Along with his dogs, Harrison and Ozzie, 64 year-old Earl is the only permanent resident of this remote outpost during summer. He is the Bitterroot National Forest’s camp host, welcoming the motley crew of hikers, hunters, fishermen and river rafters who brave the bumpy, serpentine road.

While his primary responsibility is handing out permits to boaters on the Selway River, he also doles out free advice on the must-see trails that lace through the wilderness. And if you ply him with a second cup of coffee, he’ll regale you with stories of windsurfing in Puerto Rico, kayaking in New Mexico or a few of his other varied adventures around the globe.

A retired industrial electrician, Earl has spent nearly three decades backpacking the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness, often using Paradise as a launch point. On one of his summer trips, the couple who used to host the Paradise campground told Earl they weren’t coming back.

“I asked how to apply for the job, and here I am. Six summers and counting. It’s a dream come true,” Earl said.

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“Nothing in this Act shall prevent within national forest wilderness areas any activity, including prospecting, for the purpose of gathering information about mineral or other resources, if such activity is carried on in a manner compatible with the preservation of the wilderness environment.” — The Wilderness Act

“Be it enacted… that all valuable mineral deposits in lands belonging to the United States, both surveyed and unsurveyed, are hereby declared to be free and open to exploration and purchase.” — General Mining Act of 1872

In 1984 — just a few months before he died from cancer — longtime Idaho Sen. Frank Church saw his name added to the 2.4 million acre wilderness he had spent his career trying to protect. The Frank Church – River of No Return Wilderness is a craggy slab that cuts the Gem State in half, wound through by the classic whitewater of the Middle Fork of the Salmon River. Like all federally designated wilderness, it carries the highest form of land protection in the United States. There are no roads, and motors and machines aren’t allowed, except where grandfathered in.

When the Wilderness Act was created in 1964, its authors (including Frank Church) couldn’t overturn the 1872 Mining Act, so they allowed valid mining claims made prior to wilderness designation to continue. The Golden Hand deposit, on the western edge of the Frank Church Wilderness, was discovered in 1889, and a number of court cases over the past decade have determined that its latest owner — American Independence Mines and Minerals Co. — has the right to prove whether the long-dormant claim is still valid.

Less than a month after the Forest Service approved a plan that will bring jackhammers, dump trucks and drill rigs into the Frank — as well as suck up to 25,000 gallons of water per day from Coin Creek and construct 11 drill pads — a coalition of conservation groups sued, hoping to force the federal agency in charge to scale back.

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