Review Of Paul S. Sutter's Driven Wild

Paul S. Sutter’s book Driven Wild describes the formation of the Wilderness Society and how a group of eight individuals became activists in their attempt to preserve the Nation’s wilderness. These individuals were authors, scientists, ecologists, conservationist, environmentalist, and foresters who wanted preserve the remaining natural wilderness from logging, mining, and tourism. Their main points of contention focuses more on tourism resulting from the growing availability of automobiles causing the increased need for roads, the “federal government increasingly willing to fund recreational development on the nation’s public lands,” and the growing consumerism as tourist visiting the national parks. Following the creation of the National Park Service (NPS) in 1916, there developed a growing need of Americans to get back to nature and explore the nation’s wilderness. Thanks to Henry Ford’s development of the Model “T” and the cheap cost of purchasing it, American’s utilized these automobiles to leave their urban
In his Epilogue, Sutter provides visitation numbers: Between 1916 to 1941 visitation increased from 360,000 to 21 million, by 1955 that number increased to 56 million, 1966 saw 133 million, and by 2000 over 300 million annual visitors entered the parks. Sutter adds that the increase during the 1960s to 2000 were through the efforts of the National Parks Director Conrad Wirth, who promoted the Mission 66 (1966) initiative, to spend $1 billion on modernizing park facilities and roads developed. These increased numbers prove Americans continually want to spend their recreational free-time at facilities and wilderness areas offered at national and state