South of the Crow Indian Reservation and across the Big Horn Valley from the Shoshone National Forest lies the Bighorn National Forest, an area of more than one million acres extending eighty miles in a southeasterly direction from the Montana-Wyoming border along the Bighorn Mountains. This is a wild stretch of country where game abounds in natural haunts that have been the home of their ancestors for uncounted ages. This region was a famous hunting ground of the Sioux, Crow, and Cheyenne Indians before the coming of the white man, and was the scene of many bloody battles in early Indian campaigns. The area was named after the Indian word "ahsahta," the name given to the numerous mountain sheep that thrive in the region. (WPA)
Other Names:
Big Horn Forest Reserve
County:
Big Horn
Feature Category:
Special Features
Alternate Spellings:
Big Horn National Forest
More Reading:
History of the Bighorn National Forest and the vicinity. Conner, James F. [S.l. : s.n.], 1940.; Multiple use in the Big Horns : the story of Bighorn National Forest. Murray, Robert A. Sheridan, Wyo. : [s.n.], 1980.; Bighorn National Forest, Wyoming : a land of wealth and wonder. United States. Forest Service. Washington, D.C. Forest Service, [193?].; Rediscovering the Big Horns : a pictorial study of 75 years of ecological change. Wyoming State Historical Society. [Wyoming? : Wyoming Historical Society], 1980.; Grover Cleveland: "Proclamation 393—Withdrawl of Lands for the Big Horn Forest Reserve, Wyoming," February 22, 1897. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project.; Theodore Roosevelt: "Proclamation 475—Enlargement of the Big Horn Forest Reserve," May 22, 1902. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project.
