The Monthly Special Each month you'll find something new here—an unpublished speech of Olson's for example, or some correspondence. I'll keep each new piece on this page for three months, then remove it or move it to a different portion of this web site. This Month In Olson History. Click here or scroll down toward the bottom of this page to see what Sigurd was doing during this month 35 and/or 50 years ago. May 2012: "Flying In" *Published in Sports Afield, September 1945, this article marks the beginning of Sigurd's ascendancy to the front ranks of the national conservation movement.* April 2012: "The Purist" *Published in Conservation Volunteer, May-June 1945.* March 2012: "Wilderness Manners" *Published in Sports Afield, May 1945.*
This Month in Olson History Fifty Years Ago: May 1962 (age 63) On May 2, Sigurd was appointed as a special advisor to Interior Secretary Stewart Udall and to National Park Service Director Conrad "Connie" Wirth. On learning of the appointment, U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas wrote to Sigurd on May 4, "I hope you will be on hand soon, because the wilderness is fast disappearing and needs some powerful advocates around this town." On May 9, Sigurd testified in favor of the Wilderness Act before Congress. Republican Rep. John Saylor of Pennsylvania, publicly congratulating Sigurd on his appointment, says: Mr. Olson, it is a pleasure to welcome you before the committee. It is one of the great joys of my life to have met you and to have known you and to have had the benefit of your counsel over the years. I want to say, as an adviser to the Outdoor Recreation Resources Review Commission, you contributed immeasurably to the work of that Commission. I think that many people do not realize how you went out of your way tomake sure that not only the members of the Commission, but the other members of the Advisory Council knew all of the problems that had been presented, not only in the Quetico Superior area, but in the other wilderness areas. Also this month, his essay "Silence" from The Singing Wilderness was published in Canadian Audubon, and National Geographic Magazine asked him to write an article on the search for voyageur artifacts in the Quetico-Superior canoe country. That article would be published in September 1963 as "Relics from the Rapids." Thirty-fiveYears Ago: May 1977 (age 78) Sigurd traveled to Chicago to testify on May 7 in support of the Alaska National Interest Lands Act. The act, which would pass both houses and be signed into law by President Jimmy Carter on Dec. 2, 1980, was the largest parks and wilderness law in U.S. history, protecting more than a hundred million acres of Alaskan wildlands. Sigurd had been involved in Park Service studies of these lands since 1963 (see, for example, this, this and this), and so this law was close to his heart.

The Monthly Special

Each month you'll find something new here—an unpublished speech of Olson's for example, or some correspondence. I'll keep each new piece on this page for three months, then remove it or move it to a different portion of this web site.

This Month In Olson History. Click here or scroll down toward the bottom of this page to see what Sigurd was doing during this month 35 and/or 50 years ago.

May 2012: "Flying In"

Published in Sports Afield, September 1945, this article marks the beginning of Sigurd's ascendancy to the front ranks of the national conservation movement.

April 2012: "The Purist"

Published in Conservation Volunteer, May-June 1945.

March 2012: "Wilderness Manners"

Published in Sports Afield, May 1945.

This Month in Olson History

Fifty Years Ago: May 1962 (age 63)

On May 2, Sigurd was appointed as a special advisor to Interior Secretary Stewart Udall and to National Park Service Director Conrad "Connie" Wirth. On learning of the appointment, U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas wrote to Sigurd on May 4, "I hope you will be on hand soon, because the wilderness is fast disappearing and needs some powerful advocates around this town." On May 9, Sigurd testified in favor of the Wilderness Act before Congress. Republican Rep. John Saylor of Pennsylvania, publicly congratulating Sigurd on his appointment, says:

Mr. Olson, it is a pleasure to welcome you before the
committee. It is one of the great joys of my life to have met
you and to have known you and to have had the benefit of your
counsel over the years. I want to say, as an adviser to the
Outdoor Recreation Resources Review Commission, you contributed immeasurably to the work of that Commission. I think that many people do not realize how you went out of your way tomake sure that not only the members of the Commission, but the other members of the Advisory Council knew all of the problems that had been presented, not only in the Quetico Superior area, but in the other wilderness areas.

Also this month, his essay "Silence" from The Singing Wilderness was published in Canadian Audubon, and National Geographic Magazine asked him to write an article on the search for voyageur artifacts in the Quetico-Superior canoe country. That article would be published in September 1963 as "Relics from the Rapids."

Thirty-fiveYears Ago: May 1977 (age 78)

Sigurd traveled to Chicago to testify on May 7 in support of the Alaska National Interest Lands Act. The act, which would pass both houses and be signed into law by President Jimmy Carter on Dec. 2, 1980, was the largest parks and wilderness law in U.S. history, protecting more than a hundred million acres of Alaskan wildlands. Sigurd had been involved in Park Service studies of these lands since 1963 (see, for example, this, this and this), and so this law was close to his heart.