
Maps and History of Kaibab National Forest
Historic U.S. Forest Service Maps in Northern Arizona
Introduction
The Kaibab National Forest is located in northern Arizona on the Colorado Plateau. It is separated into three divisions: the Williams Division near the City of Williams, AZ, the Tusayan Division just south of Grand Canyon National Park, and the North Kaibab Division north of Grand Canyon National Park. In the late 1800s, the land was federally protected as the "Grand Cañon Forest Reserve." Over the next 30 years, a series of land changes would divide the reserve into the Kaibab National Forest and the Grand Canyon National Park.
Kaibab National Forest & the Southwest United States
The earliest records of human presence in Northern Arizona date back 15,000 years. The plateaus and canyons are home to tribes such as the Havasupai, Hualapai, Hopi, Navajo, and Zuni, who have deep historic roots in the region. It is a unique and dynamic natural landscape of plunging canyons, old volcanic cinder cones, ponderosa pine forests, grasslands, pinyon pine, and juniper scrub.
Historic maps of the national forest, collected in this story, show how the borders and management of the Kaibab have changed over the years. In the early years of the Grand Canyon Forest Reserve, the region was mapped and its resources recorded. In the following decades, maps evolved into tools for collecting timber and fighting wildfire. These maps were the backbone of the day-to-day work of forest rangers operating in the national forest.
Grand Canyon CCC workers prepare to leave for the job site, 1934. Source: National Park Service
Forest Service Ranger, 1920 Glass Negative. Source: Library of Congress
Kaibab National Forest
Grand Canyon Rim Watch Tower. Source: Library of Congress
The Kaibab Plateau
The Kaibab Plateau is comprised of a series of tablelands, plateaus, and mesas that rest in an immense basin surrounded by highlands. Narrow stream valleys and drainage systems dissect the region, cutting deep through the rock and forming a myriad of steep-walled canyons. The rugged Colorado River carved through the plateau, creating the Grand Canyon over millions of years. Forests are found at the higher elevations of the tablelands, while the lower elevations are comprised of semi-arid desert basins.
"Major Powell, who explored the Grand Canyon in 1870, named the plateau Kaibab for a small almost extinct tribe of Indians of the Pah Ute family who were living in that vicinity. The name Kaibab is of Indian origin and means mountain lying down. Uncle Billy Crosby, who speaks the Paiute language and has been adopted into the tribe, states that the word is really Katbabits." -Walter G. Mann, Forest Supervisor of the Kaibab National Forest, 1931
Bison, 1883. Source: National Park Service
The North Kaibab Plateau, located on the north side of the Grand Canyon, is a unique forested ecosystem. Herds of bison can still be found in its grasslands.
Mixed conifer forests, sub-alpine meadows, montane grasslands, ponds, and limestone outcrops occur at the higher elevations. Native tree species include ponderosa pine with some Douglas fir, white fir, cork bark fir, and quaking aspen. Wildflowers such as fleabane, silverweed cinquefoil, purple-white owl's clover, and dune wallflower are found on the plateaus.
Waluthama, member of the Havasupai, photographed in 1899. Source: USC Libraries Special Collections
Native People & A Spiritual Home
Today, there are eleven federally recognized American Indian tribes in the Grand Canyon region: the Havasupai Tribe, Hopi Tribe, Hualapai Tribe, Kaibab Paiute, Las Vegas Paiute, Moapa Band of Paiute, Navajo Nation, San Juan Southern Paiute, Shivwits Paiute, Yavapai-Apache, and Zuni. The earliest records of settlement in the region date back 15,000 years.
A vast network of indigenous people spanned the Grand Canyon and Colorado Plateau region, uninterrupted until the arrival of Spanish explorers in the 1500s. The Spanish were the first to attempt to impose legal and religious control over the native people. For tribes like the Hualapai, whose peoples lived deeper in Grand Canyon country, initial contact did not come until the late 1700s.
By the 1850s, tribes in the Grand Canyon and Kaibab were struggling to maintain their lands and waters. Mormon settlers, cattlemen, miners, ranchers, and the railroad companies all sought to control the land. Ranching and settlements interfered with hunting and farming, forcing tribal members to relocate. The government aided in this displacement by dispersing lands to settlers and homesteaders.
Native People of the Grand Canyon Region
The Shivwits Paiute began holding Ghost Dance ceremonies in the late 1880s, sharing the tradition with the Hualapai and their other neighbors. The ceremony spread through the tribes, part of a larger resistance to land loss, assimilation, and American westward expansion.
Opposition was no match for the endless flow of ranchers, miners, and settlers. By the 1900s, the government regulated most tribes to minor contested reservations, and their children were taken to be put into Christian-sponsored boarding schools. In the following decades, the era of protection of federal lands was further used to restrict tribes' access to land in the Grand Canyon and Kaibab.
Learn more about the people who call this region home in: "The Voices of Grand Canyon"
Pictographs in Havasu Canyon, 1900. Source: USC Libraries Special Collections
Hopi pueblo on top of mesa, 1886. Source: Huntington Digital Library
US President Theodore Roosevelt, left, speaks with Chief of the United States Forest Service Gifford Pinchot, 1907. Source: Library of Congress
Federal Lands
In the General Provision Act of 1891, Congress authorized the President to designate areas of forested public land as "reserves," to set aside for future use. The "Grand Cañon Forest Reserve" was established in 1893. In 1905 President Theodore Roosevelt transferred care of the reserves to the Department of Agriculture's new U.S. Forest Service. Gifford Pinchot led the new agency as its first Chief.
Boundaries were frequently changing in the early years of reserves and national forests due to surveying and land classifications. National forests in Arizona frequently changed to parks, monuments, reservations, and back to forests. In 1909, Arizona's national forests were enlarged by land seizures from American Indian reservations. Ten years later, in 1919, the act creating the Grand Canyon National Park was approved. The government transferred more than 650,000 acres from the Kaibab and Tusayan National Forests to create the park.
Federal Lands of Northern Arizona, Present Day
History of Kaibab NF and Grand Canyon NP
February 20, 1893
The Grand Canyon Forest Reserve is established
February 1, 1905
President Theodore Roosevelt creates new United States Forest Service
January 11, 1908
Grand Canyon National Monument is established
May 22, 1908
Dixie National Forest is established
July 2, 1908
Kaibab National Forest is established
June 28, 1910
Part of the Coconino National Forest becomes the Tusayan National Forest.
February 26, 1919
Congress passes act to establish Grand Canyon National Park.
March 18, 1924
Dixie National Forest is consolidated with the Kaibab National Forest
August 4, 1934
Tusayan and Kaibab National Forests are consolidated into the Kaibab National Forest
Grand Canyon Forest Reserve
The forest was mapped the year following the creation of the Forest Service.
Grand Canyon National Monument
Boundaries change again with the designation of the national moument in 1907
Tusayan National Forest
Established in 1910, the forest would exist for 24 years before being combined with Kaibab NF.
Kaibab National Forest
A 1930 forest supervisor memorandum, attached to a 1908 Kaibab NF map, discusses the complexity of the forest boundary
A 1957 record of the changing boundaries in Kaibab NF.
The Forest Service
Winding cables for Kaibab Trail Suspension Bridge, 1928. Source: Library of Congress
The Early Years
The National Forest System expanded rapidly in its early years through presidential proclamation. With newly established Forest Service headquarters in Albuquerque, a staff of rangers began to manage 18,847,414 acres of national forests. The agency's priorities centered around grazing, fire protection, timber management, and recreation. Of these many uses, grazing and timber dominated the time and attention of early foresters in Arizona. Cattlemen and sheepherders resented any restriction of their free use of public pasture and the fees and regulations imposed by the new agency.
Anchoring cables for Kaibab Trail Suspension Bridge, 1928. Source: Library of Congress
With the passing of the New Deal and the creation of the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1933, the Forest Service and National Park workforce increased dramatically. Work camps sprang up across the United States. Most CCC workers came to the southwestern region from out east. In the southwest the population was small, but the amount of federal land and work was large. Many professional foresters that would come to work on the Kaibab began their early careers working with the CCC. Young men from coal mining towns like Scranton, Pennsylvania, learned the skills and tools needed for conservation work. The CCC also provided the needed workforce to implement widespread prevention and control of forest fires. Fire losses decreased to new lows as new trails, fire towers, and firebreaks were built. This work helped establish the Forest Service's firefighting network that was used for the coming decades.
1909 index map sheets of the newly established Grand Canyon National Monument
Harvesting Timber
Timber reconnaissance and mapping went on steadily in all of the region's forests in the early 20th century.
The establishment of the Forest Service also came with its primary objective - the protection, preservation, and harvest of the timber resources on the national forests. High on the list of projects for foresters was a systematic inventory of timber stock for the entire region. This directive came with urgency and priority from Washington headquarters. As early as 1908, it was stressed to forest supervisors that "the need to definite data as to the amount and character of timber on the forest of the southwest is imperative."
Sighting the direction of the fall and using a crosscut saw, 1924. Source: USFS
In 1881, lumberman Edward E. Ayer built a large-scale timber mill in Flagstaff and purchased logging rights in the Kaibab region. In 1887 he sold both mill and stumpage rights to the Arizona Lumber Company, which expanded the operation and built a logging railroad to harvest the timber south of Flagstaff in the Coconino region and north on the Kaibab Plateau. Other major lumber companies in the region included the Saginawand Manistee Lumber Co. from Michigan, the William M. Cady Lumber Co. from Louisiana, and the Southwest Forest Industries. These companies built and operated steam-powered sawmills and logging railroads that climbed to the pine stands of the high Colorado plateau. They shipped the finished timber products to markets in California or the plains states.
Comparing historic timber reconnaissance maps to current satellite imagery can illustrate how forest boundaries and composition have changed in the last 100 years.
Fighting Wildfire
With the creation of the Forest Service in 1905, an era of fire suppression began. Forest rangers were tasked with managing newly established forests, and this management necessitated fire protection and wildfire control. The federal government started setting aside national forest reserves as early as 1891 to protect timber supplies - including protection from fire. Rangers took this responsibility seriously, and fire suppression efforts would continually evolve over the following century.
Civilian Conservation Corps fire fighting crew, 1937. Source: US Forest Service
In 1911, the federal government and the states established a framework for coordinated firefighting. The Forest Service offered financial incentives to states to fight fires, and the agency came to dominate and direct the nation's fire policy.
Prevent Forest Fires: It Pays
Fires were (and still are) frequent in the forests of Arizona. The paramount responsibility of early rangers was fire protection and control. Early fire fighting equipment was simple. Axes, shovels, hatchets, and rakes were distributed to thrown-together fire crews whenever a new start was spotted. These crews would include day laborers, ranch hands, mill workers, tribe members, and available workers. Rangers and crews suppressed fires by building a "fire line" to contain the burn.
Fire guards staffed lookout towers, located at strategic points, and reported all smoke and fire to forest rangers, providing an early detection system for wildfires.
The record-breaking, extreme wildfires in the Summer of 1910 galvanized local and national Forest Service leaders. Forest administrators believed that having enough men and equipment could stop future destruction. The agency enacted a policy of total fire suppression, believing they could prevent such extreme fires from occurring again. The Forest Service Chiefs that served from 1920 to 1938 were all men who fought the 1910 fires, leading to the establishment of the "10 a.m. policy." The policy, passed in 1935, decreed that "every fire would be suppressed by 10 a.m. the day following its report."
It wasn't until much later in the 20th century that the Forest Service began to regard fires as beneficial to forest development. Incidents such as the Yellowstone Fires of 1988 illustrated how nearly a century of total fire suppression dramatically increased the severity and intensity of wildfires.
On the right: 1926 Map of Fire Hazards on the Kaibab NF
Forest Fire Control in the United States report, 1941
Fire fighting equipment and procedures continued to improve, particularly during the period between the two world wars. Bulldozers allowed crews to contain fires rapidly, and the introduction of airplanes brought smokejumpers faster and further into forests. With these new technologies, the Forest Service could fight fire anywhere on the landscape and did so aggressively. Rangers also began to organize and train firefighters into better-established crews, creating an early firefighting network that could control fires across the country.
These early southwest crews would often travel to other states to assist with the containment of large fires. By 1929, fire crews frequently flew to Montana, Washington, and Oregon to lend their expertise and experience to fire fighting efforts. The 1930s saw a considerable reduction in fire loss due to the efforts of the Forest Service and a greater public awareness of fire prevention. From 1935 to 1940, an average of 1,648 fires per year in Arizona were reported. These fires burned some 21,162 acres - far less than other western states.
On the right: 1926 Map of Fire Lookout Tower Visibility Extent on the Kaibab NF
In 1927 Rangers kept careful records of wildfires, recording their location, class, and cause. Nearly 100 years later, the National Interagency Fire Center holds a similar record in GIS format.
1949 US forest Service map of Kaibab NF, with handwritten notes showing popular recreation attractions and routes.
Life on the Ranger District
The day-to-day life of a early forest ranger often consisted of surveying, grazing supervision, overseeing timber cutting contracts, fire protection, and forest inspections. A ranger's salary was $75 to $90 per month, which was used to buy a uniform, support themselves, and maintain a string of at least three horses. A ranger's daily outfit usually consisted of a sombrero, blue shirt, denim jacket, and pair of "Levi Strausses" work pants. Rangers also had to maintain a formal uniform, although this wasn't used while working in the forest. Arizona's forests, mountains, and plateaus in the early 20th century were a horseman's territory. The region was too vast for walking, and there were few roads and even fewer automobiles. Those early roads that did exist were too rough even for wagons. Rangers had to ride to work, and caring for their animals was a significant part of the job. A good ranger was a good horseman with a good saddle. From that saddle, they were on top and in charge.
A Century of Maps
Timber site, 1933. Source: UC Berkeley Library
Mapping the National Forests
Comprehensive surveying began in the Grand Canyon area as early as 1850, undertaken during expeditions into the region. As the government transferred land to federal management in the early 1900s, new survey and index maps were created to show updated borders. The Forest Service conducted inventories and reconnaissances in the new national forests. Typewritten reports and photographs accompanied survey maps that showed history, location, area, topography, settlements, and grazing allotments.
"Reconnaissance work consists of making an estimate of all timber and making a map of the country as we go over it... The method is rough. It consists of going once through each 40-acre subdivision. The maps made in the field are of course just a rough sketch. They include the location of all streams, trails, roads, timber lines, fences, and the topography is put in by contours. Area covered by reconnaissance last year was 65,000 acres. By the reconnaissance system, a green man can do surprisingly accurate cruising." - Aldo Leopold, 1910
The Forest Service established field methods for conducting reconnaissance mapping. Sections of divided land, running either north to south or east to west, were assigned to a surveyor for two days of work. The surveyor made one sample and a visual estimate per quarter of a quarter-section. Reconnaissance included a map of essential topographic features and the number of thousand board feet for each species that could yield lumber. At the end of the workday, surveyors transferred maps to a reconnaissance section plat. When a plat was completed, it was sent to the District Forester.
Early Forest Service maps of the Kaibab region. The first map of the new Grand Canyon National monument created in 1907. Rangers' later maps utilized in a Forest Atlas - showing transportation, boundaries, and recreation.
Brafford Washburn, right, with National Geographic cartographer Tibor Tóth as they work on the Grand Canyon map, 1975. Source: National Geographic
Grand Canyon Cartography
The need for maps of the Grand Canyon region beyond Forest Service reconnaissance grew as the park and forests increased in popularity with tourists and visitors. In 1969, world-renowned explorer and photographer Bradford Washburn grew frustrated that no high-quality, large-scale map existed for the area, and committed to making one himself. Working with National Geographic, Washburn ordered aerial imagery, and he and his wife, Barbara Washburn, set up a survey network throughout the canyon. Many of the survey points were too challenging to reach on foot, so hired helicopters flew them to remote sites in the canyon.
On top of Dana Butte in the Grand Canyon, Bradford Washburn uses a theodolite to measure the horizontal and vertical angles between two points in the Grand Canyon. His wife, Barbara, sits next to him, recording data. 1970. Source: National Geographic
“The Heart of the Grand Canyon” map, 1978. Source: National Geographic
It took eight years of planning, fieldwork, analysis, drafting, painting, and negotiating to create Washburn's "The Heart of the Grand Canyon" map. Washburn worked closely with the Swiss Federal Office of Topography and Tibor Tóth, a Swiss-trained cartographer who worked forNational Geographic. Tóth spent over a thousand hours hand drawing and painting the map. Included in the 1978 issue of National Geographic and reaching millions of readers worldwide, the map became the gold standard of the region's cartography.
Learn more about the life of Barbara and Bradford Washburn in Barbara's own words .
Mapping Today
With technologies like GPS and GIS, modern digital mapping has supplanted the traditional field surveying methods of the Forest Service. Digital services allow faster data collection and more efficient storage, and satellite imagery has changed how forests are monitored.
Digitizing 20th-century Forest Service maps allows comparing historical borders, fires, and timber stands to current imagery. These maps can have an extended life as historical documents and educational tools.
1910 Tusayan National Forest map overlaid on a modern satellite imagery elevation model.
Additional Resources
Data
The Forest Service maps used in this StoryMap are georeferenced and available to the public here .
Citations
Baker, R. D., Timeless Heritage: A History of the Forest Service in the Southwest (1988). Washington, D.C.; U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Forest Service. Available at https://www.fs.usda.gov
Krakoff, Sarah, Not Yet America's Best Idea: Law, Inequality, and Grand Canyon National Park (February 20, 2020). 91 University of Colorado Law Review 559 (2020), U of Colorado Law Legal Studies Research Paper No. 20-3, Available at : https://ssrn.com