Lolo National Forest Collection, 1894-1987

This collection contains administrative files for Lolo National Forest, as well as administrative files accumulated from other forests absorbed into Lolo. These files include information related to boundaries, land use, and the history of the forest. The collection also contains work diaries, reports on game and campground improvements, maps created by the National Forest, materials related to the publication of Thirty-two Years in the Mule Business, a short work published by the National Forest about the Ninemile Remount Station, and a series of photographs of the Ninemile Remount Station and its operations, including the Civilian Conservation Corps activites of the 1930s and 1940s. The collection is arranged into six series: Administrative files, Diaries, Reports, Publications, Maps, and Photographs.

Please note that these records do not comprise a complete or representative unit of records produced by the Lolo National Forest over the years encompassed by the collection’s date range as the records were not acquired in a systematic manner. The archival records for Region 1 of the USFS are kept in the National Archives and Records Administration Pacific Alaska Region repository in Seattle, Washington and are listed there as Record Group 95.

The administrative files contain documents detailing the boundaries and management of Lolo National Forest. Included in these files are documents created by forests whose lands were absorbed into Lolo National Forest, specifically, Missoula National Forest and Cabinet National Forest. The series also contains a group of files documenting the history of the Forest and historic landmarks within the Forest. The diaries are comprised of the work diaries by former Forest employees working in the 1940s through the 1950s. The reports relate to campground improvement, winter game studies, timber marking and cutting, grazing permits and verification, road maintenance, and fire control. One report about campground improvement contains annotations by E.H. Myrick, former supervisor of Lolo National Forest.

The publications files consist of the research files and drafts used for Thirty-two Years in the Mule Business: The USDA/Forest Service Remount Depot and Winter Range, by Jane Reed Benson. The maps are “seen area” maps, which record the observations of a cartographer standing at a single point and drawing the full 360 degree panorama visible from that point. These maps center around specific lookout points within the forest and the patrol study field notes related to the mapped area. Many of the maps are hand drawn, others are printed maps upon which the surveyor has shaded specific regions of the map.

The photographs are of the Ninemile Remount Station and the animals (mules and horses) that were housed at the station as well as the CCC camp that existed there.