THE WILDERNESS ACT

Former Senator Frank Church led the fight for the Wilderness Act

In 1964, after eighteen Congressional hearings and sixty six different versions of the bill, the nation's National Wilderness System became a reality. The vote in the House of Representatives was 373 to 1. The vote in the Senate was 73 to 12.

According to The Wilderness Act, "a wilderness . . . is hereby recognized as an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain."

Idaho's U.S. Senator, Frank Church, was the bill's sponsor on the Senate floor. "If it becomes law," he said, "we will have preserved for now and for generations unborn, areas of unspoiled, pristine wilderness . . . open to the considerate use and enjoyment of all of those who find, in high and lonely places, a refreshment of the spirit, and life's closest communion with God."

In Idaho, The Selway Bitterroot Wilderness was included in the first round of wilderness designations. It would take until 1980 for the River of No Return Wilderness to become part of the nation's official wilderness.