9/26/14 – Wilderness Cartoon, 1962-1963
September 26, 2014
This cartoon,[i] originally printed in the Washington Daily News, was reprinted in the winter of 1962-63 in Living Wilderness, the publication of the Wilderness Society. As conservationists fought to pass the Wilderness Act, the issue of wilderness and wilderness conservation became part of mainstream conversations and media coverage. When Congress passed the law in 1964, the text of the act cited “increasing population, accompanied by expanding settlement and growing mechanization” as the reasons justifying wilderness protection, and just as the young boy in the cartoon states, the law-making body sought to conserve wilderness areas for “the American people of present and future generations.”[ii] If this boy was ten in the 1962 cartoon, then he would be in his 60s today, hiking today’s wilderness areas with his kids, enjoying mountain views, and contemplating public land management – though perhaps with a different dog.
– Naomi Heindel
Editor’s Note: From time to time, SHRA comes across fun, interesting and notable items in the archives that we think would be of interest to our readers but that don’t warrant a longer blog post. This piece is one of a series of vignettes that we hope will bring some of these discoveries to life. If you’re looking for one of our longer pieces, click on “Features” under “Categories” in the left navigation column.
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[i] “6 Pro-Wilderness Cartoons from the 1960s,” The Wilderness Society, Aug. 12, 2014
[ii] “The Wilderness Act and Related Statutory Provisions,” via www.northcascades.org