Lincoln National Forest is a unit of the U.S. Forest Service located in southern New Mexico. The Lincoln National Forest covers an extensive 1.1 million acres in southeastern New Mexico. Established by Presidential Proclamation in 1902 as the Lincoln Forest Reserve, the forest begins near the Texas border and contains lands in parts of Chaves, Eddy, Lincoln, and Otero counties. The Lincoln National Forest is home to three major mountain ranges: Sacramento, Guadalupe and Capitan. The three Ranger Districts within the forest contain all or part of a total of four mountain ranges, and include a variety of different environmental areas, from desert to heavily forested mountains and sub-alpine grasslands. Clean air, water, and soil are necessary elements that the National Forests contribute to the environment. Established to balance conservation, resource management, and recreation, the lands of the Lincoln National Forest include important local timber resources, protected wilderness areas, and popular recreation and winter sports areas. The forest headquarters is located in Alamogordo, N.M. with local offices in Carlsbad, Cloudcroft, and Ruidoso.
History
The land was inhabited in pre-Columbian times by the Niit'a-héõde band of the Mescalero Apache. The modern Lincoln National Forest traces its origins to several different forest reserves and national forests designated in the 1902–1908 period. These included the Lincoln Forest Reserve, a 545,256-acre area established July 26, 1902, around Capitan and Lincoln, the 78,480 acre Gallinas Forest Reserve established on November 5, 1906, in the Gallinas Mountains west of Gallinas, the Guadalupe National Forest, established April 19, 1907 in the mountains along the Texas border, and the Sacramento National Forest, created on April 24, 1907, to reserve the forested heights of the Sacramento Mountains near Alamogordo. Scattered throughout south-central New Mexico, these individual units contained lands in the Guadalupe, Sacramento, Sierra Blanca/White Mountains, Capitan and Gallinas ranges, and encompassed environments from the desert shrubs at the floor of the Chihuahuan Desert through forests of Piñon, Pine and Juniper to sub-alpine grasslands above the tree-line.
The process of integrating these individual units into a single, unified National Forest began in July 1908, when President Theodore Roosevelt signed Executive Order 908, which combined a number of national forests in the Southwestern states into larger units. The first forester was Arthur Ringland who later founded the international relief organization, CARE.Arthur Cuming Ringland One element of this order was to add the Gallinas National Forest, a tract of land around the Gallinas Mountains west of Corona, New Mexico to the existing Lincoln National Forest. Another element of Roosevelt's Executive Order that would have a great impact on the development of the Lincoln National Forest was the decision to combine the existing Guadalupe and Sacramento National Forests into the Alamo National Forest. A wholly new administrative unit, the Alamo National Forest was headquartered in Alamogordo and led by inaugural Forest Supervisor Arthur M. Neal.
Nearly nine years later, on June 6, 1917, President Woodrow Wilson signed an Executive order that transferred the lands of the Alamo National Forest to the control of the Lincoln National Forest. As a result of this order, the main elements of the Alamo National Forest, the public lands around the Sacramento and Guadalupe Mountains, were transferred to the Lincoln, greatly expanding its size. The last major change in the Forest's boundaries came in 1945, when administrative control of the former Gallinas National Forest was transferred from the Lincoln to the sprawling Cibola National Forest. Officially transferred in 1958. the Gallinas area was renamed the Mountainair Ranger District, with its headquarters in Mountainair.
The forest The modern Lincoln National Forest is composed of three separate units, the Smokey Bear Ranger District, headquartered in Ruidoso, the Sacramento Ranger District, headquartered in Cloudcroft, and the Guadalupe Ranger District, with its headquarters in Carlsbad.
Sacramento Ranger District
Originally established April 24, 1907 as the Sacramento National Forest, the heavily forested southern Sacramento Mountains, east of Alamogordo, were combined with the Guadalupe National Forest to form the Alamo National Forest in July 1908. One of the two major elements of the new forest, the former Sacramento National Forest was divided into a number of smaller ranger districts within the larger unit. These included the La Luz, Mayhill, and Weed Ranger Districts, all of which administered lands around their respective villages. On June 6, 1917, these lands became part of the Lincoln National Forest, when their parent organization, the Alamo National Forest was disestablished. As a result of this order, some areas of the former Sacramento National Forest, like La Luz Ranger District, lost their independent status, others were renamed, such as the Fresnal district, which became the Cloudcroft Ranger District, and others, like Mayhill and Weed, retained their original names and designations. In 1961, the Cloudcroft, Mayhill and Weed Ranger Districts were consolidated and given their current designation, the Sacramento Ranger District of the Lincoln National Forest.
Rising high above the gypsum sands of White Sands National Park and the city of Alamogordo, the Sacramento district encompasses much of the southern half of the Sacramento Mountains. Located immediately south of the Mescalero Apache Reservation, which covers the northern half of the mountains, the district is primarily composed of Douglas Fir, Ponderosa pine, aspen, and oak, as well as numerous creeks and waterfalls. The district is traversed east–west by that section of U.S. 82 between Artesia and Alamogordo, which goes through the villages of Cloudcroft and Mayhill. Other roads include New Mexico State Road 6563, also known as the Sunspot Scenic Byway, which runs between Cloudcroft and the village of Sunspot, and NM 244, which exits the district north of Cloudcroft and enters the Mescalero Apache Reservation.
Trestle
A heavily forested area in an otherwise arid environment, the Sacramento Mountains have long been used for timber harvesting. To expedite the transport of timber to processing facilities and markets, the Alamogordo and Sacramento Mountain Railway was constructed in 1898 by the El Paso and Northeastern Railway, a short-line railroad that connected El Paso, Texas and Alamogordo. A genuine engineering marvel, the Alamogordo and Sacramento Mountain Railway climbed 4,747 feet over 32 miles of track, and included numerous switchbacks, trestles, and grades as high as 6.4%. Though the track was removed in 1948, evidence of the railroad is visible throughout the district. The most visible remnant of the railroad is the 320-foot trestle over Mexican Canyon near Cloudcroft. Crossing 52 feet above the canyon floor the trestle can be seen from vista points on U.S. 82 and by a number of short trails beginning at the Trestle Recreation Area, a day-use facility on the western edge of Cloudcroft.
Sunspot Observatory
The high mountains of the Sacramentos are also home to the National Solar Observatory's Richard B. Dunn Solar Telescope, considered the world's premier high resolution optical solar telescope at the time of its inauguration in 1969. Located in the southern end of the district, the observatory is open to the public on a seasonal basis and can be accessed by the scenic New Mexico State Road 6563, also known as the Sunspot Scenic Byway, a two-lane paved road that travels the 15.5 miles between Cloudcroft and the village of Sunspot.
Smokey Bear District Part of the original Forest Reserve established in 1902, the modern Smokey Bear Ranger District administers lands north of Capitan and Lincoln, in the Capitan Mountains, and south of Capitan to Ruidoso, immediately east of the Sierra Blanca or White Mountains. The area was initially divided into the Baca Ranch Ranger District, renamed the Capitan District in February 1919, along the Rio Bonito north of Lincoln, and the Mesa and Ruidoso Ranger Districts further south. The Mesa and Ruidoso districts were combined in October 1929 into the White Mountain Ranger District, a designation that lasted until 1952 when both areas resumed their original names. All of these areas were combined in 1960 and given their current designation, the Smokey Bear Ranger District.
423,416 acres in size, and ranging in elevation from 5,400 to 11,580 feet in the Capitan Mountains, the Smoky Bear district embraces a number of different environments, and includes desert shrubs, forests of pinyon pine, juniper, and spruce, and high-elevation grasslands above the treeline. The area also includes the Forest's two designated Wilderness Areas and one of the two ski areas, Ski Apache near Ruidoso. The district can be reached via U.S. 70, which traverses much of the southern part of the district and passes through the village of Ruidoso. Another highway, U.S. 380, crosses a thin stretch of public lands east of Carrizozo and crosses through Capitan and Lincoln.
Smokey Bear
The Lincoln National Forest is home to Smokey Bear, found in 1950. The real-life tale of Smokey Bear is one of the most enduring stories to come out of the long history of the forest. The bear cub was rescued from the devastated forest after the Capitan Gap fire of 1950. Rescued from a burnt tree by either a New Mexico Department of Game and Fish ranger or a group of soldiers from nearby Fort Bliss seconded to fight the blaze, the cub was flown to Santa Fe by New Mexico Ranger Ray Bell for treatment of burns and other injuries.
The bear was eventually named Smokey Bear, after the Forest Service's symbol of fire safety on public lands, which had been created in 1944 by artist Harry Rossol. Now the living symbol of fire awareness and prevention, Smokey Bear was flown to the National Zoo in Washington D.C. The subject of hundreds of thousands of visitors and letters, the bear lived at the zoo until his death in 1976. Eulogized by the Washington Post as a transplanted New Mexico native with many years of government service, Smokey Bear was returned to his native land and buried near Capitan in November 1976.
Lincoln County War
Lincoln County, in which much of the district is located, was the site of the 1878–79 Lincoln County War, a complex and bloody struggle between ranchers, bankers, politicians, and hired gunmen for control of the county. One of the major events in the war took place in the village of Lincoln itself, when forces supporting Sheriff George W. Peppin besieged the house of merchant Alexander McSween over several days while soldiers from nearby Fort Stanton stood by. McSween was killed by gunfire, but a number of his supporters, known as "regulators," escaped, led from the burning building by a young tough named William Bonney, later known as the famous gunfighter Billy the Kid. The violence continued until early 1879, when Federal troops arrived to support local law enforcement in returning the area to the rule of law.
Guadalupe Ranger District
Part of a rugged and remote landscape of mountains and ridges, the 288,540 acre Guadalupe Ranger District begins at the Texas–New Mexico border and follows the spine of the Guadalupe Mountains northwest for nearly 50 miles. Originally established on April 19, 1907, as the Guadalupe National Forest, with its headquarters in Carlsbad, the area became part of the newly created Alamo National Forest in July 1908, as the Carson Seep Ranger District. When the Alamo was disestablished in June 1917, the Guadalupe area became part of the Lincoln National Forest, where it was re-designated the Guadalupe Ranger District.