April 29, 1926

President Calvin Coolidge changed the name of the Arkansas National Forest to the Ouachita National Forest. He also proposed extending the national forest into eastern Oklahoma. President Herbert Hoover fulfilled this proposal on December 3, 1930, by extending the Ouachita National Forest into Le Flore County, Oklahoma. The Arkansas National Forest was created through an executive order issued by President Theodore Roosevelt. Forest Service Chief Gifford Pinchot remarked at the time that this national forest was the only major shortleaf pine forest under the federal government’s protection.