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The 1920s in America

Gila Wilderness Area

by Thomas A. Wikle

At the urging of conservationist Aldo Leopold, the U.S. Forest Service designated a portion of the Gila National Forest as the world’s first official wilderness area in 1924. Leopold’s vision of a roadless recreation area was in stark contrast to then-ongoing efforts to improve road access to U.S. National Park sites, and it set a precedent that would later provide the foundation for a system of federally designated wilderness areas.

Historical records show that the Gila Wilderness was once populated by wolves, grizzly bears, river otters, and the now-extinct Merriam’s elk. The area was also home to the ancient cliff-dwelling Mogollon people and, later, the nomadic Chiricahua Apache. The region of southwestern New Mexico that contains the present-day Gila National Forest became part of the United States in 1848 under the terms of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ended the Mexican-American War. Later, when other western areas were experiencing an influx of settlers following the Civil War, the area’s rugged terrain contributed to its continued isolation. The Gila River Forest Reserve was established in 1899; in 1905, it was renamed the Gila Forest Reserve, and management was subsequently transferred to the newly established U.S. Forest Service. In 1907, the official designation changed from forest reserve to national forest.

In 1921, New Mexico forester Aldo Leopold wrote a paper called “The Wilderness and Its Place in Forest Recreational Policy.” Leopold conceived of wilderness as a relatively undisturbed natural area large enough for a “two weeks’ pack trip,” and felt that while wilderness lands should be open to hunting and fishing, they should remain free of roads, buildings, and “other works of man.”

In October 1922, Leopold submitted a plan to district forester Frank Pooler recommending the creation of a wilderness area within the Gila National Forest, in which the construction of roads and permanent buildings would be banned. Two years later, on June 3, 1924, Pooler signed a recreation management plan that set aside 755,000 acres as designated wilderness.

At the end of the decade, a sudden increase in the deer population caused Pooler to approve the construction of the North Star Mesa Road to provide better access for hunters. The road divided the Gila Wilderness, separating over 200,000 acres from the rest of the land. Legislation passed in 1980 would officially designate this land as the Aldo Leopold Wilderness Area.

Impact

The creation of the Gila Wilderness Area signified the birth of the modern wilderness movement. In 1929, the Forest Service enacted the L-20 Regulations, which would establish seventy-five protected “primitive areas,” comprising more than 14 million acres, over the next ten years. In 1964, Congress passed the Wilderness Act, making the Gila Wilderness part of the new National Wilderness Preservation System. The area now consists of nearly 560,000 acres.

Further Reading

1 

Murray, John A. The Gila Wilderness Area: A Hiking Guide. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1988.

2 

Roth, Dennis Morrow. The Wilderness Movement and the National Forests. 2d ed. College Station, Tex.: Intaglio Press, 1995.

3 

Vale, Thomas R. The American Wilderness: Reflections on Nature Protection in the United States. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2005.

Citation Types

Type
Format
MLA 9th
Wikle, Thomas A. "Gila Wilderness Area." The 1920s in America, edited by Carl Rollyson, Salem Press, 2012. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=1920_0248.
APA 7th
Wikle, T. A. (2012). Gila Wilderness Area. In C. Rollyson (Ed.), The 1920s in America. Salem Press. online.salempress.com.
CMOS 17th
Wikle, Thomas A. "Gila Wilderness Area." Edited by Carl Rollyson. The 1920s in America. Hackensack: Salem Press, 2012. Accessed December 14, 2025. online.salempress.com.