From the Monday, July 11, 2005 online edition of the Missoulian . . .
Back in 1925, a full generation before the nation's Wilderness Act was signed into law, Montana rancher and amateur geologist Winton Weydemeyer had a visionary idea.
He'd been reading articles by conservationist Aldo Leopold, championing the notion of protecting America's last untrammeled wilds, when the inspiration came.
Weydemeyer lived south of Eureka, not far from an ancient Indian trail that cut across the Whitefish Range and into the North Fork Flathead River Valley. It was the perfect spot, he figured, to put Leopold's ideas to work.
If the entire Whitefish Range - all 485,000 acres - were protected, Weydemeyer believed it would make the perfect complement to the nearby and newly designated Glacier National Park.
A full 70 years later, Weydemeyer's name has become inextricably linked with that old Indian trail, as modern efforts move forward to make at least part of his vision a reality.
Read the entire article . . .