Enos Mills · Citizen of Nature

Enos Mills (1870-1922) was the quintessential voice of the Rocky Mountains in the early decades of the twentieth century and achieved national fame as a naturalist and nature writer, conservation pioneer, lecturer, and mountain adventurer. He was often ranked with the two great naturalists he most admired: John Muir and John Burroughs. Mills campaigned widely in defense of unspoiled nature and its creatures, stressing their inseparability from a whole and healthy human civilization. Most famous as an apostle of national parks and a key player in the young park movement, he nevertheless deeply distrusted institutions and clashed violently with both the Forest Service and Park Service bureaucracies. Enos Mills: Citizen of Nature is the first full-length examination of Mills and his work, an incisive account of a complex, controversial, and often difficult man who touched millions of lives in his time and whose legacy has vivid relevance today. Four final chapters examine Mills's modern significance as a romantic adventurer seeking to give life "poetic intensity" and as a naturalist, writer, founder of outdoor education, and conservation activist. This long-needed biography brings Mills into clear focus as a participant in the development of several fields of endeavor and in the drama of the developing West. In all he did, Mills worked passionately for what we call today "reconnection" with our natural heritage. As in the reintegrated world he longed for, all living things shared in the bounty and harmony of cooperative citizenship.