Singing Wilderness

by Sigurd F. Olson

Sigurd F. Olson was for more than thirty years a wilderness guide in the Quetico-Superior country, and no one knew with the same intimacy the mysteries of the lakes and forests of that magnificent primitive area. To the many out-of-doorsmen who canoed and portaged with him through this wilderness, he was known honorifically as the Bourgeois--as the voyageurs of old called their trusted leaders through this same region.

Genres: Nature, Nonfiction, Essays, Environment, Outdoors, History, Memoir

245 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1956

About the author

Sigurd F. Olson was an American author, environmentalist, and advocate for the protection of wilderness. For more than thirty years, he served as a wilderness guide in the lakes and forests of the Quetico-Superior country of northern Minnesota and northeastern Ontario. He was known honorifically as the Bourgeois — a term the voyageurs of old used of their trusted leaders.

Reviews

[Lesle · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Wilderness to the people of America is a spiritual necessity, an antidote to the high pressure of modern life, a means of regaining serenity and equilibrium.”

My sensory language is the outdoors. I feel the most calm outside. It helps with feeling grounded and at peace by deeply absorbing the sounds, smells and views of the nature around me.
I have been wanting to read more wilderness enviroment type books lately, this is one of them.

Sigurd Olson was a renowned naturalist and wilderness guide from northern Wisconsin.
“Joys come from simple and natural things: mists over meadows, sunlight on leaves, the path of the moon over water.”

He writes about the many moods of the woods of Minnesota from season to season that actually captures the setting so well you can feel it around you.

He comes across a gentleman in his 80s where he did not expect to, fishing on the river.
They talked and found they were of the same thinking of the love of the land.
He tells of the land that is gone now with such saddness.

It is well illustrated with over 30 drawings in black and white by Francis Jaques.
If words could be a painting this read would be that, just beautiful.

[Murray · Rating 5 out of 5]

🛶 Sigurd Olson was an American naturalist who wrote amazing books about the wilderness that he canoed, hiked, and camped in. It was my grandfather who had the hardcovers which made me dream, yes, dream enough to finally make my way into wild places not only to explore but to build my home.

His writing is so evocative .. you are at his campfire watching the different colored flames move, you are helping paddle his canoe, gazing up at a billion stars not lost in ambient light, lying quietly in the woods watching whitetail graze or hearing a bull moose thunder.

All his books are a gateway to another world. This was my first book of his and it’s one of his best. Totally meditative, contemplative, and rich with peace and wonder.

🛶 ⛺️

[Craig Werner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Add a star if you're someone who breaks into a smile when you hear the word "portage" or feel a sense of disappointment when the winter temperature just refuses to go below 10. (If you're not one of those people, I can assure you after living in Wisconsin for 30 years that they actually exist.)

The best parts of The Singing Wilderness, a series of short essays arranged by the cycle of the seasons in the border region between Minnesota and Wisconsin and Canada, are those where Olson simply observes. There are wonderful descriptions of otters, weasel, pine knots, and many waterways. Clearly, he had a profound love of the landscapes he grew up in and continued to revisist.

Not quite four stars for me because there's a bit too much of the American transcendentalist drive to derive "meaning" from nature. Olson's very much aware of his relationship to the tradition that grew up around Emerson's "natural facts are symbols of spiritual facts." He quotes Thoreau frequently and I liked the sense of his affectionate conversation with an elder and fellow tramper of paths. Olson's take on Native Americans doesn't stand up to contemporary perspectives--more than a touch of romanticism, primitivism and noble savagery. But almost no white of his time avoided those and his attitude is always respectful, so I didn't find it difficult to just skim over those passages when they occurred.

[Happyreader · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perfect reading while watching the mist roll out on Nina Moose Lake in the Boundary Waters. Essays reflective of so many moods, just like the BWCA experience, where the lakes can quickly transform from high waves whipped by driving winds to gorgeous still glass reflecting the sunset. Tried reading this while still in the city but only in the wilderness did I slow down enough to enjoy these meditative essays on favorite canoeing routes, fishing spots, wilderness landscapes, and wildlife encounters with just enough hint of the danger posed by easy modern access to this unique and untamed Northwoods water world. Sigurd Olson was influential in the protection of the Boundary Waters, ensuring that my own experience of the BWCA was not so radically different from his own 60 years ago.

[Doug Gordon · Rating 5 out of 5]

A classic literary work on nature. A Sand County Almanac for the Northwoods. Sigurd Olson's writing feeds my adventurer's heart like no other writer's. I find myself returning to it again and again, rereading his stories and essays as devotionals which reconnect me to the heart of wilderness.

[Tony · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The Singing Wilderness" is notable both for Sigurd F. Olson's writing and for Francis Lee Jaques' illustrations. Published in 1956, the author's essays describe the wild country of northern Minnesota and nearby Canada. A glance at some of the titles of Olson's chapters, which are organized primarily by season, can give you a sense of the range that he covers: "The Winds of March," "Smell of the Morning," "The Way of a Canoe," "Forest Pool," "The Red Squirrel," "Pine Knots," "Smoky Gold," "Coming of the Snow," "Wilderness Music," and "Skyline Trail," among others. I think that the author is especially good at describing remote country. For example, in his chapter entitled "Silence," he writes of one cold winter night "...on a lake deep in the wilds. The stars were close that night, so close they almost blazed, and the Milky Way was a brilliant luminous splash across the heavens. An owl hooted somberly in the timber of the dark shores, a sound that accentuated the quiet on the open lake..." (p. 131). Francis Lee Jaques' illustrations add their own vividness to Olson's writings: Jaques' black-and-white drawings of birds, lakes, trees, animals, and other subjects are finely detailed and fun to look at. The combination of words and illustrations makes "The Singing Wilderness" an enjoyable book about the natural world.

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is no accident that I find myself sitting in a delightfully cozy cabin on Lake Superior in mid-November, a blanket of snow on the ground, a woolen throw across my lap, the crackling warmth of a fire beside me, the Big Lake roaring through the windows just a few short paces away, and not one but two Sigurd F. Olson books in tow. Hardly a better place could be found to read Olson’s 1956 ode to the lake country, “The Singing Wilderness,” than at the doorstep of the Quetico-Superior region he wrote about so lovingly.

Of course, the vacation was planned so that could hardly be considered accidental. But the Olson books? They were hand-selected by a friend, a long-time appreciator and explorer of the north woods, hoping that, in these most perfect of conditions, as the world slows and time draws itself out ever longer, as the frenzy of work and toil and the obligations of daily life recede, when stillness becomes not just a desirous but a natural state, when the biggest concerns of the day are coffee, reading, hiking, hot tea, a warm fire, and a glass of wine, with my mind and my senses perfectly attuned to my environs, I might sow the seeds, and harvest them, and feast on the bounty that he has had half a lifetime to realize.

Is such a thing possible? Hardly, though Olson’s adventures and keen observations, herein organized by the seasons, cannot but spark a flame in anyone who longs for the rhythm and sound, the beauty and simplicity, the peace and wonder of wild places. As he says in “Flying In,” after making the trip to a wilderness lake by seaplane rather than by many days of paddling and portaging in the hopes of recapturing the feeling of solitude and remoteness he had always known there without paying for it as he had done in the past, “I knew, however, what I must do next time. I must go in with pack and canoe and work for the peace of mind which I knew could be found there.” My respite here on the North Shore of Lake Superior is but an hors d’oeuvre, a restorative and necessary one, but an appetizer just the same, just as Olson’s stirring words are for anyone yearning to lose — no, to find — himself on an adventure of his own.

[Marie Zhuikov · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a second or third read for me, but it's been many years since my last read of it. I just adore Sig's writing style. One thing that struck me was the role of women in his stories. They do not join him in the outdoors. They just cheer from the shore or listen to his stories once he returns home with his trout. I guess that was just the era he lived in, but I did find some of the sexism in his writing grating. It's as if he couldn't even imagine a woman canoeing or being imbued with the spirit of the wilderness. Despite that, the book is a classic and a must-read for anyone who is interested in wilderness.

[Joanne Vruno · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book makes one feel as though you are in the woods and paddling the lakes.

[Rachel Libke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Few other books have made me so frequently and fervently nod while thinking, “yes. I know exactly what that’s like.” I devoured this book, and am already looking forward to the more thoughtful, slower reread that it deserves sometime.

When I finished reading, I turned right back to the beginning and read Olson’s introduction again, where he talks about his search for the singing wilderness—for the “happiness and joy” that comes unpredictably, prompted by a beautiful and wild sight or sound or smell in the wilderness. It “fills the void within us.” He experienced it first as a child, and ever since he longed for moments to experience that glory again. “I have discovered that I am not alone in my listening; that almost everyone is listening for something, that the search for places where the singing might be heard goes on everywhere. . . . We may not know exactly what it is that we are listening for, but we hunt as instinctively for opportunities and places to listen as sick animals look for healing herbs. Even the search is rewarding . . . .

“In the chapters that follow, I tell of my experiences in the north, but far more important than the places I have seen or what I have done or thought about is the possibility of hearing the singing wilderness and catching perhaps its real meaning. You may not hear it exactly as I did, but somewhere along the trails I have followed, you too may know the glory.”

Olson found this glorious experience most consistently in the depths of a northern wilderness instead of books of northern sagas and legends, and he used the term “singing wilderness” instead of the capitalized “Joy,” but otherwise his search sounds the same as C. S. Lewis’s in Surprised by Joy. I think these two would have had a lot to say to each other had they met. I wish that conversation could have happened, and I wish I could have been able to invisibly observe.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a writer, Sigurd Olson is a lyrical evangelist for wild places. In particular, he writes about one of my favorite wild places, the Boundary Waters/Quetico in northern Minnesota and Canada. I have traveled there many times, and Olson perfectly captures the sense of awe this place inspires in me and many others. His essays both describe the experience of traveling in the wilderness, and relate lessons Olson gleaned over the years of studying the landscape and its many diverse inhabitants, from ducks and geese, to squirrels and fish. I just completed the book on my last trip to the Boundary Waters, and the book was a perfect complement to my actual experience of camping on Insula Lake.

My only criticism is that he paints a sometimes overly romantic picture of the wilderness. He rarely describes the struggles to get along in an environment that is not always conducive to human comfort. Just entering the wilderness presents many physical challenges, from paddling through rough waters, storms, or rain, to hauling gear across lengthy mud-covered portages. Mosquitoes, black flies, water parasites, sudden storms or freezing rain/snow, plus the possibility of an encounter with a bear are realities of the wilderness, too. A savvy camper can prepare for these eventualities, but the unwary should be advised that the wilderness is not all rainbows and sunshine. And the uninitiated should know that these challenges do not actually detract from the experience; rather, through adversity, we experience a deeper connection to ourselves and an appreciation for our strengths. By living simply, we learn what truly matters, and we learn what things we can let go of and leave behind.

[Derek · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wild to hear Sigurd Olson talk about -40 degree weather in the winter, especially with how mild the winter was this year in the Northwoods.

[Michael Battistone · Rating 5 out of 5]

Almost 30 years ago, my (future) wife, her family and I went on a multi-day canoe trip in the Boundary Waters in northern Minnesota and into Canada. It was an incredible trip, into some of the most beautiful wilderness in the world. This book, a collection of essays set in this country, was written by Sigurd Olson, an outfitter and wilderness guide who essentially created a new genre of nature writing. I thoroughly enjoyed it this first time, and will likely re-read some of these in the future--perfect for winter evenings beside a fire!

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most enjoyable reads regarding appreciation of nature and wildlife. A thorough reading pleasure!!

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is just as fantastic as I remember it! I’ve lived in the Quetico-Superior area where the book takes place, and reading it brought back a lot of memories: the sound of the loons, the cold winter months, and the smell of the forest. Poetically written, astute observations, and excellent ability to capture the feeling the wilderness brings.

[Isaac Jensen · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this collection of short essays about various adventures in the canoe country of northern Minnesota and Ontario, Olson provides a lyrical evocation of the value of wilderness. An impassioned cry for simplicity, solitude and a renewed connection to the natural world, this book is as relevant today as it was 60 years ago when it was first published.

[Gary Lindsay · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was Sigurd F. Olson's first book, published when he was 56 years old. He was well into his career as a geology and biology teacher at Ely (Minnesota) Junior College and wilderness guide. The essays in this book are presented around the theme of the four seasons, and they were our first chance to read the author who would become America's premier interpreter of the wilderness experience. Singing wilderness is both a literal and figurative theme here, and Olson's writing evokes vivid imagery, often reading more like poetry than the masterful prose it is.
The book is also valuable in seeing how our awareness of wilderness values has evolved. For example, the reader might cringe a bit as Sigurd talks about freely cutting balsam boughs for his bed, something no environmentally sensitive wilderness traveler would do today. On the other hand, he is raising the issue of wilderness preservation just as Aldo Leopold was becoming well-known, before the movement became popular in the late 1960s. It was during this era that Sigurd became both a cultural folk hero for now and a symbolic villain to others and many took sides when wilderness preservation became a political conflict.
In the book's last chapter he speaks most directly to the value of wilderness beyond simply providing recreation and beautiful scenery. In "Timber Wolves" he tells of an encounter with a pack of wolves while alone cross-country skiing deep into the boundary waters wilderness. "... the narrows would be the place for a kill. A swift rush from both points at the same time, a short, unequal struggle in the snow, and it would all be over. My bones would go down with the ice in the spring and no one would ever hear the story .... Weighing a hundred, even as much as a hundred and twelve pounds or more, wolves are huge and powerful, can bring down a caribou or a moose, and have nothing to fear on the entire continent besides man." This encounter filled Sigurd with apprehension and a bit of fear, but mostly with awe of nature in its wild state.
He went on, "A little later I pushed open the door to the little cabin and touched a match to the waiting tinder in the stove. As I sat there listening to the roar of it and stowing away my gear, I realized fully what I had seen and what I had felt."
I've read all of Sigurd's writing, but I didn't realize how much I've missed it. It's been long enough that this seemed a new experience, and I plan now to reread each of them, this time in their order of publication so I can more fully appreciate the progression of his thinking.

[Rebekah Orlick · Rating 4 out of 5]

'An owl hooted somberly in the timber of the dark shores, a sound that accentuated the quiet on the open lake. Here again was the silence, and I thought how rare it is to know it, how increasingly difficult to ever achieve real quiet and the peace that comes with it, how true the statement "tranquility is beyond price."
More and more do we realize that quiet is important to our happiness. In our cities the constant beat of strange and foreign wave lengths on our primal senses beats us into neuroticism, changes us from the creatures who once knew the silences to fretful, uncertain beings immersed in a cacophony of noise which destroys sanity and equilibrium.'

Sigurd F.Olsen writes a beautiful novel on his experiences and seasons of the Quetico-Superior country. It brings one back to the quiet call of nature and leaves one desirous of a simpler quieter life, closer to the wild.

[Wes · Rating 4 out of 5]

“I wondered if legendry could survive scientific truth… if anything- even knowing the physical truth- could ever change the beauty of what I had seen, the sense of unreality… exploding atoms, beds of radium- what difference did it make? What counted was the sense of the north they gave me, the fact that they typified the loneliness, the stark beauty of frozen muskegs, lakes, and forests. Those northern lights were part of me and I of them.”

Really wonderful to read such beautiful descriptions of our Minnesota North Country and Ontario’s Quetico. Also disheartening knowing we lose a bit of that wilderness every year and that we’ll never get to experience it in a vibrant and undisturbed way like generations way past.

[John Benson · Rating 5 out of 5]

After reading David Backes' A PRIVATE WILDERNESS who using Sigurd Olson's journals explored Olson's long struggles to find his calling as a writer, it was nice to read his first book of essays from 1956. While the book is more than 65 years old, the essays do not feel dated at all, as the author in 34 essays across four seasons explored the natural landscape of the Superior National Forest of Northeastern Minnesota. Olson was instrumental in helping set up the Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA) in this his home region. The essays are all beautifully written and bring out his themes well. The illustrations by another Minnesota artist, Francis Lee Jaques, add to the enjoyment of each essay.

[Carl Nelson · Rating 4 out of 5]

An evocative, pleasurable read about the Minnesota/Canada north country. Heavy on lyrical nature prose and search for transcendental meaning in natural events, but contains fascinating observations on both the detail and grandeur of the region. Short, single-chapter subjects, organized in this volume by season of the year, make for a good pick-up/put-down read. My favorites were his chapters on the way of the canoe and his observations on squirrels.

My first Olson, and it's easy to see why he is regarded as the elder statesman of Boundary Waters and Quetico writers.

[Trin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nature writing without an ounce of irony. It's not really my thing, but there are some lovely observational passages. I especially liked Olson's tale of fishing for his grandmother, and encountering a pair of fishers. (The animals, I mean--not more humans with rods. Gosh, this nature-writing this is harder than I thought!)

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most beautiful, loving books I’ve ever read. Each chapter is a reflection on a moment in nature and a lesson on how to be present and appreciate the world around

Read this over the course of the past year, so I could experience the section for each season at the time

[Brady Kunz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good wilderness book

[Matthewjt · Rating 5 out of 5]

I stayed with this book for awhile. It is an easy one to read a bit and try to see a lot. I feel I will be coming back to it when I am out in the north country and when I need to slow down the mind and the breath. Beautiful pictures of the wild lands.

[Anthony Meaney · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you like books about nature and particularly North America a la Thoreau or Leopold or Abbey you will like this book.

If not you probably won't like it.

It is a collection of essays that runs through the seasons in Olson's north country which sits near the Boundary Waters and Quetico.

Olson is a favorite among canoeists for having canoed and written lovingly about these areas. The book doesn't contain as much about that as I would have thought but is rather a series of vignettes that span different incidents in the authors life, all connected to his experience of, and love of, nature and the outdoors.

It is a perfect companion to Aldo Leopold's " A Sand County Almanac" and is very much in the same vein. In some respects if you've read one you don't have to read the other. But that's like saying if you've read one Dashell Hammett you don't have to read any Raymond Chandler....

[Connie Kronlokken]

Lovely book, describing many experiences of nature in the North Country. Olson wanted to give people something of what he loved about the wilderness. He accomplishes this, but romanticizes things somewhat. "Uncounted centuries of the primitive have left their mark upon us, and civilization has not changed emotional needs that were ours before the dawn of history. That is the reason for the hunger, the listening, and the constant search. Should we actually glimpse the ancient glory or hear the singing wilderness, cities and their confusion become places of quiet, speed and turmoil are slowed to the pace of the seasons, and tensions are replaced with calm."

Olson is a hero of the conservation movement. We have no doubt the effect his experiences, described in this book, had on him. His heart is in the right place, but precisely described reality has no need for the romantic slant.

[Sev-o · Rating 5 out of 5]

A classic nature piece. A collection of essays written by Olson from the mid-1930's to the late 1950's. Most written with the goal of influencing public opinion on the protection of wilderness areas. Arranged by season the essays brought (and bring) the wilderness of what is now the BWCA and Quetico Provincial Park to many whom never have experienced it. Through amazingly descriptive writing and with detailed descriptions of the flora and fauna as well as the areas geology Olson takes you on his adventures through this remarkable area.

After reading this book I purchased my first canoe and took my son on a canoe trip to the area. I just couldn't help myself.

[Maja · Rating 5 out of 5]

"It was there we saw the first haze of light green over the hills, the budding-out of the aspen. That was another reason for an early trip: to see those slopes in the ephemeral hours before they had begun to darken, while they were still misty and pastel. Grayish-white drifts of the large-toothed aspen and the rose of budding maple made poetry on every shore. One must be on time to see these things, for they do not wait."

This book is a new favourite, to be treasured by anyone that wishes to keep the wilderness wild. He puts into words the feelings and senses experienced when one is lucky enough to escape into the real outdoors.

[Mark Geisthardt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sigurd Olson with his writing transports me to that country both he and I love, the connection of lakes and rivers on the US Canadian border known as the Boundary Waters Canoe Area on the US side and Quetico on the Canadian side. While words cannot truly convey the sense and feeling of beauty they are what we have and he uses them admirably in this book to bring you through his writing into The Signing Wilderness.

It was very much worth a second read and perhaps in another nine years or so it will be time for a third read.

It didn't take another nine years to want to read it again, only four. And it's still a 5 out of 5 on my list!