Yellowstone National Forest
Predecessor to the Bridger-Teton National Forest
Yellowstone National Forest was first established by the United States General Land Office on March 30, 1891, as the Yellowstone Park Timber Land Reserve of 1,239,040 acres (5,014.2 km2). On May 22, 1902, it became the Yellowstone Forest Reserve with lands of 6,580,920 acres (26,632.0 km2).
The reserve was first suggested by General Philip Sheridan in 1882 after a visit to Yellowstone National Park. Sheridan recommended that the park be expanded 40 miles (64 km) to the east and 10 miles (16 km) to the south. Legislation was introduced by Senator George Graham Vest to accomplish this, but it was stalled by local opposition. The American Forestry Association took up the cause, advocating for legislation that would allow the United States president to set aside lands as "forest reservations" through an executive order. President Benjamin Harrison then proclaimed the reserve, largely following Sheridan's recommendation, on March 30, 1891. Some areas on the northeast portion of the proposed reservation were excluded to allow mining in the headwaters of the Clarks Fork River. The land was, in effect, the first national forest. For the time being, it was placed under the same military administration that applied to Yellowstone Park proper.
“Yellowstone National Forest” enters the record as predecessor to the Bridger-Teton National Forest. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Yellowstone, National and Forest can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 25, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1484329. Authority coordinates are 44.600, -110.500. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1891, 1902 and 1882.
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This entry incorporates text from “Yellowstone National Forest” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.