Thompson records sent to paper mill.

• Author: Swartz, Nikki
• Position: Up front: news, trends & analysis - Tommy G. Thompson' archives destroyed inadvertently - Brief Article

Several hundred boxes of records from the Tommy G. Thompson administration ear-marked for the archives of the Wisconsin Historical Society in Madison were destroyed instead. A spokesman for the state Department of Administration confirmed that the records, which were stored at a state warehouse, were inadvertently put on the wrong truck and sent to a Green Bay, Wisconsin, paper mill, where the documents were turned into pulp.

The records that were destroyed represented Thompson's gubernatorial career, from January 1, 1987, through December 31, 2001. Thompson resigned as governor to become secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Officials are trying to determine what was lost. A preliminary investigation determined that about 100 of the boxes came from the governor's office, and the rest originated from other, undetermined state...