May 1954 (age 55)

On May 1, Sigurd stuck sheet of canary yellow paper in his typewriter, and started:

Where are the Pipes of Pan is a question that has to do with perspective, a certain element of timelessness, and the need for tranquility. It is an open challenge to mechanization, to unlimited industrial expansion, and to the striving for material wealth.

After revisions, this would become a key part of the opening to The Singing Wilderness

He also was having Devereux Butcher, the fiery editor of the National Parks Association's magazine, read the essays he had written so far. Butcher made a few suggestions, but mostly wrote about his distress that Sigurd was writing about hunting:

It would be a grand step ahead were you to make no allusion to killing, either with a gun or fish hook, anywhere in this book. In fact, it would be a very big step ahead were you to forget that you have ever used a gun for pleasure, and from now on never to think of doing so again. Put all thought of the idea that there is or can be fun in destroying life from you for good and all....It is utterly impossibly to feel sympathy with or for the wild creatures if you feel no remorse at taking their lives needlessly. And if you did feel remorse, you would soon stop doing it.

Sig, I would sure hate to see you toting a gun in the wilds, except for self defense. If I ever did, I would never get over it. I really do believe that you are in tune with nature, and that you have a profound love of all the living creatures...and I never want to think otherwise....The Izaak Walton boys aren't going to think less of you if you refrain from mentioning the "glories" of the chase and the kill...and furthermore, you are likely to find a more widespread audience for your book if you omit such mention.

You will recall that I suggested making this a book of the NPA. It could not possibly be an Association book if it extols pleasure killing, even in the least degree.

Sigurd, who was president of the NPA at the time, wrote to a friend about people like Butcher who opposed hunting: "It is absolutely impossible for those chaps to understand people who hunt or for that matter people who fish. All are killers. I spent some time going over the last Nat. Parks book deleting such references to hunters as killers, butchers, gunners, etc. etc. They will not and cannot change and there is no use even talking to them on this particular phase of thinking."

Another interesting event: On May 28, Sigurd was in Chicago for a meeting of the Quetico-Superior Council. The group viewed a Johnson Motors film called "Autumn Holiday," about a family group traveling through the Superior National Forest Roadless Areas (known today as the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness). In the film, the family traveled through Crane Lake to Lac La Croix, using a boat with a Johnson 25 hp motor. Johnson apparently was hoping for the endorsement of the film by the Quetico-Superior Council and The Wilderness Society. The reaction to the film was negative, but apparently they were holding off formal comments until after June 15th, when Johnson was scheduled to make a gift to the Izaak Walton League of America. Writing on May 31 to Howard Zahniser, executive director of the Wilderness Society, Sigurd said:

The thought of this film encouraging heavy use with big cruisers and heavy motors is a frightening one. This is still wilderness canoe country even with the invasions that exist. It could swiftly lose all of its primitive character if such use as the film portrays really developed. It looks so easy and so wonderful that many others will be tempted to try it. This film is encouraging a dangerous trend.

The Quetico Superior Committee has never taken a stand against outboard motors because we have decided to wait and see what public use is made of them. You can only fight one battle at a time. It may be that public opinion will demand their elimination if it gets too bad. Time will tell. In the meantime we are fully aware of the growing threat, not so much with small motors on canoes but with large craft such as the one depicted.

May 1969 (age 70)

On May 7, Sigurd spoke at a Northland College (Ashland, Wis.) conference for high school counselors. It was his first public appearance since his heart attack the previous November. Dean Dick Mackey extended the invitation, and, despite the concerns of his doctors ("...my doctors warn me repeatedly, no TV no speaking engagements no commitments of any kind during the first six months," Sigurd responded), Sigurd said that he would, since he would be nearby at the time anyway, staying at the childhood home of his wife, Elizabeth.

In 1993, looking back on Sigurd's talk, Mackey reflected on its importance for the campus, which several years later became the home of the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute:

In my judgment his participation was also a major contributing factor in Sig's becoming a Northland trustee. It helped to plant the seeds for all that followed in terms of his relationship with Northland. As we moved ahead to develop the environmental theme of the college, all that Sig stood for was constantly on our minds. From the time of that conference, Sig's involvement and contributions to the life of the college grew expeditiously....I believe I mentioned to you the standing ovation that he received from the counselors, who came from the East Coast and the Midwest, and the rest of us in attendance.