Home Town Hero, Senator Gaylord Nelson

Gaylord Nelson is a small town boy who changed the world.  A former Wisconsin Governor, Senator, and founder of Earth Day, Nelson’s life  is illuminated in a new biography, “The Man from Clear Lake,” by Bill Christofferson.  Nick Vander Puy from the Superior Broadcast Network traveled to Clear Lake in northwestern Wisconsin to talk with Nelson, his wife Carrie Lee, and the author. click here to hear a "live stream" broadcast of this story

 Clear Lake's Home Town  Hero Senator Gaylord Nelson

Gaylord Nelson is one of the greatest public servants of the twentieth century because he exercised vision and acted to protect the earth.

 

Gaylord Nelson is a small town boy who changed the world.  A former Wisconsin Governor, Senator, and founder of Earth Day, Nelson’s life  is illuminated in a new biography, “The Man from Clear Lake,” by Bill Christofferson.  Nick Vander Puy from the Superior Broadcast Network traveled to Clear Lake in northwestern Wisconsin to talk with Nelson, his wife Carrie Lee, and the author.

 

 

Driving into Clear Lake, Wisconsin population around a thousand is like driving into “Lake Wobegon.”  There’s a park on the outskirts of town that still has some big trees.  There are turtles on the pond.  And when you stop at the Post Office for directions the first older women you meet says Gaylord is down the street two stop signs around the corner look for the white picket fence.  He’s at his old friend Charlie Clark’s house.

 

Gaylord Nelson is almost ninety years old. He’s still alert and feisty and humorous, but slowing down from a recent surgery.  He grew up in this small town, Clear Lake, the son of a country doctor and a caring Mom. 

 

“Well, I enjoy it.”

 

“It reminds me of all the good times I had here as I was growing up and going to grade school, playing basketball, football, and all those things you enjoy, one enjoys as a young person.”

 

There’s going to be a book signing and reading later today for Nelson’s biography at the Gaylord Nelson elementary school, just down the street.

 

“I assumed they named it that, gave it that name because I didn’t learn a helluva lot.”

 

Actually, according to Bill Christofferson, Nelson’s biographer, Nelson is a very remarkable man, way, way ahead of his colleagues, fighting for civil rights, an early opponent of the Vietnam War,  supporting consumer protection, and most importantly, conservation.  Christofferson is a former journalist and democratic candidate campaign manager.

“When Nelson was the governor and came with this program to set aside land it was revolutionary.  People had not been thinking about it at all.  But there was beginning to be pressure, the population was growing, land was being bought, there was pressure on state parks, more mobility, cars.  He was able to have enough foresight to say we’ve got to do something about it now, while there’s still land worth saving.  The wild and scenic Namekagon and St. Croix, along with some of the other things he did along with the Apostle Islands, and the Appalachian Trail, if he’d have waited twenty years it would have been too late.”

 

It was more than seventyfive years ago, Nelson and his boyscout troop  canoed and camped and fished on the Namekagon River.  As a Senator in the late sixties, Nelson introduced visionary legislation. It was named “The Wild and Scenic Rivers Act.”  It passed.  The Namekagon and St. Croix became the first rivers east of the Missiissippi to be protected and enhanced.

 

“Well, I grew up near the St. Croix and Namekagon River.  There are some of the most beautiful rivers in Wisconsin and the country.”

 

And now, in the early twentyfirst century the electric utility industry wants to cross the Namekagon River with giant towers and transmission lines.

 

“Well, all rivers are endangered but the St. Croix and Namekagon have been pretty well protected.  But the population pressures are degrading all rivers in this country.”

 

Sitting on the couch is Gaylord Nelson’s flinty wife, Carrie Lee Nelson. She grew up in West Virginia, and trained as an Army nurse, the two romanced in the South Pacific during World War 2.  She says her husband’s greatest accomplishment  is conservation.

 

“Well, it’s a brilliant legacy for him to leave behind.  And for him from the time he was in the state legislature, to be interested in what we’re now proud of, and the fact that he went to be the father of Earth Day, and his friends would kid him about why the hell don’t you talk about civil rights and who the hell gives a damn about the birds and bees, you know, get onto something important. It may be the most important thing that we face, what’s happening to the land?  That’s true, but I can’t remember what he’d say about that, we’re not good on Gaylordisms, as it were.”

 

Growing up in a small northern Wisconsin town, Gaylord Nelson developed a charm and an ability to tell stories that stood him well when  trying to get southern, more conservative Senators to go along with his legislation.  Russell Long, Ernest Hollings, San Erwin, and Jim Eastland,  Nelson got other Senators to like him without giving up his principles.

 

Bill Christofferson.

 

“What helped him a lot, and he attributes it to growing up in Clear Lake, actually. You know,  Sinclair Lewis would say the opposite that small towns stifle people. There’s pressure to be the same, Gaylord Nelson would say the small town actually helped him.  Because everybody knows each other they have to be civil and treat each other well. That’s something he learned from his parents and took through the rest of his life. That’s the opposite today politics is a partisan blood bath. But for him he never personalized the differences, he didn’t hold any grudges, loved people for who they were and was curious, people could respond to that.  People knew he was genuine.  And when it came time they’d go along with him and help him out. And he accomplished a lot that he otherwise wouldn’t have been capable of.”

 

Like many in his generation, Gaylord Nelson demanded justice from the government.  The progressives didn’t think there was a job too big to tackle.  The environmental movement, and Earth Day, for instance, didn’t happen over night.

 

“But Gaylord kept at it, kept at it, was persistent, that story is a huge inspiration, knowing that one person can make a huge difference if they don’t give up.”

 

I’m Nick Vander Puy for the Superior Broadcast Network 

 

Photography and web design by Sandy Lyon

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