David Montgomery and Conservation Activism

Preserving the Places I Paint

Way back in the summer of 1972, David Montgomery finally hiked the six miles into Wheeler Geological Area. On the Forest Service map it showed up as one section of designated land - 640 acres that had – well – geological significance.

David had seen it on the map and was intrigued having already been obsessed with “weird rocks” since childhood. The few photographs that he had seen of the area paled in comparison when he arrived at the ash formations late in the afternoon.

Massive volcanic activity starting 30 million years ago built what we now call the San Juan Mountains of southern Colorado. The eruptions continued for millions of years creating vast lava and ash flows that accumulated thousands of feet of volcanics.

The lavas and ashes were no sooner laid than water, wind and ice began to tear them down. The glaciers came and went and came again in several cycles. There, below the cap of lava flows at 12,000 feet above sea level, the buried ash and lava flows were exhumed, sculpted into fantastical shapes and configurations.

Such formations are peppered throughout these mountains, but the formations at the head of one canyon approaching timberline are unusually spectacular- they look like the ruins of some mystical city when viewed from the meadows below.

David had never seen anything like it. To him it was a prize that only those who really made the effort to get into this remote area could see and experience. It afforded an intimacy undiluted by masses of looky-loos that one runs into when visiting easy-to- get-to roadside attractions.

He fell in love.

"When I returned from my first trip to Wheeler Geological Area, I was enthralled with this stupendous place. I wondered how such a jewel had not been recognized in some way. Well, it had been recognized for quite some time.

The first mention of the area was from a government survey crew in 1859 who named the place after General George Wheeler, the man in charge of the survey program- pretty sure he never saw it. Who knows what the Ute Indians thought of the place- I would love to find out.

Its prowess as a spectacular site was cemented when it was declared a National Monument by President Teddy Roosevelt in 1903- pretty sure he never saw it either.

In the 1950's the monument was turned over to the National Forest Service because its remoteness was a real obstacle for the Park Service. In a way, it probably helped to veil the area somewhat- took it off the radar for a while.

But then the Forest Service started to eye the ancient spruce stands that surrounded the open parklands below the former monument. To sell the idea of pushing roads into the area for logging they decided to use access to Wheeler as the excuse.

Ironically, this plan was set to go into motion five years before my first visit. The Forest Service had funding cuts that curtailed the plans. The plans were still on the books when I heard about them. I was infuriated! How could they do such a thing?"

By asking this question, David entered into the world of public resources conflict. Unlike private lands, the National Forests are governed by rules and regulations which have been forged over the years and that have resulted in a mishmash of variable and sometimes conflicting goals for lands held in the public domain.

He soon found that there were many players with vested interests in resources such as trees, minerals, forage and other attributes that generated income. In direct opposition to the utilization of nature in this manner is the viewpoint that some of the natural treasures in the Rocky Mountains are best left to their own designs with natural processes controllng them -in a word, wilderness.

"The first opportunity that came up to protect Wheeler after my first trips was some legislation designed to protect areas in the West as National Wilderness Areas.

It was a bill designed to protect thousands of acres in several Western states. The United States Congress had set up hearings to discuss the areas targeted to be included in this bill and one of them was Wheeler Geological Area and the parks that surrounded it.

David found staunch and unyielding opposition to protecting any National Forest lands surrounding the mining town of Creede and even now he finds it somewhat paradoxical that some men and women living in such close proximity to the natural wonders in the mountains of the West regard them in an entirely different sense than he does.

Of course, in those days there was still some mining activity and a healthy timber industry in southern Colorado. So it was not really a surprise that many were opposed to leaving things alone. But even the sportsman; the hunters and fishermen, regarded any regulations controlling access as an affront to their way of life.

That day, as he watched person after person testify against any wilderness designation for any land, any where, any time, David realized that to protect Wheeler he would have a long, hard struggle ahead of him.

When the Endangered American Wilderness Act of 1976 was passed by Congress, Wheeler Geological Area was not a part of it. It did, however, initiate David's advocacy for protecting wildlands in southern Colorado that continues to this day.

More to come ..........

|Home |
| Hot off the Easel | Small Plein Air | Mid-Sized Paintings |
| Larger Paintings | Prints | In Collections |
| Shamanic Luminism | Walk the Talk | Awards & Recognition |
| Galleries Showing Paintings |David Montgomery's Studio | Shows |
| Newsletter | Links | Contact |