable within it. The region is generally lightly timbered. This is not due to the climate, which is not unfavorable to tree growth, but to frequent and persistent fires. The merchantable timber in the reserve consists mainly of

western larch The western larch (''Larix occidentalis'') is a species of larch native to the mountains of western North America (Pacific Northwest, Inland Northwest); in Canada in southeastern British Columbia and southwestern Alberta, and in the United States ...

red fir ''Abies magnifica'', the red fir or silvertip fir, is a western North American fir, native to the mountains of southwest Oregon and California in the United States. It is a high-elevation tree, typically occurring at elevation, though only rare ...

spruce A spruce is a tree of the genus ''Picea'' (), a genus of about 35 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal (taiga) regions of the Earth. ''Picea'' is the sole genus in the subfami ...

and

yellow pine In ecology and forestry, yellow pine refers to a number of conifer species that tend to grow in similar plant communities and yield similar strong wood. In the Western United States, yellow pine refers to Jeffrey pine or ponderosa pine. In the S ...

. The entire stand of timber within the reserve estimating it upon the basis of the present practice in cutting is only 300 million feet. Measuring it, however, by Eastern standards it is found to contain 851 million feet and, in addition to that, 3,628,000 cords of wood suitable for firewood. This amount stands upon an area of 1,942 square miles leaving only 218 square miles reported as not timbered. It is plain from the above that this reserve cannot be regarded as an important source of timber at present but rather as a region for the cultivation of timber for future use. The probabilities of agriculture in this region are somewhat doubtful, owing to the severity of the climate. There were numerous

gold mining Gold mining is the extraction of gold resources by mining. Historically, mining gold from alluvial deposits used manual separation processes, such as gold panning. However, with the expansion of gold mining to ores that are not on the surface ...

claims being operated in the reserve in the late 1890s, although little mining has been conducted in modern times. The lands are presently part of

Lewis and Clark National Forest Lewis and Clark National Forest is located in west central Montana, United States. Spanning , the forest is managed as two separate zones. The eastern sections, under the Jefferson Division, is a mixture of grass and shrublands dotted with "islan ...

and the re-established

Flathead National Forest The Flathead National Forest is a national forest in the western part of the U.S. state of Montana. The forest lies primarily in Flathead County, south of Glacier National Park. The forest covers of which about is designated wilderness. It i ...

References

External links

Lewis and Clark National ForestForest History SocietyForest History Society:Listing of the National Forests of the United States
''Text from Davis, Richard C., ed. Encyclopedia of American Forest and Conservation History. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company for the Forest History Society, 1983. Vol. II, pp. 743-788.'' {{Former National Forests of the United States Former National Forests of Montana 1897 establishments in Montana Defunct forest reserves of the United States

See also

References

External links