Wilderness

Wilderness is the America that was - wild land beyond the frontier that shaped the growth of the nation and the character of its people. After 200 years, the American frontier (except Alaska) had virtually disappeared. Railroads crisscrossed the continent, inviting settlement and industry. The rush for lands and resources led to almost unchecked development.
The late 1800's marked a turning point in the management of America's natural resources. Selected public lands were protected from uncontrolled development and reserved to benefit the nation as a whole. Lands in downtown Hot Springs, Arkansas, were set aside as a Federal Reserve as early as 1836, in an effort to protect the natural thermal springs that flowed from Hot Springs Mountain. Later, the world's first National Park at Yellowstone in 1872, exemplified this move toward conservation and protection of natural areas. The first allocation of public land specifically for protecting wilderness values was made in the Gila National Forest of New Mexico in 1924. Forty years later, the desire to protect the nation's wilderness resource was formalized with passage of the Wilderness Act in 1964