Alaska: Saga of a Bold Land

by Walter R. Borneman

The creation of the Chugach and Tongass National Forests in 1907 and 1909 were the first steps in changing this ratio. The National Forest Act of 1897 and the Weeks Act of 1911 both explicitly emphasized wood production as the U.S. Forest Service’s main responsibility. Slowly, permits were issued and local sawmills erected. By 1939, twenty-four sawmills mostly in the southeast cut almost 26 million board feet, the largest of those being in Juneau, Ketchikan, Sitka, Wrangell, and Whittier. Fed by wartime demands, production from these operations peaked in 1943 at 62.6 million board feet.11 Some of this production was clear-grained Sitka spruce that was exported and found its way into the noses and wings of British De Havilland Mosquito bombers.