Enduring Stories Dynamic Landscapes

To imagine what this landscape must have been like 200 years ago, visit the National Forests in what was once the Old
Northwest Territory of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. Canoe the Little Muskingum on the Wayne National Forest in southeastern Ohio. Walk under 100-foot-tall walnut, poplar, ash and beech trees in an unspoiled virgin forest in the Pioneer Mothers Memorial Forest on the Hoosier National Forest in southcentral Indiana, or float the Ohio River between historic river towns.View majestic sandstone bluffs on the Shawnee National Forest. These landmarks were notable enough for Lewis to comment on November 24, 1803: “The main shore has been generally bold . . . all day, but here putts in some high clifts the sumits of which are crowned with picth-pine & seader. . . .” Lewis was writing about the world-renowned LaRue Pine Hills Ecological Area along the Mississippi River in the Shawnee National Forest.

The rebirth of the woods in the eastern National Forests ranks as one of the most remarkable conservation achievements of this century. When you travel from Pittsburgh, down the Ohio to the Mississippi River, and up the Missouri to St. Louis, you can marvel at National Forests renewed by professional land management, nature and time.

Image caption: The Ohio River winds through classic hardwoods clothed in fall splendor. Wild turkeys thrive in the forests.