Listening Point Foundation, Inc.

Ninety years ago right now Sigurd was enjoying seeing his first published piece entirely devoted to the meaning of wilderness. I suspect he also experienced some frustration, too, because Sports Afield published "Search for the Wild" in two parts, with the first ten paragraphs in May 1932 and the final seven in the June issue. Nevertheless, in his later years he expressed fondness for the article.

You can find the whole piece in "The Meaning of Wilderness," the collection I assembled and commented on for the University of Minnesota Press in 2001. The article contains his first mention of what he later called "intangible values," and it also is another early example of his belief in what he called "racial memory" but is better expressed today as "ancestral memory."

The article came out just as Sigurd, who recently turned 33, was moving with his family back to Ely after completing his master's degree in ecology at the University of Illinois and writing the world's first graduate thesis on the timber wolf. Of course he hated all of that, as I've written before, and returned to Ely with relief but restless as ever to find his true calling.

Here's an excerpt from the beginning of "Search for the Wild:"
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Those who go forth into wild, unsettled regions, if asked the reason for their travels will give a variety of answers. For some it will be fishing, others hunting and the securing of trophies, still others to photograph, explore, or conduct scientific investigations. Most men believe that they "go in" for some definite, concrete purpose. If they are made to admit the true motive behind their wilderness journeys they will, with few far-flung exceptions, agree that it is something entirely different, a purpose for which the very evident ulterior motive is only an excuse.

It is very true that when a man goes into the woods to fish, he in all probability heads for the lakes and streams; if it is ducks, the rice beds and marshes know him well. Whatever it is and wherever it takes him is really immaterial when compared to the underlying reason. What he is really looking for is that intangible something he calls "the Wild," and if he hunts or fishes hard enough, he will find it in the close contact with nature those pursuits entail.
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“This morning, not able to stand it a moment longer, I started out over the old hills I know so well. . . . It was balm to my shattered nerves and it did me good. How
wonderful it was lying under that big spruce to hear the spring song of the first robins. . . . I tried to think out my problem but all I could think of was the beauty of
the sunlight, the sound of the wind through my spruce and the silhouette of the birches over the hill to the west. The more I tried to think the more soothing grew the influences around me. . . .” - Journal, April 9, 1935

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Enjoying spring here in Ely! Will you be coming out to visit us at the Point this summer? ☀️🌲 we can’t wait to see you!

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