Gaylord Nelson
N 45° 24.930 W 092° 38.754
15T E 527706 N 5029169
A historical marker about Gaylord Nelson is located in a park along the banks of the St. Croix River in St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin.
Waymark Code: WM73ZK
Location: Wisconsin, United States
Date Posted: 08/29/2009
Views: 17
The marker text reads as follows:
Gaylord Anton Nelson (1916-2005), known worldwide as the founder of Earth Day, was the son of a country doctor and a nurse. Born the third of four children on June 4, 1916, at Clear Lake, Wisconsin, 28 miles from St. Croix Falls, Nelson canoed the Namekagon and St. Croix rivers as a boy. Plans announced in 1964 for a new power plant on the St. Croix River spurred Nelson, then a U.S. Senator, to believe the riverway deserved federal protection. Although the power plant was ultimately built, controversy surrounding it stimulated the passage of the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act of 1968. Designation of 102 miles of the St. Croix River and 98 miles of the Namekagon River created the St. Croix National Scenic Riverway, the first such riverway east of the Mississippi. The National Park Service and city of St. Croix Falls dedicated the Gaylord Nelson River Walk and St. Croix National Scenic Riverway Headquarters and St. Croix River Visitor Center during the marker dedication program.
Nelson held elective office for 32 years, including two terms as Wisconsin governor (1959-1963) and three terms in the U.S. Senate (1963-1981.) During his tenure in the Senate, his efforts included protecting the Appalachian Trail corridor, implementing a National Trail System, banning the pesticide DDT, establishing the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, passing the Wilderness Act, and founding Earth Day. Twenty million people, 10 percent of the American public, participated in the first Earth Day on April 22, 1970.
When Nelson received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1995, President Clinton proclaimed, "As the father of Earth Day, he is the grandfather of all that grew out of that event: the Environmental Protection Act, the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act." Gaylord Nelson died on July 2, 2005, at the age of 89.
Wisconsin Historical Society
Erected 2006
County: Polk
Location: Park
MarkerID: 503
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