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Minnesotans have long debated the meaning of “Up North.” Is it everything north of Duluth, or north of Mille Lacs? Are pine trees and lakes a prerequisite? What about loons? Or is it more of a perception — a place defined not so much by location but by mindset? 

Sigurd Olson wrote his beloved book, “The Singing Wilderness,”

 to describe the beauty and wildness he saw in what came to be known as The Boundary Waters Canoe Area. He wrote: “The singing wilderness has to do with the calling of loons, with northern lights, and the great silences of land lying northwest of Lake Superior. It is concerned with the simple joys, the timelessness and perspective found in a way of life which is close to the past.”

Cal Flyn has never been to the Boundary Waters, but she resonates with Olson’s definition. A writer based in the isles off the coast of Scotland, Flyn climbed mountains, plunged into forests and helicoptered to volcanoes for her new book, “

.” But more than the nature itself, she’s intrigued by how we recognize and preserve these wild places. 

“There is no obvious visual marker that announces one’s arrival in a wilderness,” she writes, “and thus, the search never truly ends.” 

Flyn joins Kerri Miller on this week’s Big Books and Bold Ideas to talk about what we mean when we say wilderness and why that definition matters. 

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The concept of wilderness is more controversial, more arbitrary and more philosophical than you might imagine. Journalist Cal Flynn pursues the true wild in her new book, “The Savage Landscape.” 

The Savage Landscape book cover with author

In search of true wilderness with Cal Flyn

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