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The Ouachita National Forest is a National Forest that lies in the western portion of Arkansas and portions of eastern Oklahoma. ==History== The Ouachita National Forest is the oldest National Forest in the southern United States. The forest encompasses , including most of the scenic Ouachita Mountains. Six locations in the forest, comprising , have been designated as wilderness areas. ''Ouachita'' is the French spelling of the Indian word Washita, which means "good hunting grounds." The forest was known as Arkansas National Forest on its establishment on December 18, 1907; the name was changed to Ouachita National Forest on April 29, 1926. Rich in history, the rugged and scenic Ouachita Mountains were first explored in 1541 by Hernando de Soto's party of Spaniards. French explorers followed, flavoring the region with names like Fourche La Fave River. The area including the forest nearly became a national park during the 1920s, but a last-minute pocket veto by U.S. President Calvin Coolidge ended the effort. The bill had been pushed by U.S. Senator Joseph T. Robinson and U.S. Representative Otis Wingo, both Democrats, and State Representative Osro Cobb, then the only Republican in the Arkansas legislature. Cobb had been invited to meet with Coolidge before the proposal was killed because of opposition from the National Park Service and the United States Department of Agriculture,〔Osro Cobb, ''Osro Cobb of Arkansas'' (Little Rock, Arkansas: Rose Publishing Company, 1989), pp. 41–44〕 presumably because of the nearby location of Hot Springs National Park. In a magazine article, Cobb describes the area that he had sought to protect for future generations, located approximately midway between Little Rock and Shreveport, Louisiana, as within relatively easy driving distance of 45 million Americans, many of whom could not afford long trips to the national parks in the western states. He compared flora and fauna in the Ouachita forest to those of the southern Alleghenies, a division of the Appalachian Mountains.〔Cobb, p. 282〕 Cobb continues:
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