St. Croix River Association

The St. Croix River Improvement Association was founded in 1911. The name was later changed to the St. Croix River Association.

The St. Croix River Improvement Association (later the St. Croix River Association) was a volunteer group that operated sporadically from 1911 to 1989. Its members were mainly residents of communities along the Minnesota side of the St. Croix River, who were concerned about restoring and preserving the river. Over the years, the Association's major areas of concern included maintaining a navigable flow of water, barring construction that could have a negative impact on the river, ending pollution of the river, and gaining federal protection for it.

The St. Croix River Improvement Association (SCRIA) was organized on September 27, 1911, at a meeting called by George H. Hazzard, the first commissioner of Interstate State Park, with the initial goals of improving the river's navigation and connecting it to Lake Superior via a canal. During the early years of the organization, Hazzard, who was chosen as its first president, oversaw its mostly futile efforts to stock the river with fish, to clear hazards created by the lumbering industry, and to restore a navigable flow of water.

Although the SCRIA apparently became inactive at the end of Hazzard's tenure in 1919, the issues it had tried to address remained concerns for the communities along the river and the group was reactivated in 1928 at the instigation of Samuel G. Strickland, a member of the original SCRIA. The organization renewed its battle with Northern States Power (NSP) to maintain the flow of water over the dam at St. Croix Falls, worked to end commercial fishing on the river, advocated the removal of debris from highway construction along the river, and made plans for reforestation and prevention of soil erosion and pollution.

From 1935 to 1941, the SCRIA focused on deepening the river channel, fighting a plan to create public parks on islands and along the shoreline, and dealing with the growing number of rough fish. World War II seems to have slowed the organization's work, for it appears not to have met between September 1941 and October 1945. Enthusiasm for the group was rekindled under the influence of Mary Jane Leonard and, on October 31, 1947, it was reorganized as the St. Croix River Association. During the late 1940s and through the 1950s, the group concentrated on pollution, the Osceola bridge proposal, water safety, and conservation.

During the 1960s, the SCRA actively opposed the construction of an NSP power plant at Oak Park Heights and supported the inclusion of the St. Croix in the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. Its work helped ease pollution concerns in the 1970s and the SCRA continued its conservation efforts into the late 1980s.

In 1986, James Taylor Dunn, former president and secretary of the SCRA, published a short history of the organization, Saving the River: The Story of the St. Croix River Association, 1911-1986, to celebrate its 75th anniversary.

Historical information on the St. Croix River Association was taken from Saving the River and the association's records.