November 1949 (age 50)

Not much to report. Sigurd was mostly at home, writing, catching up on correspondence, getting outdoors, and waiting for word about the fate of the proposed presidential executive order to ban planes from flying into the canoe country wilderness of northern Minnesota. In mid-November he learned that the Justice Department had approved the proposal, and by December 1 he and other wilderness supporters learned that the executive order was sitting on President Harry Truman's desk, and that he was considering whether or not to sign it.

November 1964 (age 65)

On November 12, 1964, National Park Service Director George Hartzog appointed Sigurd to a new Park Service group called the Alaska Task Force. The group's assignment, according to a Park Service memorandum, was "to prepare an analysis of the best remaining possibilities for the National Park Service within Alaska." Chaired by retired senior Park Service planner George Collins, the team included two active Park Service employees with Alaskan experience, and Sigurd Olson and another consultant. (More about their explosive report in "This Month in Olson History" for September 1968.)