In 1906, Theodore Roosevelt created the Lolo Forest Reserve and tasked the fledgling U.S. Forest Service with overseeing and managing the vast expanse. Each ranger oversaw somewhere between a half million and a million acres of forest land. Given such a daunting task, Forest Supervisor Roy Phillips recalled that rangers needed “to be resourceful and self-reliant and overcome obstacles no matter how overpowering they might seem.” Though the Forest Service provided pay, early rangers had to provide their own supplies. It wasn’t until 1917 that the Forest Service provided bedding and food.

Rangers had a wide variety of responsibilities. They tried to control insect infestations. They fought wildfires, including the deadly firestorms of 1910. Rangers oversaw timber sales, examined mining claims, tracked grazing leases, and monitored wildlife; their duties often covered terrain so rugged that even horses and mules could not be used. In Mineral County alone, the Forest Service operated and maintained more than 27 ranger stations and 18 fire lookouts. The Savenac Nursery, established by the Forest Service in 1908, helped reforest the Pacific Northwest by providing seedlings and transplants until its closure in 1969.

Rangers also served as law enforcement officers, driving squatters off public lands. Rangers tried to educate farmers, ranchers, and miners, many of whom “bitterly resented any interference.” Railroad labor camps had notorious reputations for flouting the law; rangers struggled to close saloons for selling liquor without license, but where one closed another opened. In one instance, a young forester is said to have wired Washington to report “undesirable prostitutes occupying Federal land. Please advise.” The reply, according to other foresters, was to “Get desirable ones.”

In 2004, 84 percent of Mineral County was national forest lands. Today, the Superior Ranger District continues to fulfill the primary mission of the Forest Service: “to sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of the Nation’s forests and grasslands to meet the needs of present and future generations.”

Credits and Sources:

Hahn, Margie E. Montana’s Mineral County in Retrospect.Stevensville, MT: Stoneydale Press Publishing Company, 1997.

Halm, Joseph B. “Some Highlights of My Career in the Forest Service.” In Early Days in the Forest Service1. Missoula, MT: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, 1944.

Mineral County Historical Society. Mineral County History.Superior, MT: Mineral County Historical Society, 2004.

Olson, David. “Fords Come Into the National Forests.” In Early Days in the Forest Service3. Missoula, MT: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, 1962.

Phillips, Roy A. “Recollections.” In Early Days in the Forest Service2. Missoula, MT: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, 1955.

Porter, G. I. “The Major and the Miner.” In Early Days in the Forest Service2. Missoula, MT: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, 1955.

United States Forest Service. “What We Believe.” Accessed September 16, 2015. http://www.fs.fed.us/about-agency/what-we-believe.

Webb, C.S. “Some Incidents Occurring During My Employment With the U.S. Forest Serivce, 1913-1949.” In Early Days in the Forest Service2. Missoula, MT: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, 1955.

Woesner, R. L. “U.S. Forest Service, 1909-1920.” In Early Days in the Forest Service1. Missoula, MT: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, 1944.

Young, Ross E. “Forest Guard: Kootenai [letter].” In Early Days in the Forest Service1. Missoula, MT: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, 1944.

Historic photographs of “Alex Jackson, Savenac Packer, 1930,” “Pack Train at St. Regis Ranger Station,” “Fire Control,” and “Quarles Peak Lookout, 1947” courtesy of Mineral County Historical Museum, Superior, MT.

Contemporary photograph of Superior Ranger Station courtesy of Historical Research Associates, Inc.