Trigg's Ozark Tours at Shawnee National Forest (Images of America)

Today's Shawnee National Forest visitors would not recognize 1930s southern Illinois. Hills and hollows were void of trees, the rivers and creeks choked with eroded topsoil. The need for a national forest was so great that a small group of men from southeastern Illinois vowed to make it happen. Much of the responsibility for promotion fell on newspaper publisher L.O. Trigg. Beginning in 1931, the annual Trails, Tours, and Detours excursion demonstrated the great potential for outdoor recreation in the southernmost counties of Illinois. In large part due to Trigg's Ozark Tours, the National Forest Commission approved the purchase units that would become the Shawnee National Forest. Herein is the story of the Trigg Ozark Tours from 1931 through 1949, the men who went, the places they visited, and the legacy that remains today.