Proclamation 4223—Commemorating the Opening of the Upper Mississippi River

Three hundred years ago two French explorers led a small band of men in search of a river the Indians called the Mississippi. It was their hope that the river would lead to the Pacific Ocean and give access to the riches of the Orient.

Father Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet never reached the Pacific, but their mission was an immense success, for the river they found has brought America wealth beyond measure.

The waters of the Mississippi are the most wide-ranging navigation system in the land; they provide recreational opportunities for millions of Americans; they have been the source of all history and culture that enriches the lives of us all; they nurture our farms and our cities; and they bind our people and the shores of our land from sea to sea.

To commemorate the opening of the upper Mississippi River by Marquette and Jolliet, the Congress, by House Joint Resolution 533, has asked that June 17, 1973 be designated as a day of commemoration of this event.

Now, Therefore, I, Richard Nixon, President of the United States of America, do hereby designate June 17, 1973, as a day of commemoration of the opening of the upper Mississippi River by Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet in 1673, and I call upon the people of the United States to join together in acknowledging and appreciating one of our Nation's greatest natural resources and one of the most significant wellsprings of our cultural heritage.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this fourteenth day of June, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred seventy-three, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred ninety-seventh.

RICHARD NIXON