In this week's York County Coast Star, Shelley Wigglesworth reports on the passing of Alexander Bacon Brook — "Sandy" — who owned and edited the paper from 1957 to 1977. The remembrances collected there reflect Brook's life as a newspaperman, but readers of the era also knew he loved York County's unspoiled environment. Here's a passage from an editorial he wrote in the paper — as Joyce Butler says in her history of Laudholm — "when preserving Laudholm Farm was still a dream"…

...untouched, unrelieved panorama of sea and sun and sky and trees and marsh grasses… observing a stationary bittern, or the ducks where the river widens, or a red-winged blackbird on the far bank… to dream alone and furtive there like an early settler… drinking the clean scents of sweet grass and saltwater, feeling the hot sun shine on, shine on, hearing the wind playing the marsh grasses like a million oboes and the swishing of the outgoing tide at the river lip.

Yes, this is why we are here, stewarding such timeless wonders to honor the vision of our predecessors and to inspire future generations.