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Boise National Forest is a federally protected area that covers of the U.S. state of Idaho as part of the national forest system. Created on July 1, 1908 from part of Sawtooth National Forest, it is managed by the U.S. Forest Service in the U.S. Department of Agriculture as four units: the Cascade, Emmett, Lowman, and Mountain Home ranger districts. The Idaho Batholith underlays most of Boise National Forest, forming the forest's Boise, Salmon River, and West mountain ranges, and the forest reaches a maximum elevation of on Steel Mountain. Common land cover types include sagebrush steppe and spruce-fir forests, in addition to of streams and rivers and of lakes and reservoirs. Boise National Forest contains 75 percent of the known populations of Sacajawea's bitterroot, a species endemic to Idaho. The Shoshone people occupied what is now Boise National Forest before European settlers arrived in the early 1800s. Many of the early settlers were trappers and prospectors before gold was discovered in 1862. After the 1860s Boise Basin gold rush ended, mining of tungsten, silver, antimony, and gold continued in the forest through the mid-twentieth century. Recreation opportunities and facilities in Boise National Forest include over 70 campgrounds, whitewater and flatwater boating, cabin rentals, and of trails for hiking, biking, horseback riding, and motorized off-road vehicle use. ==History== The first people entered Idaho near the end of the last ice age in the late Pleistocene; there is evidence of human habitation up to 10–15,000 years ago at Wilson Butte Cave, which was temporarily occupied by people hunting bison on the Snake River Plain. A change of climate around 7000 years ago dried up much of the Great Basin, forcing the Shoshone people northward into the mountainous areas of central Idaho. Most of what is now Boise National Forest was sparsely inhabited by Native Americans, however several archaeological sites, including campsites, rock shelters, burial grounds, and pictographs have been found along rivers in the area.〔 Trappers and fur traders that were descendants of Europeans first arrived in the area in the early 1800s, starting with John Jacob Astor's Pacific Fur Company in October 1811. Donald Mackenzie and Francois Payette trapped in the area of Boise National Forest in 1819.〔 By 1840 the fur trade was coming to an end, but the westward migration on the Oregon Trail, which passed south of the forest, was beginning.〔 The first settlers moved into the mountains in the 1860s after gold was discovered in Idaho, which forced many of the Shoshone out and led to conflicts throughout Idaho, including the Bannock War in southern Idaho.〔 Prospectors George Grimes and Moses Splawn were the first to discover gold in the forest at the now eponymous Grimes Creek on August 2, 1862. Subsequent gold discoveries at Rocky Bar in 1863 and Atlanta in 1864 increased the rush of people to Idaho, and in 1863 Idaho City surpassed Portland, Oregon as the largest city in the Pacific Northwest with a population of 6,267. The Idaho gold rush was largely over by 1870, and the population of the Boise Basin fell from 16,000 to 3,500.〔 In 1898 the forest's first gold dredge was built in Placerville and was followed by several others. By 1951 when the last dredges shut down, at least 2.3 million ounces (65.2 million grams) of gold had been produced from the Boise Basin area.〔 Silver was mined along the Crooked River from 1882 until 1921, but a silver mine at Silver Mountain proved unsuccessful.〔 A shortage of Mercury during World War II led the mines in the Stibnite area to become the second largest producer of mercury in the country and the largest producer of tungsten.〔 The most important known placer deposit of niobium and tantalum in the United States is located in Bear Valley. From 1953 until 1959 dredges there produced $12.5 million ($ today) in niobium, tantalum, and uranium. Other minerals mined in the forest include antimony and molybdenum〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Boise National Forest」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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