[Federal Register Volume 65, Number 77 (Thursday, April 20, 2000)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 21115-21116]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 00-10004]


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  Federal Register / Vol. 65, No. 77 / Thursday, April 20, 2000 / 
Presidential Documents  

[[Page 21115]]


                Proclamation 7293 of April 14, 2000

                
National Park Week, 2000

                By the President of the United States of America

                A Proclamation

                We are fortunate to live in an era when the explosive 
                growth of technology has put at our fingertips an 
                extraordinary array of information. But even during 
                this technological revolution, one of America's richest 
                and most fascinating educational resources is also 
                among its oldest: our national park system. Our 
                national parks are living libraries and laboratories, 
                where all Americans can experience the beauty and 
                variety of nature and learn about our Nation's history 
                and culture.

                Preserving the rare and unusual as well as the 
                spectacular and beautiful, our national parks provide 
                botanists, wildlife biologists, chemists, and other 
                scientists the opportunity to conduct research into the 
                fragile ecosystems that affect the health of people, 
                plants, and animals around the world. Geologists and 
                paleontologists find in our national parks the story of 
                our continent, from the Grand Canyon's geologic 
                formations to the ancient bones resting at Dinosaur 
                National Monument.

                The national park system also captures America's more 
                recent history. In the National Historic Sites and 
                along the National Historic Trails maintained by the 
                men and women of the National Park Service, we learn 
                about the lives and achievements of American heroes 
                like Lewis and Clark, Sojourner Truth, Abraham Lincoln, 
                Frederick Douglass, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the Wright 
                Brothers, and Thomas Edison. From Fort Necessity in 
                Pennsylvania, where a young George Washington saw 
                action in the French and Indian War, to the quiet acres 
                of Gettysburg, where one of the Civil War's bloodiest 
                battles was fought, to the Edmund Pettus Bridge in 
                Selma, Alabama, where the modern civil rights movement 
                reached its emotional peak 35 years ago, Americans can 
                see and touch their history.

                Today, we have 379 national parks, and each site offers 
                a unique opportunity to experience the wonder of 
                nature, to stand in the footprints of history, to learn 
                about our culture and our society, to study the natural 
                world, and to look toward the future. As we observe 
                National Park Week, I join all Americans in thanking 
                the men and women of the National Park Service for 
                their dedication in caring for these special places. We 
                are indebted to them for preserving and protecting our 
                natural and cultural heritage, not only for our 
                enjoyment and education today, but also for the benefit 
                of generations to come.

                NOW, THEREFORE, I, WILLIAM J. CLINTON, President of the 
                United States of America, by virtue of the authority 
                vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United 
                States, do hereby proclaim April 17 through April 23, 
                2000, as National Park Week.

[[Page 21116]]

                IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this 
                fourteenth day of April, in the year of our Lord two 
                thousand, and of the Independence of the United States 
                of America the two hundred and twenty-fourth.

                    (Presidential Sig.)

[FR Doc. 00-10004
Filed 4-19-00; 8:45 am]
Billing code 3195-01-P