Wayne N. Aspinall
Encyclopedia
Wayne Norviel Aspinall was a lawyer and politician from Colorado
. He is largely known for his tenure in the United States House of Representatives
, serving as a Democrat
from 1949-1973 from Colorado’s Fourth District
. Aspinall became known for his direction of the House Interior and Insular Affairs Committee, of which he was the chairman from 1959-1973. Aspinall focused the majority of his efforts on western land and water issues.
His actions supporting resource development often drew the ire of the increasingly powerful environmental lobby in the 1960s. David Brower, a prominent executive director of the Sierra Club
, said that the environmental movement
had seen “dream after dream dashed on the stony continents of Wayne Aspinall.” The congressman returned the animosity, calling environmentalists “over-indulged zealots” and “aristocrats” to whom “balance means nothing.” This battle shaped Aspinall’s congressional career.
in 1904. He studied at the University of Denver
until World War I
, when he enlisted in the armed services (the Air Service of the Signal Corps). He returned to DU after his discharge and graduated in 1919. After several years of teaching around the state, he enrolled in law school
in Denver and graduated in 1925. In 1930, he won a seat in the Colorado State House of Representatives, serving as Speaker in 1937 and 1938 before moving to the State Senate from 1939 to 1948. He served in World War II
as a captain in Military Government during 1943 and 1944 as well. In 1948, he chose to run for national office, hoping for it to be a stepping stone to Colorado’s governorship. However, he would stay in the U.S. House for 24 years.
Living on Colorado’s Western Slope defined Aspinall’s political ideology. His family had traditionally voted Republican
, but the party’s in-fighting in 1912 between Theodore Roosevelt
and William H. Taft disillusioned Aspinall. However, despite becoming a Democrat, his rural roots shaped a relatively conservative philosophy. He believed in limited federal involvement in western land and water issues; to him, localities could better decide the uses of their resources. “When I was young…I lived outside the little town of Palisade, and the townspeople always seemed to call the shots. Then I moved to Palisade, and the bigger town of Grand Junction always seemed to call the shots. Then I went to the state Legislature, and the Eastern Slope…seemed to call the shots. And in Congress, the big metropolitan areas seemed to hold all the marbles.”
His service in the U.S. House ended in 1972 with his loss in the Fourth District Democratic primary. However, Aspinall remained active in politics. He voiced his opinions on the need for the United States to become self-reliant for its energy needs, pushing oil shale
development until his death in 1983.
Colorado history remembers Aspinall as one of the state’s most influential politicians. Known as “The Chairman,” he led the Interior and Insular Affairs Committee during a period that defined future water and land policy in the United States. Colorado governor Richard Lamm
, a Democrat who had several ideological differences with Aspinall, remarked that “[N]o one in our history has done more to win Colorado a place at the table in Washington.” He had a son, Owen Aspinall
, who went on to become Governor of American Samoa.
The Colorado River Storage Project (CRSP) came before Congress in the early-to-mid 1950s. The bill, sponsored by Wayne Aspinall and several western allies, called for damming several areas in the Upper Basin of the Colorado River
. It included the Echo Park Dam proposal, located within Dinosaur National Monument
. This became a volatile issue between environmentalists and water project advocates. Located just below the Green and Yampa Rivers, the proposed 525 feet (160 m) high dam would have created a 43,000 acre (170 km²) lake, flooding the Green River
Canyon for 63 miles (101.4 km) and the Yampa River
Canyon for 44 miles (70.8 km). However, because of increased environmental awareness around the country, the majority of the public opposed the project. In 1954 alone, the Department of the Interior received 20,000 pieces of mail about the plan, and one insider estimated the letters ran 80 to 1 in opposition of the project.
In 1954 and 1955, environmentalists successfully defeated the controversial aspects of the CRSP. In ’55, Aspinall conceded that for the bill to pass, he needed to sacrifice the Echo Park plan. Several more compromises between the two sides gave way to the Colorado River Storage Act of 1956, which called for the creation of other irrigation projects and several large dams, including the Glen Canyon Dam
in Utah, which created Lake Powell
. Other projects created from the CRSP included the Flaming Gorge
, Navajo, and Curecanti reservoirs. For his compromise, Aspinall gained five other reclamation projects and three hydroelectric dams for the Fourth District. The bill passed the House 256-136 in March 1956 and then Dwight Eisenhower signed it into law soon thereafter.
Rivers on the Western Slope of Colorado to the Arkansas River
, which flowed to a dryer climate in the southeast part of the state. Because the Front Range (Boulder, Denver, Colorado Springs, and Pueblo) had a tremendous population advantage over the Western Slope, most of the state favored the project. Precedent for this maneuver had been set in 1937 with the Colorado-Big Thompson Project
, which transferred Western Slope water to farmers in northeast Colorado.
Because he wanted to focus the House’s efforts on the CRSP in the mid-’50s, Aspinall tabled Fry-Ark until 1960. However, when the issue resurfaced, Aspinall’s opinion created controversy in his own district. Many of his constituents disapproved of sending their water to the Front Range. Aspinall, however, pushed the plan through because he realized that as a strong proponent of public water development, it seemed contradictory for him to block reclamation projects that benefited others. The bill passed in August 1962 when Aspinall attained a plan calling for the construction of a 28000 acre.foot reservoir on the Roaring Fork River near Aspen, which would compensate the Western Slope for its loss of water.
Fry-Ark demonstrated Aspinall’s resolve to proliferate the amount of publicly funded water projects throughout the West, pitting him against the wishes of the majority of his constituents in the early 1960s. He quickly regained favor with them, however, when its precedent eventually brought more dams and reclamation projects back to the Fourth District.
and Johnson
and western conservationist politicians like Aspinall. When the Wilderness bill first came to the House in 1961, Aspinall employed various stall tactics to never allow the popular bill out of the Interior Committee. He continued this through 1962 and into ’63, earning him the wrath of the country’s environmentalists, preservationist politicians, and a large amount of the public.
However, in November 1963 Aspinall made a deal with John Kennedy. Aspinall greatly desired a public land review commission (see below), while one of Kennedy’s primary goals was the passage of the Wilderness Act. Aspinall agreed to release the bill in exchange for the administration’s cooperation with the land commission. (Also, Kennedy’s assassination on November 22, 1963 created an ethos in Washington that essentially made Kennedy a martyr. Lyndon Johnson took up and pushed through many of his legislative goals because of public empathy.)
Before Aspinall let the Wilderness Act of 1964 pass, he dropped the original request of 55 million acres (220,000 km²) of protected wilderness to only 9.1 million acres (37,000 km²). He also inserted a clause, called the “1984 clause,” that allowed mining interests to still have access to many of these areas until December 31, 1983. Despite these concessions, the House passed it 373-1 and Lyndon Johnson signed it in September. The act also refused to turn over exclusive power to the executive branch, keeping some power in Congress for public land oversight. Ironically, the National Wildlife Federation
named Aspinall their “Conservationist of the Year” in 1964 for his role in the eventual passage of the bill.
(Bridge Canyon Dam), with the other on the edge of the Grand Canyon (Marble Canyon Dam). Aspinall originally supported this, claiming it would generate revenue for all Colorado River Basin states. In turn, however, he demanded that his district receive five reclamation projects for his support. Several congressmen, including Arizona senator Carl Hayden, saw this as action as a move that held the state hostage, and many would come to resent Aspinall for it.
Environmentalists vehemently opposed the CAP because of its detriment to the scenery of the Grand Canyon. Aspinall would later say “We viewed the development of the river as the only reasonable, practicable, safe, and logical way for millions of Americans and visitors to enjoy the canyon bottom which to date so few have had an opportunity to visit or view.” However, during the debate, the Sierra Club mocked that philosophy, purchasing an ad in national newspapers in July 1966. “Should we also flood the Sistine Chapel
so tourists can get nearer the ceiling?” it asked.
Sensing that he couldn’t break the stalemate, Aspinall dropped the Grand Canyon dams from the CRPB in late August 1967. The bill eventually passed in the middle of 1968, creating the Colorado River Basin Act. However, in exchange for the his compromise, Aspinall did receive five projects for Colorado (the Dallas Creek, Animas-La Plata, West Divide, San Miguel, and Dolores projects).
Of those five, only two were eventually built (Dolores and Dallas Creek). The Animas-La Plata project is currently under construction, and is one of the last major water projects in the West. Jimmy Carter
declared a “Hit List” in 1977 on what he felt was wasteful spending on pork barrel water projects, eliminating the other three (among others). Furthermore, no new major reclamation projects were approved during the rest of the era, partly because Aspinall’s heavy-handed demands that constrained the legislation broke apart the western coalition of politicians that supported the construction of water projects.
(PLLRC) in 1965. The PLLRC reviewed all federal regulations affecting the control and uses of the nation’s public lands and recommended changes that would help the federal government manage these areas more efficiently. Aspinall served as the commission’s chair for its entirety, from 1965 until 1970.
The final report came out on June 23, 1970. Titled “One Third of the Nation's Lands,” it gave 137 recommendations to Richard Nixon
and Congress. Among its suggestions:
Environmentalists blasted its findings. The Sierra Club accused the study of being “oriented toward maximum immediate commercial exploitation...” predicated upon a world with an “ever-expanding economy and unlimited resources.” Others stated that the report only considered studies and opinions favorable to Aspinall’s political ideology. Many citizens were also still unhappy with Aspinall for blocking the creation of the Redwood National Park in California for half of the decade until its passage in 1968, and they saw this as more evidence that he served as a mouthpiece for the extractive industries’ interests in Congress.
Aspinall proposed HR 9211 in his final session in Congress to implement many of the PLLRC’s recommendations, but it failed to pass. During the height of the environmental movement, many of these suggestions were unacceptable to the public. However, later bills spawned from the ideas in the PLLRC, such as the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976
.
In 1970 a young Democrat named Richard Perchlik
challenged Aspinall in the Fourth District Democratic primary. Although Aspinall won by over 11,000 votes in his first primary challenge since 1948, Perchlik’s campaign portrayed Aspinall as old (74 at the time) and out of touch with the ideals of liberals on the war and the environment. The challenger also accused The Chairman of being too connected to the extractive special interests and railed against him for his role in what reformers viewed as a flawed seniority system in Congress.
Aspinall’s friend and colleague, Democratic congressman Byron Rogers of Colorado’s First District, did not survive 1970’s primary season, however. A young liberal lawyer from Denver, Craig Barnes, defeated Rogers (although Barnes himself lost the general election). Rogers had a similar philosophy and legislative record to Aspinall, seemingly foreshadowing Aspinall’s fate in 1972.
The degree to which Aspinall appreciated the challenge of liberal Democrats is debated. He did say that “this drive toward liberalism, organization of committees, etc., is causing me to wonder if I haven’t reached the place where I should let some younger and more militant person take over.” However, he never altered his campaign message in 1972, even after the Republican-controlled Colorado General Assembly redrew the state’s district lines to include largely liberal precincts in the Fourth District. “Wayne Aspinall represents all the interests because all the people have interest in our resources,” his campaign said, continuing to target the miners, ranchers, and loggers that lived on the Western Slope. He never attempted to alter his message to assuage the concerns of his new liberal constituents.
His opponent in the 1972 Democratic primary, Alan Merson, employed the same strategy that Perchlik and Barnes used two years previously. Merson attacked Aspinall for being slow to recognize developing energy problems, promoting policies that fed constant growth, building needless water projects, and being a tool of special interests. Merson received extensive external aid, accepting endorsements from the New York Times, Field and Stream, and Reader's Digest
. The environmental lobby provided most of the support to Merson’s campaign, with $20,000 coming from the League of Conservation Voters
. Environmental Action, having named Aspinall to their 1972 “Dirty Dozen” list of biggest congressional enemies to the environment, also endorsed Merson.
Using the young, liberal vote on the Front Range, Merson defeated Aspinall in the primary 53% to 47%. History credits Aspinall’s loss to his age, the strength of the environmental issue
in 1972, and the redistricting that cost The Chairman much of his conservative support on the Western Slope.
However, redistricting still favored Republicans, despite the liberal Merson’s victory. Moving urban voters into the Fourth split the Democratic vote and consolidated Republican strength. Merson lost to James Paul Johnson
, who had been Aspinall's unsuccessful Republican opponent in 1966, in the general election in November 1972.
for President in 1976. He also pressed for further exploration of oil shale in the late 1970s, serving on the board of directors for the Paraho Oil Shale Demonstration, Inc., hoping to lead the country to an alternative energy source to end American reliance on oil during the energy crisis caused by the Arab Oil Embargo.
He proudly took part in the Sagebrush Rebellion, a western philosophy popular from 1979-1982 that attempted to reclaim some federally protected land for determination by states and local governments.
Aspinall resumed the practice of law, was a resident of Palisade, Colo., until his death there October 9, 1983; he was cremated, and his ashes were interred at Orchard Mesa Municipal Cemetery, Grand Junction, Colorado
. The United States Post Office and Courthouse in Grand Junction was renamed the Wayne N. Aspinall Federal Building in 1972.
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
. He is largely known for his tenure in the United States House of Representatives
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
, serving as a Democrat
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
from 1949-1973 from Colorado’s Fourth District
Colorado's 4th congressional district
Colorado's 4th congressional district is a congressional district in the U.S. state of Colorado. Located in the eastern part of the state, the district encompasses most of the rural Eastern Plains as well as the larger cities of Fort Collins, Greeley, Loveland and Longmont along Colorado's Front...
. Aspinall became known for his direction of the House Interior and Insular Affairs Committee, of which he was the chairman from 1959-1973. Aspinall focused the majority of his efforts on western land and water issues.
His actions supporting resource development often drew the ire of the increasingly powerful environmental lobby in the 1960s. David Brower, a prominent executive director of the Sierra Club
Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is the oldest, largest, and most influential grassroots environmental organization in the United States. It was founded on May 28, 1892, in San Francisco, California, by the conservationist and preservationist John Muir, who became its first president...
, said that the environmental movement
Environmental movement
The environmental movement, a term that includes the conservation and green politics, is a diverse scientific, social, and political movement for addressing environmental issues....
had seen “dream after dream dashed on the stony continents of Wayne Aspinall.” The congressman returned the animosity, calling environmentalists “over-indulged zealots” and “aristocrats” to whom “balance means nothing.” This battle shaped Aspinall’s congressional career.
Biography
Aspinall was born in Middleburg, Ohio in 1896 and moved to Palisade, ColoradoPalisade, Colorado
Palisade is a Statutory Town in Mesa County, Colorado, United States. It is part of the Grand Junction Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 2,692 at the 2010 census....
in 1904. He studied at the University of Denver
University of Denver
The University of Denver is currently ranked 82nd among all public and private "National Universities" by U.S. News & World Report in the 2012 rankings....
until World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, when he enlisted in the armed services (the Air Service of the Signal Corps). He returned to DU after his discharge and graduated in 1919. After several years of teaching around the state, he enrolled in law school
Sturm College of Law
The University of Denver Sturm College of Law is one of two law schools in the state of Colorado, and the only law school in the Denver metro area. Founded in 1892, the Sturm College of Law is one of the first in America's Mountain West...
in Denver and graduated in 1925. In 1930, he won a seat in the Colorado State House of Representatives, serving as Speaker in 1937 and 1938 before moving to the State Senate from 1939 to 1948. He served in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
as a captain in Military Government during 1943 and 1944 as well. In 1948, he chose to run for national office, hoping for it to be a stepping stone to Colorado’s governorship. However, he would stay in the U.S. House for 24 years.
Living on Colorado’s Western Slope defined Aspinall’s political ideology. His family had traditionally voted Republican
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
, but the party’s in-fighting in 1912 between Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States . He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...
and William H. Taft disillusioned Aspinall. However, despite becoming a Democrat, his rural roots shaped a relatively conservative philosophy. He believed in limited federal involvement in western land and water issues; to him, localities could better decide the uses of their resources. “When I was young…I lived outside the little town of Palisade, and the townspeople always seemed to call the shots. Then I moved to Palisade, and the bigger town of Grand Junction always seemed to call the shots. Then I went to the state Legislature, and the Eastern Slope…seemed to call the shots. And in Congress, the big metropolitan areas seemed to hold all the marbles.”
His service in the U.S. House ended in 1972 with his loss in the Fourth District Democratic primary. However, Aspinall remained active in politics. He voiced his opinions on the need for the United States to become self-reliant for its energy needs, pushing oil shale
Oil shale
Oil shale, an organic-rich fine-grained sedimentary rock, contains significant amounts of kerogen from which liquid hydrocarbons called shale oil can be produced...
development until his death in 1983.
Colorado history remembers Aspinall as one of the state’s most influential politicians. Known as “The Chairman,” he led the Interior and Insular Affairs Committee during a period that defined future water and land policy in the United States. Colorado governor Richard Lamm
Richard Lamm
Richard Douglas "Dick" Lamm is an American politician, Certified Public Accountant, college professor, and lawyer. He served three terms as 38th Governor of Colorado as a Democrat and ran for the Reform Party's nomination for President of the United States in 1996.He is currently the Co-Director...
, a Democrat who had several ideological differences with Aspinall, remarked that “[N]o one in our history has done more to win Colorado a place at the table in Washington.” He had a son, Owen Aspinall
Owen Aspinall
Owen Stuart Aspinall was an American attorney and politician who served as the 45th Governor of American Samoa from August 1, 1967, to July 31, 1969. He was born in Grand Junction, Colorado, to longtime United States Representative Wayne N. Aspinall...
, who went on to become Governor of American Samoa.
Colorado River Storage Act of 1956
Aspinall favored dams and water reclamation projects for several reasons: (1) the power they generated; (2) general recreational use; and (3) he felt the key to Western economic prosperity lay in obtaining permanent stored supply of water for economic purposes. In Aspinall’s mind, Americans had many opportunities to enjoy scenic areas, so damming a few of them would not hurt the country. After his career, he boasted that he had brought over $1 billion worth of water projects to his district. According to his observers, he “never met a dam he didn’t like.”The Colorado River Storage Project (CRSP) came before Congress in the early-to-mid 1950s. The bill, sponsored by Wayne Aspinall and several western allies, called for damming several areas in the Upper Basin of the Colorado River
Colorado River
The Colorado River , is a river in the Southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico, approximately long, draining a part of the arid regions on the western slope of the Rocky Mountains. The watershed of the Colorado River covers in parts of seven U.S. states and two Mexican states...
. It included the Echo Park Dam proposal, located within Dinosaur National Monument
Dinosaur National Monument
Dinosaur National Monument is a National Monument located on the southeast flank of the Uinta Mountains on the border between Colorado and Utah at the confluence of the Green and Yampa Rivers. Although most of the monument area is in Moffat County, Colorado, the Dinosaur Quarry is located in Utah...
. This became a volatile issue between environmentalists and water project advocates. Located just below the Green and Yampa Rivers, the proposed 525 feet (160 m) high dam would have created a 43,000 acre (170 km²) lake, flooding the Green River
Green River (Utah)
The Green River, located in the western United States, is the chief tributary of the Colorado River. The watershed of the river, known as the Green River Basin, covers parts of Wyoming, Utah, and Colorado. The Green River is long, beginning in the Wind River Mountains of Wyoming and flowing...
Canyon for 63 miles (101.4 km) and the Yampa River
Yampa River
The Yampa River is a tributary of the Green River, approximately 250 mi long, in the U.S. state of Colorado. It's located in the Southwestern United States...
Canyon for 44 miles (70.8 km). However, because of increased environmental awareness around the country, the majority of the public opposed the project. In 1954 alone, the Department of the Interior received 20,000 pieces of mail about the plan, and one insider estimated the letters ran 80 to 1 in opposition of the project.
In 1954 and 1955, environmentalists successfully defeated the controversial aspects of the CRSP. In ’55, Aspinall conceded that for the bill to pass, he needed to sacrifice the Echo Park plan. Several more compromises between the two sides gave way to the Colorado River Storage Act of 1956, which called for the creation of other irrigation projects and several large dams, including the Glen Canyon Dam
Glen Canyon Dam
Glen Canyon Dam is a concrete arch dam on the Colorado River in northern Arizona in the United States, just north of Page. The dam was built to provide hydroelectricity and flow regulation from the upper Colorado River Basin to the lower. Its reservoir is called Lake Powell, and is the second...
in Utah, which created Lake Powell
Lake Powell
Lake Powell is a huge reservoir on the Colorado River, straddling the border between Utah and Arizona . It is the second largest man-made reservoir in the United States behind Lake Mead, storing of water when full...
. Other projects created from the CRSP included the Flaming Gorge
Flaming Gorge Reservoir
Flaming Gorge Reservoir is a reservoir in Wyoming and Utah, on the Green River, created by Flaming Gorge Dam. Construction on the dam began in 1958 and was completed in 1964...
, Navajo, and Curecanti reservoirs. For his compromise, Aspinall gained five other reclamation projects and three hydroelectric dams for the Fourth District. The bill passed the House 256-136 in March 1956 and then Dwight Eisenhower signed it into law soon thereafter.
Frying Pan Arkansas Project of 1962
This plan, originally proposed in 1951, called for water diversion out of the Frying Pan and Roaring ForkRoaring Fork River
Roaring Fork River is a tributary of the Colorado River, approximately long, in west central Colorado in the United States. The river drains a populated and economically vital area of the Colorado Western Slope called the Roaring Fork Valley or Roaring Fork Watershed, which includes the resort...
Rivers on the Western Slope of Colorado to the Arkansas River
Arkansas River
The Arkansas River is a major tributary of the Mississippi River. The Arkansas generally flows to the east and southeast as it traverses the U.S. states of Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. The river's initial basin starts in the Western United States in Colorado, specifically the Arkansas...
, which flowed to a dryer climate in the southeast part of the state. Because the Front Range (Boulder, Denver, Colorado Springs, and Pueblo) had a tremendous population advantage over the Western Slope, most of the state favored the project. Precedent for this maneuver had been set in 1937 with the Colorado-Big Thompson Project
Colorado-Big Thompson project
The Colorado-Big Thompson Project is a water diversion project in Colorado designed to collect West Slope mountain water from the headwaters of the Colorado River and divert it to Colorado's Front Range and plains...
, which transferred Western Slope water to farmers in northeast Colorado.
Because he wanted to focus the House’s efforts on the CRSP in the mid-’50s, Aspinall tabled Fry-Ark until 1960. However, when the issue resurfaced, Aspinall’s opinion created controversy in his own district. Many of his constituents disapproved of sending their water to the Front Range. Aspinall, however, pushed the plan through because he realized that as a strong proponent of public water development, it seemed contradictory for him to block reclamation projects that benefited others. The bill passed in August 1962 when Aspinall attained a plan calling for the construction of a 28000 acre.foot reservoir on the Roaring Fork River near Aspen, which would compensate the Western Slope for its loss of water.
Fry-Ark demonstrated Aspinall’s resolve to proliferate the amount of publicly funded water projects throughout the West, pitting him against the wishes of the majority of his constituents in the early 1960s. He quickly regained favor with them, however, when its precedent eventually brought more dams and reclamation projects back to the Fourth District.
Wilderness Act of 1964
One of the first comprehensive pieces of environmental legislation during the era faced a lengthy battle in Congress between Presidents KennedyJohn F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
and Johnson
Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon Baines Johnson , often referred to as LBJ, was the 36th President of the United States after his service as the 37th Vice President of the United States...
and western conservationist politicians like Aspinall. When the Wilderness bill first came to the House in 1961, Aspinall employed various stall tactics to never allow the popular bill out of the Interior Committee. He continued this through 1962 and into ’63, earning him the wrath of the country’s environmentalists, preservationist politicians, and a large amount of the public.
However, in November 1963 Aspinall made a deal with John Kennedy. Aspinall greatly desired a public land review commission (see below), while one of Kennedy’s primary goals was the passage of the Wilderness Act. Aspinall agreed to release the bill in exchange for the administration’s cooperation with the land commission. (Also, Kennedy’s assassination on November 22, 1963 created an ethos in Washington that essentially made Kennedy a martyr. Lyndon Johnson took up and pushed through many of his legislative goals because of public empathy.)
Before Aspinall let the Wilderness Act of 1964 pass, he dropped the original request of 55 million acres (220,000 km²) of protected wilderness to only 9.1 million acres (37,000 km²). He also inserted a clause, called the “1984 clause,” that allowed mining interests to still have access to many of these areas until December 31, 1983. Despite these concessions, the House passed it 373-1 and Lyndon Johnson signed it in September. The act also refused to turn over exclusive power to the executive branch, keeping some power in Congress for public land oversight. Ironically, the National Wildlife Federation
National Wildlife Federation
The National Wildlife Federation is the United States' largest private, nonprofit conservation education and advocacy organization, with over four million members and supporters, and 48 state and territorial affiliated organizations...
named Aspinall their “Conservationist of the Year” in 1964 for his role in the eventual passage of the bill.
Colorado River Basin Act of 1968 and the Central Arizona Project
From 1966 to 1968, Aspinall took on the final significant water project battle of his congressional career. The purpose of the Colorado River Basin Project, according to supporters, was to build dams to generate revenue and energy for communities in the Lower Basin of the Colorado River without using much of the Upper Basin’s river water. The primary focus of the project was the Central Arizona Project (CAP). CAP supporters, among other demands, wanted to build two dams, one that would flood Grand Canyon National Monument and part of Grand Canyon National ParkGrand Canyon National Park
Grand Canyon National Park is the United States' 15th oldest national park and is located in Arizona. Within the park lies the Grand Canyon, a gorge of the Colorado River, considered to be one of the Wonders of the World. The park covers of unincorporated area in Coconino and Mohave counties.Most...
(Bridge Canyon Dam), with the other on the edge of the Grand Canyon (Marble Canyon Dam). Aspinall originally supported this, claiming it would generate revenue for all Colorado River Basin states. In turn, however, he demanded that his district receive five reclamation projects for his support. Several congressmen, including Arizona senator Carl Hayden, saw this as action as a move that held the state hostage, and many would come to resent Aspinall for it.
Environmentalists vehemently opposed the CAP because of its detriment to the scenery of the Grand Canyon. Aspinall would later say “We viewed the development of the river as the only reasonable, practicable, safe, and logical way for millions of Americans and visitors to enjoy the canyon bottom which to date so few have had an opportunity to visit or view.” However, during the debate, the Sierra Club mocked that philosophy, purchasing an ad in national newspapers in July 1966. “Should we also flood the Sistine Chapel
Sistine Chapel
Sistine Chapel is the best-known chapel in the Apostolic Palace, the official residence of the Pope in Vatican City. It is famous for its architecture and its decoration that was frescoed throughout by Renaissance artists including Michelangelo, Sandro Botticelli, Pietro Perugino, Pinturicchio...
so tourists can get nearer the ceiling?” it asked.
Sensing that he couldn’t break the stalemate, Aspinall dropped the Grand Canyon dams from the CRPB in late August 1967. The bill eventually passed in the middle of 1968, creating the Colorado River Basin Act. However, in exchange for the his compromise, Aspinall did receive five projects for Colorado (the Dallas Creek, Animas-La Plata, West Divide, San Miguel, and Dolores projects).
Of those five, only two were eventually built (Dolores and Dallas Creek). The Animas-La Plata project is currently under construction, and is one of the last major water projects in the West. Jimmy Carter
Jimmy Carter
James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...
declared a “Hit List” in 1977 on what he felt was wasteful spending on pork barrel water projects, eliminating the other three (among others). Furthermore, no new major reclamation projects were approved during the rest of the era, partly because Aspinall’s heavy-handed demands that constrained the legislation broke apart the western coalition of politicians that supported the construction of water projects.
Public Land Law Review Commission
Kennedy’s concession in 1963 to enact the Wilderness Act gave Aspinall the go-ahead to organize his pet project, the Public Land Law Review CommissionPublic Land Law Review Commission
The Public Land Law Review Commission was established on September 19, 1964 in order to review federal public land laws and regulations and to recommend a public land policy...
(PLLRC) in 1965. The PLLRC reviewed all federal regulations affecting the control and uses of the nation’s public lands and recommended changes that would help the federal government manage these areas more efficiently. Aspinall served as the commission’s chair for its entirety, from 1965 until 1970.
The final report came out on June 23, 1970. Titled “One Third of the Nation's Lands,” it gave 137 recommendations to Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
and Congress. Among its suggestions:
- States should have a greater say in how public lands are managed
- Congress should have greater say in the uses of public land because the executive branch exerted too much singular influence
- All public-land issues should be concentrated under a new Department of Natural Resources, with committees in the House and Senate
- The Secretary of the Interior’s power to withdraw public lands from development without Congressional approval should be limited
- Regional mining, timber, and grazing needs should be supported to increase economic growth in local communities
- The federal government should help stimulate the oil shale industryOil shale industryOil shale industry is an industry of mining and processing of oil shale—a fine-grained sedimentary rock, containing significant amounts of kerogen , from which liquid hydrocarbons can be manufactured. The industry has developed in Brazil, China, Estonia and to some extent in Germany, Israel and...
Environmentalists blasted its findings. The Sierra Club accused the study of being “oriented toward maximum immediate commercial exploitation...” predicated upon a world with an “ever-expanding economy and unlimited resources.” Others stated that the report only considered studies and opinions favorable to Aspinall’s political ideology. Many citizens were also still unhappy with Aspinall for blocking the creation of the Redwood National Park in California for half of the decade until its passage in 1968, and they saw this as more evidence that he served as a mouthpiece for the extractive industries’ interests in Congress.
Aspinall proposed HR 9211 in his final session in Congress to implement many of the PLLRC’s recommendations, but it failed to pass. During the height of the environmental movement, many of these suggestions were unacceptable to the public. However, later bills spawned from the ideas in the PLLRC, such as the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976
Federal Land Policy and Management Act
Federal Land Policy Management Act, or FLPMA , is a United States federal law that governs the way in which the public lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management are managed. The law was enacted in 1976 by the 94th Congress. Congress recognized the value of the public lands, declaring...
.
1970 and 1972 Democratic primaries
After over two decades in office, the turbulent forces of the 1960s and early ’70s caught up with Aspinall. With liberalism gaining strength throughout the country by protesting the Vietnam War and advocating civil rights for African Americans and equal rights for women, reformers gained control of the Democratic Party. They jumped on the opportunity to remove one of the party’s most conservative members.In 1970 a young Democrat named Richard Perchlik
Richard Perchlik
Richard Perchlik was an active Political leader in Greeley, Colorado and a professor of Political Science at the University of Northern Colorado...
challenged Aspinall in the Fourth District Democratic primary. Although Aspinall won by over 11,000 votes in his first primary challenge since 1948, Perchlik’s campaign portrayed Aspinall as old (74 at the time) and out of touch with the ideals of liberals on the war and the environment. The challenger also accused The Chairman of being too connected to the extractive special interests and railed against him for his role in what reformers viewed as a flawed seniority system in Congress.
Aspinall’s friend and colleague, Democratic congressman Byron Rogers of Colorado’s First District, did not survive 1970’s primary season, however. A young liberal lawyer from Denver, Craig Barnes, defeated Rogers (although Barnes himself lost the general election). Rogers had a similar philosophy and legislative record to Aspinall, seemingly foreshadowing Aspinall’s fate in 1972.
The degree to which Aspinall appreciated the challenge of liberal Democrats is debated. He did say that “this drive toward liberalism, organization of committees, etc., is causing me to wonder if I haven’t reached the place where I should let some younger and more militant person take over.” However, he never altered his campaign message in 1972, even after the Republican-controlled Colorado General Assembly redrew the state’s district lines to include largely liberal precincts in the Fourth District. “Wayne Aspinall represents all the interests because all the people have interest in our resources,” his campaign said, continuing to target the miners, ranchers, and loggers that lived on the Western Slope. He never attempted to alter his message to assuage the concerns of his new liberal constituents.
His opponent in the 1972 Democratic primary, Alan Merson, employed the same strategy that Perchlik and Barnes used two years previously. Merson attacked Aspinall for being slow to recognize developing energy problems, promoting policies that fed constant growth, building needless water projects, and being a tool of special interests. Merson received extensive external aid, accepting endorsements from the New York Times, Field and Stream, and Reader's Digest
Reader's Digest
Reader's Digest is a general interest family magazine, published ten times annually. Formerly based in Chappaqua, New York, its headquarters is now in New York City. It was founded in 1922, by DeWitt Wallace and Lila Bell Wallace...
. The environmental lobby provided most of the support to Merson’s campaign, with $20,000 coming from the League of Conservation Voters
League of Conservation Voters
The League of Conservation Voters is a political advocacy organization founded in 1969 by American environmentalist David Brower in the early years of the environmental movement. LCV's mission is to "advocate for sound environmental policies and to elect pro-environmental candidates who will adopt...
. Environmental Action, having named Aspinall to their 1972 “Dirty Dozen” list of biggest congressional enemies to the environment, also endorsed Merson.
Using the young, liberal vote on the Front Range, Merson defeated Aspinall in the primary 53% to 47%. History credits Aspinall’s loss to his age, the strength of the environmental issue
Environmental issue
Environmental issues are negative aspects of human activity on the biophysical environment. Environmentalism, a social and environmental movement that started in the 1960s, addresses environmental issues through advocacy, education and activism.-Types:...
in 1972, and the redistricting that cost The Chairman much of his conservative support on the Western Slope.
However, redistricting still favored Republicans, despite the liberal Merson’s victory. Moving urban voters into the Fourth split the Democratic vote and consolidated Republican strength. Merson lost to James Paul Johnson
James Paul Johnson
James Paul "Jim" Johnson is a U.S. Representative from Colorado.Born in Yankton, Yankton County, S.Dak., JohnsonB.A., Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, 1952.LL.B., University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, 1959....
, who had been Aspinall's unsuccessful Republican opponent in 1966, in the general election in November 1972.
Post-Congressional life
Aspinall stayed relatively active after leaving office in January 1973. He crossed party lines and endorsed Gerald FordGerald Ford
Gerald Rudolph "Jerry" Ford, Jr. was the 38th President of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977, and the 40th Vice President of the United States serving from 1973 to 1974...
for President in 1976. He also pressed for further exploration of oil shale in the late 1970s, serving on the board of directors for the Paraho Oil Shale Demonstration, Inc., hoping to lead the country to an alternative energy source to end American reliance on oil during the energy crisis caused by the Arab Oil Embargo.
He proudly took part in the Sagebrush Rebellion, a western philosophy popular from 1979-1982 that attempted to reclaim some federally protected land for determination by states and local governments.
Aspinall resumed the practice of law, was a resident of Palisade, Colo., until his death there October 9, 1983; he was cremated, and his ashes were interred at Orchard Mesa Municipal Cemetery, Grand Junction, Colorado
Grand Junction, Colorado
The City of Grand Junction is the largest city in western Colorado. It is a city with a council–manager government form that is the county seat and the most populous city of Mesa County, Colorado, United States. Grand Junction is situated west-southwest of the Colorado State Capitol in Denver. As...
. The United States Post Office and Courthouse in Grand Junction was renamed the Wayne N. Aspinall Federal Building in 1972.
External links
- Biography at the US Congress
- Wayne Aspinall at Find-A-Grave