To Buy a Forest, Congress Had to Call It a River
The film of this episode premieres March 16, 2027 on YouTube. The documents, the transcript and the sources are below now.
On June 1, 1920 the U.S. Forest Service handed the Senate a report it had asked for under Senate Resolution 311, and the first sentence of the findings is the whole story: "That three-fifths of the original timber of the United States is gone and that we are using timber four times as fast as we are growing it." The virgin forests had…
Transcript
One load
R001 Logging a big load
Logging a big load · Detroit Publishing Co. · Library of Congress · colorized 2026. View the original.
The man on top is standing there so you know how big it is. One load. One sled. One morning.
S02
Timber Depletion ... and Concentration of Timber Ownership · Forest Service · S. Res. 311 · 1920 · p. 3. View the original.
In 1920 the Forest Service counted what was left of the American forest, and reported the number to the Senate.
D02
Timber Depletion ... and Concentration of Timber Ownership · Forest Service · S. Res. 311 · 1920 · p. 3. View the original.
Three-fifths of the original timber of the United States was gone. The country was cutting it four times faster than it grew.
S01
Timber Depletion ... and Concentration of Timber Ownership · Forest Service · S. Res. 311 · 1920 · title page. View the original.
Congress wanted to buy forest land and put it back. It had no constitutional power to do that. What it did instead is the reason twenty million acres of eastern woods belong to you.
R007 Log train
Log train · Detroit Publishing Co. · Library of Congress · colorized 2026. View the original.
The photographs are federal. The negatives are black and white. The color was put on by a computer, this year. A good guess, not a record. The documents are as printed.
R002 Logging, felling the tree
Logging, felling the tree · Detroit Publishing Co. · Library of Congress · colorized 2026. View the original.
Two men and an axe, at the foot of a tree that took three hundred years to make.
R003 Logging, cutting lengths
Logging, cutting lengths · Detroit Publishing Co. · Library of Congress · colorized 2026. View the original.
Then it is cut into lengths, in the snow, because snow is what you haul on.
R004 Logging in Michigan, the sled
Logging in Michigan, the sled · Detroit Publishing Co. · Library of Congress · colorized 2026. View the original.
The sled goes to the river. The river does the rest of the work, for free, in the spring.
R005 Menominee, Mich., logging on the river
Menominee, Mich., logging on the river · Detroit Publishing Co. · Library of Congress · colorized 2026. View the original.
At Menominee, Michigan, the river is not water any more. It is a floor of logs.
R006 Load of logs
Load of logs · Detroit Publishing Co. · Library of Congress · colorized 2026. View the original.
Another load, another man on top of it. Detroit Publishing sold these as views. They were advertisements for abundance.
R008 Mills from railroad bridge, Eau Claire, Wis.
Mills from railroad bridge, Eau Claire, Wis. · Detroit Publishing Co. · Library of Congress · colorized 2026. View the original.
And at Eau Claire, Wisconsin, at the end of it: the mills, and the rafts waiting.
The camp at Effie
R009 Loading device moving railroad cars full of timber at camp near Effie, Minnesota
Loading device moving railroad cars full of timber at camp near Effie,... · Russell Lee, 1937 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Forty years later a government photographer named Russell Lee went north into Minnesota to see what was left of that business.
R011 Lumberjacks on carload of timber, near Effie, Minnesota
Lumberjacks on carload of timber, near Effie, Minnesota · Russell Lee, 1937 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
There were still camps working. This one is near Effie, in Itasca County, in the fall of 1937.
R012 Lumberjack resting on pile of logs, near Effie, Minnesota
Lumberjack resting on pile of logs, near Effie, Minnesota · Russell Lee, 1937 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
A lumberjack resting on a pile of logs. Look at the diameter. This is second growth.
R013 Lumberjacks eating dinner at camp near Effie, Minnesota
Lumberjacks eating dinner at camp near Effie, Minnesota · Russell Lee, 1937 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Dinner at the camp. The men ate in shifts, at long tables, and did not talk much.
R015 Lumber camp locomotive. Forest County, Wisconsin. Note special smokestack to catch sparks
Lumber camp locomotive. Forest County, Wisconsin. Note special... · Russell Lee, 1937 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
In Forest County, Wisconsin, the camp locomotive. Lee's caption notes the special smokestack, built to catch sparks — because the thing they were most afraid of was fire in the slash they had left behind.
What the cut left
R018 A year ago a fine stand of spruce and fir covered this hillside. A gypo logging outfit cleaned it off, leaving only charred stumps and debris. Near Siltcoos, Oregon
A year ago a fine stand of spruce and fir covered this hillside. A... · Arthur Rothstein, 1936 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Here is what the business left behind. Arthur Rothstein, Oregon, 1936. His caption: a year ago a fine stand of spruce and fir covered this hillside. A logging outfit cleaned it off.
R019 Blackened stumps of trees and ugly snags cover the slopes leading to Mount Hood, Oregon
Blackened stumps of trees and ugly snags cover the slopes leading to... · Arthur Rothstein, 1936 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Blackened stumps and snags, on the slopes leading up to Mount Hood.
S03
Timber Depletion ... and Concentration of Timber Ownership · Forest Service · S. Res. 311 · 1920 · p. 3. View the original.
The Forest Service had a number for this. The virgin forests of the United States covered eight hundred and twenty-two million acres. By 1920 they were shrunk to one-sixth of that.
S04
Timber Depletion ... and Concentration of Timber Ownership · Forest Service · S. Res. 311 · 1920 · p. 3. View the original.
Eighty-one million acres had been cut and burned so hard that the report called them an unproductive waste. It gave the reader a way to picture that: an area equal to the combined forests of Germany, Denmark, Holland, Belgium, France, Switzerland, Spain and Portugal.
S05
Timber Depletion ... and Concentration of Timber Ownership · Forest Service · S. Res. 311 · 1920 · p. 3. View the original.
Less than five per cent of the virgin forest of New England was left standing.
S06
Timber Depletion ... and Concentration of Timber Ownership · Forest Service · S. Res. 311 · 1920 · p. 3. View the original.
The pine forests of the Lake States had held an estimated three hundred and fifty billion board feet. By 1920 there were fewer than eight billion.
R021 Cut-over land, part of stump ranch. California, Orick, Humboldt County
Cut-over land, part of stump ranch. California, Orick, Humboldt County · Dorothea Lange, 1939 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
In California, cut-over land on what the caption calls a stump ranch.
R022 Stump farm. Typical of cut-over area of Western Washington. Lewis County, near Vader
Stump farm. Typical of cut-over area of Western Washington. Lewis... · Dorothea Lange, 1939 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Dorothea Lange, western Washington. A stump farm, typical of the country around Vader.
R023 Cut-over land and first stages of gully erosion. Brown County, Indiana
Cut-over land and first stages of gully erosion. Brown County, Indiana · Theodor Jung, 1935 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Brown County, Indiana. Cut-over land, and the first stages of gully erosion. Nothing was holding the hill on any more.
R024 Eroded and cut-over land. Greene County, Georgia
Eroded and cut-over land. Greene County, Georgia · Marion Post Wolcott, 1939 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Greene County, Georgia. Eroded and cut over.
R026 Water supply and cut-over land on the road into Kempton, West Virginia
Water supply and cut-over land on the road into Kempton, West Virginia · John Vachon, 1939 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
And on the road into Kempton, West Virginia — the water supply, and the hills above it.
![Abandoned paper mill in cut-over hills, Thomas [actually Davis], West Virginia](img/R027.jpg)
R027 Abandoned paper mill in cut-over hills, Thomas [actually Davis], West Virginia
Abandoned paper mill in cut-over hills, Thomas [actually Davis], West... · John Vachon, 1939 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
At Davis, West Virginia, the paper mill that had run on those hills, standing empty.
Bust town
R028 Boarded up and abandoned consolidated school in Gemmel, Minnesota. Logging "bust" town
Boarded up and abandoned consolidated school in Gemmel, Minnesota.... · Russell Lee, 1937 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
When the timber went, the town went. This is the consolidated school at Gemmel, Minnesota, boarded up. Lee's caption for Gemmel puts one word in quotation marks. The word is bust.
R029 Abadoned lumber camp. Gemmel, Minnesota
Abadoned lumber camp. Gemmel, Minnesota · Russell Lee, 1937 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
The camp it was built for.
R031 Old log hoist in abandoned lumber camp. Gemmel, Minnesota
Old log hoist in abandoned lumber camp. Gemmel, Minnesota · Russell Lee, 1937 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
The log hoist, still standing in the weeds.
R033 Remains of blacksmith's forge. Abandoned lumber camp. Craigville, Minnesota
Remains of blacksmith's forge. Abandoned lumber camp. Craigville,... · Russell Lee, 1937 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
At Craigville, the remains of the blacksmith's forge.
R036 Tarpaper dwelling of man living in abandoned lumber camp. Gemmel, Minnesota
Tarpaper dwelling of man living in abandoned lumber camp. Gemmel,... · Russell Lee, 1937 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
People were still living in it. This is a tarpaper dwelling put up by a man inside the abandoned camp at Gemmel.
R037 Family and brother-in-law living in tarpaper shack in abandoned lumbercamp. Gemmel, Minnesota
Family and brother-in-law living in tarpaper shack in abandoned... · Russell Lee, 1937 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
A family and a brother-in-law, in a tarpaper shack, in the same camp.
R038 Lumberjacks in beer parlor. Craigville, Minnesota
Lumberjacks in beer parlor. Craigville, Minnesota · Russell Lee, 1937 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Craigville had a beer parlor and Lee photographed it on a Saturday.
R039 Old resident of corner of beer parlor. Gemmel, Minnesota. Former prosperous lumbering center. Note sign and battery-operated radio
Old resident of corner of beer parlor. Gemmel, Minnesota. Former... · Russell Lee, 1937 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
At Gemmel, an old resident in the corner of one. The caption notes the sign and the battery-operated radio, and calls the place a former prosperous lumbering center.
R040 Remains of engine house of sawmill enterprise. "Bust" town of Winton, Minnesota
Remains of engine house of sawmill enterprise. "Bust" town of Winton,... · Russell Lee, 1937 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Winton, Minnesota. The engine house of the sawmill.
R041 Boardwalk in Winton, Minnesota. A lumber "bust" town
Boardwalk in Winton, Minnesota. A lumber "bust" town · Russell Lee, 1937 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
The boardwalk still ran the length of the town.
R042 Children in Winton, Minnesota, a lumber "bust" town
Children in Winton, Minnesota, a lumber "bust" town · Russell Lee, 1937 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Children in Winton.
R043 Old resident of Winton, Minnesota. Logging "bust" town
Old resident of Winton, Minnesota. Logging "bust" town · Russell Lee, 1937 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
An old resident of Winton, who would have been a young man when the mill was running.
R044 Abandoned locomotive at old sawmill. Tower, Minnesota
Abandoned locomotive at old sawmill. Tower, Minnesota · Russell Lee, 1937 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
At Tower, Minnesota, the locomotive was simply left where it stopped.
R045 Old house in Tower, Minnesota, former prosperous lumbertown
Old house in Tower, Minnesota, former prosperous lumbertown · Russell Lee, 1937 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
And this is what the money had built, twenty-five years earlier, in the same town.
R047 Old lumberjack. Trout Creek, Michigan
Old lumberjack. Trout Creek, Michigan · John Vachon, 1941 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
An old lumberjack at Trout Creek.
S07
Timber Depletion ... and Concentration of Timber Ownership · Forest Service · S. Res. 311 · 1920 · p. 4. View the original.
The Forest Service had a number for the ownership, too. One half of all the privately owned timber in the United States was held by approximately two hundred and fifty large owners.
Fullerton, Louisiana
R048 This was a bank at Fullerton, Louisiana. Abandoned lumber town
This was a bank at Fullerton, Louisiana. Abandoned lumber town · Dorothea Lange, 1937 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
It happened in the South as well, and faster. Fullerton, Louisiana, photographed by Dorothea Lange in 1937. Her caption reads: this was a bank.
R049 Some of the walls of the bank still stand at Fullerton, Louisiana, abandoned lumber town
Some of the walls of the bank still stand at Fullerton, Louisiana,... · Dorothea Lange, 1937 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Some of the walls of the bank still stand.
R052 What is left of the alcohol plant, built to utilize refuse. Fullerton, Louisiana, an abandoned lumber town
What is left of the alcohol plant, built to utilize refuse. Fullerton,... · Dorothea Lange, 1937 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
And the alcohol plant, which had been built to use up the refuse — the parts of the tree the mill could not sell.
R053 The church closed when the mill closed, but the houses are again occupied in the abandoned mill village. Washington, Grays Harbor County, Malone. General caption number 39
The church closed when the mill closed, but the houses are again... · Dorothea Lange, 1939 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
In Washington state, Lange found the pattern stated exactly. The church closed when the mill closed. The houses are occupied again.
The stump farmers
R054 Stump ranches spring up in the wake of the logging company and try to wrest a living from a few acres of forest land. Coast Ranges, Oregon
Stump ranches spring up in the wake of the logging company and try to... · Arthur Rothstein, 1936 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Because the land did not go back to the woods. It was sold, as farms. Rothstein's caption: stump ranches spring up in the wake of the logging company, and try to wrest a living from a few acres of forest land.
R056 Cut-over farmer near Northome, Minnesota
Cut-over farmer near Northome, Minnesota · Russell Lee, 1937 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
A cut-over farmer near Northome, Minnesota.
R057 Home of Steve Flanders, cut-over farmer near Northome, Minnesota
Home of Steve Flanders, cut-over farmer near Northome, Minnesota · Russell Lee, 1937 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Near Northome, Minnesota. The home of Steve Flanders, cut-over farmer.
R059 Orville White, his wife, children and father. Mr. White is a farmer of the cut-over lands near Northome, Minnesota
Orville White, his wife, children and father. Mr. White is a farmer of... · Russell Lee, 1937 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Orville White, his wife, his children and his father, on cut-over land.
R061 Interior of cut-over farmhouse near Northome, Minnesota
Interior of cut-over farmhouse near Northome, Minnesota · Russell Lee, 1937 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Inside.
R062 Daughter of cut-over farmer carrying water near Northome, Minnesota
Daughter of cut-over farmer carrying water near Northome, Minnesota · Russell Lee, 1937 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
A daughter carrying water.
R063 Cut-over farmer and daughter, near Northome, Minnesota
Cut-over farmer and daughter, near Northome, Minnesota · Russell Lee, 1937 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
A cut-over farmer and his daughter.
R065 Lon Allen, farmer of the cut-over area near Iron River, Michigan, feeding a chicken in his bedroom. Last winter a cow was brought into the house to keep it from freezing
Lon Allen, farmer of the cut-over area near Iron River, Michigan,... · Russell Lee, 1937 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
In Iron County, Michigan, Lee photographed Lon Allen feeding a chicken in his bedroom. The caption adds that the winter before, a cow had been brought into the house to keep it from freezing.
R066 Emil Alto, once a saloon keeper in the former prosperous mining town of Mansfield, Michigan. He is now a cut-over farmer
Emil Alto, once a saloon keeper in the former prosperous mining town... · Russell Lee, 1937 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Emil Alto had been a saloon keeper in Mansfield, Michigan, when Mansfield was prosperous. In 1937 he was a cut-over farmer.
R067 Mrs. William Sharrard and one of her children. Her husband has been a farmer of the cut-over regions for years, but cannot make a living at it. The family is on relief. Near Silk Lake, Michigan
Mrs. William Sharrard and one of her children. Her husband has been a... · Russell Lee, 1937 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Mrs. William Sharrard and one of her children. Her husband had farmed the cut-over regions for years and could not make a living at it. The family was on relief.
R068 John Bastia, a former lumberjack and coal miner, now a single shacker in Iron County, Michigan. He speaks only Italian, is stone deaf
John Bastia, a former lumberjack and coal miner, now a single shacker... · Russell Lee, 1937 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
John Bastia had been a lumberjack, and then a coal miner. He was living alone. He spoke only Italian and he was deaf.
R069 The common method of removing stones from cut-over land is by use of the crowbar. Near Caspian, Michigan
The common method of removing stones from cut-over land is by use of... · Russell Lee, 1937 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
The work of the stump farm was the stumps. This is the common method of removing stones from cut-over land — a crowbar.
R070 Burning brush on Sando Evanoff's farm. Iron County, Michigan. This is one of the processes in cleaning cut-over land
Burning brush on Sando Evanoff's farm. Iron County, Michigan. This is... · Russell Lee, 1937 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Burning brush. Lee calls it one of the processes in cleaning cut-over land.
R071 Plowing cut-over land near Tipler, Wisconsin
Plowing cut-over land near Tipler, Wisconsin · Russell Lee, 1937 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
And then, if you got that far, plowing it.
R072 Country graveyard in isolated cut-over forest land near Tipler, Wisconsin. Note fresh grave outside the enclosure
Country graveyard in isolated cut-over forest land near Tipler,... · Russell Lee, 1937 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
A country graveyard in the cut-over land near Tipler, Wisconsin. Lee's caption asks you to notice the fresh grave, outside the enclosure.
R073 Mr. Hale, cut-over farmer. Near Black River Falls, Wisconsin
Mr. Hale, cut-over farmer. Near Black River Falls, Wisconsin · Russell Lee, 1937 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Mr. Hale, cut-over farmer, near Black River Falls.
Half time
R074 Morrison Gross and Company sawmill, Erwin, West Virginia
Morrison Gross and Company sawmill, Erwin, West Virginia · Marion Post Wolcott, 1938 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
The mills that were still running were running short. Morrison Gross and Company, at Erwin, West Virginia, 1938.
R075 Men spiking logs to go up ramp into sawmill. It was working only halftime and was even slower in winter. "It's kinder hard them times. Concrete and steel's taking the place of lumber nowadays." Erwin, West Virginia
Men spiking logs to go up ramp into sawmill. It was working only... · Marion Post Wolcott, 1938 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Marion Post Wolcott photographed the men spiking logs up the ramp, and wrote down what one of them told her. The mill was working half time, and slower in winter.
R076 Logs for sawmill, Erwin, West Virginia
Logs for sawmill, Erwin, West Virginia · Marion Post Wolcott, 1938 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Quote: it's kinder hard them times. Concrete and steel is taking the place of lumber nowadays.
R078 Sawmill in Heard County, Georgia
Sawmill in Heard County, Georgia · Jack Delano, 1941 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
In Heard County, Georgia, a sawmill.
R080 Funeral of nineteen year old Negro sawmill worker in Heard County, Georgia
Funeral of nineteen year old Negro sawmill worker in Heard County, Georgia · Jack Delano, 1941 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
And in Heard County, the funeral of a nineteen-year-old sawmill worker. Jack Delano did not write down his name.
Eleven years
S08
S. Rep. No. 2537, 59th Cong., 1st Sess. · Appalachian Forest Reserve, etc. · Apr. 11, 1906 · p. 9. View the original.
Everyone could see this coming. The trouble was that nobody could find a way for the federal government to buy a forest.
R020 Cut-over land in the Mount Hood National Forest, Oregon
Cut-over land in the Mount Hood National Forest, Oregon · Arthur Rothstein, 1936 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Senator Pritchard of North Carolina asked for five thousand dollars to investigate. That passed. Then he asked for five million to actually buy the southern Appalachians. That did not.
D03
S. Rep. No. 2537, 59th Cong., 1st Sess. · Appalachian Forest Reserve, etc. · Apr. 11, 1906 · p. 9. View the original.
President Roosevelt sent the Secretary's report to Congress with a recommendation that Congress consider it favorably. A bill passed the Senate in 1904. The House took no action on it.
R025 Cut-over land in Heard County, Georgia
Cut-over land in Heard County, Georgia · Jack Delano, 1941 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
The objection was constitutional. There is no clause in the Constitution that lets Congress buy land to grow trees on.
Navigable rivers
S09
The Weeks Act · 36 Stat. 961, ch. 186 · approved March 1, 1911 · 36 Stat. 961. View the original.
So in 1911 they wrote a law that was not about trees. Read its title.
D04
The Weeks Act · 36 Stat. 961, ch. 186 · approved March 1, 1911 · 36 Stat. 961. View the original.
An Act to enable any State to cooperate with any other State, for the protection of the watersheds of navigable streams — and to appoint a commission for the acquisition of lands for the purpose of conserving the navigability of navigable rivers.
S12
Purchase of Land under the Weeks Law in the Southern Appalachian and White Mountains · Forest Service · rev. Jan. 18, 1913. View the original.
Forests keep rivers steady. Rivers carry boats. Congress can regulate navigation. That was the whole argument, and it worked.
S10
The Weeks Act · 36 Stat. 961, ch. 186 · approved March 1, 1911 · sec. 6 · 36 Stat. 962. View the original.
Section six made it a procedure. Before the government could buy a mountain, the Geological Survey had to examine it and report that controlling that land would promote or protect the navigation of the streams below.
What the seller kept
S11
The Weeks Act · 36 Stat. 961, ch. 186 · approved March 1, 1911 · sec. 9 · 36 Stat. 962. View the original.
And section nine let the seller keep the minerals and the merchantable timber. The United States could buy the land. The company could take the trees off it first.
The ledger
S13
National Forest Reservation Commission · Report on Progress · 1961 · Table 1 · acreage approved, 1912-1960. View the original.
Here is what that bought. Fifty years of purchases, by fiscal year, in acres, with the average price paid for each one.
D05
National Forest Reservation Commission · Report on Progress · 1961 · Table 1 · 1912-1928. View the original.
In 1912, the first year, two hundred and eighty-seven thousand acres, at five dollars and sixty-five cents an acre. The cheapest year was 1933, at a dollar eighty-three.
S14
National Forest Reservation Commission · Report on Progress · 1961 · Table 1 · total area approved. View the original.
The biggest was 1934 — over four million two hundred thousand acres in twelve months. By 1945 the commission approved five acres, and paid a hundred and ninety-four dollars an acre for them.
Buying it back
R081 Farmer of cut-over land moving house to new land. The government bought up the land on which he formerly farmed to take it out of farming. Lake of the Woods County, Minnesota
Farmer of cut-over land moving house to new land. The government... · John Vachon, 1939 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
The land came from people as well as companies. This farmer is moving his house. Vachon's caption: the government bought up the land on which he formerly farmed, to take it out of farming.
R082 Cut-over land in Resettlement Administration purchase area to be rededicated to forest. Custer State Park, South Dakota
Cut-over land in Resettlement Administration purchase area to be... · Arthur Rothstein, 1936 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Cut-over land in a purchase area, in the government's own words, to be rededicated to forest.
R083 Submarginal farm on cut-over land. Hernando County, near Withlacoochee Land Use Project, Florida
Submarginal farm on cut-over land. Hernando County, near Withlacoochee... · Arthur Rothstein, 1937 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
A submarginal farm on cut-over land in Florida. Submarginal was the official word for ground that would not pay.
R084 Farmer plowing cut-over land. Roanoke County, Virginia
Farmer plowing cut-over land. Roanoke County, Virginia · John Vachon, 1941 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Roanoke County, Virginia. A man plowing ground that used to be woods. In fifty years the commission approved nineteen million, seven hundred and sixty-seven thousand, nine hundred and thirty-nine acres — most of the national forest east of the Mississippi.
What is standing now
R085 A stand of second growth long leaf pine. After reforestation is complete all of the project area will look like this. Withlacoochee Land Use Project, Florida
A stand of second growth long leaf pine. After reforestation is... · Arthur Rothstein, 1937 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
It grew back as second growth, which is not the same thing. The trees in the first photographs were three and four hundred years old. Nothing standing in the East today is.
R086 Grant County, Oregon. Malheur National Forest. Young timber
Grant County, Oregon. Malheur National Forest. Young timber · Russell Lee, 1942 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Young timber, Malheur National Forest, 1942.
R087 Grant County, Oregon. Malheur National Forest. Forest Service agent examining very young pine tree
Grant County, Oregon. Malheur National Forest. Forest Service agent... · Russell Lee, 1942 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
And a Forest Service man on his knees, looking at one pine. Eight hundred and twenty-two million acres came down.
D01 Grant County, Oregon. Malheur National Forest. Forest Service agent examining very young pine tree
Grant County, Oregon. Malheur National Forest. Forest Service agent... · Russell Lee, 1942 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
What is still buried is the arithmetic of the trade. The law that bought the ground back let the seller keep the timber, and nobody has ever added up what came off those acres between the deed and the deadline. If timber is what your people worked in — the Lake States, the mountains, anywhere — tell me what they said the woods looked like before.
Sources
- Timber Depletion, Lumber Prices, Lumber Exports, and Concentration of Timber Ownership: Report on Senate Resolution 311 — U.S. Forest Service, June 1, 1920 — https://archive.org/details/timberdepletionl00unitrich - Letter of transmittal, p. 3: "That three-fifths of the original timber of the United States is gone and that we are using timber four times as fast as we are growing it." - p. 3: "The virgin forests of the United States covered 822 million acres. They are now shrunk to one-sixth of that area." All classes of forest land then aggregated 463 million acres. - p. 3: approximately 81 million acres "so severely cut and burned as to become an unproductive waste... equivalent to the combined forests of Germany, Denmark, Holland, Belgium, France, Switzerland, Spain, and Portugal." - p. 3: "Less than 5 per cent of the virgin forests of New England remain." The original pine forests of the Lake States, "estimated at 350 billion feet, are now reduced to less than 8 billion feet." - p. 4: "One-half of the privately owned timber in the United States is held by approximately 250 large owners." - The four questions the Senate asked, and which the report answers, are printed on p. 3.
- S. Rep. No. 2537, 59th Cong., 1st Sess., "Appalachian Forest Reserve, etc.," April 11, 1906 — https://archive.org/details/appalachianfores00unit - p. 9 carries the committee's own chronology: Senator Pritchard's April 21, 1900 bill appropriating $5,000 for a preliminary investigation (passed, law July 1); the Secretary of Agriculture's report, January 1901; President McKinley's special message of January 19, 1901; Pritchard's January 10, 1901 bill appropriating $5,000,000 to establish the reserve; and "a bill in 1904 passed the United States Senate but the House took no action on it."
- The Weeks Act, 36 Stat. 961, ch. 186, approved March 1, 1911 — https://archive.org/details/us_stat_36 (leaf 984–985) - The Act's own title: "An Act To enable any State to cooperate with any other State or States, or with the United States, for the protection of the watersheds of navigable streams, and to appoint a commission for the acquisition of lands for the purpose of conserving the navigability of navigable rivers." [Public, No. 435.] - Sec. 6 requires that before purchase "said lands shall be examined by the Geological Survey and a report made to the Secretary of Agriculture, showing that the control of such lands will promote or protect the navigation of streams on whose watersheds they lie." - Sec. 9 permits "the exception and reservation to the owner from whom title passes to the United States of the minerals and of the merchantable timber, or either or any part of them."
- Purchase of Land under the Weeks Law in the Southern Appalachian and White Mountains — Forest Service, rev. Jan. 18, 1913 — https://archive.org/details/purchaseoflandun00unit - The Forest Service states the theory plainly: the 1911 act "authorizes the acquisition of lands on the watersheds of navigable streams for the purpose of conserving their navigability."
- The National Forest Reservation Commission: A Report on Progress in Establishing National Forests, 1961 (Golden Anniversary report) — https://archive.org/details/CAT10506162 - Table 1, "Gross acreage approved for purchase under the Weeks law by fiscal years," gives acres and average price per acre for every year 1912–1960. 1912: 287,698 acres at $5.65. 1933: 667,314 acres at $1.83, the lowest price in the table. 1934: 4,206,817 acres, the largest single year. 1944: 9 acres at $66.02; 1945: 5 acres at $194.00. Total area approved: 19,767,939 acres.
- 1880s–1908, the cut. Detroit Publishing Company 8x10 glass plates, Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division. Public domain. Only records digitized from the original negative (LC-DIG-det-) were used; the collection's roll-film copies are 560 px and were rejected on resolution grounds.
- 1935–1943, what the cut left. Farm Security Administration / Office of War Information negatives, Library of Congress. Federal works, public domain. Photographers used here: Russell Lee, Dorothea Lange, Arthur Rothstein, John Vachon, Marion Post Wolcott, Jack Delano, Theodor Jung.
- The sawmill worker's line is read aloud with its contraction expanded — the narration says "Concrete and steel is taking the place of lumber nowadays," where Marion Post Wolcott's caption reads "Concrete and steel's taking the place of lumber nowadays." Every word of the quotation is hers; only the contraction is opened out.
- Quoted captions are the photographers' own, as filed with the negative — including Russell Lee's "logging 'bust' town" for Gemmel and Winton, Minnesota, and Marion Post Wolcott's note of what a man at the Erwin, West Virginia mill told her: "It's kinder hard them times. Concrete and steel's taking the place of lumber nowadays."
- Nine frames from the FSA "T" interpositive series that would have suited this episode were dropped: the Library holds no scan of them above 560 px, which is below this channel's resolution floor.