The Forest Reserve that eventually became the Gila National Forest was created in the early 1900’s. The Gila National Forest is distinguished by encompassing the first Wilderness in the national forest system. Due primarily to the untiring efforts of Aldo Leopold, the Gila Wilderness was officially designated on June 3, 1924 and set a precedent for the creation of many other wildernesses. In his famous book of "land ethic" environmental essays, A Sand County Almanac, Leopold once observed, "Like winds and sunsets, wild things were taken for granted until progress began to do away with them."

In 1930 a boundary adjustment reduced the acreage of the Gila Wilderness on the east, north and west. In 1933 the original wilderness was re-designated a Primitive Area by the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture. The North Star Road Corridor (NM15) separated the Gila Primitive Area to the west with 563,107 acres, and the Black Range Primitive Area was situated to the east with 169, 984 acres. Most of the Black Range Primitive Area eventually became the Aldo Leopold Wilderness, and the Gila Primitive Area became once again the Gila Wilderness.

In order to manage the national forest, a network of roads, trails and telephones lines was built across the Mogollon Mountains to link ranger stations with fire guard cabins and mountain lookouts. During the Great Depression of the 1930’s the CCC improved and expanded this network of facilities. Along NM 15 through the Pinos Altos Range and along NM35 on the Mimbres Valley, the CCC also built picnic areas and campgrounds and established base camps at Redstone (Signal Peak MP14 NM15) and Sully (Mimbres Valley MP10 NM35).