Prop. 17 – The Stanislaus River Protection Act – initiative filings (PDF)

This document is the paper trail of Prop. 17, The Stanislaus River Protection Act of 1974 – it includes the initial intent to circulate filed by Dick Sunderland (an early Sierra Club kayaker and pioneering Calif river runner, namesake of Sunderland’s Chute on the Tuolumne River), and the final July 1974 certification, including the counts by county of the 387,600 signatures certified (way over the 325,000 required), all gathered in a huge campaign running from February 5 to June 25, 1974. Known as the “Stanislaus River Protection Act of 1974” on the ballot, it would have added two segments of the Stanislaus River to the state system (from the bridge at Camp Nine to the Parrot’s Ferry Bridge and from 100 yards below Goodwin Dam to the confluence with the San Joaquin River).