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000717 MAROON BELLS - SI\lOWMASS WILDERNESS White River National Forest Originally established on February 28, 1933, as the Maroon Bells - Snowmass Primitive Area, and reclassified on May 3, 19S6, as the Maroon Bells - Snowmass Wild Area, this spectacular portion of the White River National Forest has been included in the National Wilderness Preservation System since passage of the Wilderness Act in 1964. Harold R. Borden, Supervisor of the Holy Cross National Forest, now part of the White River National Forest, proposed the establishment of the Primitive Area on April 27, 1932. The proposal and management plan were recommended in turn by Regional Forester.Allen S. Peck on February 6, 1933, and approved by Chief of the Forest Service R. Y. Stuart on February 28, 1933. ~ I 1 I According to the management plan, the Primitive Area included 62,600 acres of the rugged Elk Mountains in the Castle, Maroon and Snowmass Creek drainages, tributaries of the Roaring Fork River. The tract was recommended for Primitive Area status because in the wbrds of Borden's plan". . .it includes some of the most picturesque and interesting, as well as awe inspiring, country in the West. I ts beauties unfold, one after another, to those who care to take their pack outfits and loose themselves in the heart of the Rockies." The thousands who visited the Maroon Bells - Snowmass Wilderness in 1973 would undoubtedly agree with Supervisor Borden's enthusiasm for the area, although most visitors now travel by foot rather than horse. Freeze-dried food, rip-stop nylon, and primus stoves, have largely replaced the panners, canvas, and sheet metal stoves used by pack outfits. in Mr. Borden's day. However, his description of "The narrow valleys, with steep precipitous slopes clothed in their summer dress of wild flowers, apsen and coniferous timber, and here and there clear crystal lakes, are unsurpassed for the nature lover," is true to this day. ~ il 'I Mountain Sheep (Rocky Mountain Bighorn) were reported to summer and winter at Conundrum Hot Springs in the head of Conundrum Creek, a Castle Creek tributary. The management plan noted that". . .the sheep are so tame they can be approached in a quiet way, and observed at close range." In more recent years sheep sightings have become rare, probably due to the very heavy use of the area by hikers. No permits for hunting Mountain Sheep in the Wilderness are issued by the Colorado Division of Wildlife, and the Forest Service has found it necessary to close the area around the Hot Springs, as well as other over-used areas, to camping. The effects of the economic depression gripping the country in the early 1930's were evident in the management plan. Referring to the status of mining activity, and the patented (deeded) mining claims in the Primitive Area, it said, "Today, everything is quiet. Ashcroft, an old mining town just outside the Primitive Area on Castle Creek, was once alive with people, but is now abandoned, except for a lonely prospector on two. . . . Most of these mining patents are tax delinquent lands and eventually will probably be acquired through ~xchange."