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<br />003686
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<br />The original application of the wilderness concept occurred in 1919, followed by a
<br />second such step in 1921. These and other pertinent actions took place prior to and during
<br />the "incubation period" referred to by Leopold. Until July 12, 1929, when the Forest
<br />Service issued its "Regulation L-20: Primitive Areas," these areas were identified under the
<br />authority of the district foresters, and did not require the approval of the Washington
<br />Office. Thus, they were subject to no uniform management plan.1 4 Regulation L-20 gave
<br />final authority for the creation of primitive areas to the Chief of the Forest Service, and
<br />thus created the possibility of unified, nationwide protection of wilderness values in
<br />National Forests. Between 1929 and 1933, this opportunity was utilized to identify
<br />sixty-three potential primitive areas within the National Forests, and formally to establish
<br />eleven of them. 1 5 I t was not until 1939 that new regulations superseded that of 1929.1 6
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<br />Let us return now to the period just prior to the years 1919-1933 and assess the status
<br />of "recreation" in the National Forests of the United States. On the eve of World War I,
<br />Forest Service officials noted the increasing use of National Forests as playgrounds. The
<br />minutes of a Forest Supervisor's Conference held in Denver from January 29 to February 3,
<br />1917, gave significant evidence of the origin and growing awareness of the recreational uses
<br />of the National Forests among Forest Service personnel. The chairman of the conference
<br />was Smith Riley, the District Forester. At the morning session on Wednesday, January 31,
<br />O. R. Craft, the District Fiscal Agent, noted that "twelve years ago tomorrow" the Forest
<br />Service had been transferred from the Department of the I nterior to the Department of
<br />Agriculture, and that in 1905 the rank and file had little grasp of what it meant. Of one
<br />thing he seemed certain, namely that "this western country is bound to increase
<br />wonderfully in population and that means that every Forest officer must advance and keep
<br />pace with the development and need of these Forest resources. _ . :"7 Between 1917 and
<br />the end of World War I, the Forest Service made an extended examination of the existing
<br />conditions of recreation. It was concluded that the Forests should be made more accessible
<br />to visitors, and that the Forest Service should employ men suitably trained in landscape
<br />engineering.' 8
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<br />When the armistice was signed on November 11,1918, American troops became eager to
<br />return to their homes and their peacetime occupations. This group included First Lieutenant
<br />Arthur H. Carhart of the Sanitary Corps, United States Army, stationed at Camp Meade,
<br />Maryland. While still in the Washington, D. C., area in December of that year, he applied
<br />first to the National Park Service for employment as a landscape architect, but without
<br />success. Then he visited the main office of the Forest Service in the United States
<br />Department of Agriculture where he made the acquaintance of Edward A. Sherman, the
<br />Assistant Forester, who, like Carhart, was a graduate of Iowa State College.' 9
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<br />Carhart's background to 1918 had been unexceptional. He was born September 18,
<br />1892, at Mapleton, Iowa, where he was educated in the public schools. In June, 1916, he
<br />was graduated from Iowa State College with a Bachelor of Science degree in landscape
<br />architecture. When he entered the army in September, 1917, he had acquired approximately
<br />thirteen months of experience in greenhouses, nurseries, and related landscape operations,
<br />including a summer with the Shaw Botanical Garden at St. Louis, Missouri_2D
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