Lou Gold dropped out of a career teaching urban politics at Oberlin College and the University of Illinois and metamorphosed into being the caretaker of Bald Mountain and a forest activist. His travels with a popular Ancient Forest slide show have earned him the title of "the hermit with the most frequent flyer miles." Lou is a founding member of the Siskiyou Regional Education Project, a grassroots group in southwestern Oregon that along with Earth First! helped trigger the contemporary grassroots forest protection movement. The Siskiyou Project has since evolved into one of the most effective grassroots networks in the country.
"Bald Mountain Vigil" originally appeared as two earlier articles in Siskiyou Country, Vols. 8 & 15. It was then excerpted and edited for publication in The Soul Unearthed, edited by Cass Adams (Tarcher/Putnam, 1996). It appears here in a slightly revised version.
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