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Title: Lee Wilson Collection
Date (inclusive): 1956-1989
Date (bulk): (bulk 1961-1972)
Collection number: MS 113
Creator:
Wilson, Lee, 1904-1989
Extent:
3 Paige containers (13 linear feet)
Repository:
Special Collections, Robert E. Kennedy Library
California Polytechnic State University
San Luis Obispo, California 93407-0605
On deposit from:
The Environmental Archives of San Luis Obispo County
PO Box 8106
San Luis Obispo, CA 93403-8106
Abstract: Papers of San Luis Obispo environmental activist Lee Wilson, including correspondence, research notes and materials, and photographs,
primarily relating to the founding and early years of Santa Lucia Chapter of the Sierra Club, the creation of the Santa Lucia
Wilderness Area, and other watchdog efforts in San Luis Obispo County, California, donated by the family to The Environmental
Archives of San Luis Obispo County in 1994.
Donated by his family, Lee Wilson's papers are part of The Environmental Archives of San Luis Obispo County, which was founded
at Cuesta College in the summer of 1992 by local environmental activist Harold Miossi. The collection is housed in and administered
by Special Collections at Cal Poly under the terms of a depository agreement.
Collection is open to qualified researchers by appointment only. For more information on access policies and to obtain a copy
of the Researcher Registration form, please visit the Special Collections Access page.
Collection stored remotely. Advance notice for use required.
Restrictions on Use and Reproduction
In order to reproduce, publish, broadcast, exhibit, and/or quote from this material, researchers must submit a written request
and obtain formal permission from Cuesta College as the owner of the physical collection. Researchers should also consult
with an appropriate staff member regarding literary or other intellectual property rights pertaining to this collection.
Photocopying of material is permitted at staff discretion and provided on a fee basis. Photocopies are not to be used for
any purpose other than for private study, scholarship, or research. Special Collections staff reserves the right to limit
photocopying and deny access or reproduction in cases when, in the opinion of staff, the original materials would be harmed.
Lee Wilson Papers, San Luis Obispo County Environmental Archives, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo,
Calif.
A founding member and first president of the Santa Lucia Chapter of the Sierra Club, Lee Wilson was a lifelong environmental
activist and conservationist. His papers document his efforts on environmental causes in San Luis Obispo County, primarily
in the 1960s and 1970s. Wilson was particularly active in leading grassroots efforts to influence local and federal environmental
policy.
Frank and Emma Wilson's son Lee was born in Rangely, Colorado, on June 18, 1904. The Wilson family made their living as farmers
and instilled a love of the land and open spaces in their son. In 1914, the family moved to Arizona, where Lee attended Mesa
High School. Because of his father's asthma, the family moved to California in 1921. Lee was an Eagle Scout, graduated from
high school in Lindsey, California, and attended the University of California at UCLA. Wilson and his brother started an electrical
contracting business. He Lee and Lillian Wilson were married in 1928. During World War II he taught electrical engineering
at UCLA and served as an air raid warden.
He became a member of the Los Angeles Chapter of the Sierra Club in 1948. For many years, Lee and Lillian Wilson led a group
of Sierra Club members who hiked Mount Whitney every Labor Day weekend. Lee and Lillian hiked the entire John Muir Trail in
the Sierra.
The Wilsons had three children: Jeannette Wilson Armstrong, Marian Wilson Sacco, and Lee Jr., who shared their parents' love
of the outdoors. In 1958, Wilson moved the family business, Lee Wilson Electric Co., to Arroyo Grande so they could be near
their children and live in a small community.
Wilson was an active member of the Native Plant Society of San Luis Obispo County. He researched and photographed native plants
of the county with Cal Poly social sciences professor Robert F. Hoover for many years. Photographs from these trips helped
illustrate Hoover's
Color Supplement to the Vascular Plants of San Luis Obispo County, California (San Luis Obispo, Calif.: [no publisher], 1974).
In addition to serving as leader of Boy Scout Troop 248, Wilson also worked on campaigns to preserve the Pismo Beach Dunes
and Oso Flaco Lake. In 1961, he was a founding member of the Santa Lucia Group, a local offshoot of the Santa Barbara-based
Los Padres Chapter of the Sierra Club. By 1968, the Santa Lucia Group became a formal chapter of the Sierra Club.
Wilson waged successful campaigns on a number of environmental issues, most notably designation and use of wilderness areas.
He worked to ban the use of off-road vehicles in local wilderness areas. The Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs recommended
that the Forest Service permit off-road vehicles use in the Garcia and Machesna Mountain Wilderness Areas, stating, "Both
areas appear to have no timber or mineral values but receive substantial motorized recreation use."
Wilson and other local conservations, including Ian McMillan, knew both wilderness areas had once been home to a thriving
California condor population, located along the condor flyway, where they were a common sight before the increasing use of
off-road vehicles. As part of his letter-writing campaign in response to the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs' recommendation,
Wilson in 1979 wrote to congressional representative Robert Lagomarsino: "I believe the elimination of the use of motor vehicles
of any kind...would encourage the condor to again use both Hi Mountain & Machesna nesting sites."
Wilson also worked closely with Harold Miossi on creation of the Santa Lucia Wilderness Area, a goal of the Sierra Club chapter
since the passage of the Wilderness Act of 1964. Wilderness status was being thwarted by the district's congressional representative,
Burton Talcott, and by the U.S. Forest Service, which argued that only "experts and bureaucrats should determine what tracts
should be saved." When Alan Cranston was elected to the U.S. Senate from California in 1968, the plan regained momentum.
Wilson and Miossi drafted the legal description of the 22,250-acre tract, which Cranston introduced in December 1971. Wilson,
Miossi, and San Luis Obispo Mayor Ken Schwartz testified several times in Washington, D.C., for passage of the bill, but Talcott
continued to oppose it. Eventually, the proposed name was changed from "Lopez" to "Santa Lucia," but it was not until Leon
Panetta defeated Talcott for the district's congressional seat in 1976 that the SB 3027 succeeded. In 1978, Congress designated
the Santa Lucia in central California and the Rogue River in Oregon as the first Bureau of Land Management wilderness areas,
which President Jimmy Carter signed.
After the Santa Lucia Wilderness Area was finally created, Wilson believed that access to the area for hiking could be improved.
Wilson successfully petitioned the Forest Service to create a trail from Highway 101 to the new wilderness area. He talked
his son-in-law into donating 100 gallons of gas for the trucks to haul the volunteers up the mountains to break the trail.
A plaque commemorating this work is located at the trailhead.
In 1979, Lee Wilson was one of seven people honored nationally with Special Achievement Awards from the Sierra Club, for his
work on the Santa Lucia Wilderness Area. Established in 1966, Special Achievement are bestowed on individual Sierra Club members
or groups a particular action, campaign, or effort of singular importance to conservation or the Club.
In 1985, the San Luis Obispo
Telegram-Tribune honored him with a front-page picture entitled "Man of the Mountain" in the Focus weekend magazine. The Arroyo Grande Rotary
Club honored him with a Rotarian Fellow Award for his involvement in their many community projects. He was also recognized
for 25 years of perfect attendance. Lee Wilson was the subject of a posthumous resolution from the San Luis Obispo County
Board of Supervisors for his 18 years of service on the San Luis Obispo County Water Resources Advisory Committee.
In 1988, Lee and Lillian Wilson celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary. On August 31, 1989, Lee Wilson died in Arroyo Grande,
California. His three children and seven grandchildren, who share his love of hiking and the outdoors, survived him.
Sources
Wilson family, 2003
Neiburger, Carl, "Man to Match the Mountain: An Album of Portraits of Lee Wilson Taken in the Wilderness He Helped Save,"
San Luis Obispo County (Calif.) Telegram-Tribune, 24 January 1981
Social Security Administration, Social Security Death Index, Master File. Ancestry.com http://www.ancestry.com, accessed 9
June 2007
The Lee Wilson Collection contains the correspondence, publications, maps, and photographs of environmental activist Lee Wilson
of Arroyo Grande, California.
Family members gathered the papers in 1994 for the Environmental Archives of San Luis Obispo County, which were transferred
to the repository at Cal Poly by volunteers for the Environmental Archives. During processing, duplicates were recycled, which
reduced the collection size to 3.75 linear feet.
Where possible, the provenance, or original organization, of the papers has been preserved. However, in order to simplify
access to the collection for researchers, some materials in specific formats and topics were reorganized and refoldered to
more accurately reflect their contents.
The provenance, or original organization, of the papers has been preserved for the most part. However, in the years after
1970, the growing volume of material and McMillan's overlapping involvement with different groups lobbying on similar issues
created numerous small files. In order to simplify access to the collection for researchers, most materials were refoldered
and adhere to McMillan's original subject categories, while some were shifted and renamed to more accurately reflect the contents.
The Lee Wilson Collection is divided into five series:
1. Non-Profit and Government Affiliations, 1963-1988
2. Watchdog and Advocacy Efforts, 1960s-1980s
3. Correspondence, 1956-1980s
4. Visual Media, 1960s-1970s
5. Research Materials, 1959-1985
The Lee Wilson Papers are housed in three Paige boxes, with Series 1– Non-Profit and Government Agency Affiliations and Series
2 – Watchdog and Lobbying Efforts, containing the most extensive and unique portions of the collection, each filling one container.
A generous gift from Harold Miossi funded the arrangement and description of this collection.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
Wilson, Lee, 1904-1989
Environmental protection – California –- San Luis Obispo – Citizen participation
Land use – Environmental aspects – California – San Luis Obispo County – History
McMillan, Ian I., 1905–1991–Correspondence
Natural history – California – San Luis Obispo County
San Luis Obispo County (Calif.) – History
Santa Lucia Wilderness Area
Sierra Club - Santa Lucia Chapter
Correspondence
Newspaper Clippings
Maps
Photographs
Serials
Related Collections
Special Collections, Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo:
Enrico Bongio Papers, 1952-1993 (MS 124)
Kathleen Goddard Jones Papers, 1933-2001 (MS 119)
Harold Miossi Papers, 1942-1990 (MS 112)
Ian McMillan Papers, 1925-1990 (MS 111)
The Environmental Archives of San Luis Obispo County was founded in the summer of 1992 when environmental activist Harold
Miossi invited leaders in local environmental causes to gather and discuss how best to preserve "the letters, writings, photos,
publications, and thinking of ... prominent [local] conservationists for present students and for posterity." Miossi further
proposed that the archives be established at Cuesta College, as "a fitting repository since the College District embraces
all of San Luis Obispo County." Cuesta College president Grace Mitchell approved the project, stating, "Cuesta College is
proud to make this contribution to our county's future." The Cuesta College Foundation agreed to sponsor the project, and
Miossi contributed the first major gift to the Cuesta College Foundation for the new archives.
The principal mission of the Environmental Archives of San Luis Obispo County is as follows: "To collect, preserve and make
available for research the writings, documents, and photographs dealing with the history and development of the environmental
movement in San Luis Obispo County." The archives include the papers of five local activists: Harold Miossi, Ian McMillan,
Lee Wilson, Enrico Bongio, and Kathleen Goddard Jones.