The Lodge atop Mt. Prospect was the summer home of John Wingate Weeks (1860-1926), renowned as the “Father of the Eastern National Forests” and author of The Weeks Act, passed by the U.S. Congress on March 1, 1911. The act enables the government to buy privately owned land to be permanently reserved, held, and administered as national forest lands for the protection, development, and use of their natural resources. Much of the White Mountain National Forest, one of the 48 forests made possible by The Weeks Act, can be viewed from the Lodge and from the fieldstone fire tower near the Lodge.