Arthur carhart biography

Wolf traces Carhart's twists and turns to show a man whose voice was distinctive and contrary, who spoke from a passionate concern for the land and couldn't be counted on for anything else. Readers of American arthur carhart biography and outdoor writing will enjoy this portrait of a historic era in conservation politics and the man who so often eschewed politics in favor of the land and people he loved.

Arthur Carhart : Wilderness Prophet. Tom Wolf. One evening, after a long day of surveying, as the story goes, Carhart sat by the fire outside the tent of Paul J. Rainey, a well-known outdoorsman who ran the camp where he was staying. After several diplomatic attempts to ascertain Carhart's goal in surveying the lake, Rainey and a hunter buddy finally decided to speak their minds.

Convinced that the plan to build a road and cabins should be abandoned, he returned to Denver with a new perspective on land management. Impressed by Carhart's reasoning, Stahl accepted the plan and agreed to leave Trapper's Lake as it was. Carhart's land-planning work with the Forest Service culminated with an evaluation and recreation plan for the Superior National Forest on the Canada-Minnesota border, what is today the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.

Carhart spent weeks canoeing through the area and listening to both sides of a local debate over access and development. As with his work on Trapper's Lake, Carhart's plan once again proved controversial, if not radical, for the then conservative and utilitarian Forest Service. He recommended that the money to build roads be pulled and that the region remain accessible only by boat.

Modern environmental purists often find fault with Carhart's early wilderness thinking. His was a pragmatic and often instrumentalist view, and yet his insights into the uses and psychological value of outdoor recreation remain perceptive and important even today. He realized that Americans had a paradoxical relationship with the modern world, tearing down and building at a desperate pace while simultaneously dreaming of vacations in the forests and on the shores of quiet lakes.

Early on, he maintained strong views on the social value of wilderness and outdoor recreation. More than mere sport, recreation meant spiritual rejuvenation. He wrote, "Perhaps the rebuilding of body and spirit is the greatest service derivable from our forests, for of what worth are material things if we lose the character and quality of people that are the soul of America?

Since the bureaucracy moved slowly, Carhart began to worry about the lack of action on many of his land-planning efforts. In Decemberhe resigned his position with the Forest Service after only four years. Oddly, the agency that so frustrated him is now proud to claim him as a visionary, placing him along-side Aldo Leopold in recognition of his contributions to the development of the idea of wilderness.

Table of Contents.

Arthur carhart biography

Download Full Book Cover Download. Frontmatter Download. Contents pp. Acknowledgments pp. Bibliography pp. Partial Carhart Bibliography pp. He was one of the first to realize the importance of conservation and became a nationally recognized authority on conservation practices. Carhart was born on September 18,in Mapleton, Iowa. He was the son of George W.

His education was put to use and he was made a lieutenant as a bacteriologist and public health officer in the Sanitary Corps at Camp Mead, Maryland. He worked for the Forest Service from till as a recreation engineer. Upon completion of the survey, he decided that the land should be preserved as wilderness. Carhart later submitted a memorandum to Leopold advocating for the Forest Service to preserve areas throughout the National Forests from human development.

There are great values of this type to be found in the several forests of the Nation, which in order to return to the greatest total value to the people, not only of the Nation, but of the world should be preserved and protected from the marring features of man made constructions. These areas can never be restored to the original condition after man has invaded them, and the great value lying as it does in natural scenic beauty should be available, not for the small group, but for the greatest population.

Time will come when these scenic spots, where nature has been allowed to remain unmarred, will be some of the most highly prized scenic features of the country. The Forest Service canceled plans to build a road and summer cabins at Trappers Lake. The protection of Trappers Lake was the first of its kind in the history of the Forest Service.