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<br />000894
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<br />Forest Service Acting Chief, C, M, Granger, approved the elimination of Black Gore Creek
<br />from the Primitive Area on July 22, 1939. This action was taken to permit construction of
<br />the Vail Pass Highway. U. S. 6, and is now the route of Interstate 70, The modification
<br />resulted in a reduction in size for the Primitive Area to 61,275 acres gross, with 71 acres of
<br />private land included, In 1974, the Primitive Area contains 61,942 acres gross with 183
<br />acres of private land included-the slight change due to improvement in mapping,
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<br />In 1941, Holy Cross National Forest Supervisor J, V. Leighou, prepared a modified report
<br />and Management Plan for the contiguous Primitive Areas, combining them into a single unit,
<br />This was approved by Forest Service Acting Chief C, M, Granger on December 3,1941,
<br />under Regulation U-3, Classification under U-3 was an unusual, if not unique, action since
<br />during that period the Forest Service program of reclassifying L-20 Primitive Areas under
<br />the new, and more restrictive U-1 and U-2 regulations for Wilderness and Wild Areas,
<br />respectively, was proceeding, However, the Gore Range-Eagles Nest became a U-3 Primitive
<br />Area and remains so to this day, pending action by Congress to designate it as Wilderness,
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<br />The revised 1941 Management Plan noted that about 1,000 persons a year used the area,
<br />and said this use resulted in perhaps ". , ,a total of $10,000 spent in local communities
<br />adjacent to the area," adding, "It is pOSSible that recreational use of this type of area will
<br />increase and, , ,revenues will correspondingly increase." Today, the Gore Range-Eagles Nest
<br />is in the center of one of the heavier used recreation regions in the nation, Surrounded by
<br />the ski and recreational complexes near Vail and Dillion, it remains, "one of the most
<br />rugged, picturesque and inaccessible mountain ranges in Colorado," and a vital part of a
<br />balanced pattern of National Forest land use,
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