One of Ober's Greatest Accomplishments: Shipstead-Nolan Act

Before I start going through the history and importance of the Shipstead-Newton bill, I wanted to discuss a quick topic. I was doing research for my blog this past weekend and I slowly came to realize that the Wilderness Act of 1964 and the Boundary Waters Wilderness Act (1978) are two separate entities. All this time I thought they were the same Act! It turns out that the Wilderness Act of 1964 applied to wilderness areas throughout the whole U.S., while the Act of 1978 was solely relegated to the BWCAW. They both helped to preserve federal lands as wilderness areas, but the Act of 1978 was more geared towards the Boundary Waters: providing it with better protective measures than it was afforded in the more general Wilderness Act of 1964.

Alas, my blog has been sent a curve-ball. I was going to end my next and final blog talking about Ober's influence in the creation and eventual approval of the Wilderness Act (which led to the birth of the BWCAW), but this will not be happening because of two revelations: 1) As already mentioned, I found out that they are actually two different acts and 2) By the time the Wilderness Act was passed (1964), Ober was much older (about 80) and had less of a leadership role in the conservation movement that he had previously helped to kick-start.

While these two revelations have lead to a huge kink in my blog plan, they have also helped me by increasing my understanding of Ober and his contributions. All this time I thought the Wilderness Act of 1964 was Ober's crowning glory, but after more careful research and fact checking (using a few new sources that i will mention later), I have discovered that the Shipstead-Newton bill was indeed Ober's most important accomplishment in preserving the BWCAW. I will discuss the Wilderness Acts more in my final post but for now it is only important to know that Ober did have a hand in the creation of the Wilderness Acts; he just wasn't the leader behind the Acts, as he had been for the Shipstead-Newton bill.

So with that issue cleared up, I would like to continue on from my previous post and finish talking about the Shipstead-Newton bill. It was introduced in 1928 to the Minnesota Legislature and was quickly passed by both the states of Minnesota and South Dakota. In that same year and with two states already backing it, the Bill was put into the hands of Congress. It was here in Congress that the bill stayed waiting for approval for about two years until it was finally passed in 1930.  During this wait, the Shipstead-Newton bill had a bit of a transformation and changed to the Shipstead-Nolan bill. This was due to the fact that the bill's co-author, Walter Newton resigned as a Minnesota representative in 1929 in order to become the secretary of President Herbert Hoover. His spot in the Minnesota legislature was swiftly replaced by William Nolan. Luckily, Nolan was of the same opinion as Newton and decided to support the bill. This was very fortunate for Ober and the future of the bill because without Nolan's support, the bill would have unfortunately had to start anew.

During the two years that the bill was sitting idly in Congress, Ober and the rest of his supporters were busting their butts in Washington and all around the U.S. to get public support and also political backing for the bill. In the end, Ober was to be the most influential person in getting the bill passed. As R. Newell Searle explains in his book Saving Quetico-Superior: "Although the Izaak Walton League, the General Federation of Women's Clubs, the Farm Bureau Federation and other organizations fought hard for the measure, it was Ernest Oberholtzer who bore the burden of testimony. Through the long months of struggle for passage, Ober lobbied, wrote countless letters, sought publicity, and in general coordinated the effort amongs its various constituents." He even managed to get a meeting with the president, Herbert Hoover, in order to persuade him into supporting the bill. Ober was a definite force to be reckoned with. He put his whole life and passion into making sure that the bill was given a chance in Congress because as we now know, at the age of 44, this would be his final, most important battle for the BWCAW.

On July 3, 1930, the hard work of Ober and his constituents finally paid off. At midnight during the last day of the congressional session the bill was passed and thus, the Shipstead-Nolan Act of 1930 was born! As Stephen Wilbers explains in his Boundary Waters Chronology, "The Act withdrew all federal land in the boundary waters region from homesteading or sale, prevented the alteration of natural water levels by dams, prohibited logging within 400 feet of shorelines, and preserved the wilderness nature of shorelines. The regulations applied to a 4,000-square-mile area extending from Lake Superior on the east to Rainy Lake on the west. Passage of the Act represented a defeat for Edward Wellington Backus's plan to build a series of dams in the Rainy Lake watershed to create storage basins for industrial waterpower." With the passage of the bill, Ober was able to take a huge step in preserving the Boundary Waters and also to defeat Backus and keep industrial big business away from the unspoiled beauty of the Minnesota Wilderness. 

picture source

The Shipstead-Nolan Act was completely earth-shattering for Ober's era. It was the first time the U.S. Congress had taken federal lands and given them legal protection in the name of wilderness preservation. It was a huge victory for Ober and all of his loyal supporters. As Ober described: "Such lands would link us with the primeval past. . . .promising sanctuary for all time to unborn multitudes." Through his efforts, Ober was able to stop the ravages of time and change; to save a piece of the past; to ensure a place of respite for those in future generations like ours, who have strayed incredibly far from their instinctual connection with nature and real beauty.