A Brief History of
the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex...

The Nation's most famed wilderness, the Bob Marshall, is named after a giant in the annals of conservation. An individual ahead of his time, Marshall helped stire America's conscience toward the need to protect our dwindling wildlands.

Born in 1901 to a wealthy New York family, he came by his values and interests through the example of his father, Louis, who in 1914 authoried language to keep the Adirondacks "forever wild".

His idols from his youngest days were Lewis and Clark and he often felt that he had been born a century too late.

It is said that by the time he was 36, he had recorded more than 200 wilderness treks of 30 miles in a single day, 51 or more than 40 miles, and several of up to 70 miles. Traveling both winter and summer under heavy pack, he perhaps knew the wilderness and it's values better than any human.

He felt that to protect wilderness, while allowing for timber harvests, required proper and sustainable forest management. He believed public ownership of the forest was necessary to accomplish that goal.

Marshall inherited a weak heart. Had he been a quiet man, perhaps his health would have held up, but his incredible physical feats soon caught up with him. In November of 1939, while enroute by train from Washington DC to New York, he passed away in his sleep at age 38, a victim of coronary thrombosis. America had lost one of it's great citizens.

Bob Marshall is credited with single-handedly adding 5.4 million acres to the nation's wilderness system.

On August 16, 1940, nearly a year after his death, the original 950,000 acre Bob Marshall Wilderness was created. Today the "Bob" comprises the Scapegoat Wilderness, the Great Bear Wilderness and the Bob Marshall Wilderness, which together covers over 1.5 million acres, encompassing an astounding 2,400 square miles.

Today, the streams and rivers here from pristine watersheds run as clear as they have for the past 10,000 years.

The Bob is at the center of the largest single ecosystem in the lower 48 states, and we're proud to be your Gateway to the Wilderness.

Come and enjoy, but leave it as you found it.