Date Original
1916
Description
This collection contains a Presidential Proclamation concerning the Arkansas National Forest's boundaries in Arkansas.
Biographical/Historical Note
The Ouachita National Forest, originally called the Arkansas National Forest, was created through an executive order issued by President Theodore Roosevelt on December 18, 1907. Forest Service Chief Gifford Pinchot remarked at the time that this national forest was the only major shortleaf pine forest under the federal government’s protection. In January 1908, the Arkansas Sentinel newspaper reprinted an article from Forestry and Irrigation Magazine that praised the hearty spirit of cooperation manifested by Arkansas’s people and spoke of benefits to be gained by the conservation of timber supplies. At first, the Arkansas National Forest consisted solely of reserved public domain lands (part of the Louisiana Purchase) south of the Arkansas River. The 1911 Weeks Law, which authorized federal purchase of forest lands in the eastern part of the United States, was later used to add thousands of acres of cutover or farmed out lands to the national forest. The largest increases in national forest ownership occurred from 1933 to 1941. On April 29, 1926, President Calvin Coolidge changed the name of the Arkansas National Forest to the Ouachita National Forest. He also proposed extending the national forest into eastern Oklahoma. President Herbert Hoover fulfilled this proposal on December 3, 1930, by extending the Ouachita National Forest into Le Flore County, Oklahoma. Today, the Ouachita National Forest consists of nearly 1.8 million acres located in twelve Arkansas counties and two Oklahoma counties. It is the largest and oldest national forest in the southern region of the United States.
Physical Description
Document, 8.5" x 11"
Geographical Area
Arkansas
Language
English
Identifier
SMC.047.004
Resource Type
Text
Collection
Arkansas National Forest presidential proclamation, SMC.047.004
Publisher
Arkansas State Archives
Contributing Entity
Arkansas State Archives
Recommended Citation
Arkansas National Forest presidential proclamation, Arkansas State Archives, Little Rock, Arkansas.
Rights
Use and reproduction of images held by the Arkansas State Archives without prior written permission is prohibited. For information on reproducing images held by the Arkansas State Archives, please call 501-682-6900 or email at state.archives@arkansas.gov.
Disciplines
United States History
