Where Roads Will Never Reach:
Wilderness and Its
Visionaries in the Northern Rockies
Frederick H. Swanson
University of Utah Press
(softcover, $24.95)
This groundbreaking book tells how citizens in Montana and Idaho successfully protected more than eight million acres of wild forests and mountains in the Northern Rockies under the Wilderness Act of 1964. These epic conservation battles were fought by hunters, anglers, outfitters, fish and game biologists, hikers and horse packers over the last sixty years, culminating in Congress designating some of the nation's most magnificent wilderness areas. From Idaho's Frank Church-River of No Return and Selway-Bitterroot wilderness areas to Montana's Bob Marshall, Scapegoat and Great Bear, the protected landscapes of the Northern Rockies safeguard some of the last strongholds of grizzly bear, mountain goat, elk, trout, salmon and steelhead. Using newly available archival sources and interviews with many of the participants, Where Roads Will Never Reach tells how ordinary people halted the federal government’s resource development juggernaut in these and dozens of other key wildland areas--work that is as important today as it was a half century ago..
Reviews:
“Outside of Alaska, the Northern Rocky Mountains are the absolute heart and soul of what’s left of primitive America. We owe a great deal of thanks to the many ordinary citizens and small handful of legislators who saved these tracts from extensive fragmentation during the frenzy of postwar industrial overdevelopment. And we owe Swanson our gratitude for telling their story in clear, direct, and readable prose.”
--James M. Glover, author of A Wilderness Original: The Life of Bob Marshall
“Swanson has captured the importance of passion and commitment by individuals and groups to the wild lands of the Northern Rockies."
--Joan Montagne, past president, Madison-Gallatin Alliance
“Without doubt the definitive history of this important subject.”
--Dennis Baird, Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness History Project
Read Doug Scott's review in High Country News
Reviews:
“Outside of Alaska, the Northern Rocky Mountains are the absolute heart and soul of what’s left of primitive America. We owe a great deal of thanks to the many ordinary citizens and small handful of legislators who saved these tracts from extensive fragmentation during the frenzy of postwar industrial overdevelopment. And we owe Swanson our gratitude for telling their story in clear, direct, and readable prose.”
--James M. Glover, author of A Wilderness Original: The Life of Bob Marshall
“Swanson has captured the importance of passion and commitment by individuals and groups to the wild lands of the Northern Rockies."
--Joan Montagne, past president, Madison-Gallatin Alliance
“Without doubt the definitive history of this important subject.”
--Dennis Baird, Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness History Project
Read Doug Scott's review in High Country News
Photo credits: (L. and R): K. Ross Toole Archives, Maureen and Mike Mansfield Library, University of Montana. (Middle): U.S. Forest Service, Northern Region Archives.