The Weeks Act Story (1911)

Here’s a comic to celebrate the Weeks Act of 1911 & the origins of our National Forest system!

PRIMARY SOURCES:

The starting point for my research was the text of the Weeks Act itself:

SOURCE: The official descriptive title & text of the so-called “Weeks Act of 1911.” / 61st CONGRESS / SESSION III / CH.186 / p.961-63 [LOC.gov]

While the text of the Weeks Act did eventually inspire a song, it didn’t exactly tell a story…

To draw out a story, I based this comic on archival photographs from Plymouth State University’s online collection, “Protecting the Forests: The Weeks Act of 1911.”  These images tell a stark story of environmental collapse & conservation:

First, we see the arrival of the loggers in search of lumber;
This train ascends the Woodstock and Thornton Logging Railroad full of loggers…:

… & descends full of logs:

… leaving behind a denuded, eroded hillside:

Here’s Mt. Larabee, clearcut along an entire face:

A Mad River log drive:

… floating logs down to the mills below:

Jefferson, NH (1885) after multiple cuts:

Leftover “slash,” Upper Sabba Day Falls (1915) — a serious fire hazard!:

The Owl’s Head Fire of 1907:

An abandoned hill farm:

Enter John Wingate Weeks & his Weeks Act of 1911!: