December 1948 (age 49)

This was a relatively quiet month for Sigurd, as he continued to work behind the scenes on the campaign to end airplane flights into the canoe country wilderness. As Ely and other northeastern Minnesota opposition began to crystallize, the airspace reservation request received the approval of the Agriculture Department's solicitor. On Dec. 22, Agriculture Secretary Charles F. Brannan sent the request to Commerce Secretary Charles Sawyer. Brannan delivered it to Sawyer rather than to President Harry Truman, because he expected opposition from the Commerce Department and its Air Coordinating Committee, which was in charge of promoting aviation. Brannan wanted to get the opposition out in the open, to allow for a later appeal to the President.

December 1963 (age 64)

This month, like its 1948 counterpart, was a quiet one for Sigurd. The one event worth mentioning is that he received the Horace Albright Medal from the Scenic Preservation Society of New York. Albright, pictured at right in 1933, was a highly respected director of the National Park Service for many years, and an assistant director right from the inception of the agency in 1916. After he retired from the Park Service in the 1930s, he remained active in promoting the parks, and Sigurd got to know him well during his years with the National Parks Association