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Calvin Rutstrum (1895-1982) was an author who wrote fifteen books, most relating to wilderness camping experiences and techniques. Most of his books were written at his cabin on Cloud Bay, Ontario. Rutstrum was born in 1895 and died February 5, 1982 in Osceola, Wisconsin.

"His wilderness experiences begin just before WWI and span the modern era including the environmental movement of the late 60's and 70's. He published his books starting in 1946 and continued to publish right up to near his death in 1982. His father died when he was three and he dropped out of school in the 7th grade and soon after began his working and adventuring life. Throughout his life he lived many experiences and held several jobs.....his writing skills were primarily self-taught from reading....Many of these jobs he held just long enough to set himself up for some time in the wilderness. Many of his wilderness years were spent wandering the Canadian Shield or the Boundary Waters area of Minnesota on long canoe, walking, or sledding trips. Over the course of his life he also maintained or built several residences-Canadian and Minnesota cabins, a Marine-on-St. Croix home and a New Mexico ranch home." 

Youth
Rutstrum was born in Hobart, Indiana on October 26, 1895. His parents, Tiofel and Emma (Carlson) Rutstrum, were Swedish immigrants. Within 3 years they had moved to Chicago, and then St. Paul, Minnesota. His father died of pneumonia when he was about three years old. Though his mother remarried, the family had little money and Rutstrum worked at a wide range of odd jobs, some of them entrepreneurial, at a very young age. At the same young age he also sought to maximize his time exploring and playing in his neighborhood's hardwood forest.

Rutstrum was also drawn to the Mississippi. Before the age of 12 he had spent weeks traveling on it with his friends, often riding log booms. As he wrote later, there we was: "a healthy young animal with less than a dozen years from birth, alive in the early summer sunshine, barefooted, youthfully entranced, eager as spring for life, as intrinsically a part of the river. I believed, as the waterthrush that foraged at the mouth of Minnehaha Creek, where the rippling current joined the mighty Mississippi...To be free as a wild creature, not having to shoulder human cares, able to climb, run, jump. swim, lie on an embankment in the sunshine--these gave a release to the young spirit that may be perhaps described as primitive, but nevertheless exquisite in the most elemental sense.  Rutstrum dropped out of school at age 13.  At age 16, after acquiring his 30-30 carbine, .22, fishing tackle, ammunition, tent, bedroll, axe, knife, cook kit, and $25, he spent $24 of that for passage to Montana when he worked at a ranch riding fence in the summers and spent winters in an abandoned log cabin in the mountains. At age 18, Rutstrum began his first long canoe trip, a 100 day trip in the wilderness in northern Minnesota.

Adult life
He served in WWI as a Navy medical corpsman, and as a criminal bank investigator for 10 years, and as a camp instructor and guide. Later he made money by buying and selling land. In the early 1920's Rutstrum bought, subdivided and sold three 40 Acre tracts on the Northwest shore of Lake Superior. This, combined with his limited lifestyle requirements provided a significant large step towards financial independence, where jobs became superfluous

Early in his life he lived in a cabin on the Flute Reed river along Lake Superior's Northwest shore between Grand Marais and Duluth. His next home was a cabin on an island in Sea Gull Lake, near the end of the Gunflint Trail where he lived for 10 years. Later, as this became too developed for him, he moved to Marchington Lake, about 30 miles east of Sioux Lookout, Ontario. He then built a stone house in Marine-on-St. Croix, Minnesota which became his primary residence, while retaining his Ontario cabin. He also built a home on Cloud Bay, Lake Superior. He intended to to be a "simple little house" but zoning regulations forced it to be more substantial. His wife Florence had been visiting Mexico with her aunt every year, and coaxed Cal to head Southwest. Then Rustrum and his wife Florence bought an adobe house in Pecos River, New Mexico which they remodeled and modernized. They lived there part time for 7 years in the early 1960's. He decided that life there was unpleasant, and sold it back to its original owners.

His first book was New Way of the Wilderness illustrated by Led Kouba. It taught readers how to live well in the wilderness, including in cold weather, and traveling by canoe. This book started as a wilderness manual written for Camp Lincoln, where he worked for 10 years. He then rewrote it for Macmillan publishing company who published it in 1946 as a hardcover because they suspected it would be successful. The Outdoor Book Club immediately ordered 52,000 copies. As he later recalled, he then said "this beats working". It is still considered bible for serious canoeists. His next book The New Way of the Wilderness (illustrated by Les Kouba) expertly covered how to equip and dress for winter, canoe camping, and how to eat well while wilderness camping. After that The Wilderness Cabin described how to build log cabins and fireplaces. North American Canoe Country covered wilderness canoe travel, including many specialized topics. Wilderness Route Finder focused on such using traditional methods.

Paradise Below Zero covered long term sub zero (Fahrenheit) wilderness camping and travel. Notable it both "how to" and inspirational and philosophical content in line with the title. The era of the book (1968) preceded the prevalence of newer camping products and materials, yet to this day points out the unsuitability of many current winter camping techniques (even with high tech equipment) when applied to prolonged camping at temperatures below zero Fahrenheit. Paradise Below Zero is considered to be a bible for extended sub-zero camping without the use of modern equipment. He wrote his autobiography Challenge of the Wilderness which was published in 1970. It was reprinted in 1979 as A Wilderness Autobiography.

Back Country was his final book, published in 1981. It was a storytelling book about backcountry characters with whom he had friendships or experiences. In a conversation with Jim Dale Vickery, Rutstrum characterized this book as being about "just the romance of the wilderness".

Final Years
Rutstrum died on February 5th, 1982 in Osceola, Wisconsin, survived by his wife Florence. Four years before, in Chips from a Wilderness log Rutstrum wrote: "If you want to do something for me after I'm gone, live so as to not defile the precious earth".

Prominence
The book "Wilderness Visionaries" included Rutstrum on a list of eight (North American) wilderness visionaries along with Henry David Thoreau, John Muir, Aldo Leopold, Robert Service, Bob Marshall, Olaus Johan Murie and Sigurd Olson. As with most of the others, his writing skills and published works contributed to his prominence. These combined with his expertise in wilderness living and travel, including in harsh conditions as well as his wilderness philosophies and experiences.

As recreational use of wilderness areas began to rapidly grow, Rutstrum's writings were in the middle of it. The book Wilderness Visionaries said "In a sense, he became a high priest of an emerging camping cult." His books captured both the "how to" and the pleasure of longer term wilderness travel and camping. Rutstrum and Bradford Angier were the two most prominent writers with this combination at the time.

Both his actual life and the philosophy espoused in his writing had a strong theme of prioritizing one's life for time in the wilderness, and the benefits of such to one's life.

Books authored by Rustrum
Rutstrum's 15 books described his enchantment of the wilderness and instructed readers on preparing for and conducting canoe trips into remote areas. Rutstrum's published works include:


 * Way of the Wilderness (1946), (1952) (substantially revised)
 * Memoranda for Canoe Country (1953)
 * The New Way of the Wilderness (1958)
 * The Wilderness Cabin (1961)
 * North American Canoe Country (1964)
 * Wilderness Route Finder (1967)
 * Paradise Below Zero (1968)
 * Challenge of the Wilderness (1970)
 * Once Upon a Wilderness (1973)
 * The Wilderness Life (1975)
 * Chips from a Wilderness Log (1978)
 * A Wilderness Autobiography (1979)
 * Hiking Back to Health (1980)
 * A Columnist Looks at Life, Here's Cal Rutstrum (1981)
 * Backcountry (1981)