A Pioneer of Wilderness Preservation: Arthur Carhart

"If we are to have broad-thinking men and women of high mentality, of good physique and with a true perspective on life, we must allow our populace a communion with nature in areas of more or less wilderness condition . . . Perhaps the rebuilding of the body and spirit is the greatest service derivable from our forests, for what worth are material things if we lose the character and quality of people that are the soul of America?

Arthur Carhart

Carhart was one of the early framers of the wilderness concept in America. In 1919, he surveyed a road for home-building in the White River National Forest, near Trappers Lake. Upon completion of the survey, he decided that the land should be preserved as wilderness. The Forest Service agreed, and the area was protected. The protection of Trappers Lake was the first of its kind in the history of the Forest Service. Carhart was the driving force behind recreational-use programs in national forests, first at San Isabel National Forest in Colorado and then at Superior National Forest in Minnesota.

Photos:Trapper's Lake (June 19, 2016) and Arthur Carhart

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