Processed in May of 2013
The materials in this collection were donated by Norman Hancock to USU’s Quinney Library, which transferred them to USU Special Collections and Archives in 2013.
No restrictions on use, except: not available through interlibrary loan.
It is the responsibility of the researcher to obtain any necessary copyright clearances.
Permission to publish material from the Normon V. Hancock papers must be obtained from the
Norman Hancock was born November 23, 1921 in the rural town of West Weber, Utah. During his childhood his family moved to numerous locations, including Brigham City, Penrose, Thatcher and North Ogden, Utah where his father began a career as a teacher. The Hancock family eventually settled down in Ogden, Utah where his father worked at Weber High School.
After graduating from Ogden High School in 1940, Hancock completed a degree from Weber College in 1942 and married Genivee Cottle that same year. Just a month later he joined the U.S. Marine Corps and fought on the Pacific Front of World War II, seeing combat in areas such as the Marshall Islands and Iwo Jima. After his discharge from the military, Hancock worked a couple of odd jobs before returning to college at Utah State Agricultural College (now Utah State University), studying Wildlife Management.
Before completing his Master’s Degree, Hancock was hired as a biologist for the Utah Fish and Game Department in 1952. This was the beginning of a long career in the Fish and Game Department, where he served as District Game Manager, State Big Game Supervisor (coordinator), and Chief of Game Management. One year before his retirement, in 1987, Hancock began working on a history of the Utah Department of Fish and Game (now the Division of Wildlife Resources in the Department of Natural Resources), which he eventually finished and published in 2012 at age 91.
The collection contains the papers of Norman Hancock, Chief of Game Management in the Division of Wildlife Resources from 1958 to 1987. Before Hancock retired he began writing a history of the Utah Fish and Game Department entitled, Two Centuries of Utah’s Wildlife and its Management: a History of the Utah Department of Fish and Game. This collection consists of Norman Hancock’s research for this book and contains materials beneficial to anyone researching the history of environmental policy and the environmental history of Utah.
The files are organized into 13 boxes and divided in to three main sections: meeting minutes, research files, and binders ordered and labeled by Norman Hancock.
The meeting minutes section is ordered chronologically in 6 boxes, holding volume one through thirteen of the Division of Fish and Game Staff Meeting Minutes from 1957 to 1969 [with the exception of volume seven, which is missing] and the State of Utah Session Laws on Fish and Game from 1896 to 1925.
The research files contain Hancock’s source material concerning people and organizations who influenced the history of Utah Department of Fish and Game. This section is divided into four boxes and includes historical summaries of Utah wildlife, microcassette recorded interviews of Douglas Day (former Director of Wildlife Resources) and Al Randle (Game Manager from 1940 to 1945), as well a written interview on the history of the Department of Fish and Game with Lee Kay (1979). These folders were kept in the original order, with many of the original titles that Hancock used, though the processor added to some of the titles in order to make them more descriptive of the contents inside.
The last section includes the contents of eight binders that Hancock used for research materials. Like the research files, they contain notes and source material related to the Utah Department of Fish and Game, including interviews of Mike Gaufin (Chief of Game Management from 1946-1951), Floyd Newel (prior Fish and Game Department employee), Dale Jones and other members of the Fish and Game Department (now the Division of Wildlife Resources). Of additional interest, are some of Hancock’s original notes and sketches used in preparation for his master’s thesis in the Department of Wildlife Management at Utah State Agricultural College Logan, Utah (now Utah State University) It also contains some original notices of his thesis examination to his various professors at Utah State Agricultural College, particularly Professor J.B Low. These papers have been removed from the original binders (which were discarded) and placed in three archival boxes. The binder numbers and order were retained, though materials from a single binder may have been divided among several folders. The processor added the folder descriptions, using some of Hancock’s original labeling.
Arranged by document type.
One box of photographs were transferred to photograph curator. Two copies of Hancock's book were found in the collection; one was cataloged with the special collections books and the other was transferred to Merrill-Cazier Library's main stacks.
Session fish and game laws of Legislative Assembly of Utah Territory .
Session fish and game laws of Utah Territory and Utah State Legislature .
Session fish and game laws of Utah Territory and Utah State Legislature, interviews of Floyd Newel, Dale Jones and Mike Gaufin.
Fish and Game Commissioners of Utah Territory; Albert Rockwood, Joseph Barfoot, A. Milton Musser, and Joseph White Musser
Fish and Game Commissioners of Utah; John Sharp, H.B Cromar, Fred W. Chambers, R.H Siddoway, David H. Madsen, Harold S. Crane, and John E. Phelps
Memorandum and news clippings from Division of Wildlife Resources and related departments
Memorandum and news clippings from Division of Wildlife Resources and related departments
Memorandum and news clippings from Division of Wildlife Resources and related departments
Norman Hancock 1987 miscellanious documents dealing with early fish and game laws
Early Utah Fish and Game Department, photo copies of Utah Fish and Game Laws
Early history of Fish and Game Department and biennial reports of Utah Fish and Game Comissioners
Master listing of game management history write-ups, game management history and photo copy of Utah fish and game laws
Early History of Fish and Game Department and Interviews with Mike Gaufin
Interviews with Mike Gaufin and Floyd Noel
Legislative auditing and corrospondence on Big Game Management Program
Legislative auditing of Big Game Management Program and game management research
Range rehabilitation projects and computer data analysis for Big Game Management Program
Deer winter range needs and range acquisition; Big Game Committee of the Board of Big Game Control
Questionaire to western states in connection with legislative audit
Utah Division of Wildlife Resources division organization, administrative procedure and rules of conduct
Division of Wildlife Resources equipment, installations, resource analysis and fisheries management
Division of Wildlife game management and nongame management
Division of Wildlife fiscal management and law enforcement
Division of Wildlife information and education, field services, and policy statements
Norman Hancock master’s thesis outline, including research on elk harvest, Hardware Ranch, and elk census data
Continuation of Hancock thesis research, Norman Hancock’s admisson to candidacy for Master of Science Degree