Interesting read about Bates Wilson and his enthusiastic, sometimes unconventional, support for the "Land in Between," the land of canyons between Arches National Monument and Natural Bridges National Monument, in his role as Superintendent of both of those National Park units in the 1950s and early 1960s.

As he promoted this undesignated land he was a friend to everyone and thoroughly enjoyed introducing them to this uncharted territory with his humor and his Dutch oven cooking. As the movement to save this land gained steam, initial political struggles involved oil, uranium, and other big business; others were seeing commercial development with hotels, camping areas, gift shops, etc. But, Wilson was looking at environmental safeguards in his promotional efforts for this virgin land. After years of struggle, the maverick, Wilson, won and the "Land in Between" became Canyonlands National Park in 1964 and he was named its first Superintendent, as well as retaining his previous Arches and Natural Bridges National Monuments assignments, a role that introduced further challenges.

Bates Wilson was a dedicated National Park employee with ideas ahead of his time.

Having recently visited Canyonlands, Arches and Natural Bridges, this book was especially interesting for me and I was surprised to learn that Canyonlands was designated National Park status ahead of today's very popular Arches. ( )