The Storied Wilderness: How to Tell the Human History of a Wild Place

Washington State University
Department of English presents

The Storied Wilderness: How to Tell the Human History  of a Wild Place

Debbie Lee, Professor, Washington State University
Dennis Baird, Professor Emeritus, University of Idaho

Friday, February 1, 2013
12:10 p.m. – 1 p.m.
WSU’s Bundy Reading Room
Avery Hall

In 2010, Debbie Lee and Dennis Baird were awarded a National Endowment for the Humanities Collaborative Research Grant to create an archive of historical documents, photos, and oral histories chronicling the human history of one of the wildest places in the lower 48 states—the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness of Idaho and Montana.

As their grant comes to an end, Lee and Baird reveal the history of this 1.3 million acre landscape that was among the first places granted wilderness designation with the Wilderness Act in 1964. Originally home to the Nimiipuu and Salish Indians, the Selway-Bitterroot has been fiercely protected by preservationists throughout the centuries. In the 1930’s Bob Marshall, founder of the Wilderness Society, invested so much energy protecting the area that it was originally supposed to bear his name.

In addition to the archive and oral histories, Lee is writing a creative nonfiction book about the region, weaving her own travels through the larger history of the place. Baird will show treasures from the new archive (such as Gifford Pinchot's diary where he talks to his dead wife in the wilderness) and Lee will read a short excerpt from her book.