Archives and Special Collections has a significant collection of business and organizational records documenting forestry and the forest products industry in Western Montana. Particularly noteworthy are the records of the Anaconda Forest Products Company and the Northern Montana Forestry Association, and the National Smokejumper Association collection. The smokejumpers are also represented in several oral history interview collections.

Maps, including orthophotoquads, topographics, plats, and forest health protection (pest) maps, are excellent sources of information about land use in Montana over the last 200 years. Among our rare books documenting forestry and forest products (although not specific to Montana) is Romeyn Beck Hough’s The American Woods, Exhibited by Actual Specimens and with Copious Explanatory Text (1888). Our extensive photograph collections, including the photographs of K. D. Swan, contain thousands of images supporting research into land use and the landscape in Western Montana.

Information about additional relevant photograph, manuscript, and oral history collections can be found in the Forests, Forestry, and the Timber Products Industry Collection List and by keyword searching or browsing in the Archives West database.