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1924: Gila Wilderness Designation
On June 3, 1924, the U.S. Forest Service established a new administrative tradition
and set aside the nation's first wilderness area. With the designation of 750,000
acres of the Gila National Forest as the Gila Wilderness, the Forest Service extended
itself in a conservation direction promoted by Aldo Leopold, Arthur Carhart, and
other agency staff.
By Leopold's vision, wilderness would contain large tracts of undeveloped land and
an opportunity to step away from automobiles, asphalt, and the hurried, mechanized
lives Americans increasingly were leading.
The Gila later became one of the original areas included in the National Wilderness
Preservation System in 1964 with the passage of the Wilderness Act.
Sources:
1974 Press Release: "The Wild Gila - The Story of the Nation's First
Wilderness," U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Southwestern Region.
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