Cover Story:
Sigurd Olson’s Legacy Returns Home
By Greg Seitz
The soul of Sigurd and Elizabeth Olson lives on at their home in Ely. The soul smells of fresh-baked cookies in the kitchen. In the writing shack on the property, it smells of cedar. It sounds like a breeze rustling the tall red pines Sig planted as seedlings, of croaking ravens and scuttling red squirrels. It lives on, just as Sigurd’s work to preserve wilderness continues. Now that the Listening Point Foundation has purchased the property, containing both the house and the writing shack, the work will continue there as it has since the Olsons bought it in 1934. Read More >
Cultivating Stewardship in Northern Minnesota
By Alissa Johnson
A new program in northern Minnesota aims to connect people with a passion for the northwoods with opportunities to take care of the places they love, including the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. A volunteer board of directors has been working with input from Forest Service liaisons to create a nonprofit organization called the Northwoods Volunteer Connection. The goal is to recruit, train, and manage volunteers to fill a much-needed stewardship need in Superior National Forest. Read More >
Mining Update: Mine Proposals Move at Glacial Pace
The only thing slower moving than the development of a new copper mine is probably the geologic forces that created northern Minnesota’s mineral deposits. While mine proposals in the Quetico-Superior Region may be the most urgent issue facing the waters and economy of northern Minnesota, developments often happen so slowly that the projects can appear to not be moving at all. Read More >
The Family That Goes to Camp Together, Stays Together
By Greg Seitz
All summer long, families stream to the North Arm of Burntside Lake, outside Ely, for a week at camp. There, for the past 54 years, YMCA Camp du Nord has provided opportunities to learn about nature, do arts and crafts, play silly games, acquire skills to explore the wilderness, and have profound shared experiences. Read More >
A Winter Wolf Story
by Paul Schurke
Ask most of us dogsledders and skiers about what we find so compelling about the Quetico Superior country in the snow season, and the answer is often the same: the wilderness is somehow wilder in winter. Read More >
BOOK REVIEW North Shore: A Natural History of Minnesota’s Superior Coast
By Chel Anderson and Adelheid Fischer
Published by University of Minnesota Press
Reviewed by Stephanie Hemphill
A book of more than 500 pages invites comparison to the Bible. North Shore: A Natural History of Minnesota’s Superior Coast is like a bible in some ways: it is vast in scope, thought-provoking, and poetic in places. It is full of passages that invite repeated visits, and reveal deeper meanings with each visit. Read More >