ASK ANY HIKER YOU MEET IN THE BROOKS RANGE ofAlaska if he or she has heard about Bob Marshall,and I am sure you will be amazed how well known

this name is. His writing inspired many people, set a standard for conservation in northern Alaska, and ulti-mately led to the establishment of Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve, an eight-million-acre wilder-ness in the central Brooks Range of Alaska. The man later known as a great conservationist and wilderness advocate, Bob Marshall, was born in 1901. As the son of activist lawyer Louis Marshall, he inherited from his father the urge to stand for what he believed in, be it civil rights or wilderness protection (for a comprehen-sive tale of Bob Marshall’s life, see Glover, 1986). Bob grew up hiking in the Adirondack Mountains, where he developed a special sense for untamed places and the desire to keep them unspoiled. He chose forestry as a profession. In 1930 he came to Alaska for the first time and spent a winter in Wiseman, a small community on the southern slope of the Brooks Range. Back on the East Coast in 1931, he began to write about wilderness issues, deforestation, and conservation. In 1933 he became direc-tor of the division of forestry in the Bureau of Indian Affairs. In 1935, Marshall was among the principal found-ers of the Wilderness Society. Others included Aldo Leopold and Benton MacKaye, who helped establish the Appalachian Trail. A visionary in the truest sense of the word, Marshall set an unprecedented course for wilderness preservation in the United States that few have surpassed. His ideas and dreams continue to be realized long after his death at the young age of 38 in 1939 … he was among the first to suggest that large tracts of Alaska be preserved, shaped the U.S. Forest Service’s policy on wilderness designation and management, and wrote passionately on all aspects of conservation and preservation