The
Jordan Buck
Donated
by Jan
Jordan Lokensgard
In 1914, Jim Jordan and his
wife, Lena, of one year were living in Burnett County, Danbury, Wisconsin.
Jim was a logger and a trapper, and was working on the road being built
between Webster and Superior. That year in November, he trailed a
deer he had shoot to the Yellow River. He was a quarter of a mile
from his farm when he felled the deer that came to be known as the world
record Jordan Buck. Jim didn’t know that back then. He only knew
that the magnificent whitetail deer weighed about 400 pounds. He
decided to have the head mounted and gave it to George Van Castle who lived
in Webster. That’s when Jim lost track of Van Castle and his trophy
buck head. Van Castle moved to Hinckley and by the time the bridge
was built over the St. Croix River, Van Castle had moved to Florida.
Jim had given up hope of ever getting his trophy back.
James J. (Junior) Jordan
was born in Hinckley, Minnesota in 1892. His parents, James Anthony Jordan
and Cora (Stanchfield) Jordan had moved there in 1884. Jim’s grandparents,
John Roscoe Stanchfield and his second wife, Marticia Ann (Laughery) from
Johnson County, Iowa, had also moved there. Both of the families and the
children survived the Great Hinckley Fire of 1894. Jim’s mother, Cora,
and his five siblings escaped on the train to Duluth. His father, grandparents
and their children survived by getting into the Grindstone River. John
Stanchfield, a carpenter, helped to rebuild the town. The gazebo
that he built is still standing at the Fire Victims Cemetery in Hinckley.
After the fire, James and Cora Jordan and their children moved to Sandstone.
By 1940 Jim and Lena Jordan
had built a bar and gas station and were living on Hwy 48, east of Hinckley.
They had two grown children, Bertha Jordan who married Arnold Falk and
Maurice Jordan who married Margaret Hartfield.
In 1964, Bob Ludwig, a forester
for the DNR, bought a rack of mounted antlers at a Sandstone garage sale
for $3. Curiously, he sent an official form to the Boone and Crockett
Club for a rating. He was surprised to learn that the typical whitetail
12 point buck was a new world record that scored 206 5/8. The news
spread fast in the Pine County area. When it reached Jim Jordan he
had to see the rack. He recognized it and claimed it as the one he
had shot 50 years earlier. In 1977 the Boone and Crockett Club began investigating
the claim. Jim died October 12, 1978. Two months later, the
club officially recognized Jim Jordan as the man who shot the world record
buck.
Here is a photo
of Jim and his prize buck rack.
