1. Cronon uses William Wordsworth's poem, The Prelude, where he recalls climbing the Alps and going across the Simplon Pass. I like this citation because I think that it adds another element into Cronon's essay. It is no longer just his words or prose for that matter. By adding in the poem there is a change in the wording and flow of the paper. I also think that the description poem is able to give is a lot easier for the reader to relate to so it adds even more emphasis on the visual and emotional ties humans have with nature.
2. Cronon references the historian Frederick Jackson Turner from his writing in 1893. Cronon uses him in three paragraphs right in a row, emphasizing Turners points and linking them to his own. This part of his essay talks about how the frontier was being lost and the free land that Americans were taking to live and survive would be gone because it would all be settled. The losing of the 'free' land was during Turner's time and with Cronon quoting his writing there is a direct reference to the time period Cronon is describing. This adds strong evidence to back up what Cronon is trying to get across to his readers.
In Turner's essay The Significance of the Frontier in American History talks about how in this time, around the 1890s, most of the frontier had been broken up by isolated settlements of people. He uses census facts to show how the frontier was limited in the beginning of the essay. He also makes sure to distinguish the difference between European and American frontiers. Throughout the essay his strategy seems to be an attempt to describe the advances of the Americans throughout the expansion from east to west. He also touches on reasons why people would move; ranching, hunting, or for fun. He argues that exploring the frontier is what brought America to the point it is at today, including its customs, development and power. Turners essay goes together with Cronon because Cronon sets up his essay with the idea that the wilderness, which had perviously been seen as the frontier, was only present in areas where humans distinctly kept it. Where Turner saw how how unused land was becoming extremely scarce and therefore land opportunities were diminishing, Cronon sees that this land serves a different purpose now. This citation interested me because it made Cronon's argument more concrete in the past as well. I think using Turner utilizes American history and how in his time the free land was diminishing. This was a turning point for America that eventually led to the fight to preserve what wilderness we have left.
3. Cronon cites Dave Foreman, founder of Earth First!. Foreman talks about the separation of humans and wilderness. I think that the Earth First! sounds like an interesting organization benefiting Cronon's argument with more recent data. Foreman hits on the main focuses that Cronon has so it reinforces that what he is trying to say is actually relevant.
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