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<br />OOfJ902 <br /> <br />The Rawah Primitive Area was one of 76 such areas existing throughout the National Forest <br />System in 1939, when the new and more restrictive "U" Regulations for Wilderness and <br />Wild Areas were issued, Regulation U.l provided for Wilderness Areas of over 100,000 acres, <br />and U.2 for Wild Areas up to 100,000 acres in size, Existing Primitive Areas were to be <br />reviewed and suitable areas reclassified under the new regulations, <br /> <br />World War II delayed the review and reclassification process, but on February 9, 1953, <br />Edward C, Crafts, Acting Chief of the Forest Service, approved the U.2 classification for the <br />Rawah Wild Area, E, H, Mason submitted the reclassification report on June 2, 1952, <br />recommending an increase in size to 26,797 acres, which was approved by Acting Regional <br />Forester J, N, Hessel on January 8, 1953. Besides the more restrictive Wild Area <br />management provisions, the reclassification action moved the boundary off ill.defined <br />section lines to more easily identified topographic features in much of the area, The slight <br />change in gross acreage between 1 952 and the present 27.464 acres is due to refinements in <br />the base maps used to calculate acreage, <br /> <br />I: <br />I <br /> <br />~ <br />, <br /> <br />The 1964 Wilderness Act provided for the Rawah Wild Area, plus some 9,000,000 acres of <br />other National Forest Wilderness and Wild Areas, to become the nucleus of the National <br />Wilderness Preservation System, Now known as the Rawah Wilderness, the area attracts <br />growing numbers of hikers and horseback travelers. Key areas, such as those near the <br />Mcintyre Lakes where Forest Supervisor William Kreutzer saw the need for three rock <br />fireplaces, now show the effect of heavy human use. The Forest Service, as a result, is <br />challenged to develop new techniques of user dispersion-hopefully based on environmental <br />education and public cooperation-so that the Rawah and other units of National Forest <br />Wilderness can remain untrammeled by man. <br /> <br />rJ <br />:1 <br /> <br />I <br />