Protecting Human Stories

William Cronon's "The Riddle of Apostle Islands" (pp. 167-177) is about protecting human stories. It's about the silliness of federal regulations, and it is against creating illusions of "wildness." I get all that, but I still find it difficult to get very worked up about the author's main thesis. And, judging by the author's own language -- "Why does this bother me so much?"-- Cronon seems to acknowledge as much. He knows people probably aren't going to care as much as he does about this topic.

I like the concept of "rewilding," and there certainly is value to making it clear that people have, for example, changed the landscape of the Apostle Islands. What we see, Cronon points out, isn't virgin wilderness. It's been "touched" by man, and there's no reason to try to imagine otherwise. In fact, clinging to the idea of the virginal can have dangerous consequences. True enough, but if I were going to visit the Apostle Islands, I'd probably be there for nature -- not for the cultural experience.

Do I care about Bill and Anna Mae Hill, and who planted the apple trees fifty years ago? Not really, but maybe that's just me. Like Cronon, I don't see the value in expunging their existence from the historical record, but I also don't see a lot of value in going out of our way to save evidence that they existed...