Earth Day didn’t always have that name

Walter Cronkite called April 22nd of 1970 “a unique day in American history”…the first Earth Day, to raise awareness of environmental problems.  But not everybody called the observance “Earth Day.”  La Crosse Mayor Warren Loveland issued an “Environmental Day” proclamation, in which he said the nation must find “adequate and feasible solutions” to overpopulation and air and water population.  La Crosse County’s population was 80,000 in 1970.  It’s now close to 120,000. 

Less than a year after Woodstock, Wisconsin had its own Rock Fest, outside of Poynette.  Five thousand tickets had been sold for the three-day outdoor concert.  The most famous band booked was the Grateful Dead, but a La Crosse band called Hope, formerly the Jesters 3, also was on the bill.  Another band at Rock Fest, from Rockford, Illinois, was called Fuse, featuring Rick Nielsen and Tom Petersson…who later became famous as part of Cheap Trick.

On the radio in April of 1970…”ABC” by the Jackson 5, “Let It Be,” by the recently disbanded Beatles, and the Ides of March with “Vehicle.”  Forty-eight years ago, Yesterday in La Crosse.