In 1967, Aretha Franklin recorded her signature rocker, "Respect." The same year, United Auto Workers kingpin Jimmy Hoffa began serving an eight-year sentence for attempting to bribe a jury. And Muhammad Ali politely declined the government's offer for employment with the U.S. Army.
Also in 1967, Ray Hangge and Dick Lindell, both of Albert Lea, as well as Tom Tubbs and Bob Head, cooked up a harebrained idea: They'd start a duck group called the Southern Minnesota Waterfowl Lake Impovement Association, with a goal of restoring a shallow-lake habitat corridor from the Iowa border north to U.S. Hwy. 212, which runs east to west from the Twin Cities to the South Dakota border.
"This must be done fast and intense,'' Hangge wrote at the time. "No longer one lake per year or slightly more!"
For about half of the past 52 years, Hangge and his buddies fueled that idea with heavyweight contributions of time, money and sweat. Then, as they aged, they watched others join the effort.
In the process, the organization morphed into a statewide group called the Minnesota Waterfowl Association (MWA), which, through its chapters, undertook some of the habitat projects Hangge et al. envisioned.
"There was a need for a group like ours,"' Hangge, 90, said the other day, noting that at the time, Ducks Unlimited's primary habitat work was in prairie Canada.
In the 52 years since, MWA has had many successes.
Minnesota has a duck stamp that is required to be purchased by state waterfowlers, thanks to MWA. The group also supported establishment of Minnesota's Migratory Waterfowl Feeding and Resting Areas, as well as the state's wetland protection act. And the support of MWA members was critical to passage in 2008 of the Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment.