Nancy Brown-Martinez
The Wilderness Act of 1964 was signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson establishing the National Preservation System, protecting 9.1 million acres of federal land, and providing the means for additional acreage to be preserved in the future. The Act provides a definition of wilderness, stating that “wilderness, in contrast with those areas where man and his own works dominate the landscape, is hereby recognized as an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain …”
On September 21, 1999, New Mexico Senator Jeff Bingaman addressed Congress commemorating the 35th anniversary of the Wilderness Act. In this speech, he recognized the large part that New Mexico Senator Clinton P. Anderson played in getting this act passed. He also shared a statement that Anderson had made on the importance of wilderness and the need for conservation.
The full transcript of Senator Bingaman’s speech can be viewed here - Congressional Record Vol. 145, No.123
Certificate of appreciation from U.S. Forest Service MSS 20 BC, Box 27
Besides sponsoring the Wilderness Act, Senator Anderson also worked with the Committee of Interior and Insular Affairs on the San Juan-Chama Reclamation Project and Navajo Indian Irrigation Project. Other committee involvement included the Agriculture Committee, the Interior Committee, the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy, the Finance Committee, and the Aeronautical and Space Sciences Committee.
President Kennedy Signing Ceremony MSS 20 BC #MSS020_B49_0010
June 13, 1962. President Kennedy signing legislation authorizing the $221,000,000 Navajo Irrigation and San Juan Chama - Colorado River Project that was introduced by Senators Anderson and Chavez in 1961. The men standing behind Kennedy are (left to right) NM Rep. Joseph Montoya; NM Rep. Thomas G. Morris; US Interior Secretary Stewart Udall; NM Sen. Clinton P. Anderson (looking directly at the camera); Paul Jones, Chairman, Navajo Tribal Council; Maurice McCabe, Secretary, Navajo Council; and NM Sen. Dennis Chavez.
Clint Anderson for Congress, MSS 20 BC, Box 27
Clinton P. Anderson came to New Mexico from South Dakota in 1917 after being diagnosed with tuberculosis. He got a job as a reporter with the Albuquerque Herald in 1918 and was assigned to cover the New Mexico Legislature in 1920. He advised the Democrats and ghost wrote legislation for them.
Anderson ran for the Bernalillo County Commission in 1926. He lost, but was appointed State Treasurer in 1933, thereafter managing several state and federal New Deal relief programs.
In 1940, he was elected to the United States House of Representatives, remaining until 1945, when he was appointed Secretary of Agriculture in President Harry S. Truman’s cabinet.
In 1948, he ran for United States Senate, serving until retirement in 1972. During this time, Senator Anderson sponsored bills on Medicare, civil rights, space exploration, peaceful use of atomic energy, agriculture, wilderness preservation, reclamation, conservation, and science.
- Text by Nancy Brown Martinez, CSWR Archivist
To read more about Clinton Anderson visit the finding aid - Clinton P. Anderson Papers
To view additional images of Clinton Anderson, visit New Mexico Digital Collections
In 1948, the Senator started to transfer over 1,064 volumes from his library to UNM Special Collections (today the Center for Southwest Research and Special Collections). He donated his personal, business and political papers, including a collection of historical documents on the Southwest. Anderson provided funds to prepare and maintain the adjacent “Clinton P. Anderson Reading Room” for his books.
His family generously continues to support the CSWR with an endowment in his memory.
- Text by Nancy Brown Martinez, CSWR Archivist