To Robert Sterling Yard, April 15, 1935

In January 1935 a group of eight men formed the first national organization devoted entirely to the preservation of wilderness: The Wilderness Society. One of the founders, Ernest Oberholtzer, told Sigurd about the organization shortly after its formation, and in the following letter Sigurd signed up as a charter member, and as someone "who as never learned to compromise when the question of wilderness has come up." Robert Sterling Yard, one of the founders and the group's secretary-treasurer, responded four days later, "I shall make you known to fellow members by that designation and foresee that you will be popular." Twenty-one years later Sigurd would join the Wilderness Society's governing council, and from 1963-1971 would serve as the organization's vice-president and then president. His actual 1935 letter is reproduced below (a scan of a photocopy):