Shoshone National Forest

The Shoshone National Forest was set aside in 1891 as part of the Yellowstone Timberland Reserve, making the Shoshone the first national forest in the United States. It consists of some 2.4 million acres of varied terrain ranging from sagebrush flats to rugged mountains. The higher mountains are snow-clad most of the year. Immense areas of exposed rock are interspersed with meadows and forests. With Yellowstone National Park on its western border, the Shoshone encompasses the area from the Montana state line south to Lander, Wyoming which includes portions of the Absaroka, Wind River and Beartooth Ranges.

Brief History…
The Shoshone National Forest was set aside by proclamation of President Benjamin Harrison as the Yellowstone Park Timberland Reserve on March 30, 1891. It was the first unit of its kind created after the passage of the Act of March 3, 1891, authorizing the establishment of forest reserves—as national forests were then called—to protect the remaining timber on the public domain from destruction and to insure a regular flow of water in the streams.

The Shoshone’s historic and cultural links to the past are rich and diverse. An excavation of Mummy’s Cave on the North Fork of the Shoshone River revealed artifacts of the “Sheepeater” Indians dating back 7,500 years. The Arapahoe, Blackfeet, Commanche, Crow, Nez Perce, Northern Cheyenne, Shoshone and Sioux tribes lived, hunted, traveled, traded and fought in the area. In 1877 the great Nez Perce leader Chief Joseph led his people through the thousand-foot-deep Clarks Fork Canyon, successfully evading the U.S. Army in his running battle to reach Canada. Such mountain men as John Colter and Jim Bridger were early visitors.

The ghost town of Kirwin, an early-day mining town, is a window to the past, recalling one of the colorful eras in Wyoming’s history. The remains of tie hack flumes and cabins on the southern end of the forest are reminders of another era during which millions of railroad ties were produced.

The historic Wapiti Ranger Station in the North Fork Valley was the first ranger station built with government funds. Anderson Lodge, on the Greybull District, served as a home and workplace for A. A. Anderson, the first forest supervisor, and is listed as a National Historic Site.

Buffalo Bill was impressed with both the beauty and the hunting offered by the area. He built a hunting lodge on the forest called Pahaska Tepee and entertained numerous well known people including the Prince of Monaco. Teddy Roosevelt was equally impressed with the beauty of the area during several hunting forays.

Forest Facts…
The Shoshone consists of 2.4 million acres of varied terrain ranging from sagebrush flats to rugged mountain peaks and includes portions of the Absaroka, Wind River, and Beartooth Mountain Ranges. Elevations on the Shoshone range from 4,600 feet at the mouth of the spectacular Clarks Fork Canyon to 13,804 feet on Gannett Peak, Wyoming’s highest point. Geologists delightedly call the Shoshone’s varied topography an “open book.” Formed under tremendous heat and pressure within the earth’s interior were the granite monoliths of the Beartooth and Wind River Ranges. Born of the bubbling, spewing lava of prehistoric volcanoes was the Absaroka Range. Over aeons, wind and water have exposed strata and sculpted the rock into fascinating shapes to delight the visitor’s eye. The Shoshone is unique in the Rocky Mountains for having so many glaciers and so many different kinds, four. There are 16 named glaciers and at least 140 unnamed ones. Fifty-three of them are over 11.4 square miles, which ranks Wyoming behind only Alaska and Washington in total glacier area.

The Shoshone National Forest is more than half (nearly 1.4 million acres) designated wilderness. There are five different wilderness areas. They include the Absaroka-Beartooth, the North Absaroka, the Washakie, the PoPo Agie and the Fitzpatrick.

Some 4,900 miles of streams flow through the Shoshone, and 11,700 acres of lakes and some 51,000 acres of additional wetlands dot the forest landscape. Hundreds of alpine lakes, many above timberline, lie in rugged cirques and high valleys of the Beartooth and Wind River mountain ranges.

Wildlife on the Shoshone includes deer, elk, moose, bighorn sheep, mountain goats, grizzly and black bears, as well as numerous smaller animals, birds and cold-water fish.

The Shoshone contains 940 miles of roads and 1,528 miles of trails. Roads include the Loop Road near Lander which offers spectacular scenery, fishing, camping and trailheads into pristine wilderness. The Beartooth Highway crosses the spectacular Beartooth Plateau at nearly 11,000 feet. The Buffalo Bill Cody Scenic Byway offers superb scenery and wildlife viewing. Hikers and horseback riders enjoy trails that follow willow-lined streams through long, winding valleys and cross high alpine meadows dotted with sparkling lakes.