Black Hills National Forest Historical Collection

The Black Hills Forest Reserve, later reorganized as the Black Hills National Forest, was established by presidential proclamation on February 22, 1897. The Sundry Civil Appropriations Act of 1897, more commonly known as the Organic Act of 1897, provided the authority to create the nation's forest reserves with the stated intent being "to improve and protect the forest within the reservation, or for the purpose of securing favorable conditions of water flows, and to furnish a continuous supply of timber for the use and necessities of citizens of the United States."

Forest reserves were first managed by the General Land Office under the Department of the Interior. Responsibility was transferred to the United States Forest Service when it was founded on February 1, 1905, as an agency of the Department of Agriculture. The mission of the U.S. Forest Service is to sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of the nation's forests and grasslands to meet the needs of present and future generations. The agency manages lands for multiple uses including timber harvesting, mining, recreation activities, grazing, heritage preservation, and wildlife.

The Black Hills National Forest is exceptional for the fact it hosted the first formal timber sale in the nation administered by the federal government. Timber Case #1 was advertised on August 4, 1899. The contract was subsequently awarded to Homestake Mining Company and logging under the terms of the contract began in December of that year.

The administrative and geographic boundaries of the Forest have gone through numerous iterations since the Forest Reserve was first established in 1897. Multiple forests were designated over the years including the Bearlodge National Forest, Black Hills Forest Reserve, Black Hills National Forest, Harney National Forest, and Sundance National Forest. Each of the forests/reserves was divided into smaller districts which changed in both name and boundaries throughout the decades.

The Black Hills National Forest currently consists of four districts: Bearlodge Ranger District (Sundance, WY), Hell Canyon Ranger District (Custer, SD), Mystic Ranger District (Rapid City, SD), and Northern Hills Ranger District (Spearfish, SD). The Forest Supervisor's Office is located in Custer. The Black Hills National Forest is roughly 1.2 million acres in size.