Congress in 1964 was looking ahead to today’s problems. Urban sprawl has gobbled up much of America’s rural landscapes. Paved ribbons of asphalt and gravel roads stretch endlessly. Cars, and now dirt bikes or jet skis, can go nearly anywhere. We can’t easily escape the sounds, the smells, the sights of our civilization.

But we try. Record numbers of Americans find enjoyment in getting away. Fishing a cold, clear stream. Reading a book to the soothing chirp of birds. Picnicking with our families. Hiking with our pals. But even our national parks, like Yellowstone or Yosemite, or Grand Canyon and Olympia, are overcrowded. It just seems like there’s no place to go. No place to escape the grind and clatter of our hectic lives. To get away from it all.

President Lyndon Johnson signed this magical piece of legislation into law on September 3, 1964. Who would have thought Congress could, and would, act so wisely?

Like the system of national parks, today America has a National Wilderness Preservation System. A bunch of really wild places. Where the deer and antelope play. Where seldom is heard a discouraging word.

This land is your land.

Wilderness is open space. Wilderness is a place for horseback riding, for hunting and fishing, for canoeing and hiking. Wilderness is a natural place for wildflowers to flourish, for birds to flit about freely. It’s wildlife habitat for mountain lions and grizzly bears. It is a place where the land is pretty much like it has been since the days of the Lewis and Clark expedition.

The legal definition says that wilderness is public land, owned by you and every American, which "generally appears to have been affected primarily by the forces of nature." No roads. No buildings, except maybe old, historical trappers’ cabins. No mining operations. No logging trucks. The imprint of civilization is "substantially unnoticeable," according to the 1964 Wilderness Act.

Wilderness "has outstanding opportunities for solitude or a primitive and unconfined type of recreation." Wilderness is a challenge, big enough to get lost in, and needs to be met on its own terms, much as the old timers did, much like the pioneers experienced.