The 179,755-acre Kalmiopsis Wilderness, located in southwestern
Oregon in the rugged Klamath/Siskiyou Mountains, is the third
largest wilderness in the state. A portion of the current
Kalmiopsis was originally protected by the U.S. Forest Service
in the 1940s and subsequently was included in areas protected by
the Wilderness Act of 1964. Ranging in elevation from stream
canyons barely 500 feet above sea level to its highest
point—Pearsoll Peak, at 5,098 feet—Kalmiopsis is named for one
of the unique plant species endemic to the area, the ancient
heath plant Kalmiopsis leachiana. The delicate shrub produces
five-petaled flowers that vary from pink to rose in hue and
bloom through the transition from spring to summer. Gold drew
miners to the rivers and streams coursing out of these hills
during the nineteenth century, and some small claims continue to
be worked. The ultramafic soils in the eastern half of the
Kalmiopsis region contain heavy metals such as chromium,
magnesium, and nickel and are toxic to many pl