Mills previously wrote about efforts to make the outdoors more inclusive. In that story he documented a history of segregation and exclusion, dating to the establishment of the National Park Service, that restricted Black travelers on public lands. “My own love and appreciation for the national parks only deepened when I learned the stories of the Black men and women in our history who made these incredible places possible,” he wrote.



Our new story aims to illuminate what has often been overshadowed in the histories of our wild spaces. “The discovery of these narratives can go a long way toward affirming our place within the heritage and legacy of public land preservation,” writes Mills. “Why preserve wild lands?