On the 40th anniversary of the founding of the Wilderness Medical Society (WMS), it is appropriate to take a look back as we move forward. If wilderness medicine, a specialty devoted to the austere conditions facing humanity over the centuries, is the entire history of medicine, then the WMS is the product of thousands of years of human history. 1

Quinn R.H. Rodway G.W. Foreword Auerbach P.S. Cushing T.A. Harris N.S. Auerbach’s Wilderness Medicine. 7th ed. Elsevier, Philadelphia, PA2017: xxiii-xxiv

As our perspectives on wilderness evolved over the millennia, an appreciation of wilderness emerged. By the mid-19th century wilderness was no longer the desolate and morally abandoned region noted in early Christianity. 2 The Trouble with Wilderness; or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature.

in: Cronon W. Uncommon Ground: Rethinking the Human Place in Nature. W.W. Norton and Company, New York, NY1995: 69-90

Romanticism and American transcendentalism, the product of a backlash to industrialization and the scientific revolution, led to a more recognizable version of wilderness. These movements found beauty in nature, and evidence of God’s rational plan. Wilderness was to be venerated, and its preservation was paramount.