Sam Campbell “Philosopher of the Forest”
By: Steve Yahr
2-17-2008
The North Country is a siren. Who can resist her song of intricate and rich counterpoint –
the soaring harmonies of bird melodies against the accompaniment of lapping waters, roaring
cataracts, the soft, sad overtones of pine boughs Those who have ever seen her in her beauty or
listened to her vibrant melodies can never quite forget her nor lose the urge
to return to her Grace Lee Nute
The Voyageur’s Highway
While Sam Campbell probably never read these words from The Voyageur’s
Highway, he certainly would have agreed with them. Sam loved Nature, the north
country woods and the open spaces and all the creatures that inhabit them. He was gifted
with the ability to capture the siren song of Nature in his writings, books, films, and
lectures. It was said that Sam could get more mileage out of a chipmunk than any man
alive. Because of his gift, from his summer island home near Three Lakes Wisconsin he
was able to capture the hearts and minds of people from all generations and walks of life
living in America’s urban spaces and draw them to the woods.
Historical Sketch
Sam Campbell lived during the end of the logging of the great northern forests of
Wisconsin and “Golden Age” of the railroads. The need to love all God’s creatures, and
practice conservation would give him his life’s work and the railroad would give him the
stage from which to share his message.
The early years of Sam’s life coincided with the time of the logger in the forests
of northern Wisconsin. During the 1800s logging of the great forests moved up the
Wisconsin River, with trees being cut in the winter and driven down the river during high
water in spring. When Rhinelander, on the Wisconsin River, (which is also near Sam’s
island home in Three Lakes) started on its career as a community center in about 1882,
the heaviest growth of White and Norway pine in the state lay just north of town. This
belt measured 18 miles wide by 40 miles long, containing uncountable board-feet of pine,
hemlock, birch, spruce, birds-eye maple, curly maple and other large quantities of timber.
And the lumber barons wanted it all. America had a voracious appetite for lumber;
lumber for houses in the great cities, lumber for houses and barns on the ever increasing
number of farms.
All the log driving streams around Rhinelander passed through this tract of pine
and the rail-roads brought other timber not secured or conveyed by the Wisconsin River.
Vast stands of timber were clear cut, a process those of the time called “cut & run”. Mike
Monte provides a wonderful account of this way of life, “an unprecedented rape of
Mother Nature” in his book “Cut & Run: Loggin’ Off the Big Woods”. As the loggers
moved deeper and deeper into the seemingly unending forests “sawdust towns” were
built around the lumber mills. As soon as the last tree in the area had been cut the mill
moved on and the town was abandoned. Vast stands of virgin timber were turned from
forest to “cut-over” in the span of a few years. After the loggers left, the brush piles or
“slash” left in the woods was a constant concern due to the forest fire danger. Several of
these fires occurred in the Three Lakes area, where at one point a timely wind shift saved
the town from destruction at the last minute while the residents stood and watched from
Maple Lake. In the Three Lakes area, an area central to Sam Campbell, clear cut logging
continued approximately 60 years until the early 1940’s, with much of the logging being
conducted by the Thunder Lake Lumber Company. The history of this company and its
logging activities is described in “Thunder Lake Narrow Gauge” by Harvey Huston.
One Thunder Lake logging camp (Camp 16) was built close to the east shore of Big Fork
Lake, from which Sam launched a canoe to get to his island. Even as he was going to the
island to be amongst his animal friends the sounds of logging would have been ringing in
his ears.
Naturalists and environmentalists like Isaac Walton, Aldo Leopold, and Sigurd
Olson in Ely Minnesota lobbied the United States government to set aside vast areas of
wilderness in America as national forests, wilderness areas, and parks as a check on
unbridled logging and development. Growing public awareness and support for the idea
prompted Congress to pass the National Park Service Act, which created the National
Park System in 1916. The Depression provided support to the environmental movement
through the labor of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCCs), Franklin Roosevelt’s “tree
army”. In the Three Lakes area as soon as loggers finished cutting timber in an area and
abandoned their logging camp the CCCs moved in and used some of the same logging
camps to house young men who spent their days planting new trees to replace the ones
just cut.
It was a rich and complex time in American history. Sigurd Olson captured the
essence of the period with these words in a 1938 article for Sports Afield:
There was a time when we as a people felt that we had too much wilderness and that it was a serious detriment to national expansion. That era has passed and for the first time since those pioneer days, we know that wilderness may be a distinct and valuable asset in itself, one which we can no longer afford to squander and one which does have a definite land use. We also know, know that most of it is gone, that primitive regions once disturbed cannot return to their natural condition in the short space of a life time or for that matter within several hundred years. As far as we personally are concerned, the passing of a wilderness is irrevocable, a loss we can never replace or remedy. ….. There is a growing appreciation of the value of wilderness and outdoorsmen who have watched their beloved frontiers disintegrate, helpless to stem the tide of development, are at last being heard. Wilderness societies are being organized everywhere to fight the battles for their particular areas. No longer is the preservation of primitive country considered impractical and unworthy of public recognition. Men realize that wilderness is a cultural asset, a priceless spiritual heritage necessary to their happiness.
While the last of the great forests were being felled to the dismay of
environmentalists, Americans of all ages were also moving about the land in great
numbers for work, to find a new life, and to go on vacation to the nation’s wild areas and
wilderness aboard trains. The early part of Sam’s life also saw the birth of the great
trains. For the Chicago & Northwestern this was the time that saw the beginning of the
famous “400” series of trains. The first ran 400 miles in 400 minutes, which includes
intermediate station stops, from Chicago to Minneapolis/St. Paul – one of the fastest runs
in the country.
American railroads played an active role in developing and publicizing the
country's new national parks. They built branch lines, constructed opulent hotels,
arranged package tours, and marketed the parks to vacationers and long-distance travelers
- all of whom would of course take the train to reach these sought-after destinations. In
the 1920s and 30s, Union Pacific (UP) and partner Chicago & North Western (C&NW)
produced beautifully illustrated travel books entitled Summer Tours. Those vacation
books were some of the first to feature full-page color maps and photos. Escorted
package tours ranging from eight to fourteen days offered travelers the chance to visit
parks, wilderness areas, and cities throughout the West, the Pacific Northwest, and
Alaska. In 1937, an all-expense, 14-day C&NW-UP tour of California cost as little as
$211. "So promise yourself this vacation treat - and go this summer," urged the brochure.
However, the C&NW recognized that in addition to providing tours to the West,
it could also utilize its route structure to encourage people to leave Chicago and travel to
Northern Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan as depicted in this brochure
from about 1956. An important part of the railroad’s efforts to encourage people to visit
these wonderful places revolved around the lectures of Sam Campbell. He was the
official lecturer for the C&NW for 22 years, from 1934 until 1958.
While Sam Campbell’s relationship with Three Lakes Wisconsin will be
described in detail in a later section, it is useful here to describe the C&NW relationship
with this wonderful little town. Three Lakes was founded in 1881 as the C&NW moved
north from Monico, Wisconsin towards Watersmeet Michigan to connect with another
C&NW line, then on to Ontonagon Michigan on the south shore of Lake Superior. Three
Lakes was part of the C&NW Ashland Division. Three Lakes got its name from the
C&NW surveyor who, trying to “shoot” a line north, ran into three different lakes
(Maple, Town Line, and Range Line lakes) little realizing there are actually 28
interconnected lakes. From it’s humble beginnings with a tree stump for a station (later
a box car and later probably two permanent buildings) for a station with Frank Steiner as
the first depot agent, Three Lakes grew to be an important summer tourist destination due
to the beauty of the surrounding woods and lakes.
During the days of steam engines, typically two trains per day serviced Three
Lakes, one at 9:30AM and one at 3:00PM. Typically these locomotives were of the “R”
class. A typical “R” class locomotive is shown below in passenger service at Watersmeet
MI, perhaps on it’s way to Three Lakes.
C&NW “R” class locomotive at Watersmeet MI
With the decline in passenger traffic in the late 1940s and through the 1950s,
passenger service to Three Lakes was discontinued in the late 1950s/early 1960s. Freight
service continued, generally consisting of the placing of gondola cars for local loggers to
fill with pulp being hauled to paper mills in Wisconsin’s Fox River valley. The photo
below was taken in 1970 after the abandonment of passenger service. The line was
abandoned and the tracks torn up in 1982. The Three Lakes depot remained and has
found new life as the Three Lakes Winery.
C&NW Three Lakes Depot
The different railroads continued the tour business until about 1960 when
popularity of travel by private automobile became the dominant way for people to travel
to vacation destinations.
Sam’s Early Life
Samuel Arthur Campbell was born August 1, 1895, in Watseka, Illinois, and from
the first was at home in the forests from the start. Even as a child, his home was
frequented by an assortment of creatures like ducks, dogs, cats, turtles, worms, snakes,
chickens, sheep, pigs, and even a turkey, hinting at what was to come. At an early age he
would go camping in the woods near his home and learned to listen to the voices in the
woods. His mother is quoted as saying “that child should be a naturalist”.
Sam and his family (father Arthur, mother Katherine, Sam, Don, & Lucille) first
visited the Three Lakes area around 1909 when Sam was 14. There he saw wild deer,
bear, raccoons, and numerous creatures in their element for the first time. They camped
on the east side of Four Mile Lake, not far off the Military Road. Sam loved the north
country, this love was encouraged by his mother whom he took to calling Wegimind, the
Ojibway Indian word for “mother”. The north country, and specifically Four Mile Lake
gripped him in an especially powerful way, this poem (frequently sung at Sanctuary
campfire gatherings) from “Tippy Canoe & Canada Too” he wrote is testament:
I know a land that holds our treasure, Where blessings flow forth with out measure, Far from all turmoil and aimless strife, Where all nature sings with life. I know a road that winds and winds, Through cooling woods of towering pines, That scent each breeze with fragrance rare, And sweet bird songs fill the air. From the end of the road a trail leads on, Beyond where the woodsmen’s axe has gone, Through verdant halls where the wild life roams, And shadows hide elves and gnomes. At the end of the trail is a wooded lake, So cool and clear where the shy deer hide, They fill in the night when the wide world sleeps, And darkness their secret keeps. On the shore of the lake is an old campground, In its quiet and peace our treasure’s found, Here God is so near, here doth love prevail, In that camp on a lake, over road and trail.
After graduation from high school he attended different colleges and tried
different jobs, but the wilderness gripped him. The challenge was how to make a living
and be in the woods he loved. One option was to be a writer – to be in both in the
wilderness and to describe the feeling to others through the written word. But before this
could happen, his mother who had encouraged him so much and who he loved so much,
died on June 17, 1927. Her death had a profound impact on him and the future he would
take. In honor of her, his property at Three Lakes was named the Sanctuary of
Wegimind, and today one branch of the Sam Campbell Memorial Trail ends at Wegimind
Point.
The story of Sam’s life is described beautifully by Shendelle Henson in her book
“Sam Campbell: Philosopher of the Forest.
About the age of 20, he began to privide articles on nature to newspapers and
magazines. While this may not have been the first story he wrote and sold, it provides a
wonderful example of his storytelling style. One morning early in his writing career as
he sat in his cabin enjoying coffee and the silence with a skunk named “Halitosis”, a
dishpan fell to the floor. A skunk gives three warning signs that he is about to ruin your
day with his spray. It is reliably reported that when the dishpan hit the floor Halitosis
gave all three warning signs at once and faced Sam with his tail full of spray at the ready.
Sam knew that if Halitosis cut loose his defensive spray the cabin would have to be torn
down, there is no cleaning skunk odor out of woodwork. Sam was so nervous he
couldn’t even pray. When he could speak Sam talked the unhappy Halitosis into
lowering his tail and slowly calm returned to the cabin. The story of Halitosis was an
early piece that helped Sam build a reputation as a writer, selling articles to newspapers
and magazines around the country.
After many years of camping, in 1937 Sam bought land on Four Mile Lake,
including an island, only returning to the city as the exigencies of money arose to plague
him. During this time the effect of his mother’s teachings / death combined with his love
of the wilderness to deepen his faith in God and love for His Creation. This love of
creation provided a purpose to Sam’s life. He had to share his love of Creation and the
Sanctuary from the worlds problems it provides with everyone, so the films, books and
lectures became the medium. On his Three Lakes island was established the Sanctuary of
Wegimind. Here people and animals could find sanctuary from the larger world and be
more natural, a theme he would return to in many of his writings. In the final chapter in
Sanctuary Letters Volume 1 he writes:
This is the purpose of the Sanctuary of Wegimind; to provide a realm for the protection of wild life, and an atmosphere propitious to share the higher thoughts of man. Its possessions are the invaluable creations of God, held inviolate, its guest-fee the sincere adherence to its creed; its aim to gain peace and joy by giving in; its inspiration the memory of a beautiful soul, for whom it is named Wegimind (Mother); its voice, the humble “Sanctuary Letters;” its motto, “Peace be still!”
Sam was known as “The Philosopher of the Forest”, and while it is reasonable to
assume these early writings led to this title, the true story of how he came to be known by
this title has been lost over the years.
In addition to his skill as a writer, Sam began to make motion pictures as a way of
telling the tales of his forest friends. Realizing that telling the story of nature was his
calling, he threw his whole energy into helping awaken people to the need to preserve
wilderness habitat through the antics of his forest friends. He gave his first lecture in
1930, and demand soon grew so great that the demands far exceeded his time. He
lectured in churches, lodges, clubs, and nature groups. The lecture schedule for part of
1952 is included later in this article.
It is uncertain when Sam started making motion picture of his animal friends.
The popular movie film of the era, 16mm, was introduced by Kodak in 1933 as an
alternative to the 35mm film used by movie studios. It is known that a dark room was on
his island in Four Mile Lake, and movie making is talked about in the books. It is also
known that he shot about 150,000 feet of film for his lectures. Copies of some of the
films are available today in DVD format via the internet.
While Sam was certainly aware of the environmental activities of Isaac Walton,
Aldo Leopold and his good friend Sigurd Olson he is not recorded as having been a
member of wilderness societies or of having lobbied government officials. Sigurd Olson
writes of being at odds with some of his neighbors in Ely, Minnesota for wanting to
restrict development in what would become the Boundary Waters Canoe Area
Wilderness (BWCAW). Sam’s writings and recollections by those who remember him
reveal that he used his gifts of writing, movie making, lecturing and mostly his sense of
humor to help those he encountered enjoy and want to preserve wilderness. While his
books touch briefly on environmental issues, protecting beavers from poaching in “The
Seven Secrets of Somewhere Lake”, and the perils facing the BWCAW (airplanes) in
“Moose Country”, he prefers to let the love of his animal friends convince people that
nature is a gift to be treasured.
Sam’s island Sanctuary of Wegimind on Four Mile Lake (the island in
foreground)
Official Lecturer for the C&NW
One night in 1934 an official of the Chicago & Northwestern Railway
attended one of Sam’s lectures. Recognizing that here was something unusual and
valuable, a conference followed resulting in railway sponsorship. This relationship grew
stronger through the years. Sam continued his lectures primarily in the Chicago area,
adding Rockford, Indianapolis, then moving to the east and west. Typically the lecture
schedule was each weeknight plus twice on Sunday.
Giny
During a lecture in the late 1930s Sam was introduced to Virginia (Giny) Adams.
She was a secretary at a school where he had lectured. A relationship developed with he
visiting her when he was in Chicago and she visiting him at the Sanctuary. They were
married on June 10, 1941, with Sam decked out in a northwoods shirt, breeches and high
leather boots. Giny is introduced to the readers in Too Much Salt & Pepper. Their
honeymoon was a trip into BWCAW canoe country.
Summer’s in Three Lakes
In addition to the articles, lectures and films Sam also wrote books. Sam’s early book
publishing included The Conquest of Grief. A search of libraries and internet used book
stores for this book was unsuccessful.
A five volume series of reflective essays in booklet form called Sanctuary Letters
came next. These were written and published in 1933. These volumes are out of print
(though may be found for sale on the Internet, in used book stores, or through public
libraries via inter-library loan) and are titled:
• Volume 1: The Sanctuary of Wegimind and Other Sanctuary Letters • Volume 2: The Finding of Vanishing Lake and Other Sanctuary Letters • Volume 3: Ebony Mansions and Other Sanctuary Letters • Volume 4: Naturalness and Other Sanctuary Letters • Volume 5: Frozen Memories and Other Sanctuary Letters
Later most of the Sanctuary Letters essays were combined into a book titled Nature’s
Messages (1952). This volume also contains additional new essays written in the same
style. Like Sanctuary Letters, this volume may be found for sale on the Internet, in used
book stores, or through public libraries via inter-library loan.
Sam is probably best known for a later series of 12 well known books that captured
his love of nature. The books have been returned to print by AB Publishing, Ithaca
Michigan and are titled:
• How's Inky? ©1943, • Too Much Salt and Pepper ©1944 • Eeny, Meeny, Miney, Mo--And Still-Mo ©1945 • A Tippy Canoe and Canada Too ©1946 • On Wings of Cheer ©1948 • Moose Country ©1950 • The Seven Secrets of Somewhere Lake ©1952 • Loony Coon ©1954 • Fiddlesticks and Freckles ©1955 • Beloved Rascals ©1957 • Sweet Sue's Adventures ©1959 • Calamity Jane ©1962
These later books describe animal life and antics on his island in Four Mile Lake,
which he referred to as the “Sanctuary of Wegimind” in honor of his mother. Typically,
a books starts with Sam and Giny driving up to Three Lakes after a long winter on the
lecture circuit, then canoeing to the Sanctuary on Four Mile Lake. Referencing a 1938
quadrangle map of the Three Lakes reveals that the Blue Ribbon Bridge, which crosses
the narrows between Island and Little Fork Lakes, which carries County Trunk X
northwards was not completed until about 1939. The closest land access to Four Mile
Lake was along the east shore of Big Fork Lake. Thus, the necessity of a lengthy canoe
trip to reach the island. Once reaching the Sanctuary Sam and Giny would experience a
full summer of animal antics / lessons, writing and filming before resuming the lecture
circuit about the time of ice-up in late fall.
http://www.samcampbell.com/howsinky.htmlhttp://www.samcampbell.com/salt&pepper.htmlhttp://www.samcampbell.com/EMMM.htmlhttp://www.samcampbell.com/tippyc.htmlhttp://www.samcampbell.com/WingOfCheer.htmlhttp://www.samcampbell.com/sue.html
1938 Three Lakes Wisconsin quadrangle map
Sam’s books not only tell of the antics of his animal friends, but also the lessons they
teach. Having long periods of time on the island helped him to listen to the messages
they taught about life, and priorities. With no television, telephone, and no radio life at
the Sanctuary focused on the basics of life, without the noise of cities, the distractions of
the Depression, the rise of Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, Japan, civil war in Spain and all
that was happening in the 1930s and 1940s. Those who have gone “on trail” to the
BWCAW or other secluded places understand that reality soon becomes the moment.
Nature has a way of helping us to replace the weighty schedules, noise, rush and burdens
of life with the joy of the here and now. Thus, if Adolf Hitler made a threatening speech
in Germany, on the Sanctuary island Sam and his friends, with porcupines Salt & Pepper
were quite uninterested. If the stock market suffered another lurch, raccoon Andrea and
her young cared not. Red squirrels Eeny, Meeny, Miney, Mo, and Still Mo did not fret
over the noise and rush of city life. Inky the famous philosopher / porcupine summed it
up by encouraging each of us to “be natural, to be ourselves”. “Aw! Balsam Juice!”
Inky declares, “Tell the folks down there to just try bein’ natural. That’s all they need.
They get so blamed messed up in their struttin’ and pretendin’ and there just isn’t any
good in that” (from Too Much Salt & Pepper).
Sam Campbell with Salt & Pepper
Articles in the North Western Newsliner tell of a network of trails around the Four
Mile Lake Sanctuary. Hunting was not permitted in the Sanctuary, thus the animals were
more tame and “seeable” compared with those animals not in the sanctuary. The articles
tell of individuals and groups walking well marked trails. Markers and plaques bearing
inspiring quotations were strung along the trails. Each trail had a name, from Sunset
Trail, to Friendship Trail, to Chapel Trail leading to the Chapel in the Pines, a rustic
chapel built in 1924 on concrete blocks with no electricity, which still stands today on
Preachers Point Road.
While most of the material in the books was derived from adventures in the Three
Lakes area, there were also adventures in what has become the Boundary Waters Canoe
Area Wilderness (BWCAW) of northeastern Minnesota, as well as adventures to the
Grand Canyon, Glacier Park in Montana, and Hawaii. The adventures to the BWCAW
were arranged by Sam and Giny’s friend and noted conservationist / author Sigurd Olson.
Sig owned the Boundary Waters Outfitting Company in Winton Minnesota, providing
supplies and guides for those venturing into canoe country. Sig’s youngest son Robert
remembers Sam as friendly to all he met, even to children which was not the way of most
adults of the time. Robert Olson recalls that Sam & Giny would be gone in canoe
country, as it was called then, for three to four weeks at a time. Canoeists of that time did
not have the light weight canoes available today, nor the light weight camping equipment
or food, nor the high quality maps we take for granted today. Additionally, there was the
camera equipment required to make the movies for the winter lectures. When
considering all this, Sam & Ginys adventures must have been something indeed!
In these later books Sam takes great delight in naming and describing the antics of his
animal friends, some who have been previously mentioned. The books also describe a
variety of people Sam & Giny encounter in their adventures, but he takes care to protect
the true identity of these people by giving them different names in the books. For
example, Ray, Ada, and June, frequently mentioned in the books were real people who
lived in the Three Lakes area, however Ray, Ada, and June are not their real names.
Sam & Giny Campbell
Lectures in the Winter
After a summer of animal antics / lessons / philosophy, film making, and writing
in Three Lakes, Sam’s life in the winter was dedicated to lectures using his home at 220
Oak Knoll Road in Barrington Illinois as a base of operations. Initially these lectures
were in the Chicago area, and were sponsored by the C&NW, as stated earlier but grew to
encompass a wide area. The three pages following, courtesy of the C&NW Historical
Society, show the lecture schedule for 1952. Notice that from late January through mid
May there was a lecture almost every night somewhere in the Chicago area.
Early in his lecture career Sam was joined by his friend Bobby Kostka who is also
mentioned in some of the books. After Sam and Giny married, Bobby also married and
traveled the world leading tours. Details of Bobby’s later life are unknown.
Whether touring with Bobby or Giny, Sam always started a lecture by thanking
the audience for coming. This lead to an inspiring and heart-warming narrative about the
world in general, people everywhere, God’s ideas and plans for each of us, and the hows
and whys of the guidance from God available to each of us. He wanted his lectures to
arouse youngsters and adults to love God’s universe and her creatures, and thus want to
protect them. During the lecture a movie (with Giny running the projector) featuring the
latest antics of Inky, Salt & Pepper, Eeny, Meeny, Miney, Mo, Still Moe, Freckles or
some other creature, would be shown with narration provided by Sam. The animals were
the stars, Sam just explained to his delighted audiences what they were doing.
Lectures were co-ordinated and advertised through the C&NW. Examples of lecture
announcements are shown below:
As Sam’s popularity on the lecture circuit increased, and audiences clamored for
more, it was time to try something new. First conceived in 1941, in 1948 this took the
form of a “Sam Campbell Special”, an organized railway tour to such scenic spots as
California, Rocky Mountain National Park, and the Canadian Rockies. Roy Dickson,
General Agent of the North Western at Indianapolis was given credit for pulling it
together. A special, private train was used with a lecture car at the head of the train.
While audiences had known and loved Sam for some time from his lectures, this was the
first time that they came to know Giny, who normally was occupied with projection
duties while Sam lectured. Giny was found to be “as necessary to the tour as the engine
was to the train” thanks to her happy disposition as well as for her interest in and love for
the 160 people on that first tour.
In 1951 the tour went to Alaska, then to different parts of the continental United
States and later to Europe and Hawaii. So many people signed up for the early tours that
the C&NW operated special “Sam Campbell Tour” trains. The tours were so successful
that people organized a travel club called the “Campbellites” and for a while had a
reunion once per year. A search of the Internet reveals no trace of the travel club in 2007.
Those who had gone on a tour were presented with the card below, a visible memento of
their “good companionship, sportsmanship, and love of the beautiful”.
Music
Music was a big part of Sam’s life, a natural part of the happiness he lived. He
was an excellent guitar player and singer, at one time teaching guitar, banjo, and
mandolin from his studio on Michigan Avenue in Chicago. His books hint at singing
around the camp fire at Four Mile Lake and he often carried his guitar on trips into the
BWCAW. The books include lyrics to a variety of camping and canoeing songs. Robert
Olson remembers that before going on trips onto the BWCAW, Sam and Giny would
spend the night at the Olson house, and singing would be an integral part of the
experience. Similarly, his god daughter remembers that Sam taught her dad to play the
banjo and her dad taught Sam to box. Sam’s music was also part of the C&NW tours as
well as evidenced by the program below which includes a lecture and a community sing.
Later life and death.
Sam died on April 13, 1962 of a heart attack at his home in Barrington Illinois,
shortly before making the summer journey to Three Lakes with Giny. He was eulogized
by his good friend and fellow conservationist / writer Sigurd Olson. He was cremated,
his ashes scattered over his island by pilot and friend Norman Brewster. Giny remarried
and later died in 1982.
Legacy
Many in the environmental movement consider Sam Campbell to be a man ahead
of his time. Mere statistics recount that he produced 150,000 feet of nature films and
delivered 9000 lectures in 30 years, was featured on radio and TV shows, but statistics
don’t begin to tell the whole story. His message was one of love of, respect for, and
conservation of nature, a message that gained prominence during the environmentally
aware late 1960s and continues today. He has helped countless people to realize that the
forest is “God’s ancient sanctuary”, that in the halls of these verdant temples the soul of
man is refreshed and a thinking man is filled with wonderment. Sam was convinced that
the messages he read in the forest were not just for him, but for him to share with all
God’s people. People came to his lectures and still read his books not merely for
entertainment, but because their thoughts, hopes, and faith are lifted. One admirer said:
“His interpretation of our world is a constant inspiration”. Some of Sam’s books have
returned to print, their message as appealing today as it was when they were originally
written. Sam’s island home on Four Mile Lake in Three Lakes still stands today, though
under different private ownership. There is a section in the Three Lakes Museum
dedicated to Sam, as well as a Sam Campbell Memorial Trail along the north side of Four
Mile Lake. The trail leads to Wegimind Point looking out over his island, and eventually
to Vanishing Lake so often mentioned in his books. The trail also passes through a stand
of large white pine Sam spared from logging thru his conservation activities.
White Pines on Sam Campbell trail
All the places described in Sam’s books are real, especially his beloved Sanctuary
of Weigmund in Three Lakes and Sanctuary Lake in Quetico Provincial Park. While
these places were very special to him, Sam would encourage us all to “be natural” and to
find our own sanctuary places within His creation “somewhere east of sunset, somewhere
west of dawn”.
Sources
Backes, D. (1997). A Wilderness Within; The Life of Sigurd F. Olson. University
of Minnesota Press.
Chicago & Northwestern Historical Society - http://www.cnwhs.org/
Henson, Shendelle. (2001). Sam Campbell: Philosopher of the Forest. Three
Lakes Historical Society.
Huston, Harvey (1982). ‘93/’41 Thunder Lake Narrow Gauge. Ondre N. Huston.
Monte, Mike (2002). Cut & Run: Loggin’ Off The Big Woods. Schiffer
Publishing Ltd. Atglen, PA.
Sam Campbell website maintained by a private individual -
http://www.samcampbell.com/
Three Lakes Historical Society - http://www.nnex.net/~robwack/museum.htm,
especially Volumes I & II of The Pine, The Plow, and the Pioneer.
Trains magazine article on train tourism -
http://trains.com/ctr/default.aspx?c=a&id=42
http://www.samcampbell.com/http://www.nnex.net/~robwack/museum.htmhttp://trains.com/ctr/default.aspx?c=a&id=42
About Steve Yahr
Steve Yahr spent summers as a youth at his parent’s cottage on Planting Ground
Lake in Three Lakes Wisconsin, later living at the cottage / working in Three Lakes
summers while in college. He was introduced to Sam Campbell in grade school thru
books checked out from the Three Lakes Library, and like Sam has grown to love and
care for God’s unspoiled creation of the northwoods and all the creatures that inhabit it.
Steve helps maintain the Sam Campbell Memorial Trail each spring, returning to Three
Lakes as often as possible, canoes in the BWCAW, and is looking forward to finding the
location of / visiting Sanctuary Lake in Quetico Park. Steve would especially like to
thank Joe Piersen of the C&NW Historical Society, Joanne East and Shendelle Henson
for invaluable source material and their encouragement. Steve and his family live in
Oakdale, Minnesota. He may be reached at: [email protected]
mailto:[email protected]
Steve Yahr pauses at Wegimind Point during spring clearing of the Sam Campbell
Memorial Trail, Three Lakes Wisconsin
Summer’s in Three LakesLater most of the Sanctuary Letters essays were combined intSam is probably best known for a later series of 12 well knoHow's Inky? ©1943,Too Much Salt and Pepper ©1944Eeny, Meeny, Miney, Mo--And Still-Mo ©1945A Tippy Canoe and Canada Too ©1946On Wings of Cheer ©1948Moose Country ©1950The Seven Secrets of Somewhere Lake ©1952Loony Coon ©1954Fiddlesticks and Freckles ©1955Beloved Rascals ©1957Sweet Sue's Adventures ©1959Calamity Jane ©1962