The Harold C. Jordahl Papers document well, although not completely, his important but often overlooked role in the wilderness preservation movement in Wisconsin. In addition to correspondence and writings created as part of Jordahl's own responsibilities, the papers include research materials collected in the course of his writing and teaching career, as well as some products of the students' research. The Jordahl Papers are arranged as GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE, SUBJECT FILES, SPEECHES AND WRITINGS, and VISUAL MATERIALS. They consist of correspondence, memoranda, reports, writings, clippings, and notes. The papers include no personal or family papers, and Jordahl's career as a member of the University of Wisconsin faculty is represented only by a few student papers and instructional materials.
The GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE is comprised of carbons of outgoing letters arranged chronologically. Although probably begun earlier, the file dates from 1965, and Jordahl's secretaries continued this system through the early 1990s. Folders for the period from April 1969 to March 1970 and from July, 1982 to June 1986 are missing, but the outgoing correspondence appears otherwise complete. Gaps in the SUBJECT FILES such as Interior Dept. correspondence covering topics other than the Apostle Islands are included here.
The SUBJECT FILES are arranged alphabetically. Most extensively documented are: Apostle Islands, Department of Natural Resources, Forest Crop Law, Hanson Land Conservancy, Northern Great Lakes Visitor Center, Outdoor Recreation Act Program (ORAP), St. Croix National Scenic Riverway, Upper Great Lakes Regional Commission, and the Lower Wisconsin State Riverway. Smaller subject categories are grouped under Miscellaneous. The subject files variously include correspondence and memoranda; committee minutes; planning proposals, reports and studies; legislation, hearing transcripts, clippings, and maps and diagrams.
Jordahl was in close contact with many of Wisconsin's wilderness preservation leaders, particularly Gaylord Nelson, and several of the subject categories reflect this association. Jordahl's papers unquestionably duplicate Nelson's gubernatorial and senatorial papers with regard to the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore and the Wisconsin Outdoor Recreation Program (ORAP). However, because it was Jordahl who did what one admirer called the “heavy lifting” in Wisconsin, it is likely that Jordahl's files contain information and details not included in the senator's papers. There is probably also duplication with the Department of the Interior records at the National Archives concerning the Apostle Islands and St. Croix Rivers projects. Jordahl states, however, in the introduction to A Unique Group of Islands, that the National Archives was unable to locate the records of the Bureau of Outdoor Recreation when he attempted to use those records for his research in the 1990s. Documenting Jordahl's unique perspective on these projects is correspondence with various federal officials and with local conservationists such as Martin Hanson, Gerry Thomssen of Save Our St. Croix in St. Paul and Joe Mills of the Isaac Walton League chapter in Ripon. Jordahl failed to transfer all of his Interior Dept. files to Washington when he resigned, and as a result, it is likely there is material in the collection about this period of his career that is not in the National Archives. The collection also includes files about the Apostle Islands and the St. Croix River that originally belonged to Charles Stoddard probably borrowed by Jordahl for his writing. (Stoddard, the director of the Bureau of Land Management in Washington, D.C., succeeded Jordahl as regional coordinator for the Department of the Interior.) Original files created by Martin Hanson are also part of the collection. It is likely that Hanson also lent his files to Jordahl for research purposes. Neither of these individuals appear to have established personal collections elsewhere.
The papers from Jordahl's tenure as chair of the Natural Resources Board are important because there are no records specific to the chairman's position in the Archives. His unique role within the DNR organization is particularly useful with regard to the criticism received by the department and its secretary from the Milwaukee Sentinel and James B. MacDonald. Under Jordahl's leadership, the DNR Board was responsible for addressing these issues, and it is likely his papers contain information on this subject that exists nowhere else. Jordahl's files do not document all of the issues that came before the Board, however, but they suggest his special interest in forestry, park land acquisition, and water quality.
As a member of the University of Wisconsin faculty and then emeritus professor, Jordahl coordinated the planning for the Northern Great Lakes Visitor Center (NGLVC), an important episode in public-private planning. The files include correspondence from the beginning of his assignment in 1988, the Extension's conceptual report for the center, and various site and design reports submitted by planning consultants. In a 1993 letter in the collection Jordahl mentioned that he gave seven years of files to NGLVC project coordinator Dorothy Lagerroose of Northland College; those files were not returned.
The SPEECHES AND WRITINGS series consists of research and draft materials for Unique Group of Islands, a book published in 1994 in association with Kathleen Lindfors, Carl Liller, and Annie Booth; a draft for his book on the Wisconsin Forest Crop Law; and draft chapters for an unfinished book on the St. Croix River, together with drafts and notes for various shorter works, speeches, and public statements. This series supplements the information about the Apostle Islands and the St. Croix River in the Subject Files through an interview with Jordahl and photocopies of documents from various archives.
The VISUAL MATERIALS consist of black & white and color prints, and negatives of scenes along the St. Croix and Namekagon rivers during the 1960s and the bill signing and ground breaking ceremonies for the Northern Great Lakes Visitor Center. Governor Tommy Thompson and Congressman David Obey appear in these photographs.
