Arthur Carhart: Wilderness Prophet

5: Plans Must Be Big and Bold

81 Introduction: The Moral Benefits Are All Positive After his month or so at Trappers Lake, Carhart returned to Denver and Vee in mid-October 1919. There is no record of his homecoming after such a long absence or of their domestic relations during this period. During this time, however, Ella Carhart started weaving grandmother-in-waiting hints into her letters to Arthur and Vee. For the time being, there was apparently more exhilarating work: Carhart was writing. In addition to the spate of wilderness-related memos mentioned in earlier chapters, he also wrote an essay for his colleagues titled “Landscape Appreciation.” This is the sort of aesthetic effusion Aldo Leopold produced for the edification of his colleagues on the Carson National Forest—the kind of work that must have made Leon Kneipp and his fellow timber beasts guffaw : “Get a good draft working in your nostrils, smell the hot sun on the pine needles, the tangy odor of the sage, the scent of the fire weed in full bloom. Plans Must Be Big and Bold You have every reason to feel jubilant over what you have accomplished in launching the recreation associations of the San Isabel. To say that I am more than delighted is putting it mildly. E. A. Sherman to Arthur Carhart, 19201 C h a p t e r f i v e Plans Must Be Big and Bold 82 . . . Brush the dust of habit away from your eyes and see the lacery of the pine needles, the vivid coloring of the cliff or wild flower, the majesty of the peaks. In other words, take stock of the world in which you live.”2 Along with his work on recreation plans for the San Isabel, Carhart spent the rest of the winter writing an influential series of articles (under Wallace Hutchinson’s direction) for American Forestry. Carhart had little time for writing during the field season, so this series is a good indicator of his state of mind immediately after Trappers Lake. His prosaic side dwelt on sanitation. His poetic side teetered on the perilous passage from aesthetics to morality that is so familiar in Leopold’s writing. When Carhart talked about public health, he meant both spiritual and physical health, and he thought of “recreation returns” both in dollar and unquantifiable terms. These pieces appeared throughout 1920. They must have set alarm bells ringing at the National Park Service. Speaking of forest recreation, Carhart said: “The moral benefits are all positive . The individual with any soul cannot live long in the presence of towering mountains or sweeping plains without getting a little of the high moral stand of Nature infused into his being.”3 The question of competing with the National Park Service for funding always hung fire. Did Sherman and Kneipp really support Carhart strongly enough to champion his requests among so many competing demands? Would Congress fund Carhart’s work? Quite naturally for someone who was “writing for his life,” Carhart praised the Forest Service for employing landscape architects . The readers and editors of American Forestry must have liked his work, for the magazine began to publicize the value of recreational opportunities on the national forests as never before.4 In the September 1920 edition, Carhart called attention to Squirrel Creek Campground on the San Isabel. Photos celebrated the San Isabel Protection and Recreation Association’s (SIPRA’s) pioneering work in providing camping for automobile-borne tourists.5 Carhart detailed the rapid advance of auto-based tourism, and he praised both the National Park Service and the Forest Service for their foresight in accommodating such tourists ’ needs.6 Carhart even advocated consolidation of the recreation resources of the National Park Service and the Forest Service (and states and counties) under the guidance of a commission run by the American Society of Landscape Architects. He pumped the recreation value of both game and nongame species , making his claim for watchable wildlife by drawing on the figure of the Traveler at Trappers Lake.7 The stage seemed to be set for Sherman to make the case to Congress for funding Carhart’s work. Only Leon Kneipp and Stephen Mather stood in the way. Plans Must Be Big and Bold 83 The Cascade Trail Deserves Special Mention As he approached the 1920 field season, Carhart was riding tall in the saddle . Perhaps as a sign of his euphoria, Carhart arranged for Vee to spend...