Wilderness advocate persuades government to protect 14 million acres

Montanans who know nothing else about Bob Marshall know about "the Bob" — the Bob Marshall Wilderness, 950,000 acres of mountainous splendor from the Rocky Mountain Front westward, named in his memory. Marshall convinced the federal government to protect 14 million acres of national forestland along with 4.8 million acres on Indian reservations. The son of a wealthy New York lawyer, he was captivated by the outdoors when he was a child. In the 1920s, Marshall worked at a U.S. Forest Service experiment station in Missoula, where he was renowned for his long tramps through the woods that now bear his name. Armed with degrees from Harvard and Johns Hopkins, Marshall wrote three books and numerous articles about the outdoors. In 1937, he was named chief of recreation for the U.S. Forest Service, using his position to inventory all roadless lands and protect as many as he could by opposing logging and roads. Marshall also fought rules forbidding blacks and Jews from camping in national forests. Because of his efforts, dude ranchers and other forest permittees were barred from discriminating on the basis of race or creed. Jewish himself and a Socialist, Marshall never married and, despite his family's wealth, never owned a house or even a car...more