The Forest of Chaux is the fifth largest forest in France. Its 20,493 hectares are located in the region of Franche-Comté on the plains west of the Jura mountains.

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You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in French. (April 2019) Click [show] for important translation instructions. View a machine-translated version of the French article. Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing French Wikipedia article at [[:fr:Forêt de Chaux]]; see its history for attribution. You may also add the template {{Translated|fr|Forêt de Chaux}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

Quick Facts French: Forêt de Chaux, Map ...

Forest of Chaux French: Forêt de Chaux
The defunct railroad station of Grand-Contour, situated within the forest
Map
Geography
Location	Jura, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, France
Coordinates	47°04′03″N 5°34′50″E
Area	204 square kilometres (79 sq mi)
Administration
Status	Dominial
Governing body	National Forests Office
Ecology
Dominant tree species	Sessile oak

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Exploitation of the forest dates back to the thirteenth century, and there is an ancient tradition of raftsmen floating timber down the Loue to the Saône and the Rhone, and thence to the Mediterranean. Today, the "Confrérie Saint Nicolas" maintains the raftsman tradition on the Loue.^{[clarification needed]}

When Franche-Comté became part of France in 1678, the Crown took possession of the Forest because of its potential for supplying timber for the Royal navy. In 1779, Louis XIV ordered the construction of the Royal Saltworks at Arc-et-Senans near the forest so that the works could use its wood to produce salt by boiling brine.