Welcome to the Park of the Week Newsletter for March 28, 2024. This week we’re featuring the first national forest in the United States.
Shoshone National Forest
Location
Wyoming, United States
Claim to fame
Originally established in 1891 as part of the Yellowstone Timberland Reserve, Shoshone National Forest later became the first US national forest. It contains the oldest remaining ranger station in any US national forest–the Wapiti Ranger Station, built in 1903.
Archaeological evidence shows that people have lived in the Shoshone for at least 10,000 years. The Arapahoe, Blackfeet, Comanche, Crow, Nez Perce, Northern Cheyenne, and Sioux Tribes all utilized the area, as well as the Shoshone for whom the forest was named. The region was never heavily settled or altered by humans, however, meaning that the forest contains many of its original species and much of its natural character.
Reason to visit
Shoshone National Forest encompasses about 2.5 million acres (1 million hectares), over half of which resides in five designated wilderness areas. In designated wilderness, human development and technologies (like motorized vehicles) are heavily restricted, allowing the region to retain much of its primeval character.
Shoshone contains much to see and do. Hiking, camping, horse-riding, hunting, fishing, skiing, snowmobiling, and other recreational activities abound. The park is a scenic wonder and its wilderness areas in particular are excellent places to find solitude in nature. With over 330 wildlife species, including grizzlies and the largest population of bighorn sheep in the contiguous US, the wildlife viewing in the Shoshone is exceptional.
Shoshone National Forest is popular (with over 500,000 visitors a year) but significantly less congested and more remote than nearby Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. Its four Scenic Byways provide easy access to spectacular views and wildlife.
Wild Fact
Several glaciers in the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness–part of which lies in Shoshone National Forest–are named for the millions of grasshoppers found preserved in their ice. It is thought that these insects were struck down by storms and then encased in ice for hundreds or even thousands of years.
Many of the grasshoppers are from species that have since gone extinct, like the Rocky Mountain locust (Melanoplus spretus). This grasshopper species once flew over North America in massive swarms, one of which still reigns as the largest collection of animals ever witnessed, at an estimated 12.5 trillion insects. By 1902 the Rocky Mountain locust was extinct, probably due to agricultural practices. Some of the only remaining specimens have been found in the grasshopper glaciers of Shoshone.
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