Commemorating the 100th anniversary of the designation of the Gila Wilderness.

Whereas, on 3 June, 1924, the Forest Service set aside 755,000 acres as the Gila Wilderness;

Whereas this was the first designated wilderness in the United States of America and the world;

Whereas this designation marked the beginning of a national system of wilderness areas and helped inspire the Wilderness Act of 1964;

Whereas Aldo Leopold, a Forest Service employee in New Mexico, worked to initiate a Federal wilderness concept in the back country of the Gila National Forest;

Whereas Arthur Carhart, a Forest Service employee, argued that wilderness recreation would help to develop individual and national character;

Whereas the Apache and Mimbres people have been stewards of this land from time immemorial; and

Whereas these 100 years later, the character of the Gila remains without permanent human-built structures, protected and managed to preserve this condition, and remains a place unrestrained by human development: Now, therefore, be it