Dear John, 

In honor of Sigurd Olson’s birthday this week, I’m sharing a story that I wrote in 1999 about this legendary man in tribute to the 100th anniversary of his birth.

Sigurd Olson had a passion for wild places and wild creatures and a deep and abiding tenderness toward the natural world. He felt exhilaration in connecting with the past and in exploring the unknown waterways and paths of the "old wilderness" much as those who traveled before him. He was driven to express his feelings of reverence for wilderness through his writings and his speeches. Sig understood that his passion and talents led to a responsibility to defend these wild lands from human exploitation and abuse. In fulfilling this responsibility, Sigurd set a standard for conservation advocacy that begins in the canoe country of the Quetico-Superior and stretches from coast to coast and north to Alaska.

l grew up in Ely, Minnesota and Sig Olson was always a part of my life. His ties to my family began in 1935, when he befriended my father, Bill Rom, then a first year student at the Ely Junior College. My grandfather, Caspar Rom, had been killed in a mine cave-in when my father was several weeks old, so Bill Rom grew up without a father and dirt poor. My father's childhood playground had been the 3 million acre Superior National Forest, where he hiked, fished and hunted. As a dean of the junior college, Sig took a liking to my father, finding in him a kindred spirit, and directed him to summer jobs with the Forest Service that kept him in the woods. Sig suggested that my father finish his education at the University of Minnesota in wildlife management. But Sig did more than accommodate my father's desire to be in the woods and to find a profession that suited his desire: he instilled in my father a commitment to protect the canoe country, something he did for many others as well. During World War II, when my father was in the Navy, Sig wrote to him:

“My conservationists are certainly well scattered in this old world of ours, but one thing you fellows never loose [sic], that is the love of the lake country of the north and the old wilderness. No matter where you happen to be, that longing stays with you and I can say this from personal experience, that no matter how long you are gone or how old you get, those memories will remain as vivid and fresh as the days they were made... I hope that when you fellows come back that you will tie into this conservation problem with all your young energy and enthusiasm and really give us the kind of a program that the country needs. It is men like yourself... who will eventually put the country back on its feet from a forestry and wildlife standpoint. You have real conservation at heart and are not bogged down with political considerations or commitments.”

Sig loved the woods and the natural world. Through talent and perseverance, he mastered the art of translating what was in his heart into the written word. But his greatest gift to the world was to recognize that he had to protect wild lands. He succeeded magnificently. But where he ended, we must begin.

The legacy of protecting the Boundary Waters Wilderness extends beyond generations, cultures and political affiliations, and we have a duty to leave this iconic Wilderness better than we found it. Sign the petition today asking the Biden-Harris administration to permanently protect the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and Voyageurs National Park from sulfide-ore copper mining. 

For the Wilderness, 

Becky Rom
National Campaign Chair

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