ABSTRACT
In 1934 and 1935 Robert Marshall dispatched a series of memoranda to Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes on the wilderness theme. His efforts during this period appear to be the first steps that ultimately led to the Wilderness Act. When Marshall proposed setting aside parcels of wilderness, he conceived of doing so as part of the process of democracy, with public understanding and due protection by law. During the 1960s timbermen may have pleaded the cause of dear old private enterprise in attempting to thwart rescue of a few surviving stands of redwood wilderness through the means of a new national park, but they overlooked mentioning the historic land steals by which the properties were acquired. In one 15-year period the society and the state acquired by gift and purchase some of the most cherished wilderness in New Hampshire: Crawford Notch, Sunapee, Lost River, and Grand Monadnock.
