Industrial Impacts on the Forests of the United States, 1860–1920

Abstract

T he forest was an overwhelmingly important source of raw materials for industry and for fuel in the United States during the latter half of the nineteenth and early years of the twentieth centuries. In 1865 Thomas Starr calculated that wood and its derivativespaid "more than one-half of the entire internal revenue of the United States;' Merely thirty years later, Nathaniel Egleston's further elaborate computations led him broadly to the same conclusion: "Our cars and ships are the products of the forests. The thousand tools of our various handicrafts, the machineries of our factories, the conveniencesof our warehouse, and the comfort and adornments of our dwellings are largely the product of our forests. Behind all the varied industries and conveniences of life stand the forests as their chief source and support."