Review of “Arthur Carhart: Wilderness Prophet”
Arthur Carhart: Wilderness Prophet by Tom Wolf. University Press of Colorado, 2008. 295 pages, photographs, bibliography, footnotes, index. Hardcover $41.95.
I’m afraid that we in the Denver Posse of Westerners may have overlooked this book.
So here is a chance to catch up on Colorado’s environmental history. Arthur Carhart was a founding, long-time member of our Posse and Sheriff in 1948. If this review was presented only in photographs, the first one might show Carhart in 1918 with a huge pack on his back and presumably ready for a long hike. At that time he was a member of the early U.S. Forest Service and would be on his way to survey Trappers Lake in NW Colorado for recreational use. The last photo might show Carhart in 1961 in formal attire after decades of writing about hunting, fishing, and outdoor enjoyment of forest land. He would be showing a scowl perhaps because of his curmudgeonliness.
This attitude was likely brought on by his decades-long fight against the U.S. Forest Service, National Park Service, Wilderness Society, Sierra Club and Stock Growers Associations about the proper use of public lands. Carhart always maintained that public land should have road access so the public could get to and enjoy the lands. He just thought that the roads should be hidden behind tree lines, out of sight from the focal point of the scenic beauty. He considered himself to be a landscape architect and “Son of the Forest.”
He made particularly good presentations about preserving watersheds, the deleterious effects of overgrazing, the eradication of wolves and the Wilderness Act of 1964. Interesting tidbits about the development of Denver’s Park Hill neighborhood were also included. Many nationally significant conservationists, writers, organizations, and politicians are introduced to us as well as good descriptions of the economic challenges of those whose lives spanned the WWI to Vietnam War eras. Author Tom Wolf brings the largely unknown environmentalist, Arthur Carhart, to our attention in this book. If there is ever a revision, I would urge Mr. Wolf to include a map early in his presentation of Colorado places central to his story such as Squirrel Creek Recreation District, Trappers Lake, San Isabel National Forest, Frying Pan River and Echo Park.
—Dan Shannon
