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.