Why the Need to Produce a Film on Sam’s Life

Posted on January 27, 2012 by Terry

Sigurd Olson was a contemporary of Sam Campbell. While both men loved nature and were conservationists, Sig went the route of politics while Sam went the way of people’s hearts through books, lectures and films.

Robert Olson, Sig’s youngest son, personally knew Sam. He helped pack some of the things Sam needed for his trips into the boundary waters when Sam stopped by his dad’s shop.

Robert took time for the interview because he believes that Sam’s philosophy and story should be told and not forgotten. Here’s a short snip from the interview where Robert gives the importance of keeping Sam’s story alive.

Quotable

"One of the inexplicable things in nature, at least to our present limited understanding, is the strange faculty of instinct found in both animals and men. In men instinct has been smothered and lost in self-consciousness and, with questionable benefit at times, compromised with reason."One of the inexplicable

"Why don't we fight the thing that causes the trouble and not one another? Why don't we fight hatred and fear, selfishness, greed, all the things that destroy human happiness. Slightly modified, only removed who was talking and the between comments." Seven Secrets of Somewhere Lake‚ pg. 95Why don't we fight

"Nothing is fully possessed until gratitude is expressed." A Tippy Canoe and Canada Too‚ pg 232Nothing is fully possessed

"My inclination, after years of observation, is never to charge anything to chance in nature. It is all cause and effect. Intelligence, often a higher order then what we call reasoning, guides the people of the forest." A Tippy Canoe and Canada TooMy inclination

"I am often led to speculate on the evidence of Divine design there is even in the small events of our lives." Tippy Canoe and Canada Too‚ pg. 157I am often led

"Nature abhors the congregation of her creatures. She fights against the evils of our population. In the hearts of her children she plants an irresistible instinct for spreading, searching out new lands, seeking, ever seeking what lies just beyond the horizon." Tippy Canoe and Canada Too‚ pg. 69Nature abhors the congregation

"The biggest compliment is to tell someone that they are perfectly natural." Too Much Salt and Pepper‚ pg. 252The biggest compliment is

"Fear is the screen that hides from our view the friendship native to the wild heart. Wildness is only a form of fear, for when kindness and patience have penetrated the veil, we see unmistakable evidence of the love in all forms of life."Fear is the screen

"Who has not stood at the glorious moment when it seems that God Himself has called him (or her) by name and directed him (or her) to an important task?" Too Much Salt and Pepper‚ pg. 218Who has not stood

(Duke) "Once in while I have reached the place where peace was close at hand that I knew where to seek it at last. It was when I forget myself, and as someone said, look through nature to nature‚ as God." Eeny, Meeny, Miney, Mo and Still-Mo pg. 38Once in a while