The Blackfoot Valley's News Source Since 1980

Guest Editorial: 50 years of Scapegoat Wilderness

There is a special event happening in Lincoln Montana Sept. 16 and 17.

At Hooper Park there will be joyous celebration of the 50th anniversary of the federal legislation designating the Scapegoat Wilderness.

Wilderness is the highest form of public lands protection, this being established by The Wilderness Act of 1964. When that law was signed by Democratic President Lyndon Johnson, Montana immediately gained five Wilderness areas: The Cabinet Mountains, Bob Marshall, Anaconda-Pintler, Selway-Bitterroot and the nearby Gates of the Mountains Wildernesses.

The successful designation of the Scapegoat Wilderness required a lot of time and effort, going back to the "Lincoln Backcountry" era with its horse pack trips led by such notable characters as Tom "Hobnail" Edwards, Howard Copenhaver, Jack Hooker and Smoke Elser. These outfitters did much more than greeting clients, packing horses and mules, lifting clients up on a horse and leading the string up a trail. These guides were small business people; they were lovers of the Montana outdoors; they were authors, teachers, historians and naturalists; they were storytellers and entertainers.

Case in point: Tom Edwards had been an art and science teacher in Helena. He and his wife Helen started packing into the Lincoln Backcountry in 1947 from their Whitetail Ranch on the Kleinschmidt Flat in the North Fork of the Blackfoot River country. Tom was simply an unforgettable, extraordinary character. One of his unique talents was as an artist. His informal sketches done around campfires are Montana works of art. Around those campfires Tom would enthrall his clients with tales of the wild country. Cecil Garland described Tom this way: "He was a character who possessed a unique eloquence."

Then there's Cecil Garland. While doing an oral history project I had the privilege to interview Cecil, along with his wife Annette, at their ranch in the most remote part of Utah in 2014. Raised in the Appalachian woods of North Carolina Cecil learned to respect "the innate love of wild things" from his mother and his father taught him to hunt and fish. After serving in WW II he ended up in Lincoln where he discovered "breathtaking wild lands" that he described as "a gentle wilderness." He developed "a personal conviction to preserve Montana. I'll do that." While running a small business in town, with his then wife Barbara, he opposed extensive For-est Service road building plans in the Lincoln Backcountry that he had fallen in love with. Cecil told me, "once you build a road, it destroys it."

He led the opposition, gaining early crucial endorsement from eastern Montana's Republican Congressman Jim Battin.

Support grew, from local citizens up to Montana's distinguished US Senators Mike Mansfield and Lee Metcalf.

Cecil spoke of working with others from his store in Lincoln, drinking cheap whiskey, together drawing their proposed boundary for the future Scapegoat Wilderness. Cecil knew every watershed.

Later Congressman Jim Battin, committed to the idea of the Scapegoat, greatly increased the acreage of the Wilderness to 240,000 acres. As Cecil said to me, "There wouldn't be a Scape-goat Wilderness without Jim Battin."

1969 Congressional testimony for the Scapegoat Wilderness by Montana citizens was a major step in getting the legislation passed. Testimony by Tom Edwards was instrumental, declaring "I have harvested a self-sustaining natural resource of the forest of vast importance. No one word will suffice to explain this resource, but let us call it the hush of the land. This hush is self-sustaining, infinitely more valuable to me than money or my business." Tom went on, speaking of the ethic of Wilderness, with his opposition to road building in the land he loved, "How can we stand on that great Scapegoat Mountain looking down at its foot at bulldozers, trucks and cars...listening to the hideous noises of modern devices, trying to kid ourselves that we are enjoying the wilderness and partaking of its goodness."

Cecil was there in front of Congress testifying for the Scapegoat along with Tom Edwards.

Ultimately, as Cecil Garland told me, "we prevailed, we changed the map of Montana." He told me "no other state had as many people dedicated to Wilderness as Montana." As we wrapped up the interview Cecil told me words I will always value to keep things in proper perspective, "A lot of -isms come and go - communism, capitalism. Wilderness is tangible, set aside a Wilderness area, there will be opposition, but be not discouraged because Wilderness will survive all the -isms."

Sadly, Cecil died three days after our discussions.

In the summer of 1972 President Nixon signed the Scapegoat Wilderness legislation that had passed Congress with overwhelming support. It was a first in conservation history-a citizen initiated (as opposed to being proposed by a federal agency) Wilderness.

We can thank those people for the permanent protection afforded by the designation of the Scapegoat Wilderness. And each of us, now 50 years later, assured of the everlasting protection of those lands, can celebrate in Lincoln on September 16 & 17 with exhibits, local food, demonstrations of outdoor pursuits, guided hikes, activities for kids, listening to speakers and storytellers, pausing to reflect by looking north to the Scapegoat Wilderness and upwards to our big sky to honor the courageous spirits of people like Cecil Garland, Tom Edwards, Howard Copenhaver and others.

For details of the events please go to: http://www.scapegoat50.org.

 

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