THE ZEPHYR/FEBRUARY-MARCH 2004 In town, shopping, he stopped at the local meat market run by a married couple. The cut he wanted wasn't in the display case. The woman went into the freeze locker to see what might be available. Ober followed her. The door shut itself. No inside handle. The two of 9 them shouted. They knocked on the door, tono avail. They stood on tippy toes to peek through AN a barred and double-glazed window (timid peeking gesture) and gestured feebly (gestures, fingers twinkling), but not for long; it was obviously hopeless; they could see people on the sidewalk, but no one took any notice of two desperate faces looking out. They were there quite a while, the woman not knowing just when her husband might get back to the store and need to come into the locker to look for a cut of meat. Would be nice if he would do it before closing time. Finally, he did open the door. Quite a surprise. co Ever after that the |B 400 butcher looked a wee bit askance (miming of askance) at Ober, wondering why he had followed the wife into the locker and then shut the door. Ree EF |B EAST & MILL ee The greatest adventure was yet to come, the fight against the timber barons to save what is now Quetico-Superior Wilderness. This struggle is worth dwelling on, for its meaning for I AY CREEK B Ka iy DR...259.6999 Y¥ COMES TODAVE'S i us now, 73 years later. Congress, by sending to the president the Shipstead-Nolan Act of 1930, I'm feeling very designated some National Forest land for purposes other than exploitation. It's seen now as the fore-runner of the Wilderness Act of1962. It passed at the eleventh hour of the last session of that year's Congress, climaxing years of efforts on the part of Ober and his, VULCAN-LIKE today, and I'm waiting anxiously for the S-| SWIMSUIT ISSUE! so | am 100% behind a return to the fortunately wealthy, friends. It was a triumph of upper middle class activism, sparked and stubbornly kept on course by a financially strapped man who knew the land and its waters better than any legislator or corporate commander. Matching his stubbornness was his ability to size up the opposition, cut through duplicity, find core commitments and where their money was coming from. LAME ALIEN IT WAS A TRIUMPH OF UPPER MIDDLE CLASS SWIMSUIT ISSUE! ACTIVISM, SPARKED AND STUBBORNLY KEPT ON COURSE BY A FINANCIALLY-STRAPPED MAN WHO KNEW THE LAND AND ITS WATERS BETTER THAN ANY LEGISLATOR OR CORPORATE COMMANDER. But there was more to it than that. The wilderness lovers had to have their own political There's something about winning at poker that restores capital, public support, and they worked hard to win it, from outdoors people of all stripes my faith in the innate goodness of my fellow man. and from women's organizations. They even brought the American Legion on board, and the Minnesota Legislature. On EA July 4, 1930 Ober, homeward bound, found a telegram waiting for him in Detroit. "Senate concurred in final hour of session hurrah for Shipstead." Ober sent a different message, to the Minneapolis-St Paul newspapers: "Felicitations to the conservationists of Minnesota and of the whole country ...Too much praise cannot be given to the loyal men and women all over the country, many of them unrecognized ..." It had been a hard fight and it never really ended, the struggle still with us, new NY MIDDLE EASTERN / CUISINE... oS incursions, new enemies, but the Mallard was there, a tiny island in Rainy Lake, to come back to and where Ober built book shelves and filled them with books, and where he played his fiddle, sometimes in accompaniment, and where he entertained friends. Today theisland is a book sanctuary and retreat where Ojibwe language is studied. Louise Erdrich tells that story in her Books and Islands in Ojibwe Country, National Geographic Society, 2003. Ernest Oberholtzer had a sense of humor expressed in sly, eye-twinkling ways. When he told stories he was delighting in people, their many ways, how diverse and interesting we all are. In his battles for wilderness he had enough to do without burning himself out in hatred for those he opposed. Rather, he burned with love of that for which he fought, the canoe country and its people. One of the Oberholtzer legends is that he met Edward W. Backus, leader of the timber barons, and that all went well, the two men seeming to enjoy each other's company. That's legend, though I suspect it's true. FRESH 1S THE ONLY \ WAY TO ENSURE TRULY DELICIOUS MIDDLE EASTERN FLAVOR . 1515 SOUTH 1500 EAST MONDAY-SATURDAY 11AM TO 9PM | x SALT Pome wie LAKE CITY, UTAH 801.484.9259 a aS tee Is there a lesson here, for us? I'm not sure. It would have to be an adapted lesson. Trying my best to look back, with my dark glasses off, to environmental advocates in the century just past ... Robert Marshall, David Brower, John Muir and the other leaders and the many thousands unsung .... I see their valiant efforts as very much a part of the last, dwindling days of Victorian Gentlemanship. A time when men felt themselves to be in full charge of affairs public and private, their grasp on the world secure enough to allow some show of nobility, of politeness, among themselves, and from time to time a coe ane grace in relation to women and "the others." Well, that was then. We live in a time that is not as polite, not necessarily more brutal, but more dangerous, because humanity's survival is at stake. We have to save the planet in der ourselves. Things compromised lands where people struggle, starving and dispossessed, all wrapped in one : huge, let's say cosmic, embrace. z tyx § now, A wilderness and cities and (There's much more about Ober and the border lakes country in Joe Paddock's, Keeper of the Wild, Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2001. I have pillaged it freely. Also, the journal Ober kept on the Hudson Bay trip is now in print: Toward Magnetic North, with photos. It's t'g +i pa ) ’ way re to BE! | 0 a fl ese ee eaters = Get that soil ready for Ne trees grasses 2971 §. Hwy 191 (next to the Branding Iron) Foe) ee TREES-& PAGE9 the the garden NOW! pricey, I haven't seen it). aS e is not just a trend... = rer ee 8 are a lot tighter e 2 the ao to save Xeric Gardening i BUSHES = )