New Book Honors Mount Hood National Forest’s History

March 3, 2014 - PRLog -- Mount Hood National Forest is the next addition to Arcadia Publishing’s popular Images of America series. The book by author Cheryl Hill boasts more than 200 vintage images and memories of days gone by in this Oregon national forest.

In this new pictorial history images showcase Mount Hood National Forest, the closest national forest to Portland and the surrounding areas of Oregon’s Cascade Mountains and the Columbia River Gorge. The book chronicles the history from its beginnings in 1908 as the Oregon National Forest, its renaming to Mount Hood National Forest in 1924 and to its current standing as a beloved area comprised of more than a million acres.

Author Cheryl Hill, spent many hours sorting through hundreds of un-cataloged photos at the Mount Hood National Forest headquarters and culled the majority of the images from the collections of the U.S. Forest Service in order to compile this pictorial history. These images highlight the landmarks of the forest such as the historic Timberline Lodge and old Barlow Road, the final leg of the Oregon Trail. They also depict the thousands of visitors that come to the forest for camping, hiking, mountain climbing, fishing, skiing, mountain biking and other recreational pursuits. Hill states, “Millions of people visit the Mount Hood National Forest every year but many of them don’t realize what a long and varied history the forest has and how different it is now from when Oregon was first settled more than 150 years ago.”  Mount Hood National Forest will help shed light on this history and preserve it for future generations.

Highlights of Mount Hood National Forest include:

•The Mount Hood Loop Highway and its extensive and costly construction.
•Vintage images of the Skiway Tram, that once ran between Government Camp and Timberline Lodge.
•One of the first fire lookouts built in Oregon, which was built on the summit of Mount Hood in 1915,

Available at area bookstores, independent retailers, and online retailers, or through Arcadia Publishing at (888)-313-2665 or online.

Arcadia Publishing is the leading publisher of local and regional history in the United States.  Our mission is to make history accessible and meaningful through the publication of books on the heritage of America’s people and places.  Have we done a book on your town?  Visit www.arcadiapublishing.com/.