January 1949 (age 49)

In January 1949, opponents of restrictions on airplane flights into what is now the Boundary Waters Canoe Area began their public campaign to prevent the airplane ban proposed by Sigurd Olson and other wilderness advocates. "Every now and again," began a fact-finding booklet put out by northeastern Minnesota pilots," there comes to light some unsavory attempt, by selfish interests, to secure for themselves special privilege at the expense of the good old America public." Without mentioning his name, the booklet attacked Sigurd Olson, saying the air ban "was dreamed up to bolster the dwindling canoe renting business of certain interests located at one of the gateways to the area." Alluding to theAugust 1948 American Forestry Association-sponsored canoe trip in which Sigurd's wife, Elizabeth, had broken an ankle and was flown out by the Forest Service, the author wrote it was "noteworthy" that "the airplane rendered urgently needed transportation to an immediate family member of one of the chief proponents of the ban."

The booklet attempted to reverse the basic premise of the ban's promoters, arguing that "aircraft, unlike the canoe, do not mar the wilderness beauty or leave any trace on the area; or detract from its charm and quaintness." The author then rattled off a series of statistics, claiming that less than two percent of roadless area visitors traveled by canoe; that a 10-day canoe trip constituted a fire hazard 2,900 percent greater than a similar trip by air; and that an air ban would place "in serious jeopardy" the combined investment of more than $51 million belonging to the 125 air service operators in the State of Minnesota.

The statistics were quickly challenged by the Forest Service. About a third of roadless area visitors, for example, went in by canoe, rather than the two percent claimed by the pilots. But the pamphlet began to heat up the debate that ultimately became known as "the air ban war."

January 1964 (age 64)

On January 10 Sigurd and Elizabeth flew to Washington, D.C., for a three-month stay while Sigurd worked full-time as a consultant to Interior Secretary Stewart Udall. They did this several winters in a row. This time they stayed at the Arlington Apartments, looking out over and beyond Georgetown. From their apartment they could see the gulls flying over the Potomac.

By now Sigurd was beginning to feel somewhat trapped by his conservation work, thinking of all the writing he was not doing. "All of this leaves me cold," he wrote on January 27, "all these hearings boring as terminology...makes me wonder what I am doing here.... The point of it all is simply this: once it meant a lot but no longer....Others should do this, not me. Wilderness preservation will go on but it engrosses me less and less. Others can carry on the fight...."