May 1948 (age 49)

May 1948 saw the climax of the campaign to persuade Congress to pass a bill giving the Forest Service authority to purchase private inholdings within the Superior National Forest Roadless Areas (now the BWCAW). The county commissioners were balking at the bill's proposed compensation to the affected counties in lieu of taxes, and for a while all looked lost. But with perfect timing, Sports Afield published an editorial by Sigurd Olson in its May issue. "Quetico-Superior Challenge" was meant to shock its readers and stir them to action. First came the shock:

The brutal fact is that the immense populations of the Midwest, not to mention the millions from other states beyond, are in immediate danger of being robbed of one of the finest recreational opportunities on the continent today, the privelege of breaking away from civilization and cruising by canoe through the primitive lakes of the Minnesota-Ontario border.

After describing the physical, historical, and intangible qualities that made the region unique, and explaining the threat from airplanes and private inholdings, Sigurd ended with a call for action, asking readers to "talk and write and plead through every medium" to build national support for the acquisition bill. "If we fail to get immediate action," he warned, "the development of airplane fishing camps will spell the doom of our cherished canoe country within a year."

To put pressure on Congress, copies of "Quetico-Superior Challenge" were sent to all newspapers in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, and Ohio. Sigurd sent nearly a thousand additional copies to members of the Outdoor Writers Association of America. Editorials in favore of the acquisition bill soon began appearing. In mid-May, Sigurd managed to get the county commissioners to meet in Duluth one more time. He brought along a number of county residents who were angry that the commissioners might spoil this chance to improve local revenues, and he also brought the state's conservation commissioner, Chester Wilson, who told the commissioners that if they did not accept the compensation rate set in the bill they could expect lower state appropriations in the future. The commissioners voted in favor of the lower rate.

May 1963 (age 64)

Not much to report for this month. Sigurd's right shoulder, with its chipped bone and torn ligaments from a fall in March, was still very painful. The day after Mother's Day Elizabeth Olson wrote to friends that Sigurd had come down with the flu, and "as President of the 'Save Sig' conservation club I have made him refuse all local speaking dates." And on May 21 Sigurd showed some of the image conscious side of his personality, as well as Elizabeth's lead role in protecting his image, when he wrote to Alfred Knopf and asked the publisher to remove any mention of his guiding days from the dust jacket of his forthcoming book, Runes of the North. "I do not like to have my guiding constantly pointed out," Sigurd wrote, "because it gives the impression I am still catering to tourists. Elizabeth as shown by the attached personal note called my attention to this and with her I never argue."