Summary Information
Lowell L. Klessig Papers
1969-1982
Mss 703
1.8 c.f. (2 archives boxes and 1 record center carton)
Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)
Papers of Lowell Klessig, a professor of environmental studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point who was active in the movement to block Project Sanguine, the U.S. Navy's Extremely Low Frequency submarine communication system. Included are papers collected by Klessig as an officer and founding member of the State Committee to Stop Sanguine (SCSS) including correspondence; press releases and other informational material issued by SCSS, the Northern Environmental Council, the Wisconsin Resources Conservation Council, and other ELF opponents; scientific and general reference material about ELF; and files on the Governor's Ad Hoc Committee on Sanguine. There is also a draft version and correspondence concerning publication of Klessig's book The ELF Odyssey: National Security Versus Environmental Protection (1980). Prominent correspondents include Les Aspin, Robert Kastenmeier, Gaylord Nelson, and William Proxmire and SCSS members Kent Shifferd and Charles H. Stoddard.
English
http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-mss00703 ↑ Bookmark this ↑
Biography/History
Environmentalist Lowell L. Klessig was born in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, in 1945. He earned a B.S. in Biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin in 1967 and then pursued graduate studies at Vanderbilt University, receiving an M.A.T. in Molecular Biology in 1968. In 1969 he returned to the University of Wisconsin where he enrolled in the Rural Sociology Department.
As a graduate student, Klessig was one of a number of environmentalists concerned by the U.S. Navy's plans to develop Project Sanguine, an Extremely Low Frequency (ELF) submarine communication system, in northern Wisconsin. In September 1969 Klessig and several dozen environmentalists met in Stevens Point to organize the State Committee to Stop Sanguine (SCSS). Alarmed by what they perceived to be the inadequacies of the research on the environmental effects of Project Sanguine, which was to be performed by Hazelton Laboratories, and the conflict of interest in Hazelton's contract (Hazelton Laboratories was a subsidiary of TRW, a major military contractor), the organizers of SCSS undertook an intense lobbying and educational effort to stop the project.
In late 1969 Governor Warren Knowles created an Ad Hoc Committee on Sanguine, whose Environmental Standards Subcommittee, composed of natural and social scientists and engineers from the Department of Natural Resources and the University of Wisconsin, analyzed the Hazelton studies and in 1972 issued a report critical of their findings.
In January 1970 SCSS filed suit against Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird and RCA, prime contractor for Sanguine, to enjoin testing and construction of the project in Wisconsin. The suit was dismissed in October 1970 for lack of jurisdiction and a motion to reconsider was rejected the following March. However, by mid-1970 SCSS membership numbered 2500 individuals and organizations and in the November election Sanguine was an important issue. Representative Alvin O'Konski, an early supporter of Sanguine in whose district the project was to be sited, qualified his support only days before the election and narrowly defeated his challenger, SCSS board member Walter Thoresen. By the end of 1970 no elected official in Wisconsin publicly supported Sanguine.
Between 1969 and 1973, when Klessig received his Ph.D. in environmental management and resource planning and the Defense Department announced that Sanguine would be built in Texas, Klessig was immersed in the controversy, collecting and disseminating information, generating publicity, corresponding with related groups, and testifying against Sanguine. In addition to acting as secretary, chief liaison, and (for a brief period in 1970) president of SCSS, Klessig also chaired the Sanguine Review Committee of the Wisconsin Resource Conservation Council (WRCC) and served on the Sanguine Policy Analysis Committee of the Northern Environmental Council (NOREC).
In 1973 Klessig became assistant professor of environmental studies and deputy director of the Sigurd Olson Institute of Environmental Studies at Northland College in Ashland, Wisconsin. While on the faculty there, he revised some earlier writings about SCSS and prepared a manual, Environmentalism in the Public Arena, in order to help his students understand the nature of environmental groups and campaigns.
After 1972, with the Navy searching for a suitable location for Sanguine (renamed Seafarer, then ELF) first in Texas and then in Upper Michigan, SCSS's activities abated, but increasingly sophisticated opponents of the project sought out Klessig for organizing information and inspiration. One of them, Victor Strite, professor of English at Baylor University, suggested joint publication of a book on the subject. This collaboration resulted in publication of The ELF Odyssey: National Security Versus Environmental Protection in 1980.
In 1974 Klessig returned to Madison as assistant professor of environmental studies. Three years later he was named associate professor and chair of the Environmental Resources Unit, and in 1980 he joined the Environmental Resources Unit at the UW Extension at UW-Stevens Point. In the late 1970's the Navy again turned its sights to Wisconsin as the site for a scaled down version of Sanguine, and in 1978 the Wisconsin Coalition against ELF-Sanguine was formed. While continuing to collect information on ELF and to support its activities, Klessig declined to play a leading role in the organization.
Scope and Content Note
The papers are a small collection documenting Klessig's academic career and his role in organizing the opposition to Project Sanguine, both in Wisconsin and elsewhere, from the late 1960's through the 1970's. Records of the latter type are most extensive and most significant. Although the majority of the collection was compiled by Klessig in his capacity as secretary of SCSS, it should be noted that the papers contain little primary evidence regarding the committee's internal workings or the development of policy. This gap in the documentary record, however, is filled in part by The ELF Odyssey and Klessig's earlier writings. In addition to SCSS, other related organizations with which Klessig was also involved, are also documented in the papers.
The collection includes correspondence, memoranda, reports, legal documents, newsletters, clippings, and scientific materials and is organized as background and biographical material, The ELF Odyssey production material, and files on Sanguine opponents.
The documentation of Klessig's academic career traces the importance of Project Sanguine in his intellectual, professional, and political development. This is illustrated in the BACKGROUND AND BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIAL, which consists largely of Klessig's early writings about Sanguine.
This track led to Klessig's collaboration with Victor Strite in the writing of The ELF Odyssey. Included in the ELF ODYSSEY PRODUCTION MATERIAL are correspondence between the co-authors, the editor, and the publisher and a 1978 typescript.
SANGUINE OPPONENT FILES concern the State Committee to Stop Sanguine; the Northern Environmental Council (NOREC); and the Wisconsin Resources Conservation Council, with which it was affiliated; and other groups both in Wisconsin and around the country. The majority of this material, which spans the period 1969 to 1982 and which consists of correspondence, memoranda, and newsletters, is filed together chronologically. Prominent correspondents here include legislators Les Aspin, Robert Kastenmeier, Gaylord Nelson, and William Proxmire and SCSS members Kent Shifferd and Charles H. Stoddard. Also included are files on the Governor's Ad Hoc Committee on Sanguine, court papers filed in SCSS's unsuccessful 1970 lawsuit, copies of the 1968 Hazelton research proposal on the environmental impact of Sanguine and subsequent reports and critiques of the proposal by scientists and environmentalists. Related materials include published and unpublished scientific articles about ELF technology and an extensive collection of newsclippings.
Administrative/Restriction Information
Presented by Lowell L. Klessig, Highbridge, Wisconsin, July 27, 1983. Accession Number: M83-198
Processed by Mark Burnette (Intern), 1987.
Contents List
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Box
1
Folder
1
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Series: Background and Biographical Material, 1969-1973
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Box
1
Folder
1
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Historical sketch about SCSS and other brief writings, 1969-1972
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Box
1
Folder
2
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Environmentalism in the Public Arena, 1973
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Series: Elf Odyssey Production Material, 1973-1981
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Box
1
Folder
3-4
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Typescript, 1978
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Box
1
Folder
5
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Correspondence, 1973-1981
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Series: Sanguine Opponent Files, 1969-1982
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Box
2
Folder
1-6
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Correspondence, newsletters, and news releases, 1969-1982
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Box
2
Folder
7
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Governor's Ad Hoc Committee on Sanguine, 1969-1972
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Box
2
Folder
8
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SCSS v. Laird, 1970-1972
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Box
2
Folder
9
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Hazelton Laboratories research proposal, 1968
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Box
2
Folder
10
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Preliminary Hazelton Labs studies and critiques, 1969-1970
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Box
2
Folder
11
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ELF technology articles and papers, 1968-1970
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Box
3
Folder
1
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Roy Tschirhart (Texas Sanguine opponent) congressional testimony and clippings, circa 1973
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Box
3
Folder
2-5
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Newsclippings, 1969-1982
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