Briefly describe the history of El Yunque.
In 1876, when the island was still a Spanish colony, King Alfonso XII proclaimed the forest a Crown Reserve to be regulated by the Spanish Forest Service. Then, it became one of the earliest forest reserves known to exist in the Western Hemisphere. Twenty two years later in 1898, as partial reparation for the Spanish-American War, the United States gained control of the island of Puerto Rico at the Treaty of Paris. In 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt proclaimed the 5,116 acre former Crown reserve to be the "Luquillo Forest Reserve",named after its location in the Luquillo Mountains. Initially overseen by the US Bureau of Forestry, the reserve was re-named the Luquillo National Forest in 1907 and began to be supervised by the newly organized 1905 US Forest Service, an agency of the US Department of Agriculture. Through the years the Luquillo National Forest grew larger due to land grants, donations and purchases of privately owned pieces of land. In 1935 the forest was renamed the "Caribbean National Forest" and by that time it totaled more than 20.000 acres.
After many years, in 2003 El Yunque National Forest celebrated its Centennial with year-long activities, and the installation of a 60 foot long Centennial timeline display in El Portal Rain Forest Center.What does El Yunque mean?
El Yunque can also be known as the Taino word "Yu-ke" thought by scholars to mean "White Lands".
