Archives of the Upper River Fund (MS-652)

The collection is composed of five series: administrative records, financial records, correspondence, meeting minutes, and properties.

Series I: Administrative, 1993-2016, contains general history, awards, consultation contracts, land acquisition records, and general maps. The contracts outline the consultation agreements that were made between multiple consultants and Upper River Fund between 1993-2000. This series contains the organization’s records of land acquisitions with dates and contact information of the owners of the land from 1998-1999. The land acquisitions report is organized by counties within the upper Little Miami and the Mad Rivers region. This series also includes general maps that were produced and used by the organization but are not specific to any one property; these maps outline the region that TURF operated within and maps outlining property lines.

Series II: Financial, 1993-2018, contains the invoices and copies of payments to the Upper River Fund from 1994-2015. The series also includes annual summary reports from the Upper River Fund to the Dayton Foundation from 1993-2018.

Series III: Correspondence, 1986-2015, contains general correspondence between organization members such as Irvin G Bieser, Sr., Dane Mutter, and David Nolin. The correspondence outlines the organization’s day to day tasks and projects they were involved in. The correspondence consists primarily of fax cover letters and emails as the main form of communication from 1986-2015.

Series IV: Meeting Minutes, 1992-2015, contains fax and emails outlining topics discussed in annual meetings. The series contains notes taken from meetings and results of discussions from these meetings. The meeting minutes paint a picture of the progress on property projects and the decisions being made within the organization. The documents date from 1992-2015.

Series V: Properties 1986-2016, contains records concerning all properties that TURF was involved with, whether it was purchase, auction sale, appraisals, or conservation easements. Each file is dedicated to a single property and is labelled by owner’s name. Each file contains the correspondence, contracts, other legal documents, maps, and photographs for that property. The files for each property are organized together to provide the best picture of the organization’s role with each property. Additional correspondence can be found in Series III, Correspondence, 1986-2015. The property files for: Acord, Beckley, Frysinger, Hanshaw, Heller, Miller, Tischer, Tudor, and City of Xenia all have maps that can be located in Oversize storage. The series dates from 1993-2015.