Keeper of the Wild: The Life of Ernest Oberholtzer

Ernest ‘Ober’ Oberholtzer (1884-1977) is one of the great unsung heroes of the American conservation movement of the twentieth century. The long campaign by Ober and many others to preserve this area made a significant and lasting impression on conservation and wilderness preservation efforts around the world. This is the first book to document and explore the life of the man who led the fight to save the area that eventually became Voyageurs National Park and the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (today the most visited wilderness area in the United States), and the successful effort to preserve Quetico Provincial Park in Ontario as a protected wilderness area. Drawing on a lifetime of notebooks, letters, and speeches, as well as interviews with the people who knew him best, Paddock maps Ober’s transformation from a daring young outdoorsman and adventurer to an equally fierce defender of America’s disappearing wilderness areas.