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Angeles National Forest

The Angeles National Forest takes its name from the early California-Spanish settlement near the San Gabriel mission. The original name of the mission was "Pueblo de Nuestra Sonora, Reina de los Angeles," or the "Village of Our Lady, Queen of the Angels." This was Americanized to Los Angeles.

Initially, the Angeles National Forest was known as the San Gabriel Forest Reserve as established by presidential proclamation by Benjamin Harrison in 1892. The name was taken from a range of mountains at the western end of the Sierra Madre chain. 

In 1908 President Theodore Roosevelt ordered California's first federal forest be combined with the San Bernardino Forest and renamed the Angeles National Forest. By 1925, President Calvin Coolidge reestablished the San Bernardino National Forest as separate from the Angeles National Forest.

Cleveland National Forest

In 1893, President Harrison created the Trabuco Canyon Forest Reserve, named for a canyon within its boundaries. In 1897, President Cleveland had created the San Jacinto Forest Reserve, named after the most northerly mountains in the Peninsular Ranges and extending all the way from the San Gorgonio Pass to the international boundary with Mexico. The Trabuco Canyon and San Jacinto Reserves were combined to create the Cleveland National Forest under President Theodore Roosevelt to honor President Grover Cleveland on July 3, 1908 (retroactively to July 1.)

Eldorado National Forest

This forest is named for the county that most of the forest sits in. Eldorado is another name for the "Land of Gold". El Dorado, or the "gilded man" was a mythical king who covered himself with gold dust daily. He lived in a fabulously rich country in South America. 

Formed from parts of the Tahoe and the Stanislaus National Forests, President William Howard Taft proclaimed the Eldorado National Forest a separate unit in 1910.

Normally el dorado is two words, but the story goes that a clerk accidentally placed a small "d" directly after the "el". The Forest Supervisor apparently liked the differentiation and the one-word "Eldorado" stuck.

Inyo National Forest

From 1899 to 1901, the "East Side" of the Sierra Timber Reserve was a separate unit of the Sierra Forest Reserve. Then on May 25, 1907, President Theodore Roosevelt created the Inyo National Forest by proclamation withdrawing 221,324 acres of land along the Owens River from settlement. 

The name Inyo came from Chief George, a Paiute and leader in the Indian war, who used it to describe the White-Inyo Mountain Range. As nearly as anyone can ascertain, Inyo means "the dwelling place of a great spirit." The mountain range Chief George identified is today called the 

The original 1907 Inyo National Forest was a small area almost in the center of the present forest. A year later, one million acres of the Sierra Forest east of the Sierra Nevada in Inyo county were added.

In 1908, President Roosevelt established the Mono National Forest as a separate unit, named for Mono County and Mono Lake. Mono Lake was named by Lt. Tredwell Moore, the first recorded non-Indian in Mono Basin. He was pursuing Chief Tenaya of the Yosemite Miwok and Yokuts guide told him people on the east side were called Mono. The Mono Forest had been formed from parts of the original Inyo, Sierra, Stanislaus and Tahoe Forest Reserves east of the Sierra Nevada summit. Most of the area was first part of the Stanislaus Forest.

The forest today includes what was originally the Mono National Forest, parts of the Kern National Forest, and additional land in California and Nevada.

Klamath National Forest

This forest is named for the river which flows near the middle. Like many Indian names, the correct meaning and spelling of Klamath is obscure. The name has several different forms including Tlametl, Clamette and Clamet. The Chinooks and settlers used it to describe the Indians who lived in a village in Humboldt County. Ethnologists believe the name is a corruption of Maklaks, meaning people or community and literally the encamped. President Theodore Roosevelt created the Klamath Forest Reserve in 1905.

Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit (LTBMU)

The Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit was created in 1973 as a special forest management area in the Lake Tahoe Basin. Prior to this, the basin had been managed by three national forests (the Eldorado, Tahoe and Toiyabe) across Regions 4 and 5. Its boundary is the natural watershed drainage basin. The unit remains as an emphasis area within the National Forests Systems Lands but has not formally received designation as a national forest.

Lassen National Forest

Named for Lassen Peak and Lassen County and both named for Peter Lassen, a pioneer settler, rancher and guide who first came to California in 1840. A contemporary and former employee of John Sutter, Lassen reputedly took a band of immigrants to California over the difficult Lassen Trail in 1848. By 1859, he was killed in Black Rock country, supposedly by Indians. He is buried a few miles from Susanville with a monument to his memory.

President Theodore Roosevelt proclaimed Lassen Peak Forest Reserve in 1905. On July 1, 1908, he changed the name to Lassen National Forest and added to it parts of the Plumas, Diamond Mountain, and Shasta forests.

Los Padres National Forest

Named to honor the work of the Franciscan monks, who founded a chain of missions along the coast from 1769 to 1797. Eight of these missions are in or near the forest. The best known are in Santa Barbara and Carmel. The name was chosen to settle a long-standing argument among the six counties in which the forest is located. The conflict derived from the forest spanning a large geographical area, and each county wanted to have its name added to the forest.

The Pine Mountain and Zaca Lake Forest Reserves were added by President William McKinley in 1898. One year later, he established the Santa Inez Forest Reserve. In 1903 President Theodore Roosevelt combined these three reserves to form the Santa Barbara Reserves. This name at that time best represented the forest area. Seven years later, in 1910, the San Luis Obispo and Monterey Reserves were added to the Santa Barbara causing the chambers of commerce and county boards of supervisors to lobby for a new name. Finally, in 1936. President Franklin D. Roosevelt changed the name to the Los Padres.

Mendocino National Forest

Mendocino takes its name from Mendocino County, named for Cape Mendocino in Humboldt County. In 1542, explorer Roderiques de Cabrillo named the cape in honor of Don Antonio de Mendoza, first viceroy of New Spain. 

Originally the Mendocino Forest was called the Stony Creek Reserve, named for a stream which originated in the forest. In 1908, President Theodore Roosevelt changed the name to the California National Forest. This designation confused visitors, and President Herbert Hoover renamed it the Mendocino National Forest on July 12, 1932.

Modoc National Forest

This forest is named for the county in which the greater part of the forest sits and for a group of indigenous inhabitants, the Modoc Tribe. The Modoc and Klamath tribes both called themselves Maklaks (the people), but the Modocs distinguished themselves as Moatokni maklaks, meaning Southern People. 

Some Modocs fought at the lava beds in 1872-1873, one of the last and most-costly wars to take the West. The main battle took place at Captain Jack’s Stronghold, now part of the Lava Beds National Monument. Some Modocs did not fight and became part of the Klamath Tribes. Those who survived the war were taken to Indian Territory in cattle cars. Their descendants are now the Modoc Nation (modocnation.com/history/).

The Modoc National Forest is composed of two original units — the Warner Mountains Forest Reserve and the Modoc Forest Reserve. Both were created by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1904. Four years later, he consolidated them into the Modoc National Forest.

Plumas National Forest

El Rio de las Plumas — "the River of the Feathers" — was so named by Captain Luis Arguello, who let an expedition in 1820 and intrigued by the large number of  wildlife feathers floating on the river. The river, the county it's located, and the forest were all Americanized to Plumas.

The Plumas Forest Reserve was proclaimed by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1905. In 1908, he merged the Diamond Mountain Forest Reserve with the Plumas and called them the Plumas National Forest.

San Bernardino National Forest

This forest is named for the San Bernardino Mountains, a Spanish-named range at the eastern end of the Sierra Madre chain. On May 20, 1810 — the feast day of Saint Bernardino of Siena — a party of missionaries, soldiers and Indians led by Padre Dumetz, the last member of Junipero Sierra's band of Franciscans, entered a valley called Gauchama. Dumetz renamed it in Sierra's honor. The missionaries built a chapel there, which evolved into a town, and eventually became the city of San Bernardino.

The original San Bernardino Forest Reserve was created by President Harrison in 1893. In 1908, President Theodore Roosevelt included it in the Angeles National Forest. President Coolidge restored it as a separate National Forest in 1925.

Sequoia National Forest

Named for the 39 groves of giant sequoia, Sequoiadendron giganteum, throughout the forest. In 1847, a German botanist named Stephen Endlicher named the coastal redwood trees Sequoia sempervirens. It's thought he was honoring the Cherokee Chief Sequoya or Sikwayi, who invented a phonetic alphabet of 86 symbols for the Cherokee language. In 1854, the French botanist Joseph Decaisne applied the name to the giant sequoias, which are closely related to the coastal redwoods.

Initially, the Sequoia Forest was part of the Sierra Forest Reserve created in 1893. Because the Sierra Forest was over six million acres, the Sequoia was administered as a separate unit known. By 1910, President Taft cut off the southern half of the Sierra and proclaimed it the Kern National Forest. Five years later, President Woodrow Wilson abolished the Kern Forest, drastically reduced its lands, and designated what remained the Sequoia National Forest.

Shasta-Trinity National Forest

The Shasta National Forest, created in 1905 by President Theodore Roosevelt, is named for Mount Shasta, a 14,161 foot peak in Siskiyou County. Many theories abound for the Shasta name. The first record of the word appears in the diary of Peter Skeene Ogden, a fur trader for the Hudson Bay Company. In 1827 Ogden noted: "There is a mountain of equal height to Mt. Hood. I have named the mountain Sastice." Then the diary of John C. Fremont in 1847 mentions, " The snowy peak of Shastl bore directly north, showing out high above the other mountains." Prominent historian Hubert Howe Bancroft offered that Shasta was the name of Indians who lived near Yreka in 1840. On Americans maps of 1848, the mountain appears as "Tshastl". Whatever the origin, no one knows when the word was first used but that it stuck.

The Trinity Forest Reserve was created by President Roosevelt in 1905 and renamed a national forest in 1907. Its name comes from the river whose headwaters were almost entirely within the forest and county where the forest is located. The river was named by Spanish Captain Bruno Heceta who discovered it on Trinity Sunday, 1775.

The two forests were combined into one unit in 1954.

Sierra National Forest

As the second national forest created in California, it was also the largest at the time. It covered over six million acres of the Sierra Nevada and was about four times the average area of typical California national forests. Originally it embraced parts of eight counties from Tuolumne on the north, to Kern on the south, and Mono and Inyo on the east. 

Sierra Nevada means "snowy range of mountains" or literally "snowy saw teeth". In 1777, Pedro Font drew a map which named the Sierra Nevada for the first time.

President Harrison proclaimed the Sierra Forest Reserve on Feb. 14, 1893. Four years later, the south half became a separate unit and was named Sierra South during the "forest reserves" era. This designation was dropped after the naming transition to national forests.

Six Rivers National Forest

President Truman's June 3, 1947 proclamation to establish the Six Rivers was delayed nine months due to a naming controversy. A young national forest, the Six Rivers was composed of pieces from three existing national forests in two regions: the Siskiyou in Region 6, and the Klamath and Trinity in Region 5.

No fewer than 25 names for the new forest were considered before — somewhat by default — "Six Rivers" was settled on as a temporary moniker that stuck. "Cincos Rios" had been suggested by Peter Kyne, author of The Valley of the Giants, Cappy Ricks, and other novels set in the north coast. When a reviewer noted six, not five, major rivers existed on the new forest and California's north coast did not have a strongly Spanish influence, "Cincos Rios" was transformed into "Six Rivers".

Stanislaus National Forest

The Stanislaus Forest was named for the river whose headwaters rise within its boundaries. The Spanish explorer Gabriel Moraga was the first non-native to name the river, calling it "Our Lady of Guadalupe" during his 1806 expedition in search of inland mission sites. Later, Mexicans renamed the river in honor of an Indian leader Estanislao.

In 1828, Estanislao and a small group of Santa Clara and San Jose mission Indians failed to return after visiting the lower Stanislaus River region. When the Mexican military pursued and attempted to return them to the missions, Estanislao and his group fought three successive forays. The last one, led by Mariano Vallejo, eventually overpowered the Indians but still failed to capture Estanislao. After seven years, Estanislao surrendered. The river's name was eventually anglicized to "Stanislaus" and became well-known through John C. Fremont's account of his 1844 expedition.

The Stanislaus is among the oldest of national forests . . . created as the Stanislaus Forest Reserve on February 22, 1897. The Stanislaus Reserve was much larger than today's forest with all or parts of the present-day Tahoe, Eldorado, Sierra and Toiyabe national forests. 

Bounded by the Mokelumne River on the north, the Merced River and Yosemite National Park on the south, the Central Valley foothills on the west, and the crest of the Sierra Nevada on the east, the Stanislaus totals over 1.09 million acres.

Tahoe National Forest

Named for the famous "Lake of the Sky." While most authorities agree Tahoe is a Washoe Indian word, they remain divided on its meaning. Some contend it's a derivation of the Washoe words "Da-ow-a-ga". Europeans could not decipher the sound of an aspirated "d" which sounded more like a "t". So the shortened version became "tahoe" rather than "da-ow." 

Some historians think that it means deep and blue, while others believe it means big water, high water, or water in a high place. Mark Twain equates Tahoe's name In Roughing It with grasshoppers and grasshopper soup. John C. Fremont called Lake Tahoe "Mountain Lake". 

As for who named Lake Tahoe, the debate continues there too. Some credit the Reverend Thomas Starr King with thinking of the name. Others contend William Henry Knight, who mapped the western states in 1861, editor of Alta California newspaper J.S. Hittell,  and map maker Dr. DeGroot, got together and designated the lake "Tahoe". Supposedly DeGroot later persuaded the Department of the Interior to accept the name.

The Tahoe National Forest was formed from the Lake Tahoe Forest Reserve created by President McKinley's proclamation on April 13, 1899 and from the Yuba Forest Reserve created by President Theodore Roosevelt on November 11, 1905. On September 17, 1906 Roosevelt consolidated the Lake Tahoe Forest Reserve and the Yuba Forest Reserve into the Tahoe Forest Reserve. In 1910 the southern part of the Tahoe National Forest became the Eldorado National Forest under President Taft's proclamation.

The U.S. Forest Service is a federal agency that manages public lands in national forests and grasslands. The Forest Service is also the largest forestry research organization in the world and provides technical and financial assistance to state and private forestry agencies. 

Gifford Pinchot, the first Chief of the Forest Service, summed up the purpose of the Forest Service as "to provide the greatest amount of good for the greatest amount of people in the long run."

When and why was the Forest Service established?

Congress established the Forest Service in 1905 to provide quality water and timber for the nation's benefit. Over the years, the public has expanded the list of what they want from national forests and grasslands. Congress responded by directing the Forest Service to manage national forests for additional uses and benefits and for sustained, renewable resources such as water, forage, wildlife, wood and recreation. 

National forests are America's great outdoors. They encompass 193 million acres (about 78 million hectares) of land, or an area equal to the size of Texas. With more and more people living in urban areas, national forests are becoming more important and valuable to Americans. People enjoy the activities on national forests... including backpacking in remote, unroaded wilderness areas, mastering an all-terrain vehicle over a challenging trail, enjoying the views along a scenic byway, or fishing in a great trout stream.

What does the Forest Service do?

The job of Forest Service is to help people share and enjoy the forest, while conserving the environment for generations yet to come.

The Forest Service motto — "Caring for the Land and Serving People" — captures the spirit of our mission and our top priorities.

How does the Forest Service carry out its activities?

National Forest System: The Forest Service manages public lands, known collectively as the National Forest System, across 44 states, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. The lands comprise 8.5% of the total land area in the United States. The natural resources on these lands are some of the nation's greatest assets with major economic, environmental and social significance for all Americans.

Forest Service Research: The Forest Service provides the scientific and technical knowledge necessary to protect and sustain the nation's natural resources on all lands, providing benefits to communities and wildlife. 

State and Private Forestry: The Forest Service cooperates with state and local governments, forest industries, other private landowners and forest users in the management, protection and development of forest land in non-federal ownership. Activities include cooperation in urban interface fire management and urban forestry.

Administration: The Forest Service provides leadership, direction, and customer service in carrying out agency business and human resource programs. 

International Forestry: The Forest Service plays a key role in formulating policy and coordinating U.S. support for the protection and sound management of the world's forest resources. It works closely with other federal agencies as well as nonprofits, wildlife organizations, universities and international assistance organizations. The Forest Service's international work serves to link people and communities striving to protect and manage forests throughout the world.

Who are the people of the Forest Service?

The Forest Service has a workforce of about 30,000 employees. In the summer, the numbers increase to meet additional needs. We cover a wide range of interests in serving our communities.

More History of the U.S. Forest Service

• Pacific Southwest Region Histories
• Region 5 Oral History Project
• National Museum of Forest Service History
• Forest History Society Photograph Collection
• Standing Watch – The Ongoing Tradition of Fire Lookouts
• Archives: Windows to a Bygone Era