Spin Control: A book saved Alpine Lakes wilderness area, former governor Evans recalls

Dan Evans – former governor, former senator, former Boy Scout and lifelong conservationist – was waiting by a tree on the trail above a creek swollen with spring runoff headed for the Wenatchee River when he told the story of how the Alpine Lakes Wilderness area was saved by a book.

Armed with two collapsible hiking poles and a stout pair of hiking shoes, Evans had outpaced the rest of the group of casual hikers from the Mainstream Republican Conference, even though at 93 he was the oldest in the party. The three dozen or so people had left the conference in nearby Leavenworth for a chance to catch a glimpse of the wilderness area with the man who helped usher it into existence. But they were somewhere down the trail, out of sight and earshot.

Ingalls Creek below was rushing high and white with snowmelt from the Cascades. Evans was at a waiting point next to a tree with a carved wooden sign proclaiming “Alpine Lakes Wilderness/Wenatchee National Forest,” where he would pose for pictures with anyone who wanted a souvenir of the hike with the man who is both a founder of the moderate GOP organization and synonymous with preservation of the state’s natural treasures.

Although he had set a fast hiking pace, Evans had been pointing out the local wildflowers in the wilderness area and remarking at how the pines on the dry side of the Cascades differed from wetter West Side forests.

The wilderness area almost didn’t happen, Evans said.

After years of negotiations, Congress had passed a bill to set aside some 394,000 acres of spectacular peaks and sparkling lakes in 1976 and sent it to President Gerald Ford. But then Evans, who was finishing up his third term as Washington’s governor, got an urgent call. U.S. Rep. Joel Pritchard, a member of the Washington congressional delegation who had helped push the legislation through the House, said some of Ford’s staff, particularly in the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Office of Management and Budget, were urging Ford to veto the legislation.

Pritchard asked Evans to try to change Ford’s mind. Evans got on a plane to Washington, D.C., the next day to talk to the president, not just chief executive to chief executive, but hiker to hiker and former Eagle Scout to former Eagle Scout.

But when he got to his hotel, Evans realized he had forgotten to pack a book published by The Mountaineers, a Seattle-based nonprofit outdoors group, that was full of color photographs of the Alpine Lakes area. He’d planned to use the coffee table book’s full-color photos of the region to convince Ford the area’s beauty is worth preserving. He called a friend and former member of his Scout troop who lived in nearby Maryland and asked if he still had a copy of the book. Yes, the friend said.

Can you bring it to my hotel in D.C. by tomorrow morning, Evans asked. Sure, but why? the friend asked. Evans explained the mission, and the friend said yes – on one condition.

“Can you get the president to sign my book?” Evans said he’d try. The friend dropped off the book, which Evans took with him to the White House.

Before he was allowed to see the president, Ford’s staff gave him a warning about the president’s busy schedule. Fifteen minutes, they said. No more; in and out in 15. Sure, said Evans, and he was ushered into the Oval Office.

So tell me about this Alpine Lakes area, Ford said. Let me show you, Evans replied, and set the book down in front of him. Ford opened to the first page, was impressed with the photo and started going through the book page by page.

Ford finished the book 40 minutes later. The staff was fuming but Evans had the president’s assurance the wilderness bill would be signed.

And it was, he said, as the line of hikers appeared on the trail and began lining up for photos, then followed one of the wilderness area’s 50 or so trails for another half-mile to where giant boulders split the rushing creek and formed a natural resting spot.

Alpine Lakes became southernmost in a string of Cascades Range wilderness areas that include Henry M. Jackson, Wild Sky and Glacier Peak. The wilderness area was enlarged in 2014 to 414,000 acres.

So did Ford sign the book? Evans was asked that question when he arrived at the resting spot with the last of the hikers.

“Oh yes,” Evans said. “But of course it wasn’t mine. I had to give it back to my friend.”