Throughout our history, Americans have enjoyed a kind of love/hate relationship with their wild lands. In the beginning, a stump was our symbol of progress. Click on the picture of a stump to see and hear how American attitudes about progress have changed.

Now, discover how and why American attitudes toward wilderness changed over 500 years, from early exploration to the present.

Click picture #1 to investigate changing attitudes toward wilderness in America. Print these timelines. Use a bulletin board or butcher paper to connect the timelines horizontally along a continuum that begins with a 1 for "dark, savage and sinister" and ends with a 5 for "sanctuary for the weary."

Post the timeline continuum of attitudes where everyone in the class can see it. Where do you think a 2 (barrier to progress), a 3 (useful to progress) and a 4 (useful for something other than goods and services) should be placed? Work with your classmates to add these labels (2, 3 and 4) to the timeline.

Click picture #2 to read an interactive timeline of U.S. history 1500-1800.

Click picture #3 for another interactive timeline between1876-1999.

Add any events from these timelines to your Wilderness History continuum that you believe contributed to changing American attitudes toward its wilderness.

Click picture #4 to explain America's love/hate relationship with its wild lands during the course of the nation's history. Leads to the a download of the pdf worksheet "America's Love/Hate Relationship with Wilderness".