March 1951 (age 51)

North Country magazine, the inspiration of Sigurd's friend, the outdoor photographer and lecturer Grant Halladay, debuted with a Spring 1951 issue that promised readers it would rekindle their memories of the Great Lakes region "through magnificent color photography, through sketches and articles by the finest artists and writers of the north." Halladay, who envisioned the magazine as the Arizona Highways of the central Great Lakes region, convinced Sigurd to sign on as associate editor with a goal of eventually serving as editor. Sigurd wrote three short essays for the issue, one about the coming of spring, another about the canoe country, and a third about the ruffed grouse. Historian Grace Lee Nute contributed an essay on the fur trade era and a poem about Lake Superior. Sam Campbell, a popular Wisconsin nature writer and photographer who was a good friend of Olson and a mentor to Halladay, wrote "Autumn in Wisconsin," which Olson and Halladay included in this issue supposedly devoted to spring.

While there may have been some confusion in the content, the issue contained beautiful color photographs, mostly scenes from the canoe country and Lake Superior, and there were reproductions of wildlife art by a Michigan artist and by the widely known Francis Lee Jaques of Minnesota. Raymond Carlson, editor of Arizona Highways, wrote his congratulations, saying, "It seems to me that you have grasped the spirit of your north country, and I do want you to know that we wish you every success in the world." The issue also received praise from readers across the region, including the governors of Minnesota and Wisconsin. Paul Herbert, director of the Division of Conservation at Michigan State College in East Lansing, said the issue contained "some of the most beautiful and authentically colored photographs that has ever been my pleasure to see....If future issues have the quality of your first, I predict great success for 'NORTH COUNTRY.'"

After a second issue in the summer, however, the magazine never came out again. More on that in the July 1951 segment of "This Month in Olson History." Or, click here and read the whole story, and read the seven articles that Sigurd contributed to the two issues of the magazine.

March 1966 (age 66)

On March 23, after Sigurd traveled to Indiana and gave a passionate speech on the need to preserve the Indiana Dunes, the Hammond Times, one of the state's largest papers, came out in support of making it a national lakeshore. Sig also wrote members to key members of Congress this month on behalf of the Dunes, and also on behalf of a bill to create the St. Croix National River along the Minnesota-Wisconsin border. Meanwhile, he did some writing, too: he began The Hidden Forest, and continued work on Open Horizons, both of which would be published in 1969. In a draft of an Open Horizons essay called "Love of the Land," Sigurd said he felt a need to fight against society's emphasis on materialism, sex, comfort, and "young beautiful people riding in beautiful cars." He said we need to promote the value and dignity of hard work, simplicity. Here's an excerpt:

There is a sense of artificiality in our lives, a sense of vicariousness and unreality in all we do. We live the frontier in our movies and on TV. Bonanza is the answer or Branded, it's all a show, all second hand. There should be some way of capturing this in our lives. Our lives cannot all be second hand. This is our only chance....[earlier:] Within us all is a nostalgia for the past, the land, a way of life, a sense of utopia that cannot be denied. Instead of fighting this thing or being ashamed of it, it should be nurtured and cultivated....To be sure most young people will not have a chance to work on farms or do what I did but they still must have a chance to sense it in the only way there is left, by feeling the wind in their faces, the sun, the good feel of ground and rock under their feet, the vistas of far horizons. This is the only way there is left for them to remember.