Benton MacKaye

“The railway 'opens up' a country as a site for civilization; the trailway should 'open up' a country as an escape from…

— Benton MacKaye

A period recourse into the wilds is not a retreat into secret silent sanctums to escape a wicked world, it is to…

— Benton MacKaye

Wilderness is two things-fact and feeling. It is a fund of knowledge and a spring of influence. It is the ultimate source…

— Benton MacKaye

However useful may be the National Parks and Forests of the West for those affording the Pullman fare to reach them, what…

— Benton MacKaye

“The ultimate purpose? There are three things: 1) to walk; 2) to see; 3) to see what you see.”

— Benton MacKaye

There are three things: to walk, to see, and to see what you see.

— Benton MacKaye

One function, at least, of true wilderness is to provide a refuge from the crassitudes of civilization-whether visible, intangible, audible-whether of billboard,…

— Benton MacKaye

My own doctrine of organization is that any body of people coming together for a purpose (whatever it may be) should consist…

— Benton MacKaye

For we need this thing wilderness far more than it needs us. Civilizations (like glaciers) come and go, but the mountain and…

— Benton MacKaye

The problem of living is at bottom an economic one. And this alone is bad enough, even in a period of so-called…

— Benton MacKaye