Isolated places

On a recent NPR radio program, I heard a commentator describe his special interest in America's early history. He was especially fascinated with the idea that there were vast wildernesses in this country that were completely devoid of human presence, and where one would feel completely lost and isolated.

And he wondered if places of such isolation still existed in the US. So, he made it his project to search our country for such locations.

In one location, I think in Wyoming, he hiked a great distance over sharp lava beds outside of a wilderness national park. He was ecstatic to find what he thought was a truly isolated place--until he found machine gun shells in the area. Evidence of prior military training exercises.

On another occasion, while in a deep mountain valley in the wilderness of Utah, he began to feel that he had found a truly isolated place--until an airplane droned overhead. More evidence of human presence.

After visiting many other locations, he lamented that no truly isolated places still exist in the US. Such places are now just part of America's myth.

But he went further. He said that even if such places seem to exist, they would not be "truly" isolated, because Global Positioning Satellites (GPS) are capable of, and often do, scan tremendous percent of the earth's surface.

I don't necessarily agree with his conclusion that no place of true isolation exist.

My thought is that true isolation nowadays is of a different character. It’s not necessarily found by hiking in distant places or via Global Positioning Satellites. It can be found in the streets of our cities and in the human heart.

Joe