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000720 The Rawah Primitive Area was one of 76 such areas existing throughout the National Forest System in 1939, when the new and more restrictive "U" Regulations for Wilderness and Wild Areas were issued. Regulation U-1 provided for Wilderness Areas of over 100,000 acres, and U-2 for Wild Areas up to 100,000 acres in size. Existing Primitive Areas were to be reviewed and suitable areas reclassified under the new regulations. World War II delayed the review and reclassification process, but on February 9, 1953, Edward C. Crafts, Acting Chief of the Forest Service, approved the U-2 classification for the Rawah Wild Area, E. H. Mason submitted the reclassification report on June 2, 1952, recommending an increase in size to 26,797 acres, which was approved by Acting Regional Forester J. N. Hessel on January 8, 1953. Besides the more restrictive Wild Area management provisions, the reclassification .action moved the boundary off ill-defined section lines to more easily identified topographic features in much of the area. The slight change in gross acreage between 1952 and the present 27.464 acres is due to refinements in the base maps used to calculate acreage. i I I K The 1964 Wilderness Act provided for the Rawah Wild Area, plus some 9,000,000 acres of either National Forest Wilderness and Wild Areas, to become the nucleus of the National Wilderness Preservation System. Now known as the Rawah Wilderness, the area attracts growing numbers of hikers and horseback travelers. Key areas, such as those near the Mcintyre Lakes where Forest Supervisor William Kreutzer saw the need for three rock fireplaces, now show the effect of heavy human use. The Forest Service, as a result, is challenged to develop new techniques of user dispersion-hopefully based on environmental education and public cooperation-so that the Rawilh and other units of National Forest Wilderness can remain untrammeled by man. M I, '!