March 1950 (age 50)

Sigurd was attacked in print this month (not for the first or last time, I might add). The Ely Chamber of Commerce published a pamphlet called Isolate and Exploit, which claimed that the logging industry was behind the ban of airplanes in the canoe country wilderness. Olson was referred to as one of the "glib-talking stooges [who] have bustled about the country, far from the scene of exploitation, to distract the attention of public spirited men and women." Banning the airplane from the canoe country wilderness was essential to the government's purpose, the pamphlet claimed, because the ban eliminated 98 percent of the area's use, and because "the airplane is the eyes of the public": if nobody could fly over the area, the big logging companies could destroy the forest unnoticed. The chamber printed 75,000 copies of the eight-page booklet and distributed them at Midwest sport shows and fly-in resorts.

March 1965 (age 65)

The month in which the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act was introduced in the Senate was not an entirely happy one for Sigurd. He was working extremely hard as an advisor to the Park Service and to Interior Secretary Stewart Udall, and was depressed about the fact that he was finding little time to write. On March 25th he wrote to himself on looseleaf paper, "If I am to keep my balance, I must write. Writing I know from long experience will bring back happiness. It is the only cure I know of." And two days later he added, "Another week and I'll be 66, with four more years to go to make 70. Hasn't the time come to settle down and do the thing you know must be done. " (In the photo at right, taken during a consulting trip in 1965, Sigurd is holding a caribou rack.)