Sigurd F. Olson was born in Chicago in 1899. His family moved to northern Wisconsin in 1905. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin, he also pursued post-graduate work there in geology, supplementing it with advanced studies in plant and animal ecology at the University of Illinois. For a number of years he taught biology at Ely Junior College (Minnesota), where he later was dean. He has been recognized nationally with many awards and honorary degrees and has served as consultant to the federal government on wilderness preservation and ecological problems, as adviser to the Izaak Walton League of America, and as president of the Wilderness Society and the National Parks Association. His books include The Singing Wilderness (1956), Listening Point (1958), The Lonely Land (1961), Runes of the North (1963), and Open Horizons (1969). A season-by-season selection of his writings, Sigurd F. Olson’s Wilderness Days, was published in 1972. Interpreter, enjoyer—and conserver—of our natural heritage, he lives and works in Ely, Minnesota, gateway to the Quetico-Superior region.