Frontier Legacy: History of the Olympic National Forest 1897 to 1960

Drawing from diary entries and work logs, official accounts, memoirs, personal reminiscences, and hundreds of photographs and reproductions, Jack Rooney provides a well illustrated history of the wild peninsula from the perspectives of the hearty individuals working on the land with the U.S. Forest Service from the late-nineteenth century through the mid-twentieth century. Over the recent centuries the Olympic Peninsula has seen immense change, yet still contains the largest and most diverse wilderness area in Washington. Rooney tells the forest's history from the designation of the Olympic Forest Reserve in 1897, through the intense industrial demand from a quickly growing local population and the impact of two world wars, the controversy around the creation of Olympic National Park in 1938, and up to the significant changes and practices introduced by the Multiple-use Act of 1960. Many of the vital, fundamental, social and environmental issues and decisions confronted a century ago still remain to be reckoned with today. Though he attributed the completion of Frontier Legacy to the many other thoughtful women and men who took photographs, contributed documentation, or simply cared and saved important maps and artifacts, Jack Rooney has made an indelible contribution to preserving the history of the Olympic National Forest and that of Olympic Peninsula.