August 1949 (age 50)

In July 1949 (as reported last month) freshman Sen. Hubert Humphrey, shown at left in 1947 when he was mayor of Minneapolis, made public his support of the airplane ban over the canoe country wilderness in northeastern Minnesota. He soon received a lot of letters on the issue, including a number from Ely residents who opposed the ban. Because of the mail volume, Humphrey asked Presidential Assistant John Steelman to delay action on the executive order until he could send one of his aides to Ely for a first-hand check. "Senator Humphrey has a capacity to keep our hearts in a flutter way beyond anything that is reasonable," complained Charles Kelly, head of the President's Quetico-Superior Committee. Humphrey's aide, Bill Rosch, arrived in Ely on August 23 and spent two days there, talking mostly with those opposed to the ban, but also visiting with proponents at a short meeting arranged by Sigurd Olson. In the following weeks conservationists heard that Rosch's report had been negative, and they flooded Humphrey with letters. The rumors were correct, but Humphrey had reaffirmed his support for the ban in a letter to Steelman, and he was getting tired of the pressure. "I am beginning to wonder," he said, "if some of my good Republican friends at home are not trying to make a little trouble for me on this matter."

August 1964 (age 65)

Sigurd began August 1964 with the Voyageurs, paddling 400 miles from Lake Winnipeg to Hudson Bay. It was Sigurd's last and most difficult canoe expedition. Elsewhere on this web site you can read Sigurd's diary of the trip, and see some photos.

Despite being worn out from the Hudson Bay trip, Sigurd managed to spend August 18-20 hiking in Olympic National Park with Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas and others, and then spent August 23-27 in Yellowstone, where he was part of a National Park Service team creating a master plan for the park.