In the Great Apache Forest is the true story of 17-year-old white settler George Crosby who being too young to serve his country in France during World War I becomes a member of the forest service in Arizona, where he encounters troublesome outlaws and helps to rout them with the help of a Hopi boy and his tribal elders. The Apache National Forest covered most of Greenlee County, Arizona southern Apache County, Arizona, and part of western Catron County, New Mexico. It was a rare, untouched place, far from the nearest railroad, and boasted grizzly bears, black bears, mule deer and Mexican whitetail deer, and wild turkeys and blue grouse in great numbers.