Decades later the Veterans of Foreign Wars Bozeman Bulger Post of New York conducted a search for an appropriate site to honor Joyce Kilmer. The United States Forest Service helped the VFW post in finding the perfect forest and dedicated a bronze plaque embedded in a natural boulder in 1936.
The Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest (3,800 acres/15km²)is located in the Nantahala National Forest, near Robbinsville in Graham County, North Carolina. In 1975, the Memorial Forest tract was incorporated into the Joyce Kilmer-Slickrock Wilderness enabled by the National Wilderness Act. The combining of the two land tracts and expansions have created a 17,013 acre wilderness.

