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000684 WILDERNESS: CONCEPT AND CHALLENGE BY: DONALD N. BALDWIN Reprinted from the Colorooo MIlfJBZine, Summer 1967, by permission of the State Historical Sociew of Colorado The "wilderness concept," the conservation of America's natural heritage through the preservation of wilderness areas,l was first translated into a functional plan with actual results during the period from 1919 to 1933. The source of this initiative lay within the United States Forest Service, specifically the Denver office of that Agency. The prime mover within the organization in this regard was Arthur Hawthorn Carhart, whose principal drive came not only from general conservationist sentiments but also from the orientation derived from his profession of landscape architecture. Just as Frederick Jackson Turner in 1893 had been disturbed by the foreseeable consequences of the closing of the frontier,2 there were men in the post-World War I period who found the rapid diminution in the amount of wilderness land alarming and who pointed to the need to protect the remaining superlative scenic areas for recreational use. This was a use for which the Congress had up until then allotted the Forest Service little money, and for which the Service had even fewer plans or policies; such a use seemed visionary, if not irrational, to many officials. Despite this view, the decade following World War I was epochal for the conservation movement in the United States, because it marked the beginning of an important stage in which a new brand of conservation was carried out.3 An authority on conservation has noted recently that there now exist numerous biographies and historical monographs which analyze and describe the conservation problems in our National Forests and our National Parks.4 Despite the abundance of such material, there is a dearth of literature on the topic of outdoor recreation,S particularly that phase or type of outdoor. recreation requiring "wilderness" as an essential ingredient. Although conservation organizations have published rather extensive writings on th'e subject of wilderness, there remains a wide gap in the accounts of the origin and initial application of the wilderness concept which needs to be brid9ed. The lacuna referred to is the absence of the detailed facts concerning the genesis and first applications of the wilderness concept during the period 1919-1924. These early actions began at Trappers Lake, Colorado, in 1919, setting a precedent. The second application occurred in the Superior National Forest, Minnesota, in 1921, and the third in the Gila National Forest, New Mexico, in 1924. It is the first two applications which have not previously been covered in the historical accounts of the evolution of the wilderness concept. A thorough examination of materials prepared by the Forest Service and by conservation organizations has disclosed that the available accounts begin with the third and