The Gila Wilderness is one of America's great wildernesses. But its significance lies not only in its size-more than twice as vast as the next largest wilderness in New Mexico, the Pecos-but also in its creation, for it was the first area anywhere in the world set aside solely to protect its character as wilderness. It's a story worth telling.

The mountain and rolling grassland complex known as the Gila Country was first born with volcanic activity beginning 65 million years ago and later with cataclysmic volcanic eruptions that produced a huge caldera (a geologic formation created when empty magma chambers collapsed) .The vague outline of this caldera, huge in its dimensions, is visible on satellite images of the area. Portions of the caldera's rim are preserved in the Mogollon, Diablo, and Jerky Mountains within the wilderness. On the ground, evidence of this fiery birth remains in the compacted volcanic ash, known as tuff, that makes up the tawny cliffs along drainages and in the area's numerous hot springs.

Certainly these hot springs, warm springs, and lukewarm springs would have attracted early Indians, just as they attract hikers today. Of the very earliest Indians here little evidence remains, but by about 300 B.C. a culture began to emerge from the earlier Cochise Culture that would leave enduring remains. They have been labeled the Mogollon (pronounced muggy- YONE) people, and at least part of their subsistence included domesticated plants such as maize, beans, and squash, requiring at least semi-permanent dwellings. Thus, these people constructed pithouses. But around A.D. 1000 a cultural shift occurred, for reasons still open to speculation; the pottery style changed dramatically, and the people emerged from their pit houses and began living above ground, often in masonry structures wedged into alcoves high on cliffs. Remains of these dwellings are found throughout the wilderness, but they are best represented at Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument near the wilderness center.

Then they left. Around A.D. 1300 the people who had lived here for centuries, perhaps millennia, abandoned the area completely. Where they went and what became of them is still hotly debated. Even more controversial is why they left-especially as their leaving roughly coincided with the abandonment by the distinct but related Anasazi Culture to the north, whose vast territory centered on the Four Corners area. As you come upon cliff dwellings in the Gila Wilderness, spend a moment imagining people living their routine day-to-day lives here. Then imagine these people walking away from their homes with their belongings, never to return.

For whatever reason they left, they'd been long gone by the time anew people arrived in the area from the north: they spoke an Athabaskan language and called themselves N'de, "the people." We know them as Apaches. Organized into several bands, they ranged throughout southern New Mexico, Ariwna, and northern Mexico. The Gila Country was the territory of the Chiricahua and Mimbres Apaches. Geronimo said he was born near the Gila River headwaters around 1829.

The Apaches were a raiding culture, and they were fierce, formidable defenders of their territory. Not until the surrender of Geronimo in 1886 did the Apache threat to outsiders begin to subside. Until then, non-Apaches entered the Gila Country only at great peril, something that helped preserve the area's wild character. Today, the only reminders of the Apaches' presence here are place names: Apache Creek, Lookout Mountain, Indian Creek, and others.

With the Apaches gone, new settlers moved in with a vengeance. They clear-cut forests to feed a huge demand for timber; they prospected for minerals (rarely finding any in the wilderness); they grazed and overgrazed cattle; and they slaughtered wildlife. So sudden and devastating was their impact that in 1899, just 13 years after Geronimo's surrender, President McKinley withdrew the land from settlement by designating the Gila River Forest Preserve. The reserve was transferred to the newly created Forest Service in 1909, the same year young Aldo Leopold arrived in the Gila Country on his first assignment.

The story of how the Gila Country affected the thinking of Leopold, who went on to become America's foremost wilderness philosopher, is told elsewhere in this book. The Gila Country first taught Leopold to "think like a mountain," a key phrase of his, and it was here that his burgeoning philosophy first bore fruit: in 1924, stimulated by Leopold's leadership, the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture created the Gila Wilderness by executive order.

The wilderness originally encompassed 775,000 acres and included all the lands to the north and east now within the Aldo Leopold Wilderness, including much of the Black Range. The two wilderness areas became separated in 1933 after an "administrative" road was built up North Star Canyon. Since then, other acreage and boundary adjustments have occurred to create the present configuration.

Environmentalists and wilderness advocates dream of the Gila Wilderness forming the core of a vast "Sky Island" wildlands network, encompassing not only much of southwestern New Mexico but also southeastern Arizona. Such a conservation vision, they say, would be truly sustainable as a self-perpetuating wild area, a place to which long-vanished indigenous species such as the river otter, the grizzly, the Mexican wolf and the jaguar could return with viable populations. It's not an implausible dream, especially as the concept of biodiversity gains acceptance and the public recognizes the enormous economic potential of eco-tourism and outdoor recreation. Mexican wolves were first released in the Gila Wilderness in the year 200.

Lucky hikers have heard wolves howling at night in the Gila, but they still have to imagine an otter splashing as it frolics in a stream, a jaguar's scream, and a grizzly's ruckus as it scavenges wild plants in a meadow.

Even now, hikers in the Gila Wilderness aren't exactly wildlife-deprived. The area teems with wildlife: mountain lions, black bears, elk, Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep, mule and white-tailed deer, javelina, coatimundi, pronghorn, Arizona coral snake, Gila monsters, turkeys, blue grouse, common black hawks, zone-tailed hawks, northern goshawks, Mexican spotted owls, and bald eagles, among many others.

The Gila Wilderness is an exceptionally rich and diverse habitat. It has more species of deciduous trees-more than 20-than anywhere else in the West. The Chihuahua pine reaches its northern limit here, and the world's largest remain- ing virgin ponderosa forest is here. This biological diversity results, in part, from topographic diversity. Within the half-million acres are 10,000-foot summits with steep snow-catching slopes, broad rolling uplands and mesas, and deep stream-cut canyons. A hiker's dream.

Hikers can enter this vast wilderness from several points. Probably the most popular, and deservedly so, is from the south following Highway 15 north from Silver City. Don't underestimate the time it will take to drive the interminable serpentine curves of this road. And don't be impatient. Relax, enjoy the scenery. Eventually you arrive at the tiny private enclave of Gila Hot Springs, a pleasant and welcome source of gas, supplies, commercial camping, and hot springs. Nearby you'll find the Forest Service Forks and Grapevine Campgrounds. A little farther is the Gila Center and visitor center. From here it's a short drive to Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument and the Forest Service's Scorpion Campground.

Where you hike in the Gila Wilderness will depend somewhat on time of year. The area can be divided into three physiographic regions: the Mogollon Mountains, the uplands, and the canyon bottoms. The mountains attract hikers during the summer when lower-elevation trails are baking hot. The uplands, with their open ponderosa and pinon-juniper forests, are a delight in the spring when everything is green and wildflowers are blooming. The canyon bottoms are used at all times of the year except winter and during the spring runoff. These are especially enchanting in the fall when the deciduous trees and shrubs turn color-cottonwoods, willows, box elders, maples, iridescent sycamores, and scarlet Virginia creepers.

The canyon bottom trails are unquestionably the most popular, but they do demand some concessions. Foremost of these are stream crossings. Prepare for interminable stream crossings-some routes average three per mile. They'll drive you crazy if you're not physically and mentally prepared for them. Also, they limit when you can hike the route, because the crossings can be difficult and dangerous during high water. By summer the rivers generally are low enough not to pose serious prob- lems. You'll find a walking stick very helpful, and you should also wear old sneakers and keep them on until you stop or leave the streams behind.

At the bottoms of these canyons you won't have to worry about water. Nor will you have to look far for good campsites, as people for generations have camped along the rivers. But you are more likely to encounter other hikers here, and you're under greater responsibility to practice "Leave No Trace" ethics.