Peeling Back The Bark
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Wood in the Space Age: Forest Products at the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair
By Eben Lehman on April 21, 2022On April 21, 1962, the Century 21 Exposition (better known as the Seattle World’s Fair) opened to the public. From a vacation home in Florida, President Kennedy pressed a telegraph key to officially start the fair. The Seattle World’s Fair is best remembered for the Space Needle, which became an enduring Seattle landmark, as well…
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The Great Northwest Log Haul of 1988
By Eben Lehman on May 13, 2021On May 13, 1988, a convoy of trucks more than 12 miles long rolled down U.S. Highway 93 in Montana. Onlookers gawked and cheered as over 300 trucks fully loaded down with logs passed by one by one. This impressive display was actually a unique form of protest by the local logging community. Frustrated by…
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The Monongahela at 100: How Its Signature Event Changed American Forestry
By Guest Contributor on April 30, 2020The Monongahela National Forest was established on April 28, 1920. Historian Char Miller has adapted a chapter from the book America’s Great National Forests, Wilderness & Grasslands, with photographs by Tim Palmer (Rizzoli, 2016), to mark the centennial. The banner headline on the front page of the Elkins, West Virginia, newspaper for November 8, 1973,…
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The Night the Mountain Fell
By James Lewis on August 16, 2019“The night the mountain fell” is how one of the strongest earthquakes to rock the United States was remembered by some survivors. It wasn’t in California, though. It hit Montana. An earthquake with a magnitude of 7.2 centered on the Gallatin National Forest—about 40 miles northwest of Old Faithful Geyser in Yellowstone National Park—struck at…
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The Early Career of John S. Holmes, North Carolina’s First State Forester
By Eben Lehman on May 31, 2019John Simcox Holmes—born on this day in 1868—was a pioneer of forestry work in the state of North Carolina. The state’s first professional forester, he was hired in 1909 to survey and protect North Carolina’s forests, though he had little funding or staff with which to do the job. In 1915 he was named as…
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October 15, 1934: Glued Laminated Timber Comes to America
By Eben Lehman on October 15, 2018On October 15, 1934, workers broke ground for a new school gymnasium in Peshtigo, Wisconsin. To this day, this small city in the far northeast corner of Wisconsin remains best known for being totally consumed by a massive forest fire in 1871. The groundbreaking, while seemingly an unremarkable event, is another turning point in forest…
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Reclaiming Henry David Thoreau, Forest Historian
By James Lewis on July 12, 2017Crayon portrait of Henry David Thoreau, 1854. (public domain) The bicentennial of the birth of Henry David Thoreau this month comes at an auspicious time. Given the political climate we live in, his essay “Civil Disobedience” resonates today more than it has in nearly a half-century. I break no new ground in saying that the…
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Collaboration, Inclusivity, and Resilience: Three Birthday Wishes for the Forest Service’s Second Century
By James Lewis on June 30, 2017July 1 marks the anniversary of the U.S. Forest Service’s establishment of the National Forest System in 1907—the day the “federal forest reserves” were renamed “national forests.” Historian Char Miller wants to share his birthday wishes for them. Not every anniversary deserves commemoration. Ordinarily, the 110th birthday of anything would not merit much attention, but…
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Parachuting Into History: Smokejumpers Land In DC For First Time
By James Lewis on June 28, 2017On this date in 1949, four Forest Service smokejumpers made the first jump east of the Mississippi River and the first parachute jump ever made onto the Washington Ellipse, the oval park between the Washington Monument and the White House. The jump was even televised, which is how President Harry Truman reportedly watched it, even…
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Explosive Truths: A Review of the book Eruption: The Untold Story of Mount St. Helens
By James Lewis on May 18, 2017The vial measures about 1.75″ in length but contains a great deal of information and memory. This is an expanded version of the review of Eruption: The Untold Story of Mount St. Helens, by Steve Olson, which first appeared in the April-May 2017 issue of American Scientist. When I visit environmental history–related locations, I typically bring…
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The Gift of the Pisgah National Forest
By James Lewis on October 17, 2016On October 17, 1916, the Pisgah National Forest was the first national forest established under the Weeks Act of 1911. Written by FHS historian Jamie Lewis, this post was originally published in the online version of the Asheville Citizen-Times on October 14, 2016, and in print on October 16 to mark the centennial. “When people walk…
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7/31/1865: Austin Cary, the Father of Southern Forestry, Born
By James Lewis on July 31, 2015Austin Cary, one of the great unsung heroes of American forestry, was born this date in 1865 in East Machias, Maine. A Yankee through and through, he found professional success in the South, eventually becoming known as the “Father of Southern Forestry.” In 1961, twenty-five years after Cary’s passing, his biographer Roy R. White wrote…
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Hollywood Stars Celebrate Arbor Day In All Their Finery
By James Lewis on April 24, 2015Much like today’s celebrities, Hollywood stars of the 1920s never missed an opportunity to align themselves with a cause that everyone could get behind. In 1923, industry leaders joined with conservation leaders like Gifford Pinchot and William Greeley to establish the American Reforestation Association, which sought to leverage Hollywood’s PR machinery and the exploding popularity of…
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May 29, 1903: Bob "Forest History" Hope was Born
By James Lewis on May 29, 2013On this date in 1903, Bob “Forest History” Hope was born in London, England. His career in comedy spanned 60 years and moved from the Vaudeville stage to radio and film and eventually television. He appeared in more than 70 movies, most famously in the “Road” series with his pal Bing Crosby, a fellow tree…
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TECO and Stickee Staystuck Celebrate Anniversaries
By James Lewis on January 16, 2013On this date in 1933, the Timber Engineering Company (TECO) was incorporated in Washington, DC, as a “national sales promotion, engineering and research agency for wood and forest products” by the National Lumber Manufacturing Association. While that organization later became the National Forest Products Association and later still the American Forest & Paper Association, TECO hasn’t changed names or its mission…
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Further Reflections on Mann Gulch
By James Lewis on August 5, 2012As the Lewis and Clark expedition made its way through the beautiful, rugged area he would name “the gates of the rocky mountains,” Meriwether Lewis recorded in his journal on July 19, 1805: “this evening we entered much the most remarkable clifts that we have yet seen. these clifts rise from the waters edge on…
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July 16, 1894: Consolidated Water Power Company Formed
By Eben Lehman on July 16, 2012On this date in 1894, a group of men with water and property rights along the Wisconsin River reached a monumental agreement. The group decided to combine their holdings in order to build dams and consolidate water power in the area around Grand Rapids and Centralia (the two towns would later merge to become Wisconsin…
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"E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial" released 30 years ago today. Where’s the sequel?
By James Lewis on June 11, 2012Today marks the 30th anniversary of the release of “E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial,” Steven Spielberg’s beloved film about an alien visitor who befriends a young boy; it’s also the film that gave us the catch phrase “Phone home.” As faithful readers of this blog know, we love films from the ’80s nearly as much as forest-themed…
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The Two Tragedies of Archie Mitchell
By James Lewis on May 30, 2012On this date in 1962, the Rev. Archie Mitchell was seized by the Viet Cong, bound in front of his wife and daughters, and taken away from the leprosarium where they were working near Buon Ea Na, Vietnam, never to be heard from again. This was the second wartime tragedy for Mitchell. Seventeen years earlier…
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May 11, 1922: US Forest Service heeds call of nature
By James Lewis on May 11, 2012On this date in 1922, the Agricultural Appropriations Act of May 11 made the first appropriation for the improvement of public campgrounds in national forests. The bill made special reference to the protection of public health and the prevention of forest fires. The U.S. Forest Service received $10,000. What’s most surprising about that amount is…
