A Love Letter To New Mexico

Arguably, American Wilderness began right here. Back in 1924, a forester and conservationist named Aldo Leopold proposed that a large mountainous region in the southern part of the state be protected as the Gila Wilderness. It became the first protected wilderness area in the country. From that initial spark, it took another 40 years for the United States Congress to pass the 1964 Wilderness Act, but they did it, and it is one of the crowning achievements of our nation.