JFK BEGINS CONSERVATION TOUR IN PENNSYLVANIA, WISCONSIN AND MINNESOTA
Duluth, Minnesota (JFK+50) On September 24, 1963, President John F. Kennedy traveled to Milford, Pennsylvania, Ashland, Wisconsin, and Duluth, Minnesota beginning a five day conservation tour of the United States.
The President's first stop was in Milford where he spoke at the Pinchot Institute for Conservation Studies. JFK said...
"I don't think many Americans can point to such a distinguished record as can Gifford Pinchot* and this institute...There is no more fitting place to begin a journey ... across the U.S. to see what can be done to mobilize the attention of this country so we in the 1960's can do our task in preparing America for all the generations which are still yet to come."
JFK commended Gifford Pinchot as being the father of American conservation and a gifted administrator as well as a "tutor of Presidents."
*Gifford Pinchot (1865-1946), the 1st Chief of the US Forest Service and twice governor of Pennsylvania, was born in Simsbury, Connecticut and graduated from Yale University. He became known for reforming the management and development of the Nation's reserves by planned use and renewal.
TR and Gifford Pinchot (1907)
National Archives/Library of Congress
