May 1956 (age 57)

The excitement and joy over The Singing Wilderness continued. On May 1, the prominent literary critic Bruce Hutchison, who had written a glowing review for Saturday Review, wrote to Sigurd directly, saying that his review "was quite unworthy of a very splendid book which I shall always treasure." Then, on May 13, The Singing Wilderness made the New York Times bestseller list, joining the list at 16th place. On May 21, Marie Rodell wrote that nearly 4,400 copies had sold and that Knopf had ordered a second printing.

Meanwhile, the nominating committee for the Wilderness Society's Governing Council unanimously agreed to ask Sigurd to take one of two open positions. (He would accept and join the council in August.) And on the wilderness front, the prominent conservationist Arthur Carhart, who had know Sigurd since the early 1920s, wrote to ask Sigurd to oppose the bill to create a national wilderness preservation system. [Today Carhart has a National Wilderness Training Center named after him. In 1956, however, he was concerned that the wilderness bill might backfire and hurt the wilderness, as well as hamstring the U.S. Forest Service.] Carhart wrote in his May 9th letter:

...at most all we might ask for, or should ask for, is a memorandum type affirmation of the USFS policy in serving the wilderness uses by assigning certain areas in which that is a use given high rating. On my part, I feel strongly that no more mandatory uses should be fixed in the national forests than timber production and watershed protection as they now exist. All others should remain permissive and administratively flexible. I hope you may keep this movement from precipitating the trouble I see may flare if it does result in a bill in Congress.

May 1971 (age 72)

Two little items that show some of the variety in Sigurd's life: On May 7, Stewart Brandborg, the director of The Wilderness Society, wrote to TWS governing council member James Marshall that Sigurd supported litigation to stop nuclear testing in Alaska. And on May 10, the Hibbing-Chisholm (Minn.) Women's Club sponsored a"Sig Olson Day." Sigurd and Elizabeth attended the luncheon at the Androy Motor Inn in Hibbing, a once-ritzy hotel built by the iron ore mining companies. Sigurd received a painting and ahard hat, and was made a Knight of the Round Table.