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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.
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[Identification of Item]. 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
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
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.
Wilson family, 2003
Neiburger, Carl, "Man to Match the Mountain: An Album of Portraits of Lee Wilson Taken in the Wilderness He Helped Save,"
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.
Guide to the Enrico Bongio Papers, 1952-1993 (MS 124)
Guide to the Kathleen Goddard Jones Papers, 1933-2001 (MS 119)
Guide to the Harold Miossi Papers, 1942-1990 (MS 112)
Guide to the 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.
Contains five subseries: A. Non-Profit Agencies; B. Los Padres Interpretive Association; C. Santa Lucia Chapter, Sierra Club; D. Regional Conservation Committees, Sierra Club; and E. Government Agency Records.
Contains records and reports from non-profit agencies in which Lee Wilson was active, arranged alphabetically by agency, from the 1960s-1970s. 4 folders.
Contains Lee Wilson's records and reports from Los Padres Interpretive Association, arranged alphabetically by record type, 1970s. 4 folders.
Contains records and publications of the local chapter of the Sierra Club. Includes materials related to the founding of the Santa Lucia Chapter of the Sierra Club in San Luis Obispo County, 1963-1980. 11 folders.
[includes Bulletins transitioning into "Santa Lucia Chapter"]
Contains Lee Wilson's records from regional committees of the Sierra Club, 1965-1980. 6 folders.
Contains Lee Wilson's correspondence and records for government agencies, arranged by agency name, 1969-1988. 3 folders.
Contains two subseries: A. San Luis Obispo County Advocacy Efforts and B. California (minus San Luis Obispo County) Advocacy Efforts.
Contains correspondence and records relating to Wilson's efforts to research, educate, and effect legislative change on specific issues affecting San Luis Obispo County, including his efforts to secure federal wilderness area protection for Lopez Canyon area, arranged alphabetically by issue, 1960s-1980s. 1 box.
Contains correspondence and records relating to Wilson's efforts to research, educate, and effect legislative change on specific issues affecting various areas in California, excluding San Luis Obispo County, 1960s-1980s. 1 box.
Contains one subseries: A. Correspondence with Local Activists.
Contains Wilson's correspondence with a variety of local activists, including Kathleen Goddard Jones and Ian McMillan, arranged alphabetically by correspondent name. 7 folders.
Contains two subseries: A. Negatives and B. Photographic Prints.
Contains negatives of local areas Wilson made for documentation purposes related to watchdog efforts. 2 folders.
Contains photographs of local areas Wilson made for documentation purposes related to watchdog efforts. Also includes few prints of Sierra Club outings in the 1960s and 1970s. 6 folders.
Contains one subseries: A. Serial Publications.
Contains research resources Wilson used in the course of his advocacy, arranged alphabetically by author/title. Subject areas include local government documents, nuclear power, resource management, PG8E in-house publications, and a broken run of the
pp. 1-13.