Idaho Wilderness Hearings

Statement:

Mr. Cox. Senator McClure, I am Lafe Cox of Yellow Pine and I have lived there all of my life. I operate — my father started a dude ranch; 47 years we operated the dude ranch in Yellow Pine. We helped build up the country. I have a mine. I helped pack the miners to all of the properties. In the early days, my father and I packed ore on packhorses until the mines were profitable before roads were ever built. Grazing, I grazed my livestock and everything on the national forest in there and on my own deeded property. The Forest Service in 1932 and 1933, we packed the lookouts. That's the only way we had to get the lookouts up there to protect the timber. And we packed 16- and 18-foot lumber on horses. In 1934 I started work for the Geological Survey. I worked for Geological Survey until 1938, on the Yellow Pine, Quadrangles, Sage Crest, the Seven Devils, and Buffalo Hump, which the maps are used today.