ABSTRACT
Forests were both friend and foe to the early settlers in Missouri. Missouri forests were an excellent source of lumber and railroad supplies for both the Great Plains and the eastern markets. The lumbermen who entered Missouri in the years following the Civil War were pioneers primarily looking for profits. Large-scale lumbering was inaugurated when railroads were extended into the forests of the Ozarks and Southeast Lowlands, providing easy and low-cost transportation for bulky lumber products. The last of the lumber rafts floated down the Ozark streams and the southeastern swamps were drained to make the land suitable for agriculture. Timber companies sold their cutover land to development companies, ushering in an era of land speculation. The era of forest management dates from the 1930s, when national forests were established and the Missouri Department of Conservation was created.
