Senator Mansfield, Congressman Olsen, Engineer Cole, ladies and gentlemen:
Forty years ago, from the White House, President Calvin Coolidge sent a signal that fired the final blast linking both ends of the New Cascade Tunnel on the Great Northern Railway.
Here today we begin the era of Flathead Tunnel. And it is now my turn to send the signal that will join together a new tunnel and a great new era of progress for the wonderful State of Montana.
Flathead Tunnel provides an important link on one of America's great rail lines. It also represents a step forward toward the completion of Libby Dam.
Libby, one of the biggest hydroelectric power projects in the entire Northwest, will mean new sources of inexpensive power, better flood control, and new recreational opportunities in the years ahead. For Montana and the Northwest are on the move.
This has been a dream of Senator Mansfield and the Montana delegation for many, many years. You people in Montana are not only blessed with natural beauty, with vast resources, with great leadership, particularly in the Congress, but you are blessed with the wisdom to harness nature's abundance for the greatest good for all of us.
We have not in this country always had the good sense to preserve our natural wealth. And we have often paid a high price for our wastefulness.
But today we show what foresight and planning can accomplish for our people.
And as I send the signal which opens Flathead Tunnel, I have no doubt that it will be a forerunner of new progress for the people of your great State who are so ably represented here at the White House this morning by your distinguished Senator and your distinguished Congressman.
Thank you.
Note: The President spoke at 1:06 p.m. in the Fish Room at the White House. In his opening words he referred to Senator Mike Mansfield of Montana, Representative Arnold Olsen of Montana, and Phillip L. Cole, resident engineer for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers at Libby Dam, Montana. During the ceremony Mr. Cole remained in communication with the President from the Flathead Tunnel site in Montana.
After his remarks the President set off the final charge of explosives completing the 7-mile tunnel, part of the railroad relocation at the Libby Dam, a project under construction by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and one of the key structures for controlling the water resources of the Columbia River Basin in Canada and the United States.
Lyndon B. Johnson, Remarks at a Ceremony Opening by Remote Control the Flathead Tunnel in Montana. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/236996
