Constructing the Myth of the Wilderness: Examining the Process of Creating Conservation Reserves from Agricultural Land

Danielle Schmidt-Larios, UW Madison

That there are pockets of land left “untouched” or “pristine,” for the subsequent (recreational) enjoyment of people otherwise disengaged from these landscapes is sometimes referred to as the “myth of wilderness.” Aiming to save or recreate wildernesses first mischaracterizes millennia of human-nature relationships and second perpetuates an illusion that humans can be absolved of their impacts on land – for better or worse. Since brought into mainstream focus by William Cronon in the 1990s, the myth of wilderness has proved to be a foundational lens through which environmental sociologists and other social scientists investigate nature conservation. Yet, the myth of the wilderness did not spontaneously appear; rather, it has been constructed over time. In this chapter, I outline how conservation policies across the two Gilded Ages have contributed to constructing the myth of the wilderness. I suggest that in the first Gilded Age (1870-1900) two distinct, though overlapping conservation strategies emerged: the well-known Yellowstone Model and what I propose as the Pelican Island Model. I trace how these models morph over time, from the New Deal Era and the war period to the environmental movement until the New Gilded Age (1980s-present), which, through neoliberal pushbacks, shifts the myth. The analysis is grounded in two case studies: one in the Upper Missouri River Breaks of northeastern Montana and the other in the Kickapoo Valley in the Wisconsin Driftless Region. Findings aim to, in part, explain why the emergence of conservation reserves are not random or coincidental but instead rooted in historical sociopolitical processes.

No extended abstract or paper available

 Presented in Session 134. Comparative-Historical Environmental Sociology Part Two: Modernity and its Others