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Bill Cunningham ~ 2025 Inductee
Bill Cunningham
1943 –
Bill Cunningham was influential in the designation of several Montana wildernesses, and he’s explored every one, earning him the nickname “Wolverine” for his tenacity and intensity of effort.
Like his father before him, Cunningham majored in forestry at the University of Montana, working briefly for the Forest Service before serving three years in the Army. Before that, he completed his master’s studies on controversy over managing national forest lands adjoining the Magruder Corridor between the Frank Church and Selway-Bitterroot wildernesses.
In 1968, The Wilderness Society’s Stewart Brandborg encouraged him to make a choice and challenged him to write an article for their publication, the Living Wilderness, which launched him on the path of advocacy.
Clif Merritt, one of Cunningham’s mentors, hired him as the Wilderness Society’s Montana field representative in the 1970s. This involved Cunningham in the passage of several significant conservation bills. He played a role in designation of the Scapegoat, Absaroka-Beartooth and Great Bear wilderness areas, the Endangered American Wilderness Act, the Montana Wilderness Study Act, and the listing of the upper Missouri River under the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act.
In 1978, Cunningham and Bob Anderson sat in the home of Lee Metcalf staffer Teddy Roe in Washington, D.C., and drew the boundaries of the proposed Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness. While working for the designation of the Absaroka- Beartooth Wilderness, Cunningham unknowingly jumped into a D.C. taxi with Rupert Cutler, then Assistant Secretary of Agriculture overseeing the Forest Service. Although the Forest Service had opposed Lee Metcalf’s Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness bill, before the taxi ride ended, Cutler agreed to change the agency position, supporting designation.
As a self-described “wildernut,” Cunningham began guiding visitors to wild places, instructing them in wildland etiquette, love of nature, and ways of the trail. They, in turn, joined the effort to save these special lands. The long list of those he inspired includes Republican Harrison Fagg, Montana House majority leader in 1981. On the Montana House floor, Fagg extolled “a feeling of awe” he experienced on his favorite Beartooth hikes and aided Cunningham in pushing the Absaroka-Beartooth Act through Congress.
In the 1980s, Cunningham became the first full-time staffer of the Montana Wilderness Association. Decades later, after moving to Choteau, he was one of the local volunteers who led the campaign for the passage of the 2014 Rocky Mountain Heritage Act, which added 67,000 acres to the Bob Marshall Wilderness and added other conservation protections.
He taught University of Montana courses as part of the Wilderness Institute’s programs and continues his advocacy as a member of Montana Conservation Elders. He authored or co-authored 10 books, including hiking guides for national parks and wilderness areas, plus numerous articles for publications such as Montana Magazine and the Montana Geographic series. His book, Montana Wildlands: From Northwest Peaks to Dead Horse Badlands (1990), reflects his deep knowledge of Montana’s wildest corners and his interest in seeing those areas protected.