The origins of the Gifford Pinchot National Forest are firmly rooted in the national conservation movement that swept this country at the beginning of the 20th century. Working together, Gifford Pinchot, Chief of the Forest Service, and President Theodore Roosevelt set aside millions of acres of new national forest lands. In 1907 President Roosevelt established the vast Rainier National Forest along the Cascade Range in Washington. To better administer these lands, the southern portion of the Rainier became a Columbia National Forest in 1908. …Despite proximity to the urban centers of Portland and Vancouver, public use of the Columbia National Forest in 1908 was very limited. Indian peoples continued the traditional use of their summer camps in the extensive berryfields. Prospectors worked their mining claims in the Spirit Lake region with little success. Sheepherders from Klickitat County brought thousands of sheep for summer forage. Loggers from the Midwest, living in camps along the Wind River, cut timber that would be milled into lumber for houses back east.