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Statement by the President on the Garrison Diversion Irrigation Development in the Upper Missouri River Basin.

June 21, 1961

AS INDICATED in my message to the Congress on Natural Resources, "wise investment in a resource program today will return vast dividends tomorrow, and failures to act now may be opportunities lost forever." The Garrison Diversion project is an excellent illustration of the principle. The investment to be made now in the Upper Missouri River Basin will in the future bring to the people of the Dakotas and the Nation at large great benefits in the form of a sound agricultural economy, improved recreational facilities, and perhaps most important of all, the region will be able to retain and support its greatest resource, the young people who have in recent years been forced to leave farms in the areas in alarming numbers.

Note: The White House release of which the President's statement was a part noted that administration approval of the project was transmitted to the Congress in a report by Secretary Udall and in testimony before a Senate subcommittee by Assistant Secretary Kenneth Holum. The release added that the irrigation project, located principally in North Dakota, would enable farmers to change from dry farming of wheat, which is in surplus, to varied crops including those which would support cattle raising and yield higher incomes.

John F. Kennedy, Statement by the President on the Garrison Diversion Irrigation Development in the Upper Missouri River Basin. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/234920

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