Ralph Webster Yarborough

In 1958, newly-elected U.S. Senator Ralph Yarborough introduced the first bill in Congress that proposed creating a federally protected area on Padre Island. He continued to press for its passage through 1962, when President Kennedy approved the Padre Island National Seashore. Upon the Seashore’s dedication in 1968, its 67-mile length made it the longest protected seashore in the National Park Service system.

Yarborough’s interest in conservation stretched to his sponsorship of bills to protect other areas in the state, including Guadalupe National Park (1966) and the Big Thicket National Preserve (1971), along with legislation granting national monument status for Fort Davis in Jeff Davis County. His environmental work extended to the national level as well: he co-wrote the Endangered Species Act of 1969.