"The desire to categorize what lies beyond the boundary of civilization must be resisted because only insofar as we can encounter untamed wildness, that which is other than civilization, can we understand what it means to be civilized." --Michael Zimmerman
Let me begin this post by stating that the waters in which I wade here are murky at best and opaque at worst. Whole academic programs are devoted to the topic of wilderness and civilization. That stated, let's take a glance at the intersection of wilderness and civilization through the lens of cultural resources at Glacier National Park.
As a wilderness fellow, I'm expected to develop measures for the five qualities of wilderness character. So far I've developed a pretty good grip of measures. I've even got a couple for cultural and archeological resources. In tracking down the conditional statuses of the historically classified structures found in Glacier I came across an anomaly when I was cross referencing the cultural resources data with facility management data. I found a structure of historical significance that didn't show up on the park's GIS layer of buildings or in its building inventory.
The gaging station was built in 1949 as a means to supplement information about glacier variation. M.J. Elrod took the first measurements to track the glacier's recession from 1925 - 1927. He paced the distance from a specific boulder to the ice edge. George Ruhle continued the measurements until 1937 when more accurate mapping began.
In 1945 the USGS took over the glacial studies. A precipitation storage gage was put in nearer the glacier the same year the gaging station was erected. The two facilitated correlative investigations among precipitation, runoff, and glacier size variables. The gaging station was functional until 1978. Migration of the creek channel left the station removed from the stream and it was abandoned, but not removed. Some have argued that it should be removed because it sits in recommended wilderness. Maybe.
There has been a disconnect between cultural resource folks and wilderness folks in the park service. There has been persistent confusion and misunderstanding that cultural resource management and wilderness stewardship are incompatible. I'd like to highlight one of the emerging principles relating wilderness and cultural resources.
"Cultural resources can benefit wilderness areas by allowing visitors to understand and feel connected to the vital and varied relationships between people and nature" (NPS Draft Wilderness Character User Guide).
I don't know what another visitor might feel if they came across the gaging station. I know that my curiosity level surged when I discovered the discrepancy between GIS data and cultural resource inventory. I imagine that if I encountered the station while exploring the wilderness I would feel bewildered and wonder what purpose it had served. I might ponder the relationship between people and nature.
I now feel more connected to the park having gotten to the bottom of the gaging station situation. I have insight to the human-glacier relationship. The orientational quote beginning this post mentions encountering "untamed wildness" and I see the gaging station situation as a wonderful example of untamed wildness. The quote also mentions "the boundary of civilization" and I see this as a case of nested boundaries.
Despite the efforts and surveillance of the USGS, the meandering nature of a mountain stream demonstrates the inability of humanity to keep perpetual tabs on primal riparian flows. When we try to get a grip we often find that we've only scratched the surface. We go back to the drawing board for a new design. To me, this shows how people are part of the natural process. To me, we are not just surveyors of the scene. There is much to be gained from careful observation. The balance goes to integration. The space between the stream bed and the structure accounts for this relationship.
Wilderness is paradoxical and it allows us to question boundaries and the line between nature and culture. Where does wilderness end and human nature begin?
Mark Douglas
Glacier National Park
Wilderness Fellow 2012
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