The Griggs County Wildlife Club was organized about 1936, but no minutes are available from the beginning. Club records from 1950 show that C. J. Sutter served as chairman until 1958 when Fred Oakley was elected in his place. Presidents after that and years they served:
| Gerald Anderson | 1959 |
| S.J. Quam | 1960-1961 |
| Walt Bohnsack | 1962 |
| Gordon Olson | 1963 |
| Bruce Hazard | 1964 |
| James F. Hazard | 1965 |
| Leland Harvey | 1966 |
| Art Simenson | 1967 |
| Barry Ronningen | 1968 |
| James Hazard Jr. | 1969 |
| John Francis Jr. | 1970 |
| Ted Monson | 1972 |
| Lewis Berg | 1973 |
| David Saxberg | 1974 |
| Jerome Arneson | 1976 |
| David Saxberg | 1978 |
| Monty Salzwedel | 1980-1981 |
| Kenneth Eli | 1982 |
In the beginning, club met about four times a year until 1958 when they started to meet monthly and used to alternate meetings between Cooperstown and Hannaford. In the early forties the club held a joint picnic with the Finley club at the Ueland Dam. They also held annual fishing derbies in the vicinity of the Ueland Dam. They also held rabbit drives in the early fifties and later fox drives. One drive netted seven fox, which were sold for $6.00.
Crows were considered one of the chief pests of game bird nests and the club had crow hunts.
In May of 1954 they began to get interested about establishing a camp site at Lake Ashtabula and the next year C.J. Sutter was named chairman along with Casper Aarestad, Fred Knauss, Fred Oakley and Elmer Kjormoe on a development and building committee and a cabin was built that same year with volunteer labor. The club was incorporated in 1956. Meetings were held in the cabin during summer months and S.J. Quam donated a light plant in 1958 but that wasn't always so dependable as September minutes show that no lunch was served due to failure of the light plant. Also, the fall of 1958 the National Guard built a better road into the site.
Members were complaining of poor fishing in 1960 and the club went on record urging the Game and Fish Department to try to do something so fish couldn't escape from the lake in the spring of the year.
Gravel was hauled onto the ice in the winter of 1961 and 1962 to try and create spawning beds for fish. The club also hosted the state Wildlife Convention in June of 1961.
In 1961 the cabin was hooked up to REA and the cabin wired for $50.13. The monthly light bill was $3.63. Trees were planted in the spring of 1967 as a project along with the Barnes County Club north of the Ashtabula Bridge and in the hills above the cabin. In 1964 the club raffled off a pickup truck and contributed profits to the Carlson-Tande Dam project. In the winter of 1964, concern was expressed about heavy winterkill of fish and the hardship big game was having to survive. Longer fishing seasons were often requested for the lake. A game advisory meeting was hosted in 1966 and a fish supper was served. The club raised and released pheasants in 1967 but the results were not very good.
Source: Cooperstown, North Dakota 1882-1982 Centennial Page 238