August 1954 (age 55)

The Wilderness Society governing council begins to discuss the possibility of adding Sigurd to the council. However, the National Park Association's vice president was already on the council, so the Wilderness Society decided to put off asking Sigurd (the NPA's president) to join. In two more years he will be asked to join the council, beginning an active role with the Wilderness Society that will last more than twenty years. (Click here to go to The Wilderness Society website.)

August 1969 (age 70)

On a scrap sheet of paper in August of 1960, Sigurd had compared his writing to that of the literary naturalist and philosopher Loren Eisely. "I must bridge the gap between Eiseley and may audience of common people, the non intellectuals...who feel deeply but are groping for ideas...." Now, in August of 1969, Sigurd was pleased to read, in a letter from his editor Angus Cameron, that Eiseley had praised Sigurd's new book Open Horizons. "Mr. Olson is the spokesman for woodlands almost gone," Eiseley wrote, "for the unbeaten trails that were once all wild America. He is that rare and altogether exceptional writer who magically conveys upon the printed page the age old writing once only to be found in a wolf's tracks." (For more on Loren Eiseley, go to this website about him.)