The Sierra Club Upper Mississippi River Task Force records were compiled by Dr. Patrick Nolan during his tenure as its chairman. Dr. Nolan was then a faculty member at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls and a member of the North Star Chapter of the Sierra Club (Minnesota). In September 1973, Dr. Nolan moved from Wisconsin to Ohio, and his activities with the Task Force ended, although he did continue to correspond with other members. He also continued to collect materials into 1974.
Nolan served as the North Star Chapter's chairman of the Rivers and Streams Task Force, and thus, in the fall of 1971, was the natural choice to serve as one of its representatives to the Sierra Club's newly-formed Upper Mississippi River Task Force. The Task Force was composed of Sierra Club chapters from the five states affected by the proposed Upper Mississippi National Recreation Area: North Star Chapter, Ozark Chapter (Missouri), Great Lakes Chapter (Illinois), Iowa Chapter, and Wisconsin Chapter. The organization also worked with other environmental groups including the Izaak Walton League, the Audubon Society, and the L-15 Levee Opposition Coalition.
The Task Force was created in response to what the Sierra Club perceived as the inadequacies of H.R. 10529, a bill designed to establish an Upper Mississippi River National Recreation Area. The proposed legislation was the result of findings of a government task force composed of representatives of federal agencies (Army Corps of Engineers, Bureau of Sports, Fisheries, and Wildlife, Bureau of Outdoor Recreation, and National Park Service) together with representatives of the five states affected (Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, and Wisconsin).
The work of the government task force resulted in a comprehensive 1971 report entitled “Upper Mississippi River National Recreation Study.” The report's recommendations formed the basis of the first bill designed to establish an Upper Mississippi National Recreation Area, H.R. 5468, which died with the close of the 91st Congress in 1971. The proposed area would have included approximately 214,000 acres in public ownership, 374,500 acres to be acquired, and 390,000 acres of water. The area would have extended along 660 miles of river from Minneapolis to the mouth of the Missouri River near St. Louis.
H.R. 5468 was reintroduced into Congress as H.R. 10529, with reduced acreage and budget, which the Sierra Club felt was detrimental to the entire concept and the preservation of the Upper Mississippi area. In particular, the Sierra Club disagreed with the reduction of acreage to be acquired by scenic easement, the provision that the Secretary of the Army approve all plans for development of the National Recreation Area, and the reduction of acreage to be acquired along the corridor of the river extending from the bluffs on one side to the bluffs opposite. This bill did not become law.
