2021 Partnership - Jeffrey Ryan, Author

 

2020 was such an isolating year that I decided to try to partner with a couple people on projects this year. Throughout this year I will be working with Jeffrey Ryan, author and filmmaker, on a book and film about Ernest C. Oberholtzer. Jeff has been writing books about the Wilderness Society and it’s founding members. Ober was one of them. Jeff and I met up on Ober’s island, Mallard Island, a few years ago. He spent a week on the island researching Ober while I was a caretaker. We kept in touch over the years and decided last year to work on a project together. Soon, the idea of a book and short film about Ober emerged and, with the help of Beth Waterhouse the Oberholtzer Foundation ED, we submitted a grant to fund the endeavor. Sadly, we didn’t get the grant. Happily, we have decided to move ahead anyway. This summer, Jeff and I will be making another trip to Ober’s beloved Mallard to spend a week researching for the project. There also will be a trip to Ober’s childhood home of Davenport, Iowa and maybe another trip or two to the Superior National Forest, Voyageurs National Park and elsewhere. Why Ober? Ernest C. Oberholtzer was the person most responsible for setting aside the land in Northern Minnesota to become national parks and the Boundary Water Canoe Wilderness Area. This project will focus on the development of Oberholtzer's own views on nature and how that led to his interactions with others and, eventually, his legacy of establishing parks along the Minnesota/Canada border. In this era of climate change and threats to the BWCWA there is a need for recognizing Minnesota's own effective visionaries for preserving the earth, to be guides as we try to move forward into this unknown future. Ernest C. Oberholtzer is that Minnesota visionary. Although Oberholtzer canoed thousands of miles throughout northern Minnesota and Canada, taught many people to live off and respect the land, integrated with the local Ojibway communities, lobbied Congress, worked with high-profile law firms and was a founding member of the Wilderness Society, the general public knows little about him. This project will introduce many in the general public to Ober, his vision and his legacy and provide an example of how to move forward in relationship to nature. My role will be focused on the visual aspects of the project. From doing research in the foundation's archives to creating art that supports the narrative, I will help craft the integration of Ober's love of the arts into the project while using the imagery to move the viewer through the journey shared.