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WILDERNESS
ETIQUETTE AND REGULATIONS
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| All saddle,
pack, or draft animals must be kept on trails posted or otherwise designated
for horse use. Trails authorized for horse use are marked by brown plastic
posts with a decal depicting a horseback rider. Other areas are closed
to horse use, but hiking is allowed anywhere within the area. (See map
on reverse for trail system). |
| Trail Use Permits
are required for riding a horse on the Hoosier N. F. Permits may be
purchased as annual permits ($35/year) or day-use tags ($5/day) from
Hoosier N.F. offices and some local stores. A tag is required for each
adult rider. Horseback riders 16 years of age and younger are exempt
from the permit requirement. A permit tag is not required for foals
without a rider or pack stock. Annual permits must be signed. |
| Camping is prohibited
within 100 yards of Tower Ridge Road between Highway 446 and the junction
of Hickory Ridge Road (1500 W) and Maumee Road (1150 N). Note: Camping
is still permitted within Blackwell Horse Camp. |
| Camping within
100 feet of ponds, lakes, trails, or streams is allowed only on designated
sites. Walk-in camping throughout the rest of the wilderness area is
not restricted. |
| Parking is allowed
along Tower Ridge Road in only three locations: Blackwell Horse Camp,
Grubb Ridge Trailhead, and the Hickory Ridge Fire Tower. |
| Use of wheeled
vehicles, including carts, wagons, or bicycles, is prohibited within
the wilderness area. |
| Campsites must
be occupied the first night, and may not be left unattended for more
than 24 hours without permission. Camping is limited to 14 days. |
| The only food
or beverage containers permitted within the Wilderness are those intended
for reuse or burnable packaging. Spray paint is not allowed in the Wilderness.
Cans and glass bottles are not allowed. If you packed it in, pack it
back out. Never bury garbage. |
| Hunting is permitted
in the Wilderness. Target shooting or practicing is not allowed. |
| Stock may not
be tied within reach of any living tree. |
| Group size is
limited to 10 persons or less. |
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HISTORY
OF CHARLES C. DEAM WILDERNESS
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| IN THE BEGINNING |
| In the beginning
was the forest. It seemed to extend forever. No one knew the end of
it. It was old; ancient as the hills it covered. Those who first entered
it saw rivers and mountains, birds and beasts. The trees were vast and
countless, columns of the roof of heaven. In autumn the leaves fell
and the stars looked down through a roof of sticks. The snow sifted
down through the gray shadows. |
| Native Americans
used this area as early as 11,000 years ago. They traveled through the
area as bands of hunters, in a time when mastodons, musk oxen, and giant
bison roamed the land. The first impact of people on the land may have
been setting wildfires to drive the game from the forest. Though these
people later settled in the area with seasonal villages and grew crops
on small plots, they had little effect on the land. |
| For a long time,
the forest was undisturbed. It stemmed the onrush of the colonists from
Europe. It was a barrier of trees, mountains, and mysterious red men.
Eventually, though, the traders and adventurers came, and by 1809 the
last of the Native Americans had been forced to moved further west. |
| PIONEER ERA |
| The area which
is now the Charles C. Deam Wilderness was first settled in 1826 by the
Todd family. It was one of the last areas in Indiana to be settled because
the steep hills and narrow ridgetops were hard to clear and the poorer
soil made farming a marginal proposition. |
| Though these
were some of the finest hardwoods in the world, the government generally
sold the land for only one dollar per acre. Those who settled were usually
young couples, just starting out, and the cemeteries are filled with
their children who failed to survive the difficult life of those early
pioneers. |
| The settlers
cleared the land, built fences, and piled up long rows of rocks from
their fields. Today you can see the remnants of their work. Though now
closed, most of the 57 miles of roads mapped at the turn of the century
in the Wilderness area are still visible on ridgetops. The ability of
the land to heal is brought home when you realize less then 50 years
ago this same area had 81 small farms and every ridgetop was planted
in corn or hayfields |
| Unlike western
wilderness, the Charles C. Deam Wilderness is one that is being returned
to nature. It's a testimony to our foresight as a nation that we saw
the importance of setting aside such areas to evolve naturally. Within
the area are six cemeteries. Some day, as the scars left on the land
are healed, the gravestones of the pioneers will be the only evidence
of their lives here. It's a stark reminder of how tenuous our place
on the land can be. But for now, the scars add a certain novelty to
the area. Old roadbeds wind down ridges to homesites visible only by
the crocuses that bloom around nonexistent cabins and in rows to gates
that have been gone 20 years. |
| FOREST SERVICE
INTERVENES |
| The Forest Service
acquired the first land now within the wilderness boundary in 1935 as
abandoned, tax-delinquent farmland. The first priorities were to stabilize
erosion, rehabilitate the damaged land, and control wildfires. With
the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) program of the 1930's the Forest
Service began reforesting the hillsides. The Hickory Ridge FireTower,
a lone sentinel on the edge of the Wilderness, was constructed by the
CCC and used until recently in times of high fire danger. |
| The Charles
C. Deam Wilderness was designated by Congress in December 1982. It was
named for the first State Forester in Indiana, who was a pioneer in
the forest conservation and an author of books on the trees and flora
of Indiana. |
| Wilderness areas
such as this one have changed the definition of progress. What was considered
progress at the turn of the century, when the land was cleared and plowed,
is very different from today, when progress is seen as natural forest
reclaiming the land and a wilderness becoming a reality. |
