Revisiting JFK’s fight for SE Colorado water on his 100th birthday
Kennedy highlighted the stark difference — in appearence and opportunity — between areas with water and areas without.
John F. Kennedy’s legacy lives on as the young, charismatic, quick-witted president and political icon who urged his nation to push forward beyond a “New Frontier.” In Southern Colorado that new frontier meant water and the possibilities it would grant in the future.
Fifty-four summers ago when Kennedy was 45 years old, he took to a packed Pueblo high school field to mark the authorization of the Fryingpan-Arkansas Project — a major water win for Eastern Colorado and the rest of the country, this side of the Rocky Mountains.
While the president, who today would have celebrated his 100th birthday, didn’t live long enough to see the success of the the project, it is ever relevant for people living in the Arkansas River Basin, which includes major cities such as Pueblo, Colorado Springs and Aurora, along with small communities in Eastern Colorado.
The multipurpose transmountain, transbasin water diversion and delivery project makes it possible to move nearly 70,000 acre-feet of surplus water from the Frying Pan River on Colorado’s Western Slope to the Arkansas River Basin each year.
Kennedy is remembered as an eloquent speaker, and his Pueblo speech about the importance of water was no different.
“I don’t think there is any more valuable lesson for a President or Member of the House and Senate than to fly as we have flown today over some of the bleakest land in the United States and then to come to a river and see what grows next to it, and come to this city and come to this town and come to this platform and know how vitally important water is,” Kennedy said.
Later in his speech, the president summed up the contribution as one of mutual benefit for everybody. For supporting the Fryingpan-Arkansas project was as crucial as supporting Pueblo steel.
“A rising tide lifts all the boats. And as Colorado moves ahead, as your steel mill produces, it is benefiting all the people, as they are benefiting you,” Kennedy said to the Pueblo audience.
“That’s the lesson of this project, because it was passed by the Congressmen and Senators from this State, aided by a majority of the Congressmen and Senators from every part of the United States. They contribute to this program just as you contribute to their advancement, and in so doing help build our country up.”
The possibilities brought on by the Fryingpan-Arkansas project are evident now — a hydroelectric plant in Aspen, a state park at the Pueblo Reservoir and water access to farmers downstream. It was part of the vision Kennedy saw beyond the West’s New Frontier.
Watch Kennedy’s full speech here:
