Howard Zahniser was born on February 25, 1906, in Franklin, Pennsylvania. The son of a Free Methodist minister who changed churches every few years, he grew up in the Allegheny River region of northwestern Pennsylvania. He spent his teenage years in Tionesta, just west of what is now the Allegheny National Forest. It was here that he developed a life-long interest in nature and a love of literature. He attended Greenville College in Illinois where he received a degree in humanities. He taught school and worked as a newspaper reporter.
Zahniser wrote the first draft of the Act in 1956. An eloquent wordsmith, he chose the word "untrammeled" to characterize wilderness in the Act. Others questioned this choice, yet he was adament about its use as the right word to characterize wilderness.
"A wilderness...is hereby recognized as an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man..."
- The Wilderness Act.
To read more about Howard Zahniser, visit: http://www.wilderness.net/index.cfm?fuse=feature0504
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