Manuscripts Collection
The committee has its origins in the 1909 establishment of the Quetico Provincial Park by the Dominion of Canada, accomplished in order to protect the Canadian side of the unique Rainy Lake region from poaching and other environmental depredations. Shortly after that, the U.S. reciprocated when President Theodore Roosevelt established the adjacent Superior National Forest. The joint preserves gave the entire watershed its present name, the Quetico-Superior country.
Proposals for roads into the wilderness area in the 1920s resulted in successful opposition by conservation groups to maintain it as a roadless area. A further challenge came in 1925 with a proposal to create a giant power reservoir along the border, which would incorporate high dams and resulting flooding of the wilderness lakes. Early enthusiasts of the Quetico-Superior area like Ernest Oberholtzer, Fred Winston, Charles Kelly, and Frank Hubachek--all of them influential conservationists--galvanized U.S. support and succeeded in organizing a private support organization known as the Quetico-Superior Council, which proposed and lobbied for a long range management plan for the area. Canadian and American legations both endorsed its proposals in 1929 and, in 1931, congress passed the Shipstead-Nolan Act, which gave protection against logging or flooding to the federally owned shorelines on the Minnesota side of the border.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in 1934, appointed the first President's Quetico-Superior Committee to work toward realizing the Council's program, and the eventual dedication of a Peace Memorial Forest in the area. In the same year the International Joint Commission investigating the longstanding power development applications affecting the area, denied them on both sides of the border. Over the years the U.S. government continued to add acreage to the forest areas and the committee, along with the council, continued to oppose intrusions into the wilderness, including military and commercial flyovers, and snowmobile trails.
This historical information was taken from: Wilson Ornithological Club
Conservation Committee, "Voyageur's Country: The Story of the Quetico-Superior
Country,"
The records also include materials produced by other closely affiliated organizations, especially minutes and related papers (1934-74) of the Joint Quetico-Superior Advisory Committee and correspondence and miscellany (1949-74) relating to the Quetico-Superior Foundation and the Quetico Foundation. The Quetico-Superior International Peace Memorial Forest is represented by its newsletters (1947-57) and news releases.
The papers reflect the committee's work in preserving the Quetico-Superior area from encroachments by logging and mining companies, in preserving the roadless areas, in banning airplane flights over the area, in establishing reciprocal agreements with Canadian government officials and groups, and in aiding other conservation groups, particularly the Sierra Club and the Izaak Walton League of America.
Quetico-Superior Council Records, and Ernest Oberholtzer Papers, are also in the Minnesota Historical Society manuscript collections.
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the Minnesota Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons or places should
Accession number: 13,920; 14,286; 14,698; 14,904; 14,964; 15,218; 15,941; 16,199; 16,351
Processing and cataloging of this collection was supported with a Basic Project grant
awarded by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission
Catalog ID number: 001729501
These are files of correspondence and miscellaneous papers about films. There are no actual films in this box.
Includes correspondence, 1952-1973.
Includes attachments.
Compiled from materials dated 1927-1966.
An oversize certificate, signed by President Gerald R. Ford and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, appointing Duluth resident Nelson to the committee.
Kelly, of Chicago, was chairman of the Committee in the late 1960s.
Includes declarations of public policy, objectives of the President's Council, committee member listings, and legislation, such as the 1842 Webster-Ashburton Treaty and the Shipstead-Newton-Nolan Act of 1930.
Includes reports, donations and grants.
Established in 1960, this international committee was formed between the United States and the Province of Ontario to work out administration policies to preserve the adjoining Quetico Park-Superior National Forest areas as an unspoiled wilderness domain for citizens of both countries.
Started in 1947, this non profit organization sought to preserve areas of scenic beauty, wildlife, and natural resources in the Rainy Lake and Pigeon Lake watersheds for public, scientific, educational, and recreational purposes. This organization was also interested in the acquisition of privately-owned tracts of land in this region for national parks and forests.
Officially founded in 1958, the Canadian Quetico Foundation is dedicated to the preservation of Ontario wildlife areas for recreational and scientific uses.
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