Manuscripts Collection
William Richardson Bagley was born in St. Charles, Illinois on January 15, 1870, the son of Charles V. and Adeline (Kilmer) Bagley. After receiving the M.D. degree from the University of Michigan in 1898, he practiced medicine in Duluth from 1898 to 1910, and remained there five years as a fruit grower.
Bagley helped organize the Duluth chapter of the Izaak Walton League and was its president for many years. He served as president of the Minnesota Izaak Walton League in 1934-1935, and became a director of the national IWL in 1935. He was also a member of various medical organizations; of the St. Louis County Sanitorium Commission; of the mayor's committee to organize Duluth's water and sewage disposal system; a director of the Duluth Chamber of Commerce; and president of the Duluth Rotary Club.
Bagley married Jessie Smith in 1899 and Marion Miller in 1910. He had seven children.
Letters, reports, correspondence, and clippings of Bagley, a Duluth, Minnesota physician and conservationist. Concentrated largely in the 1930's, they concern the history and activities of the Izaak Walton League's Minnesota division and its Duluth chapter, management and expansion of the the Superior National Forest, water-power development, policies and personnel of the Minnesota Conservation Commission and the Minnesota Division of Game and Fish, and wildlife management. Correspondents include Minnesota conservation officials and members of conservation organizations, including Olin L. Kaupanger, John R. Foley, E. Victor Willard, and Ernest C. Oberholtzer.
The records are divided into four sections as Bagley kept and labelled them, and overlap considerably:
Accession number: 11,424
Processed by: Lydia Lucas, April 1972
Catalog ID number: 09-00025282
These records relate to the creation of a federally-administered international forest and wilderness area along the Canadian border, as envisioned under the Shipstead-Newton-Nolan Bill of 1927. The correspondence discusses the legislative history of the bill; the efforts of the Quetico-Superior Council and the Izaak Walton League to marshal support for the bill; opposition from local groups, the Minnesota Power and Light Company, E.W. Backus, the Minnesota and Ontario Paper Company, and state conservation commissioner E. V. Willard; water power developments and proposals; the state legislature's Shipstead-Nolan Water Levels Bill (1933) to establish state policy for this region; and the proposed federal consolidation and expansion of national forests in northern Minnesota.
This section contains additional material on the proposed national forest area and on the Shipstead-Nolan bill. There is considerable information on the conflict between the Minnesota IWLA and its executive secretary, O. L. Kaupanger, and the Minnesota Conservation Commission (1933-1934). Other papers discuss the policies and personnel of the Minnesota Department of Conservation and its Division of Game and Fish; the work of the Minnesota IWLA and the rejuvenation (1940) of its Duluth chapter; and the proposed outdoor recreation facility of the City and Country Military Club of Duluth. Also included are minutes of the Duluth Sewage Disposal Committee (March and December 31, 1934), and a memo on the Lake Itasca Forestry and Biological Station.
These papers relate mainly to the organization and activities of the Duluth Chapter of the Izaak Walton League during the 1920s and 1930s, and include its charter, constitution and bylaws; financial summaries; minuets of its organization meeting (July 16, 1923); correspondence and notes regarding membership, activities and suggested activities, and the Junior Walton League; fish culture projects and commercial fishing regulations. There is some information on national and state IWLA activities and notes on district council organization and finances.
Papers in the last section are concentrated in the years 1934-1935, when Bagley was president of the Minnesota IWLA, and in 1939-1940, when it was in the midst of an organizational and financial crisis. They largely concern state and chapter activities, programs and goals; meetings and conventions; administration and finances; membership; the decline of the Minnesota IWLA during the 1930s and the efforts to revive it in 1939-1940. Other topics include conservation education; improvement of Minnesota trout streams; wildlife and waterfowl protection and hunting seasons; forest land management; the administration and finances of the Minnesota Game and Fish Division of the Minnesota Conservation Commission (1930s), Kaupanger's hostility toward the latter (1934-1935), and proposals for its abolition (1935); and the proposed establishment of a wildlife and fisheries research bureau at the University of Minnesota (1934-1935). Also in this section are the proceedings of the Regional Wildlife Conference held for the United States Forest Service's North Central Region, May 2-3, 1934 (112 p.); and the minutes of the first meeting of the Midwest Conservation Alliance (April 14, 1935).