There is more dissension rearing its ugly head as “The three mathematicians whose investigations were at least partially reported by the Hall of Fame in the recent record ruling – Joseph Gallian, Dorian Goldfield and Doug Arnold are concerned that our work was not fully understood by the Hall, and also by the way in which the Hall chose to communicate with us. We wrote Emmett Brown (Hall Executive Director) about this, but have not yet received a reply.”

None other than renowned musky historian Larry Ramsell is also weighing in on the issue. Ramsell’s sincerity and believability are beyond question. “Subsequent to the decision by the National Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame to uphold their Louie Spray muskellunge World Record on January 16, 2006, after a protest by the World Record Muskie Alliance against it, I decided to look further into the matter, especially since many of the reasons the Hall gave for upholding the Spray record were identical to what they chose to ignore in 1992, when they accepted an investigation into the Lawton World Record, authored by current Hall Executive Board President John Dettloff, then independent of the Hall, and disqualified Lawton’s record. What I learned was incredibly enlightening. On February 19, 2006, I attempted to make a copy of this 41-page review available to Hall Executive Director Emmett Brown. He declined to accept it. On February 21, 2006, I made this review available to Hall Executive Board President John Dettloff, through another Hall Board member. He indicated that he was too busy with the upcoming Birkie ski race to look at it now. It was at that point I decided to make my review available to the general public.

Ramsell’s 41-page report is incredibly interesting and if anyone would like a copy, please ask for one by e-mailing me at steve@oexperience.com .

Ramsell finishes, “Late on February 21, 2006, I learned, unsolicited, from a confidential source during a conversation regarding another matter, that in 1992, John Dettloff had told him that he (Mr. Dettloff) had tricked the Lawton relatives in 1991, in order to obtain the Lawton photo and correspondence archives from them. While I have considerable information in my file regarding this aspect, I did not include it in my review because I did not have positive proof that Mr. Dettloff did indeed have an agenda at that time, despite the claims of same by Lawton’s relatives. I now believe it to relevant.”

I wrote to the hall of Fame expressing my opinion as to how this matter might be best resolved:

Here is my letter to the Hall of Fame: “I am giving you a link to a story I wrote for The Northwest Herald. At the end, I ask the Hall to establish historical and modern records. I would like a response. I feel that we are in the midst of an excruciatingly serious situation. As a Midwesterner, I am biased in favor of the Hall. I do not want to see the Hall's credibility questioned and I do not want the IGFA recognized as the keeper of the sacred records for fish caught in our area. I also do not want to see individual organizations like Muskies Inc. recognizing their own records. John, I feel that I have been fair and open minded regarding this situation in how I have reported it. I have no agenda either way. I believe your only solution to saving the Hall's credibility, without having to dismiss the Spray fish is to institute historical and modern day records. Please consider this. I look forward to you gracious response. Steve Sarley”