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: steven.w.yahr@usfamily.net

mailto:steven.w.yahr@usfamily.net

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