Emile Grandjean: The Danish Forester of the Sawtooths

The Grandjean area of the Sawtooth National Recreation Area takes its name from a Danish immigrant who arrived in central Idaho in eighteen eighty-three when this region was still raw frontier. Emile Grandjean had trained in forestry in Denmark before coming west to work as a trapper. He is said to have wintered in the area that now carries his name.

When Idaho achieved statehood in eighteen ninety, Grandjean was already living in this part of Idaho. He joined the Forest Service in nineteen oh five and in nineteen oh eight became the first supervisor of the Boise National Forest. It is unusual enough to have a landscape named after an immigrant forester. It is rarer still that the name comes from someone who arrived before the state existed.