Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 86.djvu/1636

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PROCLAMATION 4100-JAN. 5, 1972

[86 STAT.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twentieth day of December, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred seventy-one, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred ninety-sixth. CyrCw^cLM.wy

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PROCLAMATION 4100

National Parks Centennial Year January 5, 1972

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

16 USC 21, 22 and notes.

In John Colter's saga of adventure, we find the genesis of an idea which was to change man from nature's ancient adversary to its friend and preserver. In 1806, this guide and trapper for Lewis and Clark left the expedition on its return journey and set off on a series of exploits that brought him, alone and on foot, into an unknown wilderness of majestic splendor. He carried back tales which prompted scoflfing disbelief, then awe, and finally an unending cavalcade to the headwaters of the Yellowstone River. Years later, on March 1, 1872, in an Act signed by President Grant, Colter's discovery was established as the first national park for the people of the Nation and of the world. A century has come and gone, and in that time the National Park System has grown to include 280 areas embracing the most magnificent examples of America's natural and historical heritage. In every time and season, our parks give of their joys and beauties. They have enriched the citizens of this land beyond measure, and have inspired more than 100 nations to set aside over 1,200 national parks and reserves. Truly, "one touch of nature makes the whole world kin." And this past year, through the Legacy of the Parks, we have embarked on a new era of bringing parks to the people with the opening of vast new tracts of wilderness and recreation land, a fitting close to the first 100 years of our National Park System and a proper beginning for the next 100 years.

16 USC 1 note.

As directed by the Congress in a joint resolution of July 10, 1970 (84 Stat. 427), the Secretary of the Interior has requested me to issue a proclamation designating the year 1972 as National Parks Centennial Year in recognition of the establishment in 1872 of Yellowstone National Park, the world's first national park. NOW, THEREFORE, I, RICHARD NIXON, President of the United States of America, do hereby designate the year 1972 as National Parks Centennial Year.

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