Back to the Charles C. Deam Wilderness: A Half Century Later

**Deam Wilderness, Hoosier National Forest, April 2016**

LATEST WORK

PHOTO ARCHIVE: Charles C. Deam Wilderness — Terrill Ridge Trail, 2016, 2026

PHOTO ALBUM: Deam Wilderness — Terrill Ridge Trail

PHOTO ALBUM: Deam Wilderness — Brooks Cabin, Tower Ridge Road,
Todd Cemetery, Terrill Ridge Trail
BLOG: Unexpected Light on the Charles C. Deam Wilderness, Human History

I am returning to my roots in 2026, hiking through and photographing the Charles C. Deam Wilderness for a series of Limestone Post features, as well as an Andy-style coffee table book on Jeff Stant and the largest block of unbroken hardwood forest in the Lower Midwest.

That’s in addition to Photo Albums and Blogs posted here at StevenHiggs.com.

Indeed, I’ve taken to heart one of the most profound quotes I’ve elicited in my journalism career: “Every second is an opportunity for extraordinary depth and fulfillment of purpose.” — Andy Mahler, 2024

**Axsom Branch Trail, Charles C. Deam Wilderness, Hoosier National Forest, June 2015**

Nearly every second that I have for purpose and fulfillment this year will be devoted to help make happen what Jeff Stant and I know is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity – more than doubling the Deam’s acreage to 28,253 and surrounding it with another 29,382-acre National Recreation Area (NRA).

The Indiana Forest Alliance’s Hoosier National Forest Program Advisor, Republican Indiana Governor Mike Braun, and forest preservationists are pressing Congress to pass the Benjamin Harrison National Recreation and Wilderness Establishment Act this session. It passed the Senate in 2023-24 but died when House Leadership killed the broader public lands bill it was attached to.

With the adjacent Brown County State Park and borders with Yellowwood and Morgan-Monroe State Forests, the Deam Wilderness and Harrison NRA complex will be the largest tract of protected public lands on the Ohio-Indiana–Illinois side of the Ohio River Valley.

Charles C. Deam Wilderness, Hoosier National Forest, Saddle Creek — **Saddle Creek, Hoosier National Forest, May 1975**

As I’ve written exhaustively and spoken frequently, my career as an environmental photojournalist began in May 1975, when I photographed the forested surroundings of a flooded Saddle Creek, seven years before the Lake Monroe feeder creek officially became designated wilderness.

The journalist and author path to this project began in 1981, when college student Jeff Stant recruited me to be the Uplands Group Sierra Club newsletter editor, which led to grad school in journalism a year later. The Deam was established in 1982, when I gave my first public slideshow A Photographic Journey Through the Deam Wilderness at the Monroe County Public Library.

For a Limestone Post series called Revisiting the Deam Wilderness, I am hiking through and writing about the wilderness and expansion areas with folks who have particular experience with and knowledge of the land.

Jeff is going to lead me to 200- and 300-year-old oaks, poplars, and basswoods and talk about old-growth forest. Former U.S. Forest Service Public Information Officer Teena Ligman will reflect upon the Deam’s human history as we walk along Terrill Ridge. Retired Monroe County Naturalist Cathy Meyer and I will discuss nature’s ways during a wildflower hike. The focus will be wilderness water with Friends of Lake Monroe’s Sherry Mitchell-Bruker.

I will also be covering the bill’s progress for Limestone and CounterPunch as events unfold.

**Jeff Stant, Charles C. Deam Wilderness, Hoosier National Forest, June 2015**

At this point, I have officially begun working on a coffee table book about Jeff Stant and the Deam Wilderness complex. Because I need four seasons for photography, it will either be a celebration of the Deam expansion or lay the groundwork for the next round in the next congressional session.

Everything I do on the Deam / Harrison projects will serve double duty as background for the book.

Along the journey, i will post Photo Albums, Blogs, and links to my outside work here on this Project page.