Harold C. Anderson was an American accountant and
wilderness
Wilderness or wildlands (usually in the plural), are natural environments on Earth that have not been significantly modified by human activity or any nonurbanized land not under extensive agricultural cultivation. The term has traditionally re ...
activist. A prominent member of the
Potomac Appalachian Trail Club (PATC) in the
Washington D.C. area from its inception, he was also a co-founder of
The Wilderness Society.
Because of his ties to the PATC, Anderson was well acquainted with
Benton MacKaye, a forester who was the first to propose the
Appalachian Trail. Anderson was especially concerned with the proposed building of
skyline
A skyline is the outline or shape viewed near the horizon. It can be created by a city’s overall structure, or by human intervention in a rural setting, or in nature that is formed where the sky meets buildings or the land.
City skylines ...
s along the Appalachian crest, something that he shared with MacKaye, who was at the time butting heads with PATC president
Myron Avery
Myron Haliburton Avery (1899–1952) was an American lawyer, hiker and explorer. Born in Lubec, Maine, Avery was a protégé of Judge Arthur Perkins and a collaborator and sometimes rival of Benton MacKaye. He was president of the Potomac A ...
on the subject. In August 1934, Anderson wrote to MacKaye of his desire to originate the country's first society dedicated to the protection of wilderness: "You and
Bob Marshall have been preaching that those who love the primitive should get together and give a united expression of their views. That is what I would like to get started."
[Fox, p. 210]
Notes
References
*Fox, Stephen. 1986. The American Conservation Movement: John Muir and His Legacy. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. .
*Sutter, Paul S. 2002. Driven Wild: How the Fight against Automobiles Launched the Modern Wilderness Movement. Seattle: University of Washington press. .
American environmentalists
Year of death missing
Year of birth missing
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