[3] About the same time there were logging railroads throughout the area and a small town at the confluence of the Nelson Branch with the Hammersley Fork.

[10] The Emporium Lumber Company sold the land which became the wild area to the state in the 1930s, but retained the mineral rights.

The young men of the CCC built roads and parks, fought forest fires, and planted trees.

Wild areas are protected from development and open to recreation, with "hiking, hunting, fishing, primitive backpack camping, horseback riding, bicycling and wildlife watching" allowed, but "new public access roads, motorized vehicles, mineral development and new rights-of-way are prohibited".

[3][14] The wild area is home to white tailed deer, Great blue heron, beaver, and rattlesnakes.

[10] There are vistas on McConnel Road in the north and on the Twin Sisters Trail in the south, which passes through thickets of mountain laurel.

Hazards on the trails include having to ford the streams in several places, encountering rattlesnakes, and becoming lost 5 miles (8.0 km) from any road.